Spain is usually chosen as an example of an unbalanced picture among tenures. The owner-occupied sector has been growing since the 1950s while the rental sector has become smaller. Surprisingly, other European countries are at present following the same pattern, but mostly we also see an important function for social housing. Taking into account that public housing, built by public developers, is almost negligible and that government housing policy programmes basically stimulate ownership, the 'social housing' concept lacks an adequate definition in Spanish housing policy. In this sense, the encouragement of the rental sector through public policy should provide an alternative for low-income families. Despite different cultural housing backgrounds, the emergence of a reliable rental sector in Spain appears to be the most promising strategy for solving current housing problems. The aim of the paper is twofold. On the one hand, it analyses the evolution of the rental sector through recent decades, stressing how different central government regulations have affected the tenure structure in Spain. On the other, it considers the rental sector as a potential instrument for authorities to meet the housing needs of low-income families. Housing policy still plays a crucial role in offering the opportunity for certain groups to access a suitable house. What can be called the 'European shift' to the market can cause irreparable damage to those families that have benefited from former, direct or indirect, public means.

Despite the rising interest in smart city initiatives worldwide, governmental theories along with the managerial perspectives of city planning are greatly lacking in the literature. It is definitely understandable that the adoption of configurational pathways toward the ‘smart’ ‘governance’ models is required as a key factor and smartness’ facilitator in modern cities. In this manuscript, we display an exhaustive literature review on the importance of the n-Helix models along with a benchmarking critical approach through selected European case studies. This paper reveals the lack of exhaustive analyses for the methodological investigation, identification, and adoption of the most appropriate governance model per project including collaborative approaches. In addition, the paper deploys modular frameworks to efficiently address the continuous urban challenges, such as the rapid urbanization or the climate change.

Hackathons are breaking into the corporate world as collaborative practices that promise endless possibilities for innovation. Nevertheless, how these practices contribute to innovation in organisations remains implicit or is not stated directly in the literature. Additionally, most of the research on this topic is not framed in innovation literature and studies have mainly been conducted in the fields of medicine and software. In this regard, this article presents an inductive study on how hackathons contribute to innovation in large organisations. Drawing on a single case of a large company from a creative sector (mobile games), and based on analytical interviews and non-participant observation, the results suggest that hackathons contribute by promoting exploration activities, such as new external solutions, and by enhancing some preconditions for innovation, such as attracting talent or building a community of experts. This article aims to contribute to the existing research by positioning the results in the literature and by explaining contextual and relational factors not previously described. In addition, it presents insights on how hackathons may enhance innovation in corporations.

Approaches to inner-city regeneration in Britain, Europe and North America have evolved since the 1980s to reflect greater priority on diversity of activities and more sustainable development. This has in turn posed new challenges for leadership in place-shaping and highlighted the need for different sets of skills, aptitudes and values than those which prevailed in the 1980s and 90s. This article examines how planners and policy-makers in Birmingham and Barcelona have tackled these challenges in the creation of new urban districts. It shows that while top-down approaches still prevail in both cities, leaders in Barcelona have been able to adapt more readily to the demands of a new era. In Birmingham, policymakers have struggled to break free of the more traditional approach that suited the city well in the 1980s but is less conducive to sustainable place-making challenges in the present day. This divergence of experience can be explained by several factors, most notably the institutional framework within which leaders operate and the prevailing planning culture rooted in the cities' pasts. The findings point to the need for this cultural influence to be taken into account in the forging of new leadership approaches in urban regeneration contexts.

The global economic and financial crisis has hit the Spanish economy hard, creating an unstable framework for employment and growth. Since 2007, housing markets have been deeply affected by the crisis. The private rented market has exhibited two specific consequences: on the one hand, the bursting of the real estate bubble has inhibited profit gains in the homeownership sector, providing better incentives to operate in the rented market. On the other hand, huge social conflict has emerged in relation to the lack of proper shelter for certain households which can be seen in the increase in evictions and in homelessness. We want to focus on the latter: since Spain lacks a critical mass of social housing, low-income households have been attracted by the private rented sector, particularly during expansion periods, as quite often there is no available (and affordable) alternative. In periods of economic recession, the substantial pressure that rents put on the financial situation of these households might even cause them to move out of their homes. The hypothesis we will test in this paper is that private rented markets fill several aspects of the role of social housing provision in Spain reinforcing the negative effects the lack of social housing creates in the country, highly visible during recession periods.