Search results

This paper analyses migrations at neighbourhood level in relation to the persistence of deprived neighbourhoods. The research is based on a sample of deprived neighbourhoods located in the inner-cities of Brussels and six Flemish cities. Their migration pattern was analysed and compared to a sample of middle-class neighbourhoods which are also located in the inner city. More than one million migration movements covering a period of 14 years (1986-1999) were analysed according to age, nationality and family composition. This was the first time that data of this kind were available for research in Belgium. The main findings hint at a migration pattern that perpetuates deprived neighbourhoods. Residents of these neighbourhoods move more often and over a shorter distance then their counterparts in the reference neighbourhoods. Residents of a deprived neighbourhood also tend to move to another deprived neighbourhood. A clear difference is noted between the Belgian population and migrant groups such as Moroccans and Turks. Groups that are weaker from a socio-economic perspective tend to stay much more within the circuit of deprived neighbour-hoods, hereby perpetuating their existence. We also noted that once their economic situation has improved, the strongest households move out of the neighbourhood, leaving the rest of the population ‘trapped‘ behind. The article closes with a set of policy recommendations.

In previous efforts the author has examined the various “men” of economics or human‐nature assumptions of “economic thinkers” as a way of treating the history and philosophy of the discipline. Here, under the thematic penumbra of “Man as the Centre of the Social Economy”, and hoping to incorporate the fruits of further inquiry into the matter, those “creatures” and their fashioners are critically reconsidered with a view towards arriving at a more adequate conception of a truly human “economiser” and – accordingly – science of human economy. In Part II, having presented homo oeconomicus in both his/her “impudent” and “honourable” versions, we shall attempt to transcend homo socioeconomicus and even our own (former) homo oeconomicus humanus as well.

The purpose of this paper is to show a practical case of dialogic web‐based learning that has provided a set of questions analysing two complex technological projects in “southern” countries with effects on multicultural equity.

Structured online review processes in multicultural and systems science curricula allow for high density of literature‐based reflection and analysis.

The entirety of the set of over 50 questions developed by the proposed web‐based dialogic procedure represents a starting point for an in‐depth assessment of the effects of deploying “northern” technology in “southern” countries.

The present case study concentrates on energy technology, notably on two hydroelectric plants presently under construction in Ilısu, Turkey, and Belo Monte, Brazil.

The multitude of questions calls for complex technological construction projects that have to undertake sound interdisciplinary in‐depth analysis of technological, environmental, economic, cultural and social consequences in order to secure a necessary level of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

Application of widely accepted planning tools such as technology assessment, environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment are useful but have to be complemented by analogous tools at a cultural and social level.

This case study operates through questioning, largely in the Socratic tradition. Questions may trigger a broad discussion process within civil societies – which is the intention of the present text.

To provide illumination of how systems tend to produce an output nobody expected. It is in these moments that observers may learn something about their own expectations.

The paper discusses two cases in the history of art: faked Vermeer paintings and a test Heinz von Foerster did in the art department at the University of Illinois.

McLuhan's notion “collide‐oscope” is applied to the way Heinz von Foerster (ab)uses images in his own texts; furthermore it is applied to the way the Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) was organized. The formal structure of the “collide‐oscope” offers a model of perception.

Provides a discussion of a fundamental message of cybernetics – that we cannot escape collisions and disturbances. They are its essence.