While smart city initiatives claim to be ‘citizen-focused’ or ‘citizen-centric’, there are several troubling aspects of how citizenship and social relations are produced within them. First, they prioritize technological solutions to social and urban problems from the perspective of businesses and states, rather than serving local communities. With a focus on digital technology, they also exclude a wide range of marginalized publics from the possibility to participate in the smart city and only rarely address issues of social differences in cities. The smart city thus creates new or exacerbates existing challenges to the possibility of all city dwellers to fully enjoy urban life with all of its services and advantages, as well as taking direct part in the management of cities – in other words, it creates challenges for ‘the right to the city’. In this article, the author thus explores the notion of the right to the city in order to inform and recast the smart city in emancipatory and empowering ways, one that would work for the benefit of all citizens and not just selected populations.

This article deals with the relationship of smart security technologies to broader modes of exercising power and subjugating individuals. It claims that the notion of psychopower is precisely what is missing from post-Foucaultian accounts of the smart city. In the article psychopower is defined as the manipulation of our consciousness in order to channel our desires toward ‘normal’ social behavior, drawing a line between what is ‘acceptable’ and what is ‘unacceptable’. Psychopower raises a series of concerns related to its democratic legitimacy and accountability as behaviorally informed conditioning of the mind runs the risk of constant surveillance, where human agency is diluted in a techno-utopian vision that promises to improve city-wide efficiency, decision-making, and security.

The recently cancelled Quayside smart city project in Toronto by Sidewalk Labs is an example of a top-down, tech-driven, intransparant model of a smart city, where government and citizens got sidetracked in the planning process. This article analyses what went wrong and proposes an alternative approach. Experts in the field – from data scientists to philosophers, sociologists and activists – propose a different kind of smart city. The open smart city is based on principles of open data, public digital infrastructure, and civic participation. It uses technology to strengthen public values, civic participation and human rights, instead of undermining them.

The aim of this research was to examine how Dutch citizens behave online and to explain their online behavior. The results of an experimental survey (N=2,426) show that unsafe behavior is highly prevalent. For example, nearly 40% of the respondents use a weak password. However, it appears that there are major differences between self-reported behavior and objective behavior. The objective measurements in the survey show that people behave more unsafely than they self-report. The research further shows that there is no silver bullet for promoting more safe online behavior. Different online behaviors seem to stem from different sources. Nevertheless, the authors do see a lot of value in interventions that focus on adaptations to the technology that people use for online activities, such that the possibility of unsafe behavior is reduced and the possibility of safe behavior is increased – also known as security by design. There is a role here for policy measures encouraging technology manufacturers to make these adjustments.

Online fraudsters seem to adapt to new digital opportunities. While the academic literature about phishing mainly focuses on phishing through emails, fraudsters also appear to use new means of communication and platforms to find and deceive their victims. Based on analysis of 728 police reports from the period from June 20th to August 20th 2019, this article provides a descriptive study on the new phenomenon of payment request fraud on the Dutch advertisement platform Marktplaats.nl (similar to eBay). The article will provide a thorough description of the crime script and its success factors. As fraudsters now use new means of communication, it will also be assessed to what extent they use new persuasion techniques, and to what extent victims may have different characteristics. The research, therefore, focuses on the modus operandi, persuasion techniques used by the fraudsters, and victim characteristics.

Romance scams have seen a worldwide increase and are one of the most financially damaging forms of cybercrime. In addition, victims suffer strong emotional impact and are confronted with victim blaming. Research shows how the combination of various emotional and financial impact can induce a ‘double-hit’ on victims. Knowledge and possibilities for law enforcement are insufficient, which leads to a lack of financial compensation and support for victims.

In the Dutch debt counseling system, a close collaboration between two trajectories, being voluntary debt settlements and debt settlements imposed by a judge, is vital for the overall success of the system. This article shows that this crucial collaboration is in fact poor, and negatively impacts the success of the debt counseling system. One of the underlying factors is the poor performance of the system as a whole. Although there is a common interest in reducing debts, the involved parties also have their own conflicting interests. The current system fails however to accomplish a tighter collaboration, and even sometimes seems to do the opposite. The authors conclude that a redesign of the Dutch system is necessary to organize a better and more coherent playing field.

In the Netherlands a large number of households is overindebted. Despite the economic prosperity, 20% of the households has to deal with large debts. Dissatisfaction with the position of debtors has grown in recent years. Numerous initiatives are being launched to improve their position. New legislation is provided for and municipalities are starting up all kinds of pilots. There is momentum for improvement. It is important that all initiatives are coordinated. In addition, it is also important to investigate what the legislation and initiatives yield.

This article focuses on the challenges associated with public-private partnerships in tackling drug crime in the port of Rotterdam. The authors identified the actors involved in the fight against drug crime and, more generally, security in the port. The authors show how these various actors view the subject of drug crime (so-called mentalities), what they set as objectives (finalities) and how they try to achieve these objectives. Subsequently the various aspects of the interactions between these actors are being analyzed. The article is empirically based on 76 interviews with public and private actors in the port of Rotterdam, that were conducted in the period from January 2018 to February 2019, and an analysis of literature, news items, government reports and other documents.

In view of the recent problems arising from the decentralization of the Dutch youth care system, this article examines whether the Netherlands could learn from decentralization experiences in other countries. The author focuses on Denmark, where such decentralization took place fairly recently. In addition, elements of the organization of youth care in Germany and Norway are also discussed. It becomes clear that the Netherlands has a relatively complex system with many different organizations with overlapping tasks and powers. In the Netherlands, much attention is paid to control and risk management. In Denmark, on the other hand, there is much more confidence in the capacities of parents and children to find solutions. It is noticeable that in the vast majority of cases there is consensus between parents, child/youngster and care providers about how to deal with the problems. The most important lesson that the Netherlands can learn from abroad – and especially the Danes – is: invest in underlying values and principles and give professionals and families time, support and space.

This article analyzes the decentralization and transformation of Dutch youth care since 2015. The authors point out that many problems still exist and in some cases have become worse. To fundamentally reform youth care much more is needed than just money or a system change. It is necessary, also according to international research, to create a strong pedagogical basis or ‘pedagogical civil society’. Also prevention on various levels (universal, selective, indicated) should receive a lot of attention, while the same applies to improving primary care support, such as youth health care, GP practice support, youth work and school social work. It would also be wise to invest in intensive youth care with long-lasting effects. Generally there should be a strong focus on tackling local and (supra)regional social issues.

This article focusses on the question whether quantitative modelling and simulation is useful for judicial forecasting, ex-ante testing of judicial policies, and (re)designing chains of organisations like the judicial chain. Specific attention is given to methods that can be used in the face of complexity and deep uncertainty. That is, when facing many substantial uncertainties. Complexity and uncertainty are first of all focused on. Subsequently, modelling methods for dealing with complexity and uncertainty are discussed in more detail, examples are given, and the process needed to build such models in a participatory way is discussed.

Those who commission scientific research sometimes try to influence what and how the researcher executes the project, or to influence the outcomes. The scientific community utterly rejects such practices. The author discusses the diametrically different opinions on what is acceptable in the relation between those who commission scientific research and those that accept such a commission.

The new Dutch Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (2018) offers an important document for strengthening good research practices. It can be used in training researchers, informing the general public on standards guaranteeing trustworthiness of scientific research and handling allegations of misconduct in this research. The code departs from a set of principles worked out in standards describing the do’s and don’ts of good research practice. The Dutch code distinguishes itself for amongst others having a special section on duties of care of the organization where researchers are appointed. The organization has special responsibilities to give support to its researchers to develop good research practice and to foster a research culture in which dilemmas of integrity can be discussed in an open atmosphere. In this article special attention is paid to the principle of dependency. It is with regard to this principle that the researcher is most vulnerable, especially when it comes to commissioned research projects. How can the researcher be supported when dependency and honesty are under pressure?

Governments have a great need for policy-relevant research. The Dutch government obtains part of this research from the so-called state knowledge institutions: public research organizations that support ministries in the preparation and implementation of policy. To be able to provide reliable research, state knowledge institutions must be able to act independently and with integrity. But to be policy-relevant, they must maintain in close contact with ministries. Proper handling of this tension does not only requires ‘hard’ formal rules, procedures and codes of conduct, but also ‘soft’ informal institutions, such as awareness, dialogue, education, and culture. Implementing this is a shared responsibility of both the research organizations and the ministries.

In Dutch courts several pilots are being carried out in order to enhance the quality of civil procedure. The main focus of the pilots is to speed up the procedure and make it more cost-effective, while ensuring the procedure is easily accessible and is overseen by a mediating judge in a nearby court. This focus largely corresponds with aspects of the civil procedure that the courts and the minister of Justice have identified as in need of attention. The courts and the minister have focused on different specific problems and propose different solutions, however, and neither aims to address the quality of civil procedure as a whole. It is doubtful whether the proposals for improvement, put forward by the courts and the minister, can address the concerns they have intended to resolve and whether the overall quality of the civil procedure (for all civil cases instead of the simple ones) will be improved. Solutions to the problems of the civil procedure cannot be devised without first developing a clear picture of the problems people experience with civil procedures and the courts.

This article relates the geographical allocation of Courts to access to justice. Travel distances within the Dutch system are higher than in surrounding countries, but still not extremely high. The scale of the Dutch Court organizations however, is extreme. On average, a Court location that handles small claims has jurisdiction over a territory with over half a million inhabitants. This large number of inhabitants automatically translates to large numbers of cases, and large bureaucracies, employing 500 to 1,000 people (judges, court staff, support) each. Do travel distances to the Courts actually have an impact on the use of the Court system? Two recent studies find no support for a popular belief that defendants will be less determined to defend themselves when the travel distance to the court is longer. They do show however that the number of cases brought to Court by local plaintiffs drops when ‘their’ local court closes down.

A characteristic difference between administration of justice and mediation so far was the element of voluntariness on the side of the clients. Administration of justice however is, for the citizen who is brought before the courts, not voluntary. Recently pilots have been started in which citizens can turn voluntarily to the Court at low cost, and not far from their neighborhood. Judges will not primarily aim at making a decision in accordance with the law, but at finding friendly solutions. Does this mean that judges are going to mediate? And if so, how should this be appreciated? In this contribution attention is paid to certain aspects of this question. It is argued that differences between jurisdiction and mediation still remain. More than mediators judges must act within the legal framework. The extent to which they can engage in the emotional undercurrent of conflicts is limited. Confidence in the Court is from a different origin than trust in the mediator, and that also makes a difference. And finally, a judge is competent to make a binding judgment, which influences the way he or she is looked at by the parties.