Projects
The relation between positive and negative affect in depression KU Leuven
How positive and negative feelings are interrelated in everyday emotional experience is a question that has intrigued affective scientists for decades. Can we experience levels of positive affect (PA) irrespective of the experienced level of negative affect (NA; i.e., affective independence), or do these emotional states represent the mutually exclusive ends of a single bipolar continuum (i.e., affective bipolarity)? The overarching premise ...
Maxing out in prison. A study of pre-release long-term prisoners. KU Leuven
This dissertation provides a first provisional answer to the following central research question:
Why do some long-term prisoners max out from prison, rather than obtain a modality of early release?
The dissertation includes a brief introduction, four substantive chapters and a discussion and conclusion.
The first chapter provides a sketch of the available empirical evidence about maxing out from ...
Greenways as a New Planning Strategy in the Pearl River Delta, China KU Leuven
The term of greenway is a derivation from greenbelt and parkway, which refer to linear green open spaces that serve for ecological, recreational, cultural, aesthetic, or other purposes compatible with the concept of sustainable land use. In the 1990s, the greenway movement in the world arose as a response, driven by basic human needs, to urbanization. In the diverse contexts, greenways have been an adaptive ...
Transport infrastructure and regional development in China during the Maoist era KU Leuven
1. Introduction
This project aims to investigate the link between transport infrastructure and regional economic development in China during the Mao era. Economists argue that public investments have a positive impact on economic growth for a number of reasons. As we will elaborate in what follows, the Chinese story contains many unique and intriguing elements which complicate this statement. A thorough investigation of the topic will ...
The Emergent Urbanism(s) of Suburbio, GuayaquilA spatial ethnography of incremental grassroots development in times of a changing society and environment KU Leuven
Guayaquil – Ecuador’s main port and largest settlement – is a 70 per cent self-built city located amidst the most biodiverse estuarine complex of the South Pacific: the Guayas River Estuary. The city’s first suburbs proliferated in ecologically fragile zones in which the urban fabric and public spaces were crafted incrementally by various generations and through a multitude of design decisions. These now consolidated low-income neighbourhoods ...
Settling with Waters. A Landscape Urbanism Investigation in the Sabana de Bogotá KU Leuven
In Bogotá, as in other Latin-American cities, housing demand is increasing daily, while the overall housing shortage remains an unresolved problem. Hence, flood prone areas along the Bogotá river are more and more under urbanization pressure, amongst others by low-cost housing projects, while these areas simultaneously are required in view of flooding, which promise to increase with the predictions of climate change. The dissertation ...
Additional research about affordability. KU Leuven
Exclusion from civic engagement of a diverse older population: Features, experiences, and policy implications (CIVEX) Vrije Universiteit Brussel
challenge not only for older people themselves but also for wider society. Moreover,
older adults continue to be at risk of social exclusion in key life domains, including
material and financial resources, social relations, access to services, community and
neighbourhood integration, and civic and cultural participation. While social
...
Essays in Development Economics: Evidence from East Africa KU Leuven
This dissertation is divided into four chapters, each built around a different research paper that falls under the broad field of `development economics'. The analysis in all chapters is mostly empirical, relying on primary data collected in recent years from East Africa. Of course, theory plays a key role in directing the analysis. Chapters 1 and 2 study different aspects of female empowerment and household decisions in Tanzania. Chapters 3 ...