An Integrated Model of Achieving Social Sustainability in Urban Context through Theory of Affordance

Urban Advantage? Sustainability Trade-Offs Across and Within the Intra-Urban Space

“…Therefore, would it be possible to promote pro-sustainable behaviour among urban residents? Many think so, and psychological theories of affordances as much as the possibilities of making use of nudging have been advanced for the benefit of the cause (e.g., Kaaronen, 2017;Mehan, 2017) or to move beyond the perceived impasse of human-environment relations in modern urbanism (Marcus, 2016).…”

The design of learning spaces matters: perceived impact of the deskless school on learning and teaching

“…Although theories of affordances and previous research on flexible school spaces informed the analytic process, in practice, we relied more on the data than on any predetermined theoretical considerations. The physical space provides the stimulus for various kinds of affordances (e.g., Gibson 1979;Mehan 2017). These affordances produce various kinds of activity and reactions (e.g., Gibson 1979;Mehan 2017;Pedersen and Bang 2016) and they affect how spaces are used and how different kinds of constrained (accessible only to a certain group) or closed (locked with restricted access to keys) spaces are considered (Grannäs and Frelin 2017;Hernes 2004).…”

“…More recently, Norman (1999) distinguished between actual and perceived affordances, and Mehan (2017) differentiated potential and actualized affordances (Mehan 2017). According to Mehan (2017), affordances can also be categorized as physical (functional), epistemic (cognitive), emotional, and social. Redesigned learning spaces create novel affordances for personal and social learning and teaching activities.…”

“…The use of space is driven not only by perception, but also by physical (furniture, layout, walls, separate sections or floors), conceptual (interpretations of action possibilities), and cultural (established routines and practices) constraints (Norman 1999). Affordance theory (Gibson 1979;Mehan 2017;Norman 1994Norman , 1999Pedersen and Bang 2016) posits that the design of physical places shapes and directs the activities of the people using them in significant ways-but without fully determining their courses of action. For instance, the practice of placing pupils at their desks facing the teacher and placing teachers behind their desks in encapsulated classrooms restricts knowledge exchange and collaboration on multiple levels of the school community (Hernes 2004).…”

“…Further, their social practices are institutional routines (Reckwitz 2002), which cannot be changed without introducing novel practices to enable the achievement of professional objectives; this requires continuous professional learning (Hopwood 2016). Spaces provide potential affordances that are realized when (social) practices evolve or are deliberately changed through sustained efforts (Hopwood 2016;Mehan 2017;Shove et al 2012). Significant social transformation appears to require expansive learning, which takes time: it involves problematizing existing forms of learning and teaching and jointly designing, exploring, and consolidating changes (Engeström 1987).…”