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This study aims to illuminate the challenges involved in implementing community benefits (CBs), a sustainable public procurement policy that ensures that there are positive social and economic outcomes for the local community when public money is spent on goods, works and services.

Interviews and focus groups were conducted with public sector buyers and suppliers in Wales with experience in implementing CBs. Resource dependence theory was used to examine the extent to which dependence on resources effects CBs implementation.

Whilst the study confirms that implementation of CBs improves economic and social outcomes, there can also be challenges for public sector organisations and their constituent supply chains. These include tensions between CBs and other policies, differing views between buyers and suppliers, and the unintended consequences of promoting one form of CBs over another.

The research found that Welsh Government influences the buyer-supplier dyad through regulatory and financial power. We elaborate on resource dependency theory by adding four constructs (powerful stakeholders, intra and inter organisational issues, challenges and enablers) to better understand the flows of power and resources in this research context.

Buyer and supplier practitioners and policymakers may find the factors leading to successful CBs implementation useful, such as ensuring closer communication and liaison at early contract stages.

Community benefits are aimed at improving socioeconomic issues through public procurement.

This study addresses the need for research into how public sector organisations and suppliers seek to implement socio-economic sustainability measures, and the lack of research on CBs implementation to date. It is also novel in adopting a dyadic approach and a resource dependency perspective.

The procurement and supply of crucial healthcare products in the early stages of the COVID-19 emergency were chaotic. To prepare for future crises, we must be able to describe what went wrong, and why, and map out ways to build agility and resilience. How can this be done effectively, given the highly complex and diverse network of actors across governments, care providers and supply chains, and the extreme uncertainty and dynamism in the procurement system and supplier markets? The purpose of this study was to capture learning from practitioners in “real time” in a way that could frame and inform capacity building across healthcare systems with varying procurement and supply management maturity.

This exploratory study involved interviews with 58 senior public procurement practitioners in central and regional governments, NGOs and leaders of professional organizations from 23 countries, very early in the COVID crisis. Following the first, inductive phase of analysis leading to five descriptive dimensions, the awareness-motivation-capability (A-M-C) framework was applied in a further round of coding, to understand immediate challenges faced by procurement practitioners, how the complex, multi-level procurement system that shaped their motivations to respond and critical capabilities required to face these challenges.

Developments across 23 countries and practitioners' learning about procurement and supply in the pandemic crisis can be captured in five overarching themes: governance and organization, knowledge and skills, information systems, regulation and supply base issues. Together these themes cover the strengths and gaps in procurement and supply capability encountered by procurement leaders and front-line personnel. They highlight the various facets of structure, resource and process which constitute organizational capability. However, to account better for the highly dynamic situation characterized by both unprecedented rivalry and cooperation, analysts must also pay attention to actors' emerging awareness of the situation and their rapidly changing motivations.

The application of the A-M-C framework is unique in the healthcare supply chain and disaster management literature. It enables a comprehensive overview of healthcare procurement from a system perspective. This study shows how increasing system preparedness for future emergencies depends both on developing critical capabilities and understanding how awareness and motivation influence the effective deployment of those capabilities.

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is an evidence-based employment model, effective in supporting individuals with severe mental health difficulties to gain competitive employment. Irish mental health policy recognises its value and IPS is being rolled out in a national programme. Employment is recognised an important contributor to mental health recovery and social inclusion. However, research on IPS has tended to focus on competitive job outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the non-vocational outcomes of IPS in an Irish context.

A qualitative research approach was used to interview participants taking part in IPS within community mental health teams. Twelve interviews were included in the data analysis process which was informed by a thematic analysis approach.

Participants experienced increased confidence and positivity, both within a work context and whilst job seeking. More purposeful time use, participation in activities and engagement with society were also experienced by those employed and those at the job search stage of IPS.

This study contributes to the literature about the non-vocational benefits of IPS within an Irish context, highlights the mental health recovery benefits of taking part in IPS and supports the need for ongoing development of IPS throughout mental health services in Ireland.

The topics “environment,” “environmental design” and “environment and behavior studies” are important and promising in architectural discourse. The academic culture of the global west plays a unique role in the development of the knowledge within the field of environmental design research (EDR), from which these concepts originate. This paper examines the western names, works and ideas related to EDR that have spread into Russian architectural discourse. The purpose of this paper is to consider the status quo of Russian knowledge of EDR and its connection with the western EDR tradition.

The method of research in this paper is the analysis of references and keywords of architectural publications from the largest Russian academic online library – e-library.ru.

The origin, evolution and current state of environmental architectural knowledge in Russia are discussed. Its segmentation including the presence of several self-organized spheres within the EDR domain and the variety of “dialects” of environmental language are illustrated. The connections of each segment of Russian knowledge with western authors and sources are traced. Further, conclusions are drawn regarding the similarities and differences between Russian and western knowledge in the field of EDR.

The relationship of Russian architectural theory with western EDR knowledge has not previously been the subject of a comparative scientometric study.

Social integration is an important goal of contemporary urban policy in Chile. Using the concept of conviviality understood as the “art of living in community” (Esteva, 2012), this work analyses two socially integrated housing developments in Chile. This paper argues that materially interspersing different socioeconomic groups within housing developments is insufficient on its own to achieve the objectives of social integration espoused in the national urban policy. In particular, it leaves aside community and cultural processes and therefore neglects considerations of inclusion, equity, and conviviality. Furthermore, it is insufficient on its own in meeting sustainable cities and quality of life objectives of the National Urban Development Policy. As a result, we raise critical questions for the implementation of national policy objectives to combat the segregation of cities. The concept of assessing conviviality is proposed as a means to further understand social integration.

The purpose of this paper aims at the spatial analysis of the Rastas dealing with the wool market to revise the production resulting in a recreation of spaces and the pathways based on its high economic–commercial role.

Secondary resources and direct observations through field research were the two critical methodological steps for this paper based on phenomenology and qualitative approaches.

The results represent that the usage of past experiences is the most effective solutions for activities relying on manufacturing inside the workshops leading to improvement in functional objectives of Bazaar. Integration between diverse institutions, precise planning regarding the creation and restoration of past and new jobs and organizing the exhibition of recreational spaces contributing to development regarding public attraction and strengthening the spatial relationships between production, representation and service. Indeed these mentioned steps will provide multifunctional space with a priority of production and reproduction useful on a recreation of urban life.

This study fulfils to examine the important of the bazaar (Iranian market) and recreate its manufacturing, service and economic processes.

Significant differences exist in terms of use and demand of urban public space in different districts and communities. In this study, PSPL survey was made in about one year to investigate the type and occurring time of outdoor activities and the visitors' demand difference of Round-City-Park in Xi'an, China. The survey method for collecting data included spatial classification, photographic recording, field observation, questionnaires and interviews. Then a new method of Virtual Typical Day (VTD) was put forward to analyze usage pattern of public space in the daily life. According to our results, laying out more public spaces close to residential area can make a more vigorous city. And the results also reveal that there exist some problems of uneven usage periods in different spaces, various space requirement from different age groups, insufficient support of space and facilities and so on. Based on the survey, an optimizing strategy of adaptive design is proposed such as setting mobile “stage” and providing flexible “props” according to the changing demands. The proposed design approach can encourage people to participate in outdoor activities, improve usage frequency of public spaces, and stimulate vitality of the city. This may also apply to other Chinese cities.

This article focuses on the role of gentrification in urban regeneration. It supports calls for a more nuanced approach to understanding of that complex phenomenon, which would include the possibility that some of its forms may represent the much needed transfusion of new and healthy energies into tired urbanities. The examples of gentrification presented in this article indicate that some of the outcomes of certain kinds of gentrification are superior to those generated by “proper”, even well considered and well theorised examples of urban regeneration. Those examples are from Tokyo, the largest and one of the fastest-changing cities in the world. The chosen locations are in the precincts of Nezu and Yanaka, where living connections with the past coexist with practices of the bustling World City, and in vibrant, commercially driven Harajuku. The article advocates locally attuned approaches to cultural sustainability, and careful balancing of gentrification with urban regulation. That may help cities remain, as de Certeau once said, the ‘most immoderate of human texts’.