In the debate about smart cities, an alternative to a dominant top-down, tech-driven solutionist approach has arisen in examples of ‘civic hacking’. Hacking here refers to the playful, exploratory, collaborative and sometimes transgressive modes of operation found in various hacker cultures, this time …

This paper presents an analytical and intervention model that introduces new vocabulary to explore, describe and build collective futures through shared understanding of complexities facing local and regional developments. This new vocabulary builds on evolutionary and complexity approaches applied to …

Now, that the European cities are overcoming the recent economic challenges, they accelerate the development of major housingschemes to accommodate their growing urban population. Amsterdam for instance, sets out to construct 50,000 new homes by 2025. Parallel to this, the City Council presented a new …

The adaptation of urbanised areas to climate change is currently one of the key challenges in the domain of urban policy. The diversity of environmental determinants requires the formulation of individual plans dedicated to the most significant local issues. This article serves as a methodic proposition …

Change agent capacity-building compendium.Due to increasing globalization, technological advances and sociological changes, the world is becoming more complex than ever. Complexity has gone from large systems, to organizational and individual levels. Today it concerns all aspects of society. The will …

The research explored how a Dutch energy cluster embedded within a larger context of European and global developments reflected complex dynamics due to changes in its context. The case study explored Energy Valley of the Netherlands, a peripheral region that meets the challenge of energy transition, …

In the absence of words… A systemic N=1 study of Art Therapy in combination with Storytelling as a contributive therapy for adults suffering with acquired brain injury and possibly diagnosed with aphasia. People with acquired brain injury and aphasia can experience communication impairments and therefore …

Local energy developments from a spatial and systemic approach are highlighted using examples from a Dutch case study. Developments in energy systems included interconnectedness of contextual factors and systems responses. The need to explore both the contextual factors and systemic aspects are illustrated. …

Safety is monitored by various proactive and reactive methods, including the investigation of adverse accidents and incidents, which are collectively known as safety investigations. In this study we demonstrate how accident and incident investigation reports can be useful to identify implicit safety …

This article describes experiences with a qualitative research project into teachers’ learning from innovating their own educational practices. Decades of New Public Management (NPM) in the Netherlands, with its top-down and businesslike approach to areas of public interest, obscured the learning and …