Institutional regimes for sustainable collective housing stocks

The influence of public policy, property rights and contracts on the sustainability of residential buildings remains largely unknown. This research will use the analytical framework of the housing institutional regime to study the sustainability over time of the housing stock. We aim to produce an inventory of the housing institutional regime in Switzerland, a comparison with the German and Catalan regimes, and policy suggestions to achieve a better sustainability of the housing stock.

Of housing and politics : mapping political opportunities for mobilising in Bangalore, India

Quelles sont les conditions pour l'émergence d'une mobilisation sociale en faveur du logement convenable dans la métropole de Bangalore (Inde)? Cette question, qui est au coeur de cette thèse, est particulièrement pertinente dans le contexte d'une ville où 1,7 million de personnes, soit un cinquième de la population, vit dans des bidonvilles. L'absence d'un mouvement mettant en cause l'échec des politiques publiques du logement est intéressante dans la mesure où l'Inde a hérité un système de gouvernance colonial et d'une tradition de mouvements sociaux. Pour répondre à ce questionnement, un cadre théorique issu de la littérature sur les mouvements sociaux est développé. Il s'articule autour des liens entre les opportunités politiques au niveau macro et les répertoires d'action des organisations de mouvement social (OMS) au niveau méso, de la tension entre la formalité de la loi et des politiques publiques et l'informalité des circuits d'échange, de la corruption et du clientélisme, et enfin, se focalise sur les systèmes de discours de caste et de la citoyenneté et de leur concrétisation dans des systèmes d'organisations et de réseaux sociaux. Ce cadre théorique permet d'étudier empiriquement la question à travers quatre OMS dans la ville de Bangalore. Les résultats mettent en avant l'existence de mécanismes complexes. Les opportunités politiques formelles n'étant ouvertes que sur le plan rhétorique, elles ne peuvent être véritablement utilisées que par des moyens légaux ou contentieux, ce qui nécessite des compétences sociales dont la plupart des habitants des bidonvilles sont dépourvus. L'inadéquation entre les ressources à disposition pour les logements sociaux et les besoins très importants des pauvres, donne un poids politique considérable aux acteurs en charge de l'attribution de ces ressources rares. Cet état de fait a des répercussions sur la politique électorale. Les habitants des bidonvilles représentant un poids électoral important, ils sont mobilisés à travers de pratiques clientélistes. La corruption et le clientélisme se nourrissent mutuellement pour maintenir une certaine dépendance des habitants. Les OMS qui développent un répertoire discursif remettant en cause le système de caste et qui encouragent une conscience citoyenne, se sont avérées les plus durables pour résister à la cooptation des forces politiques. Cette recherche empirique met en lumière l'inadéquation entre les prescriptions formelles dans le domaine de la gouvernance des besoins humains, tels que le logement, et les pratiques réelles sur le terrain. Cette recherche appelle à réfléchir au-delà de la diffusion du discours sur la « bonne gouvernance » vers des formes de « gouvernance vernaculaire » qui prendrait au sérieux l'informalité en développant une compréhension des avantages à court terme pour les personnes marginalisées dans la ville et les effets à long terme sur la pratique démocratique. - What are the conditions for the emergence of a social movement on the issue of adequate housing in the metropolitan city of Bangalore (India)? This question is at the heart of this dissertation and is particularly pertinent against the background that an estimated 1.7 million or about 20% of the city's population lives in slums. The absence of a movement addressing the failure of public housing policy despite India having inherited colonial systems of governance and traditions of movement is noteworthy. Answers are sought within a theoretical framework stemming from social movement theories that incorporates three linkages articulating around: Macro-level political opportunities and meso-level action repertoires of social movement organisations (SMOs), tensions between the formality of law, policy and the informality of exchange circuits of corruption and clientelism and finally around systems of discourses of caste and citizenship and their instantiation in concrete systems of social organisations and networks. This thesis is empirically investigated through a qualitative case study research design involving four sampled social movement organisations. The results bring complex mechanisms to the fore. Formal political opportunities are only rhetorically open and have to be cracked through legal weaponry or contentious escalation, which requires considerable social skills that slum-dwellers often lack. The inadequacy between the few housing resources and the vast number of slum-dwellers transform housing benefits and urban service provisions into political currency. Such a state of affairs has serious repercussions on conditions for mobilisation. They become imbricated with electoral logic, in which slum-dwellers represent large vote-banks and where corruption and clientelism feed each other to maintain a certain dependency of the poor. SMOs deploying a discursive repertoire that questioned the caste system and encouraged a pursuit of citizenship proved to be the most sustainable to resist co-option from political forces. This empirical investigation brings to light the mismatch between the formal prescriptions in the domain of the governance of basic human needs such as housing and the real practices on the ground. This research calls to reflect beyond the inadequacy of the diffused « good governance » discourse towards forms of « vernacular governance » that take informality seriously in understanding the short-term benefits for the marginalised in the city and the long-term effects on democratic practice.

Detached, distraught or discerning? Fathers of adolescents with chronic illness: a review of the literature.

Abstract Parenting a child with chronic disease provides a unique set of challenges for both mothers and fathers throughout all phases of the illness. However, fathers of these children are under-represented in existing research. This review focuses on the fathers of children with chronic disease included in 44 original articles. We address the challenges to the father's role as breadwinner, leader and strength-giver in the family. Three time-periods describe the obstacles fathers tackle when parenting children with chronic disease: a) diagnosis and short-term, characterized by distress, isolation and uncertainty; b) the mastery period, characterized by the struggle to establish routine and by support and spirituality; and c) the long-term, characterized by relationship and personality change, worries and bereavement. Overall, whilst current research has revealed some key themes pertaining to fathers of children with chronic disease, further studies are required to foster the development of support mechanisms for the specific needs of these fathers.

Comparison of two strategies to prevent varicella outbreaks in housing facilities for asylum seekers.

BACKGROUND: The proportion of adults with positive varicella serology is lower in populations from tropical countries. Therefore immigrants to countries with a temperate climate are at risk of acquiring varicella infection during adulthood. METHODS: We tested two different strategies to prevent varicella outbreaks in housing facilities for asylum seekers arriving in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. The first strategy consisted of a rapid response with isolation of the affected individuals and vaccination of the susceptible contacts. The second strategy consisted of a general vaccination upon arrival of all asylum seekers aged 15-39 years with no history of chickenpox. RESULTS: From May 2008 to January 2009 we applied the rapid response strategy. Eight hundred and fifty-eight asylum seekers arrived in the Canton and an attack rate of 2.8% (seven cases among 248 exposed asylum seekers) was observed. The mean cost was US$ 31.35 per asylum seeker. The general vaccination strategy was applied from February 2009 to May 2010, a period during which 966 asylum seekers were registered. This second strategy completely prevented any outbreak at a mean cost of US$ 83.85 per asylum seeker. CONCLUSIONS: Of the two analyzed interventions to prevent varicella outbreaks in housing facilities for asylum seekers, the general vaccination strategy was more effective, more sustainable, and ethically preferable, although more costly.

Resilient housing : a new resource-oriented approach

The institutional regimes framework has previously been applied to the institutional conditions that support or hinder the sustainability of housing stocks. This resource-based approach identifies the actors across different sectors that have an interest in housing, how they use housing, the mechanisms affecting their use (public policy, use rights, contracts, etc.) and the effects of their uses on the sustainability of housing within the context of the built environment. The potential of the institutional regimes framework is explored for its suitability to the many considerations of housing resilience. By identifying all the goods and services offered by the resource 'housing stock', researchers and decision-makers could improve the resilience of housing by better accounting for the ecosystem services used by housing, decreasing the vulnerability of housing to disturbances, and maximizing recovery and reorganization following a disturbance. The institutional regimes framework is found to be a promising tool for addressing housing resilience. Further questions are raised for translating this conceptual framework into a practical application underpinned with empirical data.

The Impact of Housing Market Segmentation between Tourists and Residents on the Hedonic Price for Landscape Quality

Market segmentation is an important issue when estimating the implicit price for an environmental amenity from a surrogate market like property. This paper tests the hypothesis of a segmentation of the housing market between tourists and residents and computes the implicit price for natural landscape quality in Swiss alpine resorts. The results show a clear segmentation between both groups of consumers, although tests also show that the estimated coefficient for landscape is similar in the tourists' model and in the residents'. However, since the functional form is non linear, the nominal - rather than relative - value of a change in natural landscape quality is higher in the tourist housing market than in the residents'. Hence, considering the segmentation of the market between tourists and residents is essential in order to provide valid estimates of the nominal implicit price of natural landscape quality.