The Netherlands is undergoing a massive (re)construction challenge. In addition to building new housing, a substantial part of the existing building stock of housing corporations is undergoing renovation. This renovation challenge has varying interactions with the energy transition, testified by the …

Educational practices are complex and value-laden, shaped through the interplay of societal expectations, pedagogical commitments, organisational arrangements, and everyday interactions between teachers, pupils, and colleagues. Teachers do not act as neutral implementers of external prescriptions; rather, …

Urban areas are increasingly facing climate-related risks that outpace the implementation of adaptation measures, often attributed to a persistent policy-to-implementation gap. Bridging this gap requires a deeper understanding of the underlying governance dynamics. This paper adopts a governance arrangement …

Traditional non-linear models offer Dutch municipalities limited insight into the social behaviour of local stakeholders, even though this behaviour largely determines the success of policies in complex sociotechnical systems. This study addresses the following research question: “How can an agent-based …

For designers, materials and production processes are crucial to the creation and quality of products like tablecloth and clay jars. Nowadays, utilitarian objects are mass- produced, far away. This contributes to environmental degradation, ecological imbalance and a loss of crafts and knowledge. To understand …

Over the past ten years, the ecosystem concept has been used to frame innovation and transition endeavours undertaken by multi-actor groups. Systemic design initiatives are broadly engaging with ecosystems. The concept and phenomenon have been central in theory as well as practice, though remain contested …

Miombo woodland is the dominant landscape in southern Africa and the central African plateau. It is the world’s largest continuous area of deciduous tropical woodland and dry forest. The ecosystem consists of grasslands, savannah woodlands and denser forests. It provides essential resources and ecosystem …

Food loss and waste (FLW) remains a critical global challenge, particularly in the food and beverage (F&B) sector, where small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operate under tight margins and fragmented supply chains. This study investigates how F&B SMEs in the Netherlands address sustainability (including …

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly called upon to both respond to and drive societal change. To better understand how HEIs can enhance their ability to innovate, an integrative literature review was conducted, examining the concept of innovative capacity. Key resources, such as social …

Urban areas provide a promising context for upcycling due to the concentration of consumers and existence of bulky waste resources. Hence, upcycling initiatives emerge across European cities, but little is known about their manifestations. Building on interviews with twenty-four stakeholders from the …