Search Results (1,020)

Background: Population ageing has increased the importance of maintaining the quality of life (QOL) of community-dwelling older adults. Resilience and social participation are considered important determinants of well-being in later life. However, little is known about how social participation involving mutual support relates to subjective QOL in Japanese community settings. This study examined associations between resilience and social participation, including mutual support and subjective QOL, among community-dwelling older adults. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in December 2021 among community-dwelling older adults in Japan. The study sample mainly comprised socially active older adults recruited through senior citizen clubs. Anonymous self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 434 individuals aged 65 years and older, and 258 valid responses were analysed. Subjective QOL was assessed using the Subjective QOL Scale, resilience using the Resilience Scale for Older Adults, and social participation, including mutual support, using a composite score based on neighbourhood relationships and participation in community activities. Results: Subjective QOL was positively correlated with resilience (ρ = 0.475, p < 0.001) and social participation including mutual support (r = 0.163, p = 0.009). After adjustment for self-rated health, the number of outpatient visits per month, and the number of daily medications, the association between subjective QOL and social participation including mutual support was no longer significant (pr = 0.104, p = 0.096), while resilience remained significantly associated with subjective QOL (pr = 0.417, p < 0.001). Participants with higher levels of social participation had significantly higher subjective QOL and resilience scores than those with lower levels of participation. Conclusions: In this study sample, resilience was more strongly associated with subjective QOL than social participation including mutual support. These findings highlight the importance of individualised community-based approaches that address both psychological resilience and opportunities for social participation when promoting well-being among older adults. Full article

Participatory citizenship plays a critical role in strengthening climate change resilience, particularly in the context of natural disasters such as floods and other hydrological extremes. Citizen-generated data shared through social media platforms offer valuable real-time insights that can complement traditional environmental monitoring systems. This study proposes a machine learning-based framework to analyze multilingual news data and global X (formerly known as Twitter) data that can complement street level sensor data for improved detection and understanding of extreme hydrological events: floods and landslides. The approach identifies and filters tweets related to hazards such as floods and contextualizes them with information extracted from news reports to enhance event characterization. In addition, sentiment and emotion analysis are applied to assess public reactions and perceived event intensity. By integrating physical event signals with societal responses, the method provides a broader perspective on disaster impacts and the effectiveness of emergency responses. The results highlight the potential of combining social media analytics and machine learning to support hydrological monitoring, enhance situational awareness, and contribute to more responsive disaster management strategies in the face of increasing climate-related risks. Full article

Declining fertility and the shift away from three-generation co-residence have weakened traditional family-based child-rearing support in Japan, drawing attention to the role of networks in local communities. Using data from a citizens’ attitude survey in a regional Japanese city (Ube City; n = 1293), this study examines how residents’ perceptions of community networks—specifically mutual support and community vitality—are associated with satisfaction with the local child-rearing environment. Conventional mean-based approaches risk overlooking qualitative heterogeneity in such evaluations. Using cross-sectional secondary data, we combined multiple regression with latent class analysis (LCA) to explore this heterogeneity. Findings show that perceptions of community networks were positively associated with satisfaction across all models (composite index b = 0.412, p < 0.001). The strongest associations were with “learning opportunities” and “community-wide education” (b = 0.477–0.478). Three-generation households did not uniformly report higher satisfaction compared with nuclear-family households. The exploratory LCA identified three qualitatively distinct patterns, with an “evaluation-pending” group (intermediate scores, frequent “don’t know” responses) comprising over 40% of respondents. This heterogeneity suggests that average scores may obscure the experiences of those directly engaged in child-rearing and that municipal surveys could include items identifying respondents’ basis for evaluation. Full article

Although smart city strategies increasingly employ emerging technologies to improve urban services, existing research often treats these technologies in isolation from broader socio-technical systems. Similarly, urban resilience scholarship conceptualises cities as complex adaptive systems but rarely integrates digital infrastructure into formal resilience frameworks. This study examined how digital technologies can be holistically integrated into urban systems to support sustainable, adaptive, and resilient smart cities. It also developed a systems-thinking–based framework to guide the governance and design of inclusive and environmentally responsive urban systems. The study was conducted using a qualitative multi-method approach combining literature review and comparative case analysis of digitally advanced cities, including Singapore, Amsterdam, Wuhan, Copenhagen, Barcelona, and cities in Karnataka, India. The findings indicate that resilience depends less on the scale of technological deployment and more on the integration of digital infrastructure with adaptive governance, interoperability, and citizen participation. Drawing on systems thinking and system dynamics, the study proposes a digital feedback framework in which reinforcing loops enhance sensing, decision intelligence, inclusivity, and sustainability, while balancing loops that regulate risks related to privacy, inequality, technological lock-in, and environmental rebound effects. The study contributes a systems-based framework linking smart city development with adaptive urban resilience. Full article

South Korea has achieved internationally recognized digital government capacity and platform-based service integration, yet recent privacy and cybersecurity incidents reveal growing risks to digital trust. This article examines how national governance models shape digital trust risk under conditions of platform dependency, large-scale data breaches, and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled cybersecurity threats. Drawing on a comparative socio-technical systems perspective, the study analyzes three digitally advanced but institutionally distinct cases: South Korea, Estonia, and Taiwan. South Korea is examined as a reactive platform-accountability model, Estonia as an architecture-based data-auditability model, and Taiwan as a civic-resilience and joint-defense model. Rather than applying a formal quantum-probability model, the article uses the QP-Gov framework as a bounded analytical lens for interpreting context sensitivity, latent trust, accountability visibility, and abrupt trust-risk shifts. Methodologically, the study adopts a most-different systems design and combines structured profile analysis, case tracing, and an evidence matrix. The comparison focuses on five dimensions: digital density, data concentration, accountability visibility, incident responsiveness, and AI-era readiness. The findings show that digital trust depends not simply on technological sophistication, but on whether citizens can observe how data are accessed, how breaches are handled, how responsibility is allocated, and whether institutions learn from incidents before trust damage becomes systemic. The analysis suggests that Korea’s reactive model demonstrates strong post-incident investigative and regulatory capacity but remains vulnerable when accountability becomes visible only after major breaches. By contrast, Estonia and Taiwan illustrate alternative mechanisms of preventive auditability and resilience-based preparedness. The article concludes by proposing a sequenced policy pathway for South Korea, including citizen-facing data-access logs, systemic platform duties, breach-consequence dashboards, AI-agent audit trails, zero-trust infrastructure, and independent digital trust oversight. Full article

The long-term resilience and sustainability of critical infrastructure depends not only on technical robustness but also on the capacity of populations to collectively interpret systemic threats and support continuity-preserving policies. Existing frameworks for emergency response and risk perception primarily address individual-level threat appraisal, leaving insufficiently explained how publics collectively interpret systemic threats under conditions of unfamiliar disruption. This study introduces Public Situation Awareness (PSA) as a sequential mechanism through which citizens perceive threat-relevant information, comprehend its implications for collective welfare, and project cascading consequences across essential societal systems, ultimately supporting system-preserving prioritization policies. The framework was tested using a survey administered in Israel in April 2024 during a period of acute uncertainty surrounding the threat of a large-scale attack on critical infrastructure. Serial mediation analyses using bootstrapping revealed that the full sequential pathway: perception, public-level comprehension, public-level projection, and policy support, was the only significant indirect effect, whereas pathways involving individual-level projection did not reach significance. These findings provide preliminary evidence that support for continuity-preserving governance may depend more strongly on collective than personal interpretation of systemic consequences, with implications for crisis communication strategies and the social foundations of infrastructure resilience aligned with SDG 9 and SDG 11. Full article

Background: This study analyses the predictive causal relationships between sesame supply chain performance, participatory governance, and domestic credit to the private sector in Chad. In Sahelian economies, agricultural value chains continue to be subject to structural constraints relating to limited access to finance and substandard institutions. Therefore, understanding the interactions between local governance, productive finance and agricultural performance is essential for guiding public policy. Methods: This analysis uses annual data from 2002 to 2021. Sesame production serves as an indicator of supply chain performance, while participatory governance is assessed using a composite index based on citizen participation, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality. The study applies the Granger causality test in the Toda–Yamamoto sense. Results: The findings reveal unidirectional causality from participatory governance to sesame production. The findings also reveal bidirectional causality between domestic credit to the private sector and sesame production. No direct causality was observed between participatory governance and private credit. Impulse response functions confirm that institutional and financial effects on production manifest themselves gradually over time. Conclusions: These results imply that sustainable development of the sesame sector in Chad necessitates an integrated strategy combining stronger local governance, improved access to private finance, and agricultural value chain modernisation. Full article

Natural and human-induced disasters can cause significant loss of life and property, particularly at the building level, highlighting the need for effective early detection, real-time monitoring, and rapid post-disaster response. Current disaster management approaches largely rely on citizen reports and manual observations, which may lead to delays and inefficient resource allocation, especially in large-scale events. This study proposes a secure, modular, multi-layer disaster monitoring and decision-support architecture that integrates sensor-based building-edge monitoring units deployed at both the building and apartment levels with a central emergency monitoring system. The architecture comprises three main layers: edge sensing, secure cellular communication, and central decision-making. Building-edge monitoring units collect data related to structural motion and inclination indicators, fire, flooding, and gas leaks, perform preliminary processing, and transmit aggregated data securely to the central system. Communication security is ensured through a certificate-based authentication mechanism supported by a dedicated certificate authority, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and fraudulent data injection. The central system performs automated event detection and separately evaluates physical building condition and communication status, enabling prioritized response planning. To evaluate feasibility, a two-building prototype was implemented and tested through scenario-based experiments involving two independently operating building-edge monitoring units connected to the same central monitoring system. The prototype demonstrated concurrent secure data acquisition and central aggregation from two buildings; however, district- and regional-scale performance requires further validation through larger-scale controlled load tests and field deployments. Under laboratory conditions, the prototype demonstrated sensor-data acquisition, authenticated transmission, and centralized event classification. End-to-end latency and building-edge monitoring unit power consumption were also measured; however, the prototype was not validated under environmental conditions representative of real disasters. Overall, the findings suggest that sensor-based, secure, and centralized monitoring systems may complement traditional disaster management approaches. Full article

Higher education plays a crucial role in equipping citizens to tackle contemporary socio-ecological challenges. However, little research has examined how different generations of university students understand socioecological transitions, or the implications of these differences for sustainability education. This study compares the perceptions of older learners (aged 55–70) enrolled in the ‘Classrooms of Experience’ programme with those of undergraduate students (aged 18–28) from the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Qualitative data were collected from approximately 250 participants during the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. The data were analysed using the Grid Elaboration Method and the IRaMuTeQ (Version 0.8 Alpha 7) text analysis tool to identify semantic structures, symbolic associations and patterns of meaning across the two age groups. The findings reveal significant generational differences in understanding socioecological transitions. Older learners tend to frame transitions as regulated processes linked to institutional action, public policy, welfare, and quality of life. In contrast, younger students interpret socioecological transitions as responses to interconnected ecological and social crises, emphasising socioecological justice, responsibility, sustainability, and technological innovation as key drivers of transformation. These results suggest the coexistence of complementary yet distinct socioecological imaginaries within the university context. The study highlights the pedagogical value of intergenerational dialogue and learning in higher education. By bringing together diverse perspectives on sustainability, universities can promote more critical, reflective, and transformative educational processes that are capable of addressing the complex challenges of contemporary socioecological transitions. Full article

Active citizenship is a key goal of higher education. However, limited empirical evidence exists on how learning management approaches support legal literacy and citizen participation among university students. This research lacuna was addressed by examining whether a legal literacy enhancement program, incorporating creativity-based learning and gamification, was related to changes in legal literacy and active citizenship using a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design with follow-up assessment. The sample comprised 40 undergraduate students, obtained by purposive sampling. The classroom was divided into the experimental group (n = 20) and the control group (n = 20) based on their timetables and the lecturer’s readiness. The experimental group received activities as scheduled for four weeks. The program was designed to enhance their experience-based learning, problem-solving, and enthusiastic participation through creative learning activities and gamification elements. Legal literacy forms and a self-assessment form on active citizenship were used to collect the data with mixed-design ANOVA used for data analysis. The results revealed that legal literacy and active citizenship in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group. There was a significant coeffect between group and time (Group × Time interaction effect) on legal literacy, was well as on active citizenship. Changes were observed in the post-test and follow-up phases. This provided preliminary evidence that the program was associated with increased legal literacy and active citizenship during the short-term follow-up period. The experimental group also showed a higher awareness of civic responsibility and participation in social issues. Full article

Decentralization reforms are reshaping contemporary public management and are often presented as innovations capable of improving efficiency, accountability, and responsiveness to the citizens’ demands. Yet their implications for governance arrangements remain highly contested. This paper critically analyzes the process of educational decentralization in Portugal to explore whether it represents a genuine administrative innovation or a broader reconfiguration of state governance. The study draws on a critical interpretative policy approach informed by post-structuralist policy analysis and the sociology of public policy instruments. Based on a qualitative analysis of legislation, policy documents, planning instruments, institutional reports, and governance arrangements, it applies a threefold analytical framework—Promise, Reality, and Transformation—linking policy discourse, instruments, and governance transformation. The findings suggest that while decentralization is discursively justified by narratives of modernization and local empowerment, it is operationalized through dense regulatory architectures, policy instruments, accountability mechanisms, and digital governance infrastructures. This leads to a paradoxical decentralized centralism, in which expanded local responsibilities coexist with strengthened capacities for central coordination, evaluation, and multilevel regulation. The study contributes to debates on public management and governance transformation by showing how decentralization may reconfigure rather than diminish state power in the context of contemporary multilevel governance. Full article

Public sector organizations are under increasing pressure to modernize service delivery while preserving transparency, interoperability, accountability, and citizen trust. Blockchain technology offers relevant capabilities for these objectives, particularly through shared ledgers, cryptographic verification, and programmable rules. However, its adoption in public sector contexts remains constrained by the lack of architectural guidance tailored to inter-organizational services. This study proposes BRA-PS, a Blockchain Reference Architecture for Public Sector Citizen-Centric Applications, developed from a real-world digitalization project in Quebec, Canada. The architecture organizes components into six layers (presentation, business, communication, smart contract, blockchain, and data) with cross-cutting concerns addressing governance, access control, security, and monitoring. A key design principle is the public–private workflow separation, which enables inter-organizational collaboration while preserving each organization’s operational autonomy and data confidentiality. We validated the architecture through a case study involving a vehicle registration process between two public agencies, supported by a proof-of-concept implementation using Hyperledger Fabric. An Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM) evaluation, conducted with a panel of five domain experts, identified six architectural risks, including InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) confidentiality exposure and smart contract inflexibility, six non-risks, six sensitivity points, and six trade-offs across three key quality attributes: autonomy, collaboration, and functional suitability. The results show that BRA-PS can support implementation decisions, clarify stakeholder responsibilities, and expose relevant architectural trade-offs. The recommendations derived from the evaluation provide practical guidance for the adoption of blockchain in citizen-centric public sector services. Full article

Background: Contemporary older adults, especially the baby boomer generation, expect to actively shape their communities rather than passively receive services. Supporting ageing in place is a key issue for social sustainability, as communities need to remain inclusive, accessible, and liveable for ageing populations. While participatory approaches are increasingly promoted, implementation remains top–down and expert-driven. Older adults often express their experiences of the built environment through everyday language rich in emotion, memory, and sensory details, yet these forms of knowledge are typically dismissed as informal or subjective. As a result, their lived spatial experiences remain institutionally invisible in age-friendly planning and design. Methods: This exploratory case study analysed textual comments submitted by older adults in a coastal suburb in Queensland through a participatory Citizen Science initiative. An integrative framework combining GIS mapping, content analysis (CA), sentiment analysis (SA), and critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to examine how older adults describe, evaluate, and negotiate their built environments. Results: GIS mapping showed that older adults chose to document familiar, accessible public spaces, such as parks, civic precincts, and transport corridors, reflecting routine-based patterns of use. Content analysis revealed a focus on modest but essential built environment features, including shaded seating, footpaths, signage, and pedestrian crossings, which supported comfort, safety, and social engagement. Sentiment analysis found that 67% of comments were positive and 18% neutral, indicating broad satisfaction but also strategic emotional framing. CDA identified three exploratory interpretive patterns, Affective Evaluation, Narrative Anchoring, and Modal Negotiation, through which older adults expressed emotion, belonging, and concern within this limited corpus. Conclusions: Ageing in place depends not only on physical infrastructure but also on discursive inclusion, that is, whether older adults’ everyday ways of speaking are heard and recognised in participatory planning. This study shows that older adults actively shape spatial meaning through emotion, memory, and caution, and that their language carries both experiential insight and civic intention. Recognising these discursive signals may help inform more responsive, age-inclusive, and socially sustainable participatory planning. Full article

Rapid coastal urbanization poses severe threats to biodiversity through habitat fragmentation, making continuous monitoring of urban ecosystems essential. While birds serve as sensitive bio-indicators, the long-term spatiotemporal dynamics of their habitats and temporal shifts in environmental drivers remain poorly understood in high-density megacities. This study addresses this gap by developing a trend-explainable machine learning framework to evaluate avian habitat suitability across the western coast of Shenzhen from 2010 to 2020. We applied a standardized filtering protocol to citizen science data and integrated occupancy modeling with a Random Forest algorithm to simulate habitat distributions at 30 m resolution. Spatiotemporal habitat alterations were quantified using Mann–Kendall trend analysis, while SHAP was utilized to diagnose the changing importance and non-linear thresholds of ecological drivers over the decade. Our findings reveal pronounced spatial heterogeneity among six avian guilds. Habitat quality for terrestrial birds, raptors, and songbirds degraded severely in northern industrial regions, whereas targeted ecological restoration facilitated recovery in southern and western urban cores. The analysis further demonstrates dynamic temporal shifts in environmental responses. The restrictive impact of anthropogenic stressors including population density and nighttime light weakened for terrestrial and canopy-dwelling guilds but intensified for waterfowl. Concurrently, natural elements such as vegetation coverage and proximity to water bodies became increasingly important. Based on these spatiotemporal patterns, we delineated five ecological zones to guide targeted conservation interventions. This research provides an analytical framework linking predictive modeling with mechanistic insights, supporting evidence-based biodiversity conservation and sustainable urban planning in rapidly developing coastal landscapes. Full article

Digital Pakistan is a pivotal move towards bridging the gap between old bureaucratic methods and new ones, offering a technologically advanced, modernized form of administration for the masses. This paper will critically analyze the initiative’s effects on the delivery of social services to the population through a methodical SWOT analysis, highlighting existing shortcomings, such as insufficient infrastructure and the digital divide, that limit access for all. Based on a qualitative study using secondary data (2018–2024), it was found that although the adoption of more than 40 e-governance solutions and the Digital Pakistan Hub has led to an increase in transparency and responsiveness of the administration, there still remain great threats, such as security breaches in the cyber-sphere and a 67 percent gender gap in access to the Internet. The findings emphasize that although digital tools have helped ease bureaucracy, they are not very effective because of unequal digital literacy. This means that the paper advocates inclusive policymaking that focuses on boosting digital equity and infrastructural resilience to achieve sustainable public-sector reforms. The findings offer a practical roadmap for policymakers to bridge the technological vision with citizen-centric service delivery. Full article