Institutional Barriers to Near Zero-Energy Housing: A Context Specific Approach

Cynthia Souaid; Harry van der Heijden; Marja Elsinga

doi:10.3390/su13137135

Institutional Barriers to Near Zero-Energy Housing: A Context Specific Approach

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13137135 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 7135

Author(s):

Cynthia Souaid ◽

Harry van der Heijden ◽

Marja Elsinga

Keyword(s):

Small Towns ◽

General Level ◽

Zero Energy ◽

Institutional Barriers ◽

Specific Approach ◽

Policy Suggestions ◽

Housing Professionals ◽

Research Findings ◽

Context Specific ◽

Level Of Analysis

After more than ten years since the introduction of Near Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEBs), the transition towards a zero-energy new built environment can still be considered slow despite European Member States’ various efforts to facilitate, promote and accelerate their implementation and uptake. The barriers to sustainability measures in general and NZEBs in particular have been extensively explored by academic literature and despite different research scopes, perspectives, locations and times, previous studies have reached similar outcomes. Similar barriers were perceived by different housing professionals in different geographic contexts and these same barriers also persisted through time. This study argues that while this could be interpreted as a validation of outcomes, it also underlines a limitation resulting from a general level of analysis. Thus, this study contributes to the discussion by adopting a context-specific approach in its investigation of barriers to near zero-energy housing in small towns in Flanders, Ireland and the Netherlands. The data was collected from a series of focus groups with housing professionals in Leuven, Kilkenny and Almere. Through descriptive coding, this study’s outcomes echoed previous research findings. However, a closer look through inferential coding resulted in the identification of 21 new contextual barriers leading to the formulation of more specific policy suggestions with a different allocation of precedence that depends on every context.

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Minorities in the Contemporary Egyptian Novel

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415415.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Mary Youssef

Keyword(s):

Literary History ◽

First Century ◽

Nation State ◽

Colonial Rule ◽

The Novel ◽

Robust Analysis ◽

Specific Approach ◽

And Gender ◽

Context Specific ◽

Historical Moment

This book examines questions of identity, nationalism, and marginalization in the contemporary Egyptian novel from a postcolonial lens. Under colonial rule, the Egyptian novel invoked a sovereign nation-state by basking in its perceived unity. After independence, the novel professed disenchantment with state practices and unequal class and gender relations, without disrupting the nation’s imagined racial and ethno-religious homogeneity. This book identifies a trend in the twenty-first-century Egyptian novel that shatters this singular view, with the rise of a new consciousness that presents Egypt as fundamentally heterogeneous. Through a robust analysis of “new-consciousness” novels by authors like Idris ᶜAli, Bahaᵓ Tahir, Miral al-Tahawi, and Yusuf Zaydan, the author argues that this new consciousness does not only respond to predominant discourses of difference and practices of differentiation along the axes of race, ethno-religion, class, and gender by bringing the experiences of Nubian, Amazigh, Bedouin, Coptic, Jewish, and women minorities to the fore of Egypt’s literary imaginary, but also heralds the cacophony of voices that collectively cried for social justice from Tahrir Square in Egypt’s 2011-uprising. This study responds to the changing iconographic, semiotic, and formal features of the Egyptian novel. It fulfills the critical task of identifying an emergent novelistic genre and develops historically reflexive methodologies that interpret new-consciousness novels and their mediatory role in formalizing and articulating their historical moment. By adopting this context-specific approach to studying novelistic evolution, this book locates some of the strands that have been missing from the complex whole of Egypt’s culture and literary history.

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The Effect of Smart Boards on the Cognition and Motivation of Students

Higher Education Studies ◽

10.5539/hes.v7n1p60 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 60 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nitza Davidovitch ◽

Roman Yavich

Keyword(s):

Sixth Grade ◽

Research Literature ◽

General Level ◽

Significant Finding ◽

Level Of Satisfaction ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Technological Developments ◽

Research Findings ◽

Measure Change ◽

Smart Boards

In recent years the research literature has explored technological developments in varied areas that measure change. The current study focuses on the smart board, and its purpose is to examine its effect on the school system. The study was conducted via a questionnaire completed by 130 respondents (boys and girls) in the fifth and sixth grades of two elementary schools in Jerusalem—Efrata and Tali Gilo. Smart boards were introduced in these two schools in recent years.We hypothesized that smart boards improve teaching, based on the teaching measures developed by Nira Hativa of Tel Aviv University: order and organization, level of clarity, interest, and general level of satisfaction. The study’s significant finding is that the greatest improvement since the introduction of smart boards is in the variable of clarity, and a significant difference was found in the favor of sixth grade students. Additionally, a significant difference was found in the variable of interest, in favor of the girls. All four variables appear to be interrelated, and each contributes to the student’s success and to improving the student’s learning process.The research findings illuminate the contribution of technology to teaching, through a case study of smart boards, in the dimension of clarity, found by the study to be a significant criterion of good teaching. Examination of the various technological tools in light of their contribution to the research-proven dimensions of outstanding teaching might enhance the pedagogical contribution of technological developments to teaching.

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Regulatory Challenges of Data Mining Practices: The Case of the Never-ending Lifecycles of ‘Health Data’

European Journal of Health Law ◽

10.1163/15718093-12520368 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 284-307

Author(s):

Giovanni Comandè ◽

Giulia Schneider

Keyword(s):

Data Mining ◽

Data Protection ◽

Personal Data ◽

Health Data ◽

General Level ◽

General Data Protection Regulation ◽

The Face ◽

General Data ◽

Level Of Analysis

Abstract Health data are the most special of the ‘special categories’ of data under Art. 9 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The same Art. 9 GDPR prohibits, with broad exceptions, the processing of ‘data concerning health’. Our thesis is that, through data mining technologies, health data have progressively undergone a process of distancing from the healthcare sphere as far as the generation, the processing and the uses are concerned. The case study aims thus to test the endurance of the ‘special category’ of health data in the face of data mining technologies and the never-ending lifecycles of health data they feed. At a more general level of analysis, the case of health data shows that data mining techniques challenge core data protection notions, such as the distinction between sensitive and non-sensitive personal data, requiring a shift in terms of systemic perspectives that the GDPR only partly addresses.

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Talking About Sustainability in Teacher Preparation in Finland and the United States

Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE) ◽

10.7577/njcie.3302 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 69-87

Author(s):

Susan Wiksten

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Teacher Education ◽

Teacher Preparation ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

The United States ◽

The Us ◽

Research Findings ◽

Specific Culture ◽

Context Specific ◽

Scientific Phenomena

This article reports on empirical research findings from a case study of teacher education in Finland and the United States. A sociological perspective was deployed for investigating how the concept of sustainability was addressed in two teacher education programs. One of the programs was located in Finland and the other in the US. The study was carried out in 2015 and 2016. Seventeen semi-structured, open-ended, audio-recorded interviews form the core of the research materials. A thematic analysis of interviews was conducted for identifying articulations related to sustainability in subject-matter specialized teacher preparation. Findings from this study contribute to research on teacher preparation. Notably, by articulating how context-specific culture and social norms contribute to local models of teacher education. Findings from this study indicate that teacher training practices in Finland have encouraged students to articulate sustainability in relation to critical thinking, whereas in the US, sustainability has been articulated in relation to social justice. The key point supported by the evidence is that sustainability was by teachers and teacher educators conceptualized as being about the popularization of knowledge about ecology and biodiversity. The kind of communication that was by teachers and teacher educators described as effective for popularizing knowledge about scientific phenomena were forms of teaching that expanded on content-specific knowledge by connecting it to ethical and civic frameworks of the societies in which students live.

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Evaluating e-Learning Initiatives

International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies ◽

10.4018/jwltt.2011010104 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 35-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Stelios Daskalakis ◽

Nikolaos Tselios

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Model ◽

Literature Review ◽

Research Model ◽

Learning Context ◽

Learning Evaluation ◽

E Learning ◽

Research Findings ◽

Specific Factors ◽

Research Frameworks ◽

Context Specific

Evaluation aspects, in relation to e-learning initiatives, are gaining substantial attention. As technology continuously influences learning, technical as well as organizational requirements need to be thoroughly investigated across a variety of stakeholders. In this paper, an outline of those aspects is presented, which occurred from a literature review on methods and research frameworks utilized toward the evaluation of e-learning initiatives. The review identified a series of studies that take advantage of well-established theories in the area of users’ acceptance of technology combined with additional, e-learning context-specific factors. Results of the review are presented, according to the adopted research model, to ease the process of locating and retrieving e-learning evaluation paradigms per theoretical model. In addition, research findings are discussed and future implications for e-learning evaluation initiatives as well as potential stakeholders are highlighted.

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Addressing the Implementation Crisis: Securing Reparation and Righting Wrongs

Journal of Human Rights Practice ◽

10.1093/jhuman/huaa005 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 1-21

Author(s):

Rachel Murray

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Civil Society ◽

Research Council ◽

Social Research ◽

Multidimensional Approach ◽

Special Issue ◽

Specific Approach ◽

Context Specific ◽

Supranational Institutions ◽

State Context

Abstract There has been increasing attention to the implementation of decisions of human rights bodies by scholars and by supranational institutions, states, litigants, and civil society. A project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) tracked the implementation by nine states of decisions adopted by human rights courts and commissions in the European, African and Inter-American systems and by select UN treaty bodies. This article summarizes the methodology and findings of the Project and in so doing forms an introduction to a series of articles and practice notes published in this special issue. A range of factors are identified from the research which influence implementation and stress the importance of a multifaceted, multidimensional approach to the issues. Implementation is not automatic and requires mechanisms, processes, and the involvement of actors (national and supranational) for states to comply with the reparations ordered in the decision. A case-by-case, state-by-state, context-specific approach is needed, tailored to the circumstances. This has implications for the manner in which litigants present their submissions, engage with state and supranational bodies and for the latter in terms of their roles and relationships with the various actors.

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Organizational Intranets

Managing Internet and Intranet Technologies in Organizations ◽

10.4018/978-1-878289-95-7.ch001 ◽

2001 ◽

pp. 1-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rens Scheepers ◽

Jeremy Rose

Keyword(s):

Research Attention ◽

Implementation Challenges ◽

Current Trends ◽

Research Findings ◽

Context Specific

This chapter highlights some key implementation challenges associated with the introduction of intranet technology. Based on the case we will argue for a different managerial mindset, given the nature of intranet technology itself and context-specific issues. In light of this mindset, we offer intranet managers a way forward and compare our advice against some recent intranet research findings. Finally we will examine some current trends and also discuss avenues that we believe warrant further research attention.

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