In 2017, Denmark sent the first digital ambassador, Casper Klynge, to Silicon Valley. The aim of this move of ‘techplomacy’ was, as Klynge explained, not simply to distribute greetings notes by the Danish queen. Rather, the intention was to ‘update diplomacy’ based on the recognition that a few tech …

Over the past 10 years, different types of financing have become available in the Netherlands. It is now possible to combine bank loans, crowdfunding loans and risk capital. Moreover, fintech applications lower the threshold for applications and reduce response times from weeks to just days or even hours. …

This chapter presents a conversation with Henk Ovink, first Dutch special envoy for international water affairs. Ovink works with governments, knowledge institutions, organizations such as the World Bank and the UN, the global business community as well as the civil society representatives. 'Building' …

Places matter for economic and social development. In an increasingly globalized world, people are looking to local and regional factors to optimize competitive advantage, inclusivity, and well-being. The ERSA congress “Places for People: Innovative, Inclusive and Liveable Regions” puts people back at …

In the wake of neo-liberal informed global trends to set performance standards and intensify accountability, the Dutch government aimed for ‘raising standards for basic skills’. While the implementation of literacy standards was hardly noticed, the introduction of numeracy standards caused a major backlash …

As in many large European Cities, Amsterdam is confronted with a large housing boom, partially fuelled by shortcomings in (affordable) housing development. Simultaneously, there is a persistent need to improve neighbourhoods with a weak socioeconomic status. The municipal government aims to both, develop …

Through artistic interventions into the computational backbone of maternity services, the artists behind the Body Recovery Unit explore data production and its usages in healthcare governance. Taking their artwork The National Catalogue Of Savings Opportunities. Maternity, Volume 1: London (2017) as …

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 …

Opportunities for new forms of public-private partnership in the Groningen earthquake zone

In this paper we present a data-driven profiling approach that we have adopted and implemented for a municipality. Our aim was to make profiles transparent and meaningful for citizens, policymakers and authorities so that they can validate, scrutinize and challenge the profiles. Our approach relies on …