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The Netherlands

This study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament. It analyses the political and legal dynamics behind referendums on EU-related matters. It argues that we have entered a period of increasing political uncertainty with regard to the European project and that this new political configuration will both affect and be affected by the politics of EU-related referendums. Such referendums have long been a risky endeavour and this has been accentuated in the wake of the Great Recession with its negative ramifications for public opinion in the European Union. It is clear that referendums on EU matters are here to stay and will continue to be central to the EU’s future as they are deployed to determine the number of Member States within the EU, its geographical reach, its constitutional evolution and adherence to EU policies. Only now they have become an even riskier endeavour.

CIVITAS Catalogue on Education in Urban Mobility

Summary of the State-of-the-Art report

Summary of the State-of-the-Art report for SEEV4city.

Outreach governance

This book describes how policy workers and administrators of local councils and non-profit organisations can contribute to a social domain in which the people’s strengths are better utilized within the framework of the Social Support Act (Wmo). The book is built up around the three assignments a government sees itself faced with: - The transformation from less of a system world to more of a lifeworld. - The transformation from ‘steering’ in a less top-down to a more bottom-up way. - The transformation from less deductive to more inductive learning and development. In this book they describe how representatives of steering force can contribute to this transformation. In their conclusion, the authors state these representatives cannot ultimately fulfill the role of director in the transformation of the social domain geared to the strengths in the lifeworld. They can help to make the transformation less dependent on ‘higher powers’. The authors end their book with recommendations and suggestions for further research on the topic of WMO. This book is a translated version of “Outreachend besturen in tijden van transitie”, published by Movisie.

Smart construction logistics

The growth in urban population and economic upturnis leading to higher demand for construction, repairand renovation works in cities. Houses, public utilities,retail spaces, offices and infrastructure need toadapt to cope with the increasing number of residentsand visitors, urban functions and changing standards.Construction projects contribute to more attractive,sustainable and economically viable urban areas oncethey are finished. However, transport activities relatedto construction works have negative impacts on thesurrounding community if not handled appropriately.It is estimated that 15 to 20 percent of heavy goodsvehicles in cities are related to construction, and 30to 40 percent of light commercial vans [1]. In the citiesstudied in the CIVIC project, construction-relatedtransport was found to be one of the biggest challengesto improving sustainability. Smarter, cleaner and saferconstruction logistics solutions in urban areas areneeded for environmental, societal and economicreasons. However, in many European cities and metropolitanareas the sense of urgency is not evident or alack of knowledge is creating passivity.

Internationalization and the Dutch fashion industry

The overall topic of this book is internationalization. It is hard to deny that organizations are increasingly internationalizing in order to remain competitive, to access growth markets and resources and to reduce operating costs. Understanding international business has become imperative for academic researchers, business managers and policy makers but also for students as they prepare themselves to enter an increasingly complex business environment. The subject of International Business can be viewed from many angles and general interest in the subject, as educators, researchers and business professionals, has grown exponentially. A simple Google Scholar search on the keywords “international business” delivers nearly 1 million articles and, as a teacher, I can choose from 258 “international business” textbooks. It is, therefore, necessary in this introductory chapter to provide some background on the subject and to adequately describe the scope and context of the international business that we focused on in the series of studies that follows.