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This editorial deals with the issue of sustainability in relation to the development of the city in the 21st century. The main goal is to make an inquiry into Piecemeal vs Grand Planning Approaches to generating sustainable cities. The focus of the city is the human settlements. The issue of sustainability has been a concern for many planners, architects, urban geographers and social scientists. “Sustainability” is an old concept but has become a new solution criteria for generating liveable cities. The role of the professional is crucial in the development of cities to become more sustainable. It seems that development of cities, especially those in developing countries, in the post-modern age require a critical evaluation and updating of their existing housing and settlement policies and practices. They seem to neglect the development dynamics in fast-growing metropoles sometimes. While the natural phenomenon of urbanisation require piecemeal approach to spatial planning and development in Developing countries, their governments tend to adopt Grand policies of developed countries. Implementation of such policies with fujrthern use of high-tech often results in large wipe-outs in the city and social disintegration, following the replacement of existing neighborhoods. Physical and social integrity, as well as slow growth of settlements is a crucial start towards sustainable cities.

This paper aims to examine the effects of transformations of the levels of visual and functional permeability and the types of uses on the ground floors of buildings on the perception of security and the occurrence of residential burglary, theft in residence, pedestrian mugging, vehicle robbery, vehicle theft and theft of items inside a vehicle on selected blocks.

Nine blocks divided into three groups were selected in Capão da Canoa, a Brazilian city that has been undergoing morphological transformations, including the replacement of buildings with residences and shops on the ground floor, with doors and windows facing the street, by buildings with a predominance of garage doors and blind walls on the ground floors. Data were collected through the application of questionnaires and interviews.

The results reveal, for example, that perception of greater security is related to the blocks with a greater number of functional and visual connections between the ground floor interfaces of the buildings and the open public spaces. In addition, the night period records the higher number of criminal occurrences, even on blocks with higher rates of visual and functional connections between the ground floor interfaces and the public open space and higher rates of residential and commercial uses on the ground floor of the buildings.

It is expected that the results of this paper will allow for greater knowledge and the revision of many urban guidelines regarding the effects of the transformations of ground floor interfaces from traditional to contemporary buildings in the perception of security and the occurrence of crimes in public open spaces and in neighbouring residential units. It is further evidenced the need to recognize the ground floor interface as an element of public interest, even if it belongs to a private property. Nonetheless, further research is needed on the relationships between the quantifications of the levels of visual and functional permeability, the different types of uses on the ground floor of buildings, movement of people and crimes in open spaces and buildings in different periods of the day.

An affordability challenge for the governments is the trade-off between cost and quality. The housing gap is a reality for developing countries, and most frequently the gap is met by producing large numbers of low-cost housing units for the maximum number of people. Declining affordability is known to adversely affect both owner occupiers and tenants. The needy, due to an uninterested private sector, usually has either to depend on low quality housing mislocated in the city, without supporting infra- and social structures, or on squatter dwelling. The second option, despite being informal is responsive to the spatial and cultural needs of the users who ideally partake in the construction. The article queries and explores the ways in which the process and cultural preferences of the users of squatter houses, as builder-owner-occupants, are harmoniously intermingled in squatter housing; and draw housing policy implications through institutionalising some of their potentials. Considering squatters are at the lowest stratum areas and that their housing constitutes significant portion of the urban stock, government's pareto optimal which claims maximum good for the maximum number of people at minimum cost is seemingly justified with the quite restricted budget of governments of developing countries.

In Turkey, the process of squatterisation can best be traced to the increase in its urban population from 24 percent in 1950 to 59 percent in 2000. In the periods up to the present, the prevention, improvement and renewal of squatter settlements were not achieved within the existing legal framework and planning structure; and their urban quality has been degraded.

The aim of this article is to discuss the upgrading of squatter settlements through a mitigation process considering the possibility of an earthquake in Istanbul. The target groups of this upgrading study are the squatter dwellers and their settlements.

In getting prepared for the predicted big Istanbul earthquake, the improvement of squatter housing is extremely important for the existing urban housing stock. With this aim, the undesirable consequences of a possible natural disaster in various squatter settlements in Istanbul were scrutinised. Also, earthquake-forecasting reports were analysed in conjunction with squatter maps to extract data for the purpose of upgrading squatter settlements through rehabilitation, reconstruction and reinforcement at the urban and architectural levels with amelioration of damage after an earthquake. In the article, a model is proposed which includes measures to transform squatter zones into healthy areas by means of simple reinforcement and contemporary solutions.

This article is based on a research project requested and sponsored by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality during 2003-2004.

Human resources are of great importance to provide competitive advantage in tourism, which is a labour-intensive industry. It is seen that the level of organizational commitment of the individuals who have similar values with the organization they work for and who can fulfil the roles and duties they undertake and who can meet all their needs in return increases. Their level of alienation is also observed to decrease. Population of the study, which purposes to reveal whether organizational culture has any impact on the employees' perception of person-organization fit and their level of organizational alienation or not, constitutes 4- and 5-star hotels in service in the central district of Izmir province. According to the results, it was seen that hotel businesses had two types of organizational culture such as hierarchy and clan culture. In the hotels with clan culture, demands-abilities fit levels of the worker were higher than value-congruence and needs-supplies dimensions. It was seen that workers alienated on meaninglessness dimension mostly. Similarly, in the hotels with hierarchy culture, demands-abilities fit levels of the worker were higher than value-congruence and needs-supplies dimensions. Workers alienated from their organization on meaninglessness dimension mostly.

Turkey has been rapidly urbanizing since the 1950s. In quantitative and qualitative meanings, the problem of housing is one of the most important subjects on Turkey’s agenda. Increasing population, rapid cultural and economic transition and the dynamics of in-migration, changes in social life, consumption patterns and value systems have made a significant impact on housing demand and supply. If we try to realize a general analytical outlook to define the basic formal and informal categories that reflect specific values pertaining to housing typology of the twentieth century, it would be possible to make a classification under the following sub-titles: formal housing-row houses, separate houses, apartment blocks, social housing, mass-housing, luxury housing including gated communities; informal housing – squatter settlements/gecekondus, slums; inbetween –apartkondus, unpermitted constructions/building extensions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Istanbul has been experiencing these various dynamics of planned and unplanned housing settlements in a very radical way, since the 1950s. Changing typology is examined systematically under certain periods up to now. In confronting housing needs under rapid urbanization, “types of housing supply channels” appeared and as a result, urban texture has been changing by periods. In this paper, in order to understand each of these categories and the conditions under which they have been generated, an analysis will be realized to understand the urban housing concept of Istanbul within the twentieth century urban environment.

The factors playing a role in the evolution of twentieth century dwelling forms on Istanbul will be defined, and the physical/architectural, locational, neighborhood characteristics, as well as their user profile will be examined.

This study is expected to contribute to the further understanding of the urban housing stock and the future trends in housing typology.

Diaspora tourism primarily refers to various population groups, including migrants, foreign workers, political refugees, ethnic and religious minorities and overseas communities living away from their ancestral homeland for various reasons. Throughout history, people have been forced to leave their original homeland due to various factors ranging from economic crises to natural and human-made tragedies, including war. The 24 February 2022 unjustified and unproved Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which started on the heels of the two-year COVID-19 pandemic, has resulted in massive and terrible consequences for many domains of political, economic and social life. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has generated the largest historical migration flows at a scale unforeseen in Europe since World War II. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, at least 12 million people have been displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations. The unprecedented influx of the Ukrainian people raises concerns about future developments, issues and challenges associated with Ukrainians' presence in other countries, particularly neighbouring ones. Therefore, this chapter analyses the possibility of diaspora tourism for Ukrainians shortly by utilising a critical approach when the situation stabilises in Ukraine. To begin with, this chapter first explains diaspora tourism with its definition and characteristics. Furthermore, it reviews the literature on the Russia–Ukraine war and its impact on Ukrainian tourism. In conclusion, it discusses the new Ukrainian diaspora wave soon.

Three years ago Maarten Cleeren from Elsevier in the Netherlands wrote about Open House International as a fine journal stating that “ in recognition of the high quality and relevance to the scientific community of Open House International we are pleased to inform you that your publication has been selected for coverage in the Elsevier Bibliographic Database Scopus as of 2007”. This was therefore added to our two other database connections namely EBSCO PUBLISHING and Thomsons ISI database including all their products, The Social Science Citation Index, (SSCI,) the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, (A&HCI), Social Scisearch, Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences,(CC/S&BS) and the Current Contents/Arts & Humanities, (CC/A&H) and Journal Citation Reports/Social Sciences Edition.