The journey of another CUP book – here’s a sample of a proposal for an edited volume

In 2016, I posted the book proposal and cover letter of my 2017 book with Cambridge University Press, Innovations in Urban Climate Governance: Voluntary Programs for Low-Carbon Buildings and Cities. Somewhat to my surprise, that one is by far the most read blog post I’ve published to date. I am currently in the process of rounding up...

The journey of my CUP book—here’s the sample book proposal I promised a long time ago

  In one of my earliest blogs, I promised to share the book proposal for the Cambridge University Press (CUP) book once it would be accepted. Well, I am finally there! Early July the editor of the special series it will appear in let me know that all the reviewers were happy with the final...

Lost and found in translation

One of the most valuable things of research trips is that it makes me reflect on my earlier work. And it makes that have I to sharpen and polish the narrative about the key findings of that work.   In my previous blog post I have shared the presentation that I gave at the International...

The trouble of a medium-n study—and how I got out of it

Over the last months I have struggled in getting the book (back) on track. With 60 examples of governance innovations of resource efficient and low-carbon buildings and cities from 6 different countries I haven’t given myself an easy task. The main problem is that the 60 examples have so much variety that it is complicated...

Shut up, and write (a review of books-on-writing-books)

Writing is hard work. It is. For a long time I thought it was not. But I was wrong. Very much so. I have only begun to realise how hard through the two books I’m writing now. At the outset it appeared all easy: I have a topic that is new enough to write something about,...

Governance for Urban Sustainability and Resilience: A brief update

The last couple of weeks have been truly exciting. Edward Elgar Publishing has been working really hard to get my book published in October this year. The title of the book will be: Governance for Urban Sustainability and Resilience: Responding to Climate Change and the Relevance of the Built Environment. I have already received very...

Why we should not expect too much from voluntary programmes

Over the last weeks I have analysed my data in further depth. That was pretty exciting to do because it was the first time that I could contrast all the theoretical expectations that underlie my research with the data collected over the last three years. It was further exciting to carry out these analyses because...

Why I use Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

  Sometimes people ask me why I use Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in my studies. Whilst this technique is quickly gaining traction in the social sciences, it is still unknown to some. Being unknown it is, I fear, sometimes looked upon with some suspicion. So, here I take to the heart what are said to...

Trends in governance for urban sustainability and resilience

Oops! More than a month without blog entries. But some good new since the last entry: based on a book-outline and two sample chapters Cambridge University Press has expressed their initial and conditional (etc, etc) interest in the manuscript. I will send them the full manuscript for review once done, which is hopefully by June...