RESUMEN
How can one analyze the public actions of organizations and actors from different sectors? Studies using a policy analysis perspective have shed light on the role of the state in making and implementing urban agriculture (UA) policy. However, this perspective has limitations when it comes to explaining the interactions between the state, civil society, and the business organizations that support it. This article provides an analytical framework derived from the sociology of public action (SPA) to understand how multiple organizations support UA. We have applied the SPA framework to the city of São Paulo and our analysis indicates that civil society has mobilized significant meanings, ideas, and networks to reinforce the importance of UA. As a result, there has been a paradigm shift in terms of UA: it has gone from a state of invisibility within an institutional void to an improved state of policy planning. However, civil society organizations still lead the delivery of services for farmers with intermittent state support, which indicates that there has been a paradigm shift in UA policy planning, but not in policy implementation.
RESUMEN
This article presents BiomiMETRIC, a quantitative performance tool for biomimetic design. This tool is developed as a complement to the standard ISO 18458 Biomimetics-terminology, concepts, and methodology to quantitatively evaluate the biomimetics performance of a design, a project, or a product. BiomiMETRIC is aimed to assist designers, architects, and engineers to facilitate the use of the biomimetic approach beyond the existing frameworks, and to provide an answer to the following question: How can a quantitative evaluation of biomimetic performance be carried out? The biomimetic quantitative performance tool provides a method of quantitative analysis by combining the biomimetic approach with the impact assessment methods used in life-cycle analysis. Biomimetic design is divided into eight steps. The seventh step deals with performance assessment, verifying that the concept developed is consistent with the 10 sustainable ecosystem principles proposed by the Biomimicry Institute. In the application of the biomimetic quantitative performance tool, stone wool and cork are compared as insulation materials used in biomimetic architecture projects to illustrate the relevance and added value of the tool. Although it is bio-based, cork has a lower biomimetic performance according to the indicators used by the biomimetic quantitative performance tool presented in this article.
