•Investigate citizens’ preferences and perceptions about smart city (SC) services.•Most citizens acknowledge that SC services contribute to human needs.•Citizens slightly prefer hard-domain services ...over the soft ones.•Provide suggestions for informing people-centric SC development.
City administrators hoping to achieve people-centric smart city (SC) development require a clear understanding of citizens’ preferences and perceptions about SC services. This study fills that need by presenting evidence-based research on such preferences and perceptions from the perspective of need theories, taking Taiwan as a case study. Specifically, we investigated Taiwanese citizens’ preferences for 35 SC services of seven dimensions classified in two domains, as well as their three perceptions of the usefulness of these SC services in the realization of human needs. The results show that most of our respondents clearly perceived SC services as both important and useful to their existence, relatedness, and growth needs, and that they expressed relatively higher preferences for such services to operate in the “hard” domain – e.g., smart energy, smart transport, or smart safety –than the “soft” one, e.g., smart living. Based on these findings, this study provides policy recommendations that, if implemented, could be expected to advance SC development by increasing citizens’ usage of SC services in both the hard and soft domains, and serve the wider aim of improving their well-being and quality of life.
The Circular Economy (“CE”) has emerged as a concept to radically transform how resources are used and managed, with promise to solve the ecological turmoil of the prevailing linear economy. ...Circularity has since been framed as an important concept to contribute to achieving sustainable development. Thus, the CE is increasingly being adopted as key a strategy by various stakeholders, including large corporations and political institutions. Despite seemingly high interest and growing uptake demonstrated by an influx of new business models and policy guidance, there is concern amongst scholars that current interpretations fail to consider the social impacts and implications of this circular shift. There is a notable lack of theoretical contribution to address this void, and without robust theorising this can be an obstacle to effective and transformative practice. This research contributes to addressing this problematic shortcoming by utilising an existing development framework to identify a theoretically grounded direction for the formation of an alternative Social CE. We use the key features of Max-Neef's Human Scale Development (“H-SD”) proposal to illustrate how reframing the CE to take account of this perspective can provide a basis for articulating and developing a compelling social narrative. We argue that human needs satisfaction should be both the objective of a Social CE, but also embedded into the means as to how it is achieved. Grassroots initiatives that enable self-reliant communities should balance the current disproportionate influence wielded by powerful institutions and businesses. Equilibrium is required between different components and actors, including between humans and the environment, which ultimately represents a version of circularity that adheres to the limits of the biosphere.
•The COVID-19 crisis has transboundary dynamics and causes interconnected problems.•Innovations may provide synergetic forms of relief to societal actors.•We use text mining and analyze textual data ...describing COVID-19 innovations.•We find emerging domains of innovations addressing multiple human needs.•We argue that innovators should be embedded in a systemic response to the crisis.
As a microcosm for future challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic exhibits increasingly transboundary dynamics, causing interconnected problems across multiple societal systems. To examine the role of innovations as a social mechanism to reconcile these arising challenges, we view the unfolding of the pandemic through the lens of a content analysis of 707 innovation projects that address the fundamental human needs of consumers and businesses. This study proposes a novel procedure to characterize large-scale innovative activities via text mining and employs a theoretical framework for identifying the pressing societal needs amidst crises. Our typology of rapid-response COVID-19 innovations exhibits a diverse set of domains ranging from technological innovations to what may be described as frugal and social innovations. We provide evidence for the growing prevalence of social needs beyond the basic notion of safety during the early months of the crisis. Our contributions show that a structural model of innovation activities and their latent drivers may help policy makers and innovators to move toward achieving a systemic reaction to such crises.
Urban space is a complex and multifunctional mechanism that people move like cogwheels. When the movement slows, mechanism stops and places become abandoned and dead. Public space is the vital part ...in this mechanism, including everything that surrounds us: paths that we pass everyday on the way to work or school, parks that we use for leisure and interaction with nature, squares and other meeting points where we gather to socialize, as well as quiet places to seclude from the rush. All of these elements are very important in daily urban life. I believe the quality of urban life is very closely connected to the presence and quality of public space, where people feel the bond with the city and its people. In other words, it is like an ancient Greek Agora. Human needs are regarded as one of the most important factors that governs the designing of urban spaces, especially in city centers, in order to fulfill the immediate needs of the inhabitants of such spaces, such as security and safety, visual comfort, thermal comfort, etc. However, the attention dedicated to human needs in the designing of urban spaces is quite limited in relation to the other design aspects, despite their great importance in creating a successful urban space. In this regard, this paper conducts a study of city centers and the stages of their historical development over the ages, indicating the causes that led to these developments. Subsequently, the paper conductus a thorough investigation of urban spaces in terms of their definition, importance, classification, components, and characteristics, in order to deduce the conditions governing the success of these spaces. Afterwards, the paper investigates the behavior and needs of individuals and inhabitants within such urban spaces. Finally, the paper concludes the mutual relationship between the components of the urban space and the fulfillment of the needs of the inhabitants of such urban spaces in city centers. The paper also determines the extent to which urban spaces impact on the behavior of individuals and inhabitants. And then applying that study to the center of Abu Dhabi city, as it is one of the best Arab cities that cares about the human needs of users and applying it to Egyptian cities in future research.
This paper aims to compare and contrast the perceived psychological experience of the traditional versus gig mobility service workers with respect to their human needs structure. Gig mobility service ...here refers to on-demand transportation service enabled by an online platform. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. Using the perspective of ERG (Existence, Relatedness and Growth) theory, we first explored the field using in-depth interviews and observations of both worker groups. Based on the qualitative findings, we formulated the quantitative measures for the corresponding constructs. The constructs’ relationship and paths differences between the two groups were analyzed statistically using partial least square path modeling (PLS-PM) method. The differences between the two groups were categorized into four quadrants, highlighting what both groups have and do not have, as well as what one group has but not the other. It was found that the gig mobility service resulted in not only more relationships among the constructs, but also generally higher perceived well-being for the workers. It seems that the gig mobility service has so far been promising in meeting workers human needs despite its long-term uncertainty. This study is among the few studies on understanding in which way the technology has changed the mobility service actors seen as workers, rather than sellers or users.
•The gig mobility service, generally, perceives more well-being for the workers.•The gig mobility service has so far been promising in meeting workers human needs despite its long-term uncertainty.•Work satisfaction is positively associated with relationship with peers and family.•Work satisfaction is positively associated with relationship with boss and family.•Gig-workers fit into casualization of work and informalization of the formal business.
The concept of sustainable development evolved from growing awareness of the interdependence of social and economic progress with the limits of the supporting natural environment, becoming ...progressively integrated into global agreements and transposition into local regulatory and implementation frameworks. We argue that transposition of the concept into regulation and supporting tools reduced the focus to minimal environmental and social standards, perceived as imposing constraints rather than opportunities for innovation to meet human needs. The aspirational ‘half’ of the concept of sustainable development specifically addressing human needs was thus lost in transposing high ideals into regulatory instruments. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) restore focus on interlinked human needs, stimulating innovation of products and processes to satisfy them. Through three case studies – PVC water pipes, river quality management in England, and UK local air quality management – we explore the current operationalisation of the concept in diverse settings, using the SDG framework to highlight the broader societal purposes central to sustainable development. Partnerships involving civil society support evolution of regulatory instruments and their implementation, optimising social and ecological benefits thereby serving more human needs. Restoring the visionary ‘lost half’ of sustainable development – meeting human needs in sustainable ways – creates incentives for innovation and partnership; an innovation framework rather than a perceived constraint.
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•The aim of sustainable development to address human needs may be lost in execution•The Sustainable Development Goals restore the focus on addressing human needs•Three case studies illustrate variably successful examples of implementation•Partnerships between regulators and civil society help retain a focus on human needs•New regulatory models must address meeting human needs sustainably driving innovation
Creative Placemaking between theory and practice alaa hamdy abd alfatah al saqa; Eman Mohamed Elsayed El Banna; Feryal Abdul Moneim Sherif Sherif
Majallat al-ʻimārah wa-al-funūn wa-al-ʻulūm al-insānīyah,
07/2022, Letnik:
7, Številka:
34
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Research Summary:The mutual impact between Man and environment has been for a long time, Man is affected by everything around him and this effect is shown on his culture and behavior and social ...conditions in general, and many studies have revealed that the ratio of social relations between individuals does not increase by their number but depends on the increase in the proportions of their meeting, but because of the absence of creative environmental design that has the ability to handle this problem, the society is suffering from what is called the isolation of Man from his environment and surroundings. Technology affected in a large extent the presence of this gap that occurred between Man and environment, hence the artist and environmental designer plays an essential role in the progress of humanity through initiatives that tackle the importance of raising the quality of human life through environmental design and this throughout the new concept of " creative placemaking" , as it provides real opportunities for members of society to express their relationship with each other and their environment alike.The strategy of improvement of well-being of society and its prosperity takes place through the improvement and development of city conditions via governments, private investment, profit organizations, artists and groups of citizens who have a common sense of environmental beauty, coordination, but we must understand well the environment around us so that we can handle this relationship, which has been tarnished by many factors, also we can bind it to the quality of life in relation to the concept of " creative placemaking " so that we can enhance the humanity of places and meet human needs.
Use value is one of the key terms related to architectural functionality. The
term itself denotes the level of usefulness of a living space for its user,
i.e., to what extent the space can meet ...specific human needs. The paper
analyzes the relations between characteristic human needs and the
possibilities for their fulfillment in a living space. Various studies
examining different aspects of use value have often identified it with the
quality of a living space. This is why one of the main aims of this paper is
to reexamine the thesis claiming that use value is just one part which
defines the quality of a living space and that these two terms are not
equivalents. On the other hand, the paper presents a systematization of
cause-and-effect relations between human needs and the basic principles and
parameters for achieving use value within a living space. Although the term
has not lost its importance since it was first used, the criteria for
achieving a higher level of use value of a living space have not been
sufficiently researched. Along with a comparative analysis of the terms
value, use value and the quality of a living space, as well as an
examination of the characteristic human needs present in each living space
and ways of meeting them, the key contribution of the paper lies in defining
the principles for achieving use value.
Since climate change threatens human well-being across the globe and into the future, we require a concept of well-being that encompasses an equivalent ambit. This article argues that only a concept ...of human need can do the work required. It compares need theory with three alternative approaches. Preference satisfaction theory is criticised on the grounds of subjectivity, epistemic irrationality, endogenous and adaptive preferences, the limitlessness of wants, the absence of moral evaluation and the non-specificity of future preferences. The happiness approach is found equally wanting. The main section shows how these deficiencies can be addressed by a coherent theory of need. Human needs are necessary pre-conditions to avoid serious harm and are universalisable, objective, empirically grounded, non-substitutable and satiable. They are broader than 'material' needs since a need for personal autonomy figures in all theoretical accounts. Whilst needs are universal, need satisfiers are most often contextual and relative to institutions and cultures. The satiability and non-substitutability of needs is critical for understanding sustainability. Finally, it is argued that human needs provide an indispensable foundation for many current ethical arguments for global and inter-generational justice in the face of threats from climate change. An appendix compares this theory with the capability approaches of Sen and Nussbaum and argues it to be more fundamental.
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