Comments on the Brenner–Wood Exchange on the Low Countries

The exchange between Brenner and Wood on the Low Countries in the early modern period raises a number of theoretical and historical issues relating to the conditions for the emergence of capitalist social-property relations and their unique historical laws of motion. This contribution focuses on three issues raised in the Brenner-Wood exchange: the conditions under which rural house-hold producers become subject to 'market coercion', the potential for ecological crisis to restructure agricultural production, and the relative role of foreign trade and the transformation of domestic, rural class relations to capitalist industrialization.     

The Dutch urban ground lease: A valuable tool for land policy?

Once heralded by both liberals and socialists as a tool for Dutch municipal governments to prevent land speculation and to implement spatial policies, a century later the Dutch ground lease (erfpacht) is now despised by many. The ground lease was the subject of strong debate in the recent past and is likely to remain so. It has been argued that lessees should have the right to become owner of the land, and this ‘right to buy’ has indeed been implemented in the land policies of several municipalities. The Dutch urban ground lease seems to be under serious pressure. Is it outdated or is it still a valuable tool for land policy? Before we answer this question, we firstly will provide an historical overview of Dutch ground lease. Secondly, the different types of ground lease will be elaborated. Thirdly, the focus will be on the urban ground lease used by Dutch municipalities and the developments in the use of this instrument. Fourthly, the recent policy changes will be dealt with, followed by an assessment.     

Neighbourhood Effects as Indirect Effects: Evidence from a Dutch Case Study on the Significance of Neighbourhood for Employment Trajectories

One of the key challenges in the study of neighbourhood effects on work is to understand the pathways through which disadvantaged neighbourhoods impact the employment opportunities of residents. Endogenous explanations for neighbourhood effects focus on social life in these neighbourhoods, identifying mechanisms of social isolation, deviant work ethics and neighbourhood disorder. This article studies these mechanisms in a low‐income neighbourhood in the Netherlands. The case study shows that unfavourable socioeconomic outcomes can be indirect and unintended consequences of actions and choices in everyday life that are not directly concerned with work. Nevertheless, these individual actions and choices reflect local social practices that are influenced by the marginalized context in which residents lead their lives.     

Cost-effectiveness analysis of rivaroxaban for treatment and secondary prevention of venous thromboembolism in the Netherlands

Background: Until recently, standard treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) concerned a combination of short-term low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) and long-term vitamin-K antagonist (VKA). Risk of bleeding and the requirement for regular anticoagulation monitoring are, however, limiting their use. Rivaroxaban is a novel oral anticoagulant associated with a significantly lower risk of major bleeds (hazard ratio?=?0.54, 95% confidence interval?=?0.37–0.79) compared to LMWH/VKA therapy, and does not require regular anticoagulation monitoring.

Aims: To evaluate the health economic consequences of treating acute VTE patients with rivaroxaban compared to treatment with LMWH/VKA, viewed from the Dutch societal perspective.

Methods: A life-time Markov model was populated with the findings of the EINSTEIN phase III clinical trial to analyze cost-effectiveness of rivaroxaban therapy in treatment and prevention of VTE from a Dutch societal perspective. Primary model outcomes were total and incremental quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), as well as life expectancy and costs.

Results: Over a patient’s lifetime, rivaroxaban was shown to be dominant, with health gains of 0.047 QALYs and cost savings of €304 compared to LMWH/VKA therapy. Dominance was robustly present in all sensitivity analyses. Major drivers of the differences between the two treatment arms were related to anticoagulation monitoring (medical costs, travel costs, and loss of productivity) and the occurrence of major bleeds.

Conclusion: Rivaroxaban treatment of patients with venous thromboembolism results in health gains and cost savings compared to LMWH/VKA therapy. This conclusion holds for the Dutch setting, both for the societal perspective, as well as the healthcare perspective.     

Warfare tourism experiences and national identity: The case of Airborne Museum ‘Hartenstein’ in Oosterbeek,the Netherlands

This paper examines through an analysis of Dutch warfare tourism whether there is a relationship between the subjective perceived salience of Dutch identity and heritage tourists' motives, emotions and overall satisfaction. Using a social identity theory framework, this study provides a view of motives for Dutch warfare heritage tourism and the ways in which this specific variant of heritage tourism evokes different emotions and satisfaction evaluations in visitors. Specifically, we found that visitors who identified strongly as ‘being Dutch’ (the ‘in-group’) have stronger self-enhancement motives compared to those who identify less strongly, and that edutainment features strongly in the museum experience. Visitors seeking initiative/recognition express feelings of disappointment suggesting that the museum's symbolic function as a place of national in-group identity could be more highlighted. We demonstrate that an affirmative and engaged experience can manifest at nationally symbolic sites through positive historical narratives and entertainment, and through ‘in-group’ self-enhancement activities.     

SNV's modes of ordering: Organizing tourism as development practice

This article adopts an aidnographic approach to examine how internal organizational modes of ordering have influenced tourism development practices of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV). Our research revealed six modes of ordering: administration, project management, enterprising, development brokering, development visioning and result management. In each period the organization was involved with tourism a particular mix of modes of ordering prevailed. This mix influenced how SNV evolved from an organization implementing own-managed tourism projects, to facilitating capacity building in multi-stakeholder approaches to finally developing complex inclusive destination development projects. We conclude that SNV only could remain relevant because of these multi-discursive modes of ordering.     

Creating opportunities. Policies aimed at increasing openings for immigrant entrepreneurs in the Netherlands

Since the 1980s, subsequent Dutch governments have promoted self-employment of immigrants to reduce their unemployment rates. These policies have been focused on the (potential) actors themselves, i.e. the immigrants who have started or who may want to start a business. Taking mixed embeddedness as a point of departure, entrepreneurship and self-employment cannot be solely understood by focusing on the micro-level but has to include the larger macro and meso structures that impact on these actors' choices. In this paper, therefore, the focus is on the opportunity structure and on the policies that affect this set of options for starting a (small) business. A typology of policies that may alter this opportunity structure is offered.     

“Panelizing” Repeated Cross Sections

This paper considers the implementation of a non-stationary, heterogeneous Markov model for the analysis of binary dependent variables in a time series of repeated cross-sectional (RCS) surveys. The model offers the opportunity to estimate entry and exit transition probabilities and to examine the effects of time-constant and time-varying covariates on the hazards. We show how maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters can be obtained by Fishers method-of-scoring and how to estimate both fixed and time-varying covariate effects. The model is exemplified with an analysis of the labor force participation decision of Dutch and West German women using ISSP (and other) data from 10 annual Dutch surveys conducted between 1987 and 1996 and 7 annual West German surveys conducted between 1988 and 1994. Some open problems concerning the application of the model are discussed.     

Complexity in valuation practice: an inquiry into valuers’ perceptions of task complexity in the Dutch real estate market

The aim of this paper is to examine valuer judgement behaviour, by exploring the manifestation of task complexity in Dutch commercial valuation practice. For this purpose, we adopted a grounded theory approach and undertook 18 in-depth interviews with senior valuation professionals across the Netherlands. Our findings indicate a strong presence of situational task complexity in commercial valuation practice, as professionals operating in large valuation teams perceive different elements of task complexity throughout commercial valuation practice in comparison to peers working in small valuation teams or self-employed valuers. Further, coping strategies used to deal with task complexity vary substantially by type of valuer as well. From our data, we deducted three types of task environment constructs in which valuers operate, which basically represent the various levels of professional standards required by clients as well as organisational settings composed to meet client standards. As such, we found that task environment settings strongly coincide with perceptions of task complexity. The presence of situational task complexity in commercial real estate valuation practice points to the need for customisation of professional valuer’s development programs to facilitate valuers to deal with task complexity in different stages of valuation practice and hence contribute to advancing valuer judgement skills.     

Safety of playgrounds in The Netherlands

Abstract

In this paper the results are presented of a national survey on playground safety in The Netherlands. Thirteen trained inspectors each inspected 51 playgrounds in their own region. In total, 663 playgrounds with 7150 pieces of playground equipment were subjected to an inspection. The following safety criteria were inspected: entanglement, surfacing material, installation and maintenance aspects. The results show that one out of every three pieces of playground equipment fail on one or more criteria. The number of pieces of equipment that fail in playgrounds operated by local authorities or recreational companies is higher than that in playgrounds operated by voluntary associations. The smaller the playground the higher the number of failures per piece of equipment

The time has come for experts to provide the operators with information which will improve the safety level. More funding should be provided for the local authorities to prevent the occurrence of accidents.