Housing Affordability in the urban development of Vienna

Keywords: Housing Affordability, Rental Markets, Housing Policy Evaluation, Vienna, Spatial Econometrics

Abstrakt: I look at current housing affordability trends in Vienna well known for its long tradition and ongoing strong interventions into housing market dynamics. European metropolises such as Berlin, Paris or London are infamous for their rapid growth in accommodation costs, gentrification and ongoing decline of housing affordability, often accompanied by a reduction of social housing availability. Vienna on the other hand is often cited as the most well-known counterexample of these contemporary developments and one of the most livable cities in the world. Strong growth in population figures and an increasing commodification of housing is jeopardizing these qualities and endangering affordability. Even personal experiences and group specific problems of affordability may not go along with this picture, the empirical literature to back this status is not too broad and housing research is too little, especially when considering developments on a local scale. Therefore, I try to fill these deficits by providing evidence about housing costs in the contexts of urban development, especially rental prices on a sub-district level. In this perspective. the spatial structure of housing affordability is analyzed helping to identify areas that could potentially profit from intervention. Furthermore, I inspect the current status of policies and municipal measures aiming at housing affordability and evaluating their local impacts using spatial econometric methods.

Betreuung: Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Rudolf Giffinger

“Making local refugee inclusion work”. An investigation of three Austrian initiatives centered around refugees through ASID and bricolage

Keywords: refugees, inclusion, bricolage, regional development, ASID

Abstrakt: This dissertation investigates three local initiatives centered around refugees in Austrian non-metropolitan regions (Salzkammergut, Waldviertel, Trofaiach). The empirical approach combines mostly qualitative methods (interviews and document analysis, descriptive statistical analysis of regional data) with the meta-theoretical ASID (agency, structure, institutions, discourse) framework in order to understand local path-specific developments. Used as a middle-range theory, the concept of bricolage further enables the investigation of how local actors (co-)create local initiatives for and with refugees in these three case study regions by exploring their (collective) repertoire, assemblage process and unique outcomes. This enables an examination of local collective agency in the field of refugee inclusion that also takes into account local context and aspects of multi-level governance.

Betreuung: Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Rudolf Giffinger

Urban Living Labs as a Smart City approach: how socio-technical innovation transforms urban development

Keywords: smart cities, socio-technical innovation, urban living labs, urban transition

Abstrakt: Under the demand of urban sustainable development, the smart city movement has been on stage for more than a decade, with its concept changing and evolving during the time, from a technology-centred model to a more balanced social and technological strategy. Meanwhile, Urban Living Labs (ULLs) came up in recent years as an approach that uses emerging technologies to cope with urban challenges. Nowadays, ULLs often have a focus on citizen participation and social value creation, which meets a distinct smart city understanding within a heterogenous discussion. The linkage between these two concepts are noticed but not clearly elaborated yet
This doctoral thesis will study how ULLs can be regarded as a tool of smart city development, and how the innovation process happens in ULLs. It is argued that ULLs could contribute to the smart city strategy, but there is a lack of investigation on how ULLs’ approach is linked to the socio-technical innovation process in the smart cities. Aiming to explore the nature linkage between these two concepts, this paper tries to raise an analytical model based on literature review and Delphi method survey data from ULLs experts. It is expected to identify key indicators for evaluating the socio-technical innovation approach of ULLs, as well as the smart city transition process driven by ULLs.
This research is using qualitative data analysis as basic research methods. Based on the theory review of transition studies and innovation studies, it is assumed that urban open innovation, which connects traditional technological innovation and social innovation, is an effective approach for the urban transition of a smart city. Therefore, an analytical model is constructed based on the quadruple helix (government, industry, academia, and citizens), as well as an analytical framework for the analysis of the socio-technical transition process induced through ULLs.
In the empirical research design, a mixed methodology of qualitative and quantitative methods would be employed. The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLLs) is chosen as the study database. A structured profile analysis will be conducted on these cases to identify the ULLs in the database and to evaluate the characteristics of the socio-technical innovation process in these ULLs. Then a survey based on Delphi method would be conducted to collect experts’ views to identify several key indicators in the supposed socio-technical innovation process of ULLs, and how the innovation process is contributing to smart city development. The next step, a single case will be chosen as an empirical research object. The case will be analysed based on observation and individual interviews with stakeholders involved in the ULLs innovation process. The purpose of the case study is to elaborate the linkage between ULLs and smart city development, through identification of the characteristics of the innovation process.

The expected outcomes of research would include:
1. The research is expected to find the evidence that ULLs could support smart city development from the local level, through the interactive innovation between different stakeholders in the ULLs approach.
2. Some key indicators could be identified to evaluate the socio-technical innovation approach of ULLs, as well as the smart city transition process driven by ULLs.
3. ULLs could be understood as an effective instrument to influence the urban transition process in smart cities. So that the results of the research can be useful for both urban planning authorities, which would like to invoke urban innovation, and urban living lab organizers, who would want to amplify their good practice from local level labs to higher level of urban development.

Betreuung: Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Rudolf Giffinger

Social Infrastructure systems weaving together urban tissues: Strategical Interventions in unequal urban contexts and vulnerable neighborhoods

Keywords: Social Infrastructure systems, Strategic Planning, Urban Tissues, Inequality, Neighborhood Vulnerabilities, Territorial Capital, Urban Sustainability

Abstrakt: The aim of this dissertation is to understand how does strategical planning of social infrastructure systems contribute in waving together disparate and fragmented urban tissues. The research explores some of the impacts, influences and roles in which social infrastructure systems are intertwined within the social, economic, technological, political and environmental domains at the micro, meso and macro scales.

Specifically, the research looks at how social infrastructures can contribute in building up more sustainable built environments by reducing neighborhood and community socio-ecological vulnerabilities but also socio-economic and socio-technical disparities.

The case study assesses several informal and vulnerable districts in Medellin (Colombia) where different city administration agencies have strategically implemented public social infrastructures as schools, kindergartens, libraries and public spaces during the last 15 years. The assessment includes acquiring of original remote sensing imagery using drones (UAV’s) and transforming them into 3d models in order to analyze district urban morphology and place quality features. This empirical assessment deals with the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Social (Human and Social capital), Physical (Spatial and Material) and Institutional (formalized and informal rules and laws, governance) dimensions of Social Infrastructure systems and its services. Therefore, the thesis understands the concept of urban tissues from a relational and organizational perspective, as the assemblage of living natural environmental structures of a place, together with the different human domains of the built environment.

The discussion of the research investigates the influence of social infrastructures on social cohesion and on the formation of territorial and social capital. It also examines how strategic planning practice can turn more inclusive by using digital tools for reducing technological inequalities while increasing participation of vulnerable communities in their own planning processes.

The expected contributions of the research are on the one hand on the broadening of the definition of social infrastructures at a meso-scale as socio-technical relational platforms for exchange. And on the other hand, on linking social Infrastructure strategical planning with its services and resources at the urban macro-scale.

Betreuung: Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Rudolf Giffinger