Smart homes, home automation and ambient-assisted living are terms used to describe technological systems that enrich our living environment and provide means to support care, facilitate well-being and improve comfort. This handbook provides an overview of the domain from the perspective of health care …

The exploration of the narrative nature of local memory websites in relation to empowerment theory produces new insights in the nested levels of analysis of both. Empowerment’s value orientation calls for a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses and, as such, requires specific language that accommodates …

The nation-state had a long history of success, but today it is failing its citizens on a global scale. Over the last hundred years, nation-states focussed on maximizing internal unity and jurisdictional sovereignty. Benjamin R. Barber’s ‘If Mayors Ruled The World’ is the central source of this thesis …

The aim of this study was to examine (a) how life stress, work-family conflict, social support, psychological distress, and relationship satisfaction develop over the course of military-induced separations; (b) what best predicts relationship satisfaction after being separated for several months; and …

Over the past decades, international terrorism started to reach its ideological peak, challenging and disrupting whole societies and governmental organs. This modern form of terror contains violent implications, psychologically pressing the innocent masses. Initially inspired by occasional, domestically …

This text is structured as follows. Section 1 concerns the background to this public lecture: the fact that social participation is becoming increasingly important in our society. This is evident, for example, from the way we are evolving from a protective welfare state into an activational, participative …

Although previous research programs have yielded valuable knowledge that can help sugar beet growers to innovate farming processes, actual transfer of this knowledge to the growers so far is lacking. Currents ways of knowledge transfer do not match learning styles, personal traits or the social environment …

Small scale producers face many opportunities and also huge challenges in today’s markets. Market liberalization since the 1980s has cut back the support services provided by the state and forced producer to face the risks of often weak and volatile markets. Further more those who are able to access …

Since 2000, all Dutch Universities of Professional Education are confronted with three major renewals. The first was the European agreement to implement the Bachelor-Master system in Higher Education. The second was the strong tendence to renew eduction towards Competence Based Education. The third renewal …