The study explores housing affordability challenges and existing policy instruments for improving housing affordability in the regions covered by UNECE and presents examples of "good practices" in improving housing affordability among countries and cities. The study focuses on four topics, namely: housing governance and regulation; access to finance and funding; access and availability of land for housing construction; and Climate-neutral housing construction and renovation.

Many Lithuanian households struggle to afford good-quality housing. The housing stock is dominated by owner-occupied, multi-apartment buildings that are energy inefficient and face persistent quality gaps. While average household spending on housing is relatively low, house prices have been rising, and many households cannot afford to move to higher quality homes that better suit their needs.

This book investigates policies for the promotion of housing affordability in the rental sector of attractive cities in Europe. Affordability links the housing situation to the economic situation of households, referring to conditions of access to housing and to the role of housing in determining poverty or wealth. The book examines the current affordability crisis and frames it in the ongoing process of urban restructuring and devolution of welfare. From the perspective of the Foundational Economy, the book calls for a proactive and effective role of public administrations in making the rental sector an affordable and stable alternative to housing financialization and commodification. By intertwining theory construction and real-world data collected through case studies in Milan and Vienna, the book provides an original framework for the analysis of public policies that promote rental affordability in a multi-level setting. Through the analysis, it highlights critical nodes of the different (housing, urban, and social) policy domains at stake in the promotion of rental affordability in attractive cities. The book proposes a shift from the currently dominant supply-side argument to an integrated, intersectoral and multi-scalar policy system for making cities more affordable.

This book is about home and international law. More specifically, it is about the profound, and frequently devastating, transformations of home that are happening almost everywhere in the world today and what international law has to do with them. Through three stories of home – the desert home, the lake home and the city home – this book traces how the everyday operations of international law shape the material, affective and imaginative experience of home. It argues that international law’s ‘homemaking work’ is characterised by acts of domination, practices of resistance and the production of unhomely spaces. However, the book also considers whether and how the liberatory potential of international law could be unlocked through the metaphor of home. This book draws from fieldwork conducted by the author in Palestine, Cambodia and the United Kingdom. It takes a global socio-legal approach to home and international law, informed by feminist political theory, feminist geography, home studies and contemporary critical approaches to international law. It is the first academic work to examine the relationship between home and international law. This book’s global socio-legal approach to home and international law will be of interest to those teaching and studying in international law, socio-legal studies, legal pluralism and legal geography.

This book offers a unique perspective on urban processes affecting tourist spaces and city centres. Economic, social and environmental uncertainty has been commonplace since March 2019, when mobility slowed down across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated trends that have been investigated in urban space for years. The incorporation of technologies, the expansion of tourism and the introduction of policies that in part want to advance sustainability are generating processes of reorganisation of territories that are driving changes. These changes will affect models of city, urbanism and society. This publication is directed to a wide spectrum of people interested in urban processes, tourism and social change in the context of the Post-Pandemic Covid-19. In particular, the book is aimed at researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students, consultants, public administrations and the public interested in the recent challenges that are affecting developed and developing societies.

The book provides new perspectives from leading researchers accentuating and examining the central role of the built environment in conceiving and implementing multifaceted solutions for the complex challenges of creating resilient communities, revealing critical potentials for architecture and design to contribute in more informed and long-term ways to the urgent transition of our society. The volume offers a compilation of peer-reviewed papers that uniquely connects knowledge and criticality broadly across practice and academia; from new technologies, theories and methods to community engaged practice on many scales, and more. The book is part of a series of six volumes that explore the agency of the built environment in relation to the SDGs through new research conducted by leading researchers. The series is led by editors Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen and Martin Tamke in collaboration with the theme editors: - Design for Climate Adaptation: Billie Faircloth and Maibritt Pedersen Zari - Design for Rethinking Resources: Carlo Ratti and Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen (Eds.) - Design for Resilient Communities: Anna Rubbo and Juan Du (Eds.) - Design for Health: Arif Hasan and Christian Benimana (Eds.) - Design for Inclusivity: Magda Mostafa and Ruth Baumeister (Eds.) - Design for Partnerships for Change: Sandi Hilal and Merve Bedir (Eds.)

The new challenges of our economic, social and ecologic global context require solutions that go beyond “business as usual” strategies. While Europe and North America have gone through a deep economic crisis, which has affected all aspects of life –especially housing and working conditions–, other areas of the world have continued to grow and develop. The changing global context has important implications o the ways human beings organize their settings for everyday life –their residential environments and communal services, in particular– and on the necessity for supporting transitions to sustainable societies. Table of Contents: 00 - Introduction: Sustainability and Ecological Transition in the Post-COVID Era: Challenges and Opportunities in the Face of Climate Change and Energy Transition Ricardo García-Mira, Petra Schweizer-Ries & Cristina García-Fontán 01 - Collaboration in Energy Transition Research and Practice in Times of COVID-19 and Beyond Julia Sollik, Katharina Kötter-Lange, Lara Brungs, Alena Schüren & Petra Schweizer-Ries 02 - Some Challenges in Urban Planning and Health Cristina García-Fontán 03 - Acceptability, Acceptance, and Adoption of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Technologies: Definitions and Their Technological, Contextual, and Personal Determinants Marino Bonaiuto, Federica Dessi & Silvia Ariccio 04 - Climate Change: Research, Policy and Health: A Psychological Perspective Ricardo García-Mira & Graciela Tonello 05 - Constraints on Community Participation in Sustainable Social Housing Upgrading Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic Janine Pößneck & Sigrun Kabisch 06 - Contributions from Lighting Research to Sustainability and COVID-19 Pandemic Graciela Tonello 07 - The Role of Smart and Sustainable Technologies in Supporting Elderly Independence in the Home Environment Hebatallah Ibrahim & Deniz Hasirci 08 - Research on the Ideal Form of Office Spaces as Workplaces for Teachers Kinuyo Shimizu & Kaname Yanagisawa 09 - Regeneration Strategies for an Ancient Temple of Northwest China Based on Rural Community Participation Xu Yubin, Li Bin & Li Hua 10 - Sustainable Lifestyles, Attitudes and Adaptation Motivations to Engage in Sustainable and Conscious Food Consumption. Advances from Multidisciplinary Empirical Research on Collective Forms of Consumption Isabel Lema-Blanco, Ricardo García-Mira & Jesús-Miguel Muñoz-Cantero 11 - A Comprehensive Model of Stressors and Adaptation on Shift Workers' Daily Work Life: Consequences for Sustainable Lifestyles Amelia Fraga-Mosquera & Ricardo García-Mira 12 - Applied Social Science Research for Housing Upgrading in Times of a Pandemic Doris C. C. K. Kowaltowski, Elisa A. D. Muianga, Marcelle Engler Bridi, Luciana Szymanski, Cynthia Nunes de Almeida Prado, Vanessa G. da Silva, Daniel de Carvalho Moreira, Ariovaldo D. Granja, Regina Coeli Ruschel, Douglas Lopes de Souza & Carolina Asensio Oliva 13 - The COVID-19 Pandemic’s Impact on Environmental Attitudes Cristina Gómez-Román, Marcos Dono, Sergio Vila-Tojo & José Manuel Sabucedo 14 - Citizen’s Climate Responsibility and Human Values in the European Union Fernando Bruna 15 - Developing COVID-19 Safety Solutions at a Crowded Area in Kolkata Aratrika De & Woojeong Chon 16 - Understanding Spatial Affordance Through the Evaluation of Urban Space Quality Experienced by Users Under Weather Variations: The Case of Rooftop Gardens in Central Tokyo Yem-Khang, Nguyen Tran & Ryo Murata 17 - Towards a Dual Residential Scenario and the Disappearance of the Intermediate Situations Luciano G. Alfaya, Patricia Muñíz & Alberto Rodríguez-Barcón 18 - Ecological Momentary Assessment of Thought Valence in Greenspace and Indoor Environments Thomas R. Brooks & Rosol Alftealh 19 - The Anthropocene New Challenges Cintia Okamura & Jacques Lolive 20 - The Subtleties of the Anthropocene: From Overarching Narratives to the Construction of Alternative Futures Robin Dianoux 21 - Natural Economy Xosé Gabriel-Vázquez

This book provides the first comparative assessment of the energy-efficiency retrofit programs in the social housing sector of Canadian cities, focusing on program efficiency and effectiveness. The analytical framework explores key policy instruments - regulatory, fiscal and institutional - in relation to major results achieved. The approach is interdisciplinary, supported by rich empirical data from case studies, observations and interviews. The book explores important strategies for the provision of green and affordable housing, while addressing climate change imperatives and resilience issues. This is of great interest to researchers, policy makers, city leaders, professionals and students. Its value added contribution to scholarship is complemented by practical relevance for social housing organisations in countries with a small residual housing sector. It offers valuable lessons for the design, planning and implementation of energy retrofit programs in North America and beyond.

Why are house prices in many advanced economies rising faster than incomes? Why isn’t land and location taught or seen as important in modern economics? What is the relationship between the financial system and land? In this accessible but provocative guide to the economics of land and housing, the authors reveal how many of the key challenges facing modern economies - including housing crises, financial instability and growing inequalities - are intimately tied to the land economy. Looking at the ways in which discussions of land have been routinely excluded from both housing policy and economic theory, the authors show that in order to tackle these increasingly pressing issues a major rethink by both politicians and economists is required.

This book advances the reflexion into how temporary urbanism is shaping cities across the world. Temporary urbanism has become a core concept in urban development, and its application is increasingly crossing the borders of both the North and the Global South. There is a need to reflect upon the diverse ways of understanding and implementing the temporary in the production of space internationally and discuss what this means, for both research and practice. Divided into two sections, the book compiles and reflects upon the various attempts to reframe and reconceptualise temporary urbanism. The first section focuses on reframing and reconceptualising temporary urbanisms. It develops the argument that temporary urbanism allows a reinterrogation of the role of temporalities and non-permanence into the place-making process and hence in the production and reproduction of cities, including the adaptability of existing spaces and production of new spaces. While drawing upon different theoretical and conceptual framings (permeability, assemblage, rhythms, waiting, ...), authors bring insights from various case studies: the Dublin Biennial (Ireland), temporary uses in Geneva (Switzerland), temporary urban settlements in sub-Saharan Africa, refugees’ camp in Beirut (Lebanon) and political protests in Skopje (Republic of Macedonia). The second section looks at unwrapping the complexity and diversity of temporary urbanisms. It aims at securing a better understanding of the complexity and diversity of temporary urbanism, including a dialogue between various experiences both in the Global North and in the Global South. It looks at the implications of temporary urbanism in the delivery of planning and considers how and by whom cities are governed and transformed. Again, a range of examples are mobilised by contributors spanning from temporary uses and projects in London (UK), Santiago (Chile), Paris (France), Vancouver (Canada), Barcelona (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Beijing (China), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Milwaukee (USA). This book will be of interests to all researchers, practitioners, and students who want to gain a more thorough understanding of the topic of temporary urbanism, compare its diversity and similarities across different contexts, and reflect on the wider implications of temporary urbanisms for urban transformations.