In media audience research we tend to assume that media are engaged with when they are used, however ‘light’ such engagement might be. Once ‘passive media use’ was banned as a reference to media use, being a media audience member became synonymous with being a meaning producer. In audience research however I find that media are not always the object of meaning making in daily life and that media texts can be hardly meaningful. Thinking about media and engagement, there is a threefold challenge in relation to audience research. The coming into being of platform media and hence of new forms of media production on a micro level that come out of and are woven into practices of media use, suggests that we need to redraft the repertoire of terms used in audience research (and maybe start calling it something else). Material and immaterial media production, the unpaid labour on the part of otherwise audience members should for instance be taken into account. Then, secondly, there is the continuing challenge to further develop heuristically strong ways of linking media use and meaning making, and most of all to do justice, thirdly, to those moments and ways in which audiences truly engage with media texts without identifying them with those texts.
In media audience research we tend to assume that media are engaged with when they are used, however ‘light’ such engagement might be. Once ‘passive media use’ was banned as a reference to media use, being a media audience member became synonymous with being a meaning producer. In audience research however I find that media are not always the object of meaning making in daily life and that media texts can be hardly meaningful. Thinking about media and engagement, there is a threefold challenge in relation to audience research. The coming into being of platform media and hence of new forms of media production on a micro level that come out of and are woven into practices of media use, suggests that we need to redraft the repertoire of terms used in audience research (and maybe start calling it something else). Material and immaterial media production, the unpaid labour on the part of otherwise audience members should for instance be taken into account. Then, secondly, there is the continuing challenge to further develop heuristically strong ways of linking media use and meaning making, and most of all to do justice, thirdly, to those moments and ways in which audiences truly engage with media texts without identifying them with those texts.
The need of an adaptive sustainable solution for the increased land scarcity, growing urbanization, climate change and flood risks resulted in the concept of the floating urbanization. In The Netherlands this new type of housing attracted the interest of local authorities, municipalities and water boards. Moreover, plans to incorporate floating houses in the urban planning have already been developed. However, the knowledge gap regarding the potential effect on the water quality halts the further development of the floating houses. This paper shows the results of a water quality measurement campaign, as part of the national program “Knowledge for climate”, at a small floating houses project in Delft and serves as a case study for addressing the environmental-ecological knowledge gap on this topic.
Within the framework of resource efficiency it is important to recycle and reusematerials, replace fossil fuel based products with bio-based alternatives and avoidthe use of toxic substances. New applications are being sought for locally grownbiomass. In the area of Groningen buildings need reinforcement to guarantee safetyfor its users, due to man-induced earthquakes. Plans are to combine the workneeded for reinforcement with the improvement of energy performance of thesebuildings. The idea is to use bio-based building materials, preferably grown andprocessed in the region.In this study it is investigated whether it is feasible to use Typha (a swap plant) as abasis for a bio-based insulation product. In order to start the activities necessary tofurther develop this idea into a commercial product and start a dedicated company,a number of important questions have to be answered in terms of feasibility. Thisstudy therefore aims at mapping economic, organisational and technical issues andassociated risks and possibilities. On the basis of these results a developmenttrajectory can be started to set up a dedicated supply chain with the appropriatepartners, research projects can be designed to develop the missing knowledge andthe required funding can be acquired.
