Growth in online shopping has led to increased numbers of small delivery vehicles in urban areas leading to a range of negative externalities. Young people are significant generators of home deliveries and, when clustered in university halls of residence, can generate considerable freight traffic to one location. This paper explores the potential to consolidate these deliveries using an urban consolidation centre. Based on the case of Southampton, UK, data were compiled from three linked sources: a delivery audit of four halls of residence at the University of Southampton housing 5,050 residents; annual package receipt records from Southampton Solent University halls (2,294 residents); and an online shopping survey distributed to Southampton University students (486 responses). The results suggest that in cities with multiple higher education institutions (HEIs), where in excess of 8,000 students live in halls, over 13,000 courier trips could be generated annually, delivering over 4,000m 3 of packages. These could be consolidated onto fewer than 300 vehicles for an annual service cost of approximately £18 per student, reducing congestion, parking infringements and improving air quality. Analysis indicated student acceptance of a consolidated parcel service but operational challenges would include enforcement, performance risk, finance and delivery speed.
There is a lack of empirical research around sub‐national Social Investment programs, and a lack of connectivity with social innovation. This paper addresses these gaps by drawing on twenty individual case study evaluations, conducted across ten EU member states as part of a larger Horizon 2020 project (Innovative Social Investment: Strengthening communities in Europe, grant agreement number: 649189). It does so through a “governance of activation” lens. We find that volunteering was a significant feature of many of the cases we researched, as both a means of funding Social Investment, and a means by which activation (through the development of human and social capital) might be achieved. Yet volunteering is a gap in the theoretical literature around Social Investment, and one that needs to be addressed. We also find that examining Social Investment at the local level provides a much more nuanced and complex picture than nationally focused extant research.
Educational preventing violent extremism (EPVE) programs have had (to date) little if any theoretical underpinning. Given their proliferation in jurisdictions such as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other European countries, such an absence is notable but not unexpected given the political sensitivities attached to them. These programs remain an emerging policy area which is still "finding its feet," around which their legitimacy and efficacy is keenly debated. This paper argues for adopting theoretical principles drawn from information science research based upon information behavior models to provide a framework for the design and development of such programs and against which their efficacy can be tested. We demonstrate how this approach can be applied through thematic analysis of the theory of change models of EPVE programs implemented in England and Wales, designed to increase awareness and understanding of radicalization among young people, their carers, and professionals. This article is ground breaking and of international significance, being the first to apply learning from information science to practice in furthering policy goals around countering radicalization and extremism in the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions.
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Boxed up and locked up, safe and tight! Making the case for Unattended Electronic Locker Bank Logistics for an Innovative Solution to NHS Hospital Supplies (UK) AbstractThe lack of separation between urgent and non-urgent medical goods encourages sub-optimal vehicle fleet operations owing to the time critical nature of urgent items.An unattended electronic locker bank to which individual urgent items can be delivered, bypassing the traditional route of supply, was proposed for the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, UK. This concept was quantified using a significant database of urgent item consignment movements to inform a 'Basic' and 'Intuitive' hill climbing optimisation model; and qualitatively using staff interviews and expert reviews.Results from the two models indicated that a locker bank with a fixed height (1.7m) and depth (0.8m) required a length of 4m (Basic model) and 3.63m (Intuitive model), to accommodate 100% of urgent consignments for a typical week. Indicating, in this instance, that intuitive modelling approaches yield approximately 20% more optimal results than a basic approach.Staff interviews indicated the wider extent of benefits which the concept could provide in terms of handling product returns and staff personal deliveries.
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