David Kaufmann


Last Name

Kaufmann

First Name

David

ORCID

0000-0002-4185-4550

Organisational unit

09685 - Kaufmann, David / Kaufmann, David

Search Results

Publications 1 - 10 of 94
  • Debating responsibility‐sharing: An analysis of the European Parliament's debates on the Common European Asylum System
    Item type: Journal Article
    Kaufmann, David (2021)
    European Policy Analysis
    The Common European Asylum System (CEAS) has failed to ensure effective protection in times of high numbers of asylum seekers. CEAS reforms have not successfully introduced responsibility‐sharing mechanisms that can balance the effects of the Dublin Regulation's allocation rules. This paper analyzed the absence of substantial CEAS reforms by examining the discursive strategies used by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in asylum reform debates during the European Parliament's (EP) seventh legislative term (2009–2014). The mixed‐methods analysis revealed that: (a) MEPs across the political spectrum argued in favor of responsibility‐sharing, (b) MEPs from south‐eastern border European Union Member States were prone to use solidarity discursive strategies to speak in favor of responsibility‐sharing, (c) and that MEPs aligned their discursive strategies to the actual responsibility‐sharing mechanisms under discussion. These findings point to substantive and problem‐oriented debates in the EP. Yet, these debates did not translate into essential CEAS reforms.
  • Housing Precarity in Six European and North American Cities: Threatened by the Loss of a Safe, Stable, and Affordable Home
    Item type: Journal Article
    Debrunner, Gabriela; Hofer, Katrin; Wicki, Michael; et al. (2024)
    Journal of the American Planning Association
    Problem, research strategy, and findings: Increasing numbers of urban dwellers face housing precarity in cities worldwide. We conceptualize housing precarity as a multidimensional phenomenon, using five different dimensions: 1) housing affordability, 2) tenure security, 3) housing satisfaction, 4) neighborhood quality, and 5) community cohesion. By building on an original survey with 12,611 respondents from six cities (Berlin [Germany], Chicago [IL], London [United Kingdom], Los Angeles [CA], New York [NY], and Paris [France]), we examined how vulnerable residents—such as older residents, households with children, minorities, and renters—perceived the five dimensions of housing precarity compared with the rest of the population sample. We found first, that being a renter was negatively associated with all five dimensions of housing precarity, rendering renters more precarious than homeowners. Second, older residents did not seem to be more precarious than younger urban dwellers. Third, households with children and minorities had less tenure security and housing satisfaction than households without children or non-minorities. These results were largely robust across all cities. Further research is needed to analyze how local housing markets, planning and policy instruments, or land use conditions affect residents’ perceived housing precarity outcomes. Takeaway for practice: This research can help city planners, urban practitioners, and policymakers to better understand the vulnerabilities of urban residents and the multidimensional manifestation of housing precarity. It calls for a resident-centered approach to urban planning that urges land use and planning interventions to be more sensitive to people’s differing housing perceptions and needs. Specifically, the findings suggest that renters, households with children, and minorities need comprehensive policies (and the municipal authorities’ strategic activation thereof) that stabilize their financial and legal housing situation, whereas older urban residents could benefit from community activation programs to support their neighborhood integration.
  • Public Acceptance and Policy for Green and Affordable Densification
    Item type: Report
    Wicki, Michael; Wehr, Malte; Debrunner, Gabriela; et al. (2024)
    Switzerland’s urban and agglomeration settlements are facing multifaceted challenges of housing densification against the backdrop of limited land for development, high housing demand, rising rents, and a strong direct democratic political system. This white paper dissects the nuances of the Swiss housing dilemma by focusing on the perspectives and opinions of residents based on survey experiments from a panel study conducted in 2023. Our methodological approach gauges housing densification acceptance and analyzes temporal shifts in attitudes following intensified discussions around Swiss housing development between spring and fall 2023. The intensified Swiss public and media debate about housing point to the need for a more informed and evidence-based approach about public opinion of and policy for housing development. Initial findings indicate that public acceptance is intricately linked to how and by whom densification is implemented as well as its alignment with broader environmental and social outcomes. Our research underscores the importance of not just building more but building right—promoting housing (re)developments that resonate with societal aspirations (affordability) and environmental imperatives (presence of green spaces). The research thus demonstrates that densification is accepted when it directly contributes to affordable and environmentally friendly cities, meaning that the process helps to achieve green and affordable cities. We then integrate these research findings in policy recommendations promoting eco-socially sustainable densification that are targeted to the contexts of four types of Swiss cities.
  • Öffentliche Akzeptanz und Politik für eine grüne und bezahlbare Innenverdichtung
    Item type: Report
    Wicki, Michael; Wehr, Malte; Debrunner, Gabriela; et al. (2024)
    Die Stadt- und Agglomerationsgemeinden der Schweiz sind mit vielfältigen Herausforderungen konfrontiert, wie Innenverdichtung zur Schaffung von neuem Wohnraum beitragen kann. Zu diesen Herausforderungen gehören begrenztes Bauland, hohe Wohnungsnachfrage, steigenden Mieten und ein direktdemokratisches politisches System. In diesem Bericht analysieren wir die Perspektiven und Meinungen der Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner zu dieser Herausforderung im Schweizer Wohnungsbau. Die Daten stammen aus Entscheidungsexperimenten, die wir in einer im Jahr 2023 durchgeführten Panelbefragung generiert haben. Unser methodischer Ansatz misst die Akzeptanz der Innenverdichtung und analysiert die zeitlichen Veränderungen in den Einstellungen nach den intensiven Diskussionen um die Schweizer Wohnentwicklung zwischen Frühjahr und Herbst 2023. Die verstärkte öffentliche und mediale Debatte über den Wohnungsbau in der Schweiz zeigt, dass ein besser informierter und evidenzbasierter Ansatz bezüglich öffentlicher Meinung zur Wohnungsbaupolitik notwendig ist. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen auf, dass die öffentliche Akzeptanz eng damit zusammenhängt, wie und von wem die Verdichtung umgesetzt wird und wie sie mit umfassenderen ökologischen und sozialen Zielen in Einklang gebracht wird. Unsere Forschung unterstreicht, wie wichtig es ist, nicht einfach nur mehr zu bauen, sondern richtig zu bauen – indem Wohn(um)bauvorhaben gefördert werden, die mit den gesellschaftlichen Erwartungen (Bezahlbarkeit) und den ökologischen Erfordernissen (Grünflächen) in Einklang stehen. Innenverdichtung wird akzeptiert, wenn sie direkt zu bezahlbaren und umweltfreundlichen Städten für alle beiträgt. Wir leiten aus diesen Forschungsergebnissen konkrete politische Empfehlungen zur Förderung einer ökologisch-sozial nachhaltigen Verdichtung ab, die auf den Kontext von vier Schweizer Stadttypen ausgerichtet sind.
  • On the responsiveness of infrastructure processes: from identifying needs to delivery
    Item type: Journal Article
    Elvarsson, Arnor B.; Adey, Bryan T.; Kaufmann, David (2025)
    Infrastructure Asset Management
    Societies continuously modify infrastructure to meet changing societal needs. To do so, multiple organisations represent the interests of a myriad of stakeholders within the infrastructure planning process. With diverse, even competing, perspectives, it is challenging to build consensus for infrastructure modifications, ultimately leading to society not meeting its needs optimally. To better meet societal needs, it is necessary to step back and evaluate the planning process as a whole, and determine how the process can be improved. For societies to review their infrastructure planning processes, this paper introduces for the first time the concept of the responsiveness of the process, which specifically goes beyond the well-studied planning of specific projects. Responsiveness is demonstrated as a concept that captures how quickly a society is able to modify infrastructure to meet societal needs. The concept is illustrated using an example of a fictive but realistic process for planning highways in Zurich Oberland, Switzerland. The changes in the infrastructure planning process responsiveness are evaluated for impact on societal needs using eight process variations and multiple future scenarios. The societal needs are quantified over time using owner and user costs considering uncertain road user numbers and uncertain delivery date.
  • Sanctuary Cities in Europe? A Policy Survey of Urban Policies in Support of Irregular Migrants
    Item type: Journal Article
    Kaufmann, David; Räss, Nora; Strebel, Dominique; et al. (2022)
    British Journal of Political Science
    Irregular migrants tend to live in dense urban settings. Cities therefore formulate various policies in support of irregular migrants. Given the US phenomenon of sanctuary cities, the study of these policies has been rather US-centric so far. This letter examines urban policies in support of irregular migrants in Europe’s 95 largest cities. Only 27 % of European cities formulate these types of policies. We discovered two relevant policy categories: status and services. Only five cities formulate policies that aim to award irregular migrants with a (more) secure status and 24 cities formulate policies that facilitate access to city services. Our mixed-method analysis suggests that status policies take advantage of policy-making discretion whereas service policies hinge on the availability of local resources. Yet, there are no simple explanations for the observed policy diversity that is the product of place-based policy-making idiosyncrasies.
  • Insurgent Asylum Policies in European Cities: A Multi-Level Governance Perspective
    Item type: Journal Article
    Bazurli, Raffaele; Kaufmann, David (2023)
    Urban Affairs Review
    Cities worldwide operate on the frontlines to support forced migrants. Some of these cities even overstep their formal prerogatives by refusing to comply with, and at times overtly subverting, the prescriptions of national authorities. This article builds a conceptual framework to understand such forms of insurgent urban asylum policy-making. We argue that insurgency depends on how city governments mediate the constraints and opportunities that emanate from the horizontal and vertical dimensions of multi-level governance, which capture city-level political dynamics as well as intergovernmental interactions. To illustrate our framework, we compare asylum policy-making in Barcelona, Milan, and Munich during the 2010s "refugee crisis." While Munich invested in rather uncontroversial integration programs, Milan and Barcelona overstepped their jurisdictional boundaries and supported migrants considered "illegal" by national governments. These insurgent responses were enacted as a "remedy from below," stemming from a sense of urgency that was not as pressing for Munich's policy-makers because of the greater capacity of Germany's asylum system.
  • Zürichs Rolle als politische Akteurin und Kooperationspartnerin
    Item type: Report
    Kaufmann, David; Wittwer, Stefan; Hofer, Katrin; et al. (2020)
    Globale Veränderungen und gesellschaftliche Problemstellungen akzentuieren sich in dichten Räumen und sind deshalb besonders in Städten sichtbar und dringlich. Städte reagieren früher und intensiver auf solche Problemstellungen und sie können Orte sein, in denen innovative und progressive Lösungs-ansätze entwickelt werden. Diese Ausgangslage macht Städte zu wichtigen politischen Akteurinnen der globalen nachhaltigen Entwicklung. Eine nachhaltige Stadtpolitik für unsere Zeit basiert daher auf einem Verständnis, dass Städte nachhaltige, progressive und innovative Politikmassnahmen formulie-ren und ihre Expertinnenrolle in städtischen Themen mit einer offensiven Positionierung vertritt. In dieser Studie betrachten wir acht fortschrittliche Nachhaltigkeitspolitikmassnahmen und Positionie-rungsstrategien von europäischen Städten. Wir vergleichen Klimaschutzstrategien in Stockholm und Sonderborg, Kreislaufwirtschaftsstrategien in Berlin und der Hauptstadtregion Dänemark, soziale In-novation in Wien und Newcastle, städtische Asylpolitik in Barcelona, Unterstützung von Menschen ohne regulären Aufenthaltsstatus in Amsterdam, Community Wealth Building in englischen Städten, die 24-Stunden Gesellschaft in London und die Aneignung von Freiräumen in Mailand und London. Aufgrund der Erkenntnisse der vergleichenden Fallstudie schlagen wir ein Raster vor, das erlaubt, die Ausgangslage von städtischen Politikmassnahmen einzuordnen und daraus vier idealtypische Positio-nierungsstrategien abzuleiten.
  • Beyond a transport node? What residents want from transforming railway stations
    Item type: Journal Article
    Wicki, Michael; Hauller, Sophie; Bernauer, Thomas; et al. (2024)
    European Planning Studies
    Transport planning authorities and operators in various countries are planning far-reaching transformations of secondary railway stations into so-called mobility hubs with the aim to foster rail-based and intermodal mobility. The transformations of railway stations do not only affect the transportation network, but also the urban fabric surrounding railway stations. Projects of this nature, therefore, require a deeper understanding of the preferences of local residents, the key users of such hubs. We developed a three-stage adaptive survey experiment with a random sample of 2,028 adult residents in the perimeter of three secondary railway stations in Switzerland to identify preferences towards four potential railway station functions: public transport provision, access to multimodality, retail and services, and stations as a public space. The main findings are that the transportation function is the top priority, followed by the public space function. Other functions, such as retail, services, and multimodal mobility, are less preferred by residents. The findings reveal the importance of also considering non-commercial functions of these hubs and that residents are viewing railway station as more than merely transport hubs or shopping centres; they are considered key neighbourhood components that shape local identities through their role as public spaces.
Publications 1 - 10 of 94