[SSPM] 10/07 Two social networks, student house and badminton club

Think up two social networks of which you are currently a member. Analyze the structure of each of these networks, make clear what the dependency relationships are, and what coordinative mechanisms are used.

Student house (Herengracht 35,33)

For the international student, the accommodation is the one of the important issues before studying especially for students outside of Europe. Leiden University has the services to accommodate students. The school does not own the houses, but has the contract with the housing companies. The university collects the students’ information and the companies arrange the rooms for students according to the preferences, such as the shared room, price, and shared kitchen.

I live in the Herengracht 35 in Leiden, which is one of the international student houses. Tenants come from different continents, such as Asia, America, and Europe. There are 3 floors; every floor has two corridors and two kitchens, and one common room for the all students. The operation company is called Accommodate and they send one housekeeper in the house to help students. I would analyze the network in the building.

Tenants mainly stay in their room, but people could not close the door all day long. The kitchen is the import space for the food and relaxing. People in the same corridor tend to have more connection because they have more chances to talk with each other in the kitchen. Also, tenants used to cook together and chat about schools or gossips. It results the first linkage of the connection between students.

The common room and kitchens are the places to connect tenants from different corridors. Weekly pancake dinners, movie nights, and parties are the moment to get to know people in the house. Tenants connect each other by the nationality, habits, or the common friends. This would be the second linkage in the network. Also, sometimes tenants would invite their friends outside the building to join, and it extends the linkage in this social network. For example, friends from Spain would meet the tenant from Taiwan and become friends after dinners.

Tenants are the main actors in the network and conduct the activities. Although there is the basic rule from the contract, tenant could still create their lives in the house. The contract clearly states the responsibility for the tenant to keep the house safe and clean. All the furniture should be completed when tenant check out. It is forbidden to use the other devices for cooking in the kitchen because of safety reason. Only the tenant, who signed on the contract, has the right to stay in the room. Under these rules, any activities are allowed. I would call this part is self-organized. For instance, to hold the party is a complex process. Tenants first apply to the housekeeper. After making sure the data, they start to invite friends, prepare food, and music. After the party, tenants have to clean the house. All the behaviors are volunteering and self-motivated.

There are other minor actors in the network. Leiden University is responsible for helping student to stay. Accommodate maintains heating, lighting, and cleanness in the house by hiring the cleaner, plumber, and housekeeper. It would also represent the linkage between the people who work for the house. Other trivial actors are like delivers from TNT or DHL and the trash companies to collect the garbage in the garden.

Badminton Club in Leiden University

Students with the passion on the badminton create the badminton club in Leiden University, and they are the central actor in the system. There is a board in the club and they operate the enrollment for the new member, communicate with the other clubs, apply the courts with the sport center, and maintain the training equipments. The fee of membership supports the board’s finance, and the club is an independent organization.

The badminton courts are limited in the sport center so there is an invisible rule conducted who could play. Members are followed this rule. The principle is the equity and everyone has the same right to use the court. Also, when the game starts, the composition of the players usually is based on two factors, the nationality and the level of skills. Besides the Dutch, Chinese and Indonesia are the majority because badminton is the popular sport in Asia. People with similar skill level tend to play together because it has more fun and challenge. To sum up, the equal time usage, nationality, and skill coordinated the game.

The connection between the club and the sport center is very close. Not it is the only place to play but also the coffee’ in the center is a place for members to exchange information after the games. Members in the club build up the linkage after competitions.

The skill level of the clubs is recognized by the ranking system. The organization maintaining the ranking system seems has the chance to effect the clubs interaction due to they organize the official competitions. Members get more experiences during the games, also extend the linkage to the other club and their town, such as the badminton court, the sport shop with friendly price, and even the nice restaurant.

Sport shops provide the badminton rackets, balls, and clothes, also information about the big competition event. Club members go to the shops and find useful equipment for the games. Shop is the minor actor in the network.

[SSPM] 12/02 Interview policy makers in Kaohsiung Cityhall

Develop an operationalisation of the concept industrial ecology that can be used in a research for interviewing policy makers.

The Kaohsiung city

I would like to use Kaohsiung eco-city project as a case study to develop my assignment.

Kaohsiung area is the second largest city in south part of Taiwan. The population is 2.7 million [PopulationData] and more than one third of jobs are related in the industrial parks. The high pollution from the industries already resulted in problems for some local communities [CY Yang , Respiratory]. Also, because the city is the economic core in the south it attracts immigrant workers come from the rest of south Taiwan. Nevertheless, the growing population needs more effective policy and infrastructure to maintain the operation in the city. Otherwise, it would be too chaotic and full of problems ranging from communication, parking, and air pollution.

The Kaohsiung city government has an eco-city project in order to achieve the balance between the economic growth and the environmental protection [Project]. In the green transportation, they already set up a public bike system and operate fuel cell bus. They also support solar thermal heaters, increase the park rates in the city, and improve the energy efficiency in the industrial parks. In the current phase, they have designed the indicator to guide the eco-city strategies. In the future, they plan to become the excellent examples of the eco-city in Taiwan.

The Kaohsiung eco-city project

The project has three elements. The indicator/purple interacts with the strategies/green, and the resulted/red comes from the changes in the city.

I propose to make a question list for the policy makers in the city hall in order to understand what is their current concept of the eco-city.

Question list (the sentences in the quote are the purpose of the question in my mind)

To analyze the current situation (to realize how did the decision maker look at the city)

· How long did they plan for the project? What kind static information did they choose? Can they draw a sketch to describe the major activities in the cities? Did they visit any eco-cities in Taiwan or Asian and what did they learn from them? (What kind of analytic method do they use in order to build the eco-city?)

· Who are the team members for the project and in what kind of backgrounds do they have, such as engineers, sociologists, or scientist? How do they work together? (This question is more to ask the members in the team with the decision making power.)

· Did they consider the problem already existed in the past year or 5 years? What is the geographical border of the project? (What is the boundary they set up and why?)

· What kind of problems is hard to quantify for them and how did they describe them in the project? (What are the assumptions in the analytic methodology?)

· What are the important problems they discover in this area and how big is it compared to the others, and what is the reduction or prevention strategy?

Solutions for the city

· What are the possible solutions to achieve these goals? How do they think the solution would work ?

· To set up the indicator on the sector, transportation, business, and living, what is the goal they want to achieve by the indicators?

· For them, what does the eco-city look like? Which city they know existed is close to the ideal eco-city? What is their imagination for the eco-city?

· After 1 and 5 years, if they still stay in the Kaohsiung city, what kind of transportation, landscape, major economy in the city do they expect to achieve?

Reference

1. populationdata.net link

2. CY Yang, etc. Respiratory and irritant health effects of a population living in a petrochemical-polluted area in Taiwan. Environmental research. Volume 74, issue2, p 145-149.

3. Kaohsiung eco-city project link