In the shift towards the Big Society, it is widely proclaimed that citizen participation and citizens’ initiatives are indispensable to maintaining services that used to be run by local or regional governments. Despite the increased interest in citizens’ initiatives, research has scarcely debated what …

In recent years, the recognition of the importance of ecosystem services provided by peatlands has become increasingly topical (Clarke, 2006). It is now known that peatland degradation and loss of habitat has large negative impacts, particularly with regards the loss of the habitats natural carbon sink …

Dutch voluntary sport clubs (VSCs) are facing several challenges in perceived consumerist behavior by members (Van der Roest, 2015), demands by the government to attribute to the social policy agenda (Waardenburg, 2016; Coalter, 2007) and declining number of members in complex contexts (Wollebæk, 2009). …

The Netherlands strives for an inclusive society. In order to achieve this, the United Nations Convention on Disability has been ratified. In this convention sport is explicitly named as a means towards inclusion. Still, it is not yet clear what the role of sport is in this. Extensive research has been …

Since the 1980s, many initiatives have attempted to tackle the deprivation currently experienced in South Rotterdam. Efforts have been made to attract creative workers and, in a counter-reaction, other initiatives have aimed to encourage the creative talents of poorer residents to strengthen their …

This paper proposes an innovative designerly model called the Transitional Action Design Research to address the class of wicked problems in the judicial settings such as preserving privacy while disseminating information for transparency purposes.

This dissertation explores whether the German news media framework that is constructed around the issue of trafficking in human beings (THB) is biased or framed in terms of gender. The past decade has seen major developments in efforts towards the eradication of THB on an international and national …

The outbreak of the Eurozone economic crisis in 2008 caused one of the most difficult challenges in the history of the European Union. Output and employed decreased and faith in the European project diminished. Leading European policy makers identified fiscal irresponsibility by some member states as …

Since the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, the pressure on the European external borders has been increasing due the enormous flow of refugees to Europe. States play a role in creating international refugee flows. For example the interstate violence and violence between different …

This dissertation focuses on the re-interpretation of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which has forbidden Japan from participating in war since 1946. However, it has now been re-interpreted to allow Japan minimum involvement in international conflicts and peacekeeping operations. It analyses …