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Several pending court cases regarding the valuation of historic façade easements and the associated tax credit have generated interest in the valuation of such preservation tools. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of façade easements on the value of single‐family home sales.

The hedonic method, initially applied to real estate economics by Rosen in 1974, is used to analyze the data.

Results contradict established theory and research on other property types, showing no observable impact.

The paper is limited to a single historic district in the USA, though it is the largest and arguably one of the most important. Facade easements, however, are used in many cities, making the study relevant in other geographic areas.

Little empirical work has been conducted on façade easements, and none in the context of single‐family homes, making this research an important contribution to real estate valuation literature.

Housing researchers often seek to investigate the needs of the populations they study so that they may evaluate the policies targeted at ‘fixing’ the problems faced by the residents of public housing communities. Traditionally, researchers base these recommendations on the statistical exploration of primary and secondary quantitative data. However, some researchers contend that these traditional research tools fail to capture the meaning and significance of housing for its inhabitants and offer little insight into larger related issues of politics and economy (Jacobs, 2003). From the perspective of this group of researchers, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to craft a survey instrument or any other measurement tool, for that matter, which could capture the divergent human experience of families living in public housing across the nation given the diversity of factors that shape the lives of residents.

This chapter, together with those that follow, builds upon the ideas presented in the previous volume in this series (Maginn, Thompson, & Tonts, 2008). There we outlined our vision for a ‘pragmatic renaissance’ in contemporary qualitative research in urban studies. We argued that to survive as an effective and frequently used tool for policy development, a more systematic approach is needed in the way that qualitative-informed applied urban research is conceptualised and undertaken. In opening this volume we build on these initial ideas using housing as a meta-case study to progress the case for a systematic approach to qualitative research methods. We do this to both stimulate broad debate about the ways, in which qualitative research in urban/housing scholarship might be of greater use to policymakers and practitioners, as well as to suggest a way forward in realising the ‘pragmatic renaissance’.

Institutional complexity shapes what is perceived as possible by framing cultural debates about practices, but organizations in turn shape how logics interpenetrate fields, suggesting that we must consider both the degree of compatibility between logics and the degree of practice variation in a field. Our exploratory study of three entrepreneurial impact finance organizations considers how they situate their practices between the market and community logics. We offer a recursive view that considers how multiple institutional logics shape practices and how entrepreneurial organizations adapt and invent new practices that, through their continued use, can influence the institutional complexity of a field.

The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the meal context and the food offering in Quebec public nursing homes for non-autonomous seniors, particularly with respect to first-generation immigrants.

A focused ethnography approach was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three distinct groups: non-Quebec-born residents (n=26), their families (n=24) and frontline care staff (n=51). Structured non-participative observations were made in facilities.

First-generation immigrants, however, long ago they arrived in Quebec, adapted with difficulty and often not at all to the food offering. Resident’s appetite for food offer was a problem for reasons related primarily to food quality, mealtime schedules, medication intake, physical and mental condition, and adaptation to institutional life. Family/friends often brought in food. Care staff tasks were becoming increasingly tedious and routinized, impacting quality of care.

Institutions should render procedures and processes more flexible and adapt their food offering to the growing diversity of their client groups. For residents, the meal experience is profoundly transformed in nursing homes in terms of form, conditions, rituals and meaning. A better understanding of lived situations shaped by a more refined cultural sensitivity would go a long way toward achieving a better quality of life not only for residents but also for their families and friends. Care aides, on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of ensuring that meals are safe and pleasant moments for socializing and maintaining social dispositions, are ambivalent about their work.

The paper is based on an original study. To the authors’ knowledge, the literature on the meal context and food offering in Quebec public nursing homes, regardless of population type, was non-existent. Analyzing and interpreting the results by crossing the discourses of immigrant residents, their family and friends, and frontline care staff made it possible to reveal different aspects of the phenomenon, which, if considered together, shed light on the meal context in public nursing homes.

Communication systems are structured by economic forces which use them to optimise sales, and politicians who increasingly live by slogans and repeated sound bites. Both want people to act without much reflection, and may threaten to turn human beings into imitiations of the computers they use. Theorists first noticed that communication systems channeled goods and services, structured political geography, and created their own pictures of the world. They went on to describe communications devices which act as extensions of human senses. Now communication systems try to structure our inner lives. This paper examines reflective consciousness and its relation to civilisation. It suggests countervailing forces which make for thought and turn the ordinary aspects of life into art.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a mineral policy development framework for Pakistan based on seven key elements derived from the gap analysis of Pakistan’s current framework with leading developing minerals-based economies. Pakistan is gifted with significant mineral resources that have the potential to lift its economy and bring prosperity to its citizens. For this to happen, Pakistan must formulate a mineral policy based on leading practices to attract mining investment for economic growth.

This paper develops a new mineral policy framework from the lessons derived from the gap analysis conducted in the first paper of this research. These lessons are called the “elements of development” which, after evaluation with the existing framework, will provide the suggested strategic fit measures for the formulation of the new mineral policy framework for Pakistan.

A new mineral policy framework is proposed based on seven key enablers, namely, institutional framework, stable political economy, legal framework, regulatory framework, fiscal framework, stakeholder participation and sustainable development. A new organisational structure of the Ministry is also proposed based on the generally accepted organisational structure of tiers, implementation and regulatory bodies.

The key constraints for Pakistan’s mineral sector are as follows: the sector is lacking an enabling institutional framework for efficient access to mineral resources and lacks an enabling fiscal and regulatory framework including secure mineral rights system for mining to enhance the economic attractiveness of the sector.

This paper presents original work on the development of a new mineral policy framework for Pakistan to extract maximum benefit from its mineral resources.