Environments by Design
Abstract
Within the current global challenges of climate emergency, global wellbeing and socio-economic risk, measuring the contribution of Social Capital and city networks becomes substantial to understanding how cities need to evolve and adapt. This paper aims to quantify the Social Capital network distribution for furniture industry in the industrial city of Damietta, Egypt. Furniture enterprises in this context form the main economic base of the city socially inherited through generations. The paper examines the hypothesis of Social Capital being the main success factor of the economic base of the City. The paper links behaviours of networking, trust and norms to the spatial distribution of furniture enterprises in the city (Network Theory) building on Porter’s Competitive Advantage theory and Putnam’s Social Capital theory,
Exploring Social Capital between furniture industry MSMEs in Damietta from an urban mapping perspective allows this research to quantify a generally qualitative measure such as Social Capital, providing data-driven insights for community-oriented decision-making towards climate emergency aware socioeconomic sustainable development.
The methodology presented in this paper builds on previous qualitative work in understanding Social Capital and industry value chain in the city. This paper adopts a geospatial GIS network map based on a field survey conducted in Damietta. The research utilises Network Theory and geolocation data to quantity Social Capital and visualise its magnitude in relation to space risk to sea level rise. The output is a geospatial mapping toolkit (GIS mapping) for measuring Social Capital that can be appropriated to other industries and urban settings that resemble similar characteristics to Damietta.
Nourhan Heysham is an Architect and Urban researcher with passion for Development and the Environment. She is currently a researcher at the University of Salford, studying geospatial mapping of Social Capital for grassroot economies. She is also working on ERDF-funded IGNITION project, contributing to establishing a Nature-based Solutions Living Lab at the University of Salford. She previously worked within the School’s SURF research centre on the Development of Manchester Ship Canal. Previously, Nourhan worked as an Assistant Lecture at Cairo University, where she taught urban studies and architecture, as well as took on roles as Graduation Project Coordinator, Workshop/Conference Organiser (in Egypt, Lebanon and Germany) and Lead Rapporteur. Nourhan also worked at the UN-Habitat’s EUF (Egypt Urban Forum), the American University in Cairo (AUC) and AAST in Cairo; in addition to volunteering on several development projects with the British Council in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.
Hisham Elkadi is Professor and the Dean and Professor of Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Salford. His research is in urban regeneration and cultural built heritage and leads the Smart Urban Futures (SURF) research group. Prior to his appointment at Salford, Professor Elkadi was the Head of School of Architecture & Building at Deakin University in Australia and the Chair of the University Academic Board, The Head of School of Architecture and Design in Belfast, and the Director of Architecture at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in UK. Professor Elkadi is also appointed in 2019 an honorary professor at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, Taylor University in Kuala Lumpur, and the University of Portsmouth UK. He was appointed a visiting Professor at University College London and Harvard School of Design.
Hisham published (140+), 5 books, and graduated 25 PhD students. His recent projects include ERDF Energy House 2 (£19M), EU/UIA IGNITION (€1.6M), AHRC MOVE (£234K), AHRC CRAFT (£160K), Geelong Urban Food Hub, Vic Gov ($108,000), Geelong Ecological Spine, Living Victoria Fund ($50K), Vision2 Geelong DPCD ($175K), Mapping Noise in Melbourne ($50K), AHRC Religious Architecture (50K) and PF6 Network of Excellence (SUS.DIV) (€4,9M).
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Friday 18th June, 2021