We have two IHURER seminars this week, Wednesday afternoon and Friday lunchtime.
Tomorrow afternoon Toriqul Bashar and Jimmy Morgan will be presenting their research in WA311 at 4.15. Toriqul will be discussing his PhD research on social capital and the urban poor in Bangladesh. Jimmy will be presenting on a JRF research project he is involved in which considers how we can build more sustainable homes more cheaply. The abstract information for Toriqul and Jimmy can be found below.
Investigating the potential of social capital of urban poor in Bangladesh.‘Social Capital’ has received much attention in recent development literature. Perhaps its economic potential has brought the concept to the frontline. Social capital which develops through social relation and social exchanges is contingent to social and cultural structure of the society. Spontaneous sociability which facilitates social capital provides economic return to market. This presentation is a part of PhD study which analyzes ‘social capital’ theories adopted by prominent social capital theorists, namely, Bourdieu, Coleman, Robert Putnam and Lin. Based on analysis it wants to investigate the potential of social capital in housing development for the urban poor in Bangladesh.
How can we build more sustainable homes more cheaply?
The UK suffers from a lack of new house building to meet growing housing needs. At the same time, the need is not just for as much new housing as possible but for housing which is sustainable. A team from Heriot-Watt University’s School of the Built Environment was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to research the question of how sustainable homes can be built more cheaply. The project began in September 2013 and will report in April 2014.This seminar sets out the context for the research drawn from a literature review and outlines the approach taken, including emerging themes which have been included in a Sustainability Performance Matrix constructed by the team. Finally it considers the steps necessary to complete the research and how the different methodologies employed can be brought together to answer the research question.
As usual we’ll have tea, coffee and pastries available for our afternoon seminar.
Please also note for Friday lunchtime that we have a guest speaker Nicole Gurran, from the University of Sydney who will be presenting on planning policies in the UK and Australia. Nicole’s seminar will be at lunchtime, in WA311 at 1.15pm.