A theoretical based categorization scheme for IT strategies

This work presents a categorization scheme for IT strategies. Because of the increased importance of IT for every function within organizations especially enterprises must have an IT strategy. Thereby IT strategies have different objectives and can be distinguished between intentionally developed plans for the future and patterns from the past evolving from actions of the organization. Based on this distinction a three-level categorization scheme for IT strategies based on various theoretical models has been developed allowing the lightweight comparison of different approaches which can be found in practice. The scheme can be used for a quick IT strategy assessment of various organizations. The three levels analyze the role of IT in organizations, the function of IT strategy within the enterprise and the procedures companies using to form IT strategies. The categorization scheme has been used in a qualitative survey. The results indicate companies mainly focus on intended IT strategies and use various processes developing them

Governance and City Regions

City-regions are areas where the daily journeys for work, shopping and leisure frequently cross administrative boundaries. They are seen as engines of the national economy, but are also facing congestion and disparities. Thus, all over the world, governments attempt to increase problem-solving capacities in city-regions by institutional reform and a shift of functions. This book analyses the recent reforms and changes in the governance of city-regions in France, Germany and Italy. It covers themes such as the impact of austerity measures, territorial development, planning and state modernisation. The authors provide a systematic cross-country perspective on two levels, between six city-regions and between the national policy frameworks in these three countries. They use a solid comparative framework, which refers to the four dimensions functions, institutions and governance, ideas and space. They describe the course of the reforms, the motivations and the results, and consequently, they question the widespread metropolitan fever or resurgence of city-regions and provide a better understanding of recent changes in city-regional governance in Europe. The primary readership will be researchers and master students in planning, urban studies, urban geography, political science and governance studies, especially those interested in metropolitan regions and / or decentralisation. Due to the uniqueness of the work, the book will be of particular interest to scholars working on the comparative European dimension of territorial governance and planning

Governance and City Regions

City-regions are areas where the daily journeys for work, shopping and leisure frequently cross administrative boundaries. They are seen as engines of the national economy, but are also facing congestion and disparities. Thus, all over the world, governments attempt to increase problem-solving capacities in city-regions by institutional reform and a shift of functions. This book analyses the recent reforms and changes in the governance of city-regions in France, Germany and Italy. It covers themes such as the impact of austerity measures, territorial development, planning and state modernisation. The authors provide a systematic cross-country perspective on two levels, between six city-regions and between the national policy frameworks in these three countries. They use a solid comparative framework, which refers to the four dimensions functions, institutions and governance, ideas and space. They describe the course of the reforms, the motivations and the results, and consequently, they question the widespread metropolitan fever or resurgence of city-regions and provide a better understanding of recent changes in city-regional governance in Europe. The primary readership will be researchers and master students in planning, urban studies, urban geography, political science and governance studies, especially those interested in metropolitan regions and / or decentralisation. Due to the uniqueness of the work, the book will be of particular interest to scholars working on the comparative European dimension of territorial governance and planning

Integrating Software Engineering and Usability Engineering

The usability of products gains in importance not only for the users of a system but also for manufacturing organizations. According to Jokela, the advantages for users are far-reaching and include increased productivity, improved quality of work, and increased user satisfaction. Manufacturers also profit significantly through a reduction of support an

Sustainability in European Environment Policy: Challenges of Governance and Knowledge

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT THE FULL BOOK TEXT - PUBLISHER POLICY ONLY ALLOWS ACCESS TO AN EXTRACT OF THIS BOOK IN THE UWE BRISTOL RESEARCH REPOSITORYThis book is based on an FR6 Research project – Governance for Sustainability – and constitutes one of the main outputs of the project. The book develops a highly original and innovative analytical model for the study of governance and knowledge and their inter-relationship with specific reference to sustainability. In order to systematically investigate these relationships it examines the development of European policies on Strategic Environmental Assessment, Air Pollution Control and the Emissions Trading System. In particular it focuses on the multi-level governance context (from European to national and local levels) and the potential synergies between new governance modes and different forms of knowledge. The conclusions drawn are based on detailed cross-national and comparative research drawing on 19 case studies from nine European countries (UK, Germany, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Greece and Norway). The book represents a major contribution to the literature on governance, knowledge and sustainability

Kooperation, interkommunale und regionale

Interkommunale und regionale Kooperation ist ein verbreitetes und vielseitig einsetzbares Mittel der gemeinsamen Leistungserbringung von Gebietskörperschaften. Insbesondere in Zeiten des demografischen Wandels und angespannter öffentlicher Haushalte gewinnt interkommunale Kooperation als Strategie der Haushaltsentlastung an Bedeutung. Gleichwohl stehen der Realisierung möglicher Potenziale der Kooperation zahlreiche Gründe entgegen

Soziale Stadt und local governance

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Spatial Knowledge and Urban Planning (Editorial)

Urban planning is simultaneously shaped by and creates new (spatial) knowledge. The changes in planning culture that have taken place in the last decades - especially the so-called communicative turn in planning in the 1990s - have brought about an increased attention to a growing range of stakeholders of urban development, their interests, logics, and participation in planning as well as the negotiation processes between these stakeholders. However, while this has also been researched in breadth and depth, only scant attention has been paid to the knowledge (claims) of these stakeholders. In planning practice, knowledge, implicit and explicit, has been a highly relevant topic for quite some time: It is discussed how local knowledge can inform urban planning, how experimental knowledge on urban development can be generated in living labs, and what infrastructures can process "big data" and make it usable for planning, to name a few examples. With the thematic issue on "Spatial Knowledge and Urban Planning" we invited articles aiming at exploring the diverse understandings of (spatial) knowledge, and how knowledge influences planning and how planning itself constitutes processes of knowledge generation. The editorial gives a brief introduction to the general topic. Subsequently, abstracts of all articles illustrate what contents the issue has to offer and the specific contribution of each text is carved out. In the conclusion, common and recurring themes as well as remaining gaps and open questions at the interface of spatial knowledge and urban planning are discussed

Environmental Justice and Green Infrastructure in the Ruhr. From Distributive to Institutional Conceptions of Justice

Over the last 50 years, the Ruhr region experienced a remarkable transformation from an industrial to a post-industrial region. With regard to the rehabilitation of the environmental damages of more than 100 years of coal mining and steel production, investment in green infrastructure, and the creation of regional landscape parks constituted one of the main pillars of the economic and physical transformation of the region. However, little is known about the social effects of this green transformation. Many observers state that the Ruhr area is sharply divided by an east–west line (the A40 Highway) and in fact the Emscher zone was hit most by environmental degradation. We argue that environmental justice is a question of scale. While on the regional scale, the investments made in the Emscher zone can be seen as a trial to balance and repair a long-standing unequal provision with environmental qualities (not least parks), on a smaller scale (i.e., cities and neighbourhoods) we can demonstrate that in the cities of the Emscher zone environmental inequality is still observable. Some neighbourhoods benefit stronger from investment in regional parks and green infrastructure than others. The paper will describe the Emscher green regeneration programme and will give detailed insights into two cities of the Ruhr (including maps and data analysis)