As a teacher in ICT and Media Design at Fontys University of Applied Sciences I know but all too well what many of my students want. They are part of a makers community. Most of them just want to build cool stuff with whatever (new) technology may be relevant. My students are by grosso modo millennials …

There is increasing evidence that humans are not living sustainably. There are three major drivers of the unsustainable approach: population, consumption and the growth economy. There is widespread denial about these issues, but they clearly need to be addressed if we are to achieve any of the possible …

The design of cities has long ignored the flows that shape the city. Water has been the most visible one, but energy and materials were invisible and/or taken for granted. A little over 50 years ago, Abel Wolman was the first to illuminate the role of water flows in the urban fabric. It has long been …

Just like music and art education, technical education is very closely linked to practice in an ever changing world. Techniques come and go, sometimes at lightning speed. Especially at the level of secondary vocational education (level 2, 3 and 4) there are shortages in well trained craftsmen. Technical …

The thermal performance of conventional flat roof systems is in practice normally assessed by the heat transfer caused by conduction. The effects of radiation and convection are in such cases ignored as being insignificant. Holistic flat roof systems are designed to better utilize the impact of radiation …

Justice for nature remains a confused term. In recent decades justice has predominantly been limited to humanity, with a strong focus on social justice, and its spin-off – environmental justice for people. We first examine the formal rationale for ecocentrism and ecological ethics, as this underpins …

Background: A patient decision aid (PtDA) can support shared decision making (SDM) in preference-sensitive care, with more than one clinically applicable treatment option. The development of a PtDA is a complex process, involving several steps, such as designing, developing and testing the draft with …

Agent-based modeling is used for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous entities aiming to assessing their effects on the system as a whole. At an abstract level, an agent-based model (ABM) is a representation of the many simple agents and interactions among them. The decision making of …

Since the 1960s, the structure of the German population has significantly changed as a result of a number of migration waves. This structural change, and the fact that is was rather ignored by German governments, created a democratic deficit. Large parts of the permanent population were structurally …

Due to a number of factors outlined in this article, the issue of population growth is excluded from the sustainability discussion. In this article, we explore some of the ethical presumptions that underlie the issues linking population growth and sustainability. Critics argue that action to address …