Search Results (143)

Social sustainability refers to the dimensions of sustainability that emphasize human well-being, equity, social justice, and access to essential services, including food security. Within this framework, ensuring access to safe and affordable food for individuals with celiac disease represents a critical yet underexplored policy challenge. This article examines how policy entrepreneurship contributes to advancing social sustainability in the context of food insecurity among individuals with celiac disease in Israel. It focuses on the Israeli Celiac Rights Organization (ICRO) as a case of civil society-driven policy entrepreneurship. Using a qualitative case study design, based on semi-structured interviews, media analysis, and policy documents, the study demonstrates how the ICRO has reframed celiac disease as a social rights issue, built cross-sectoral coalitions, and influenced both governmental and market actors. The findings show that, while state and market mechanisms provided only partial and fragmented responses, policy entrepreneurs played a significant role in transforming an invisible social problem into a recognized policy issue. The article contributes to the literature on social sustainability and policy entrepreneurship by highlighting the mechanisms through which non-state actors shape policy outcomes in contexts of institutional failure. Full article

Smart city innovation has emerged as a strategic concept in urban governance to improve the quality of life, requiring collaboration among diverse stakeholders. This study examines smart city development from a stakeholder perspective, focusing on Malang City, Indonesia. A qualitative approach was employed, including in-depth interviews, policy document analysis, and field observations, guided by stakeholder theory to understand how various actors influence policy and implementation. The findings indicate that Malang has implemented several smart initiatives, including e-government services, digital infrastructure, traffic management, and environmental monitoring. These efforts are generally perceived to enhance efficiency and transparency. However, challenges persist, particularly in ensuring inclusivity, strengthening inter-agency coordination, and improving digital literacy. The local government plays a leading role, while the private sector, academia, and civil society contribute technical expertise and community engagement. Overall, smart city innovation in Malang is progressing but remains in its early stages and requires stronger collaboration, institutional capacity, and accountability. This study underscores the importance of stakeholders as supporting actors in advancing collaborative and inclusive smart city governance. Full article

Cross-border cooperation (CBC) is defined as the structured, institutionalized, or informal collaboration between adjacent regional and local authorities, economic actors, and civil society groups across international state borders. Within contemporary border studies, CBC has transitioned from traditional top-down, state-centric diplomatic containment toward bottom-up, grassroots territorial integration. This entry synthesizes the multidisciplinary evolution of CBC across geography, economics, jurisprudence, sociology, and political science, structuring the analysis around four core dimensions: spatial, political, economic, and socio-cultural. It categorizes diverse territorial and governance mechanisms of cooperation, ranging from localized town twinnings to formalized Euroregions and European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTCs), and introduces quantitative performance metrics such as the Cross-Border Activity Index (CBAI). Examining how these structures operate along both the internal and external borders of the European Union, this entry analyzes the cyclical, non-linear dynamics of the bordering–debordering–rebordering framework. By evaluating diverse theoretical models across varying geopolitical contexts, it identifies the universal characteristics of contemporary border dynamics, conceptualizing borders not merely as physical or political demarcations, but as analytical lenses reflecting broader processes of globalization, regionalization, and territorial resilience. Full article

Does civil society mobilization supplement or entirely supplant the state during crises? This distinction remains theoretically significant yet empirically underdeveloped. An empirical framework based on the State-in-Society theory is applied in this study to analyze state–civil society relations in Israel following the 7 October 2023 attacks. Using qualitative interviews with 19 civil society leaders from 12 organizations conducted in January 2024, we examine the comprehensive substitution of state functions by non-state actors across security, welfare, and logistics domains. Findings reveal that protest organizations rapidly transformed into primary service providers, creating hybrid governance structures that persisted for months. Unlike government failure (dysfunction within intact institutions) or chronic state failure (gradual erosion in fragile contexts), Israel experienced “localized state failure”—a rapid, geographically constrained yet comprehensive collapse of core state functions in a high-income democracy, with immediate substitution by organized domestic civil society rather than international actors. This mobilization, based on a preexisting protest movement, demonstrates how robust civic infrastructure, even when mobilized against the government, creates latent governance capacity that can be activated during crises. The study advances the state-in-society theory, hybrid governance, and institutional resilience, offering a new perspective for distinguishing temporary dysfunction from fundamental collapse in democratic contexts. Full article

Social washing refers to the strategic exaggeration or misrepresentation of an organisation’s commitment to social responsibility, ethical governance, or social impact without corresponding substantive action. It typically operates through selective disclosure, symbolic initiatives, or performative communication that aligns the organisation with socially desirable values—such as equity, human rights, community development, or inclusion—while underlying practices remain unchanged, weakly evidenced, or contradictory. The concept belongs to the wider family of “washing” phenomena associated with corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) frameworks, especially the difficult-to-measure social (“S”) pillar. By contrast, authentic accountability refers to governance and reporting practices that connect institutional commitments to verifiable social outcomes and discernible improvements in human well-being. The institutionalisation of ESG frameworks has raised expectations of corporate responsibility while also enlarging the scope for reputational manipulation. Within this setting, social washing has become relevant not only to social policy and sustainable development debates, but also to corporate governance, ESG evaluation, and cross-sector partnership practice. This entry examines how organisations construct narratives of social responsibility that do not necessarily correspond to substantive social outcomes. It also argues that such distortions matter both for welfare systems and civil-society actors and for ESG assessment, reputational signalling, and the interpretation of social performance in market settings. Full article

Water scarcity and climate stress are increasingly framed as matters of individual consumption, even though structural drivers remain decisive. To examine how corporate communication participates in sustainability governance, this study asks how Finish Türkiye’s “Water of Tomorrow” initiative (2019–2025) defines the water problem, allocates responsibility, and builds legitimacy across time (RQ1–RQ2) using a longitudinal critical discourse analysis of multimodal materials (campaign videos, social media, web content, and reporting genres). We identify three phases: (i) household norm-setting through responsibilization scripts, (ii) scale-shifting legitimation via NGO/media alliances and ecosystem narratives, and (iii) metricization through quasi-institutional “water status” reporting and proprietary indices. While such strategies can raise salience and offer actionable guidance, they may also depoliticize allocation and equity questions by foregrounding consumer routines over infrastructural, agricultural, and industrial determinants. Practically, the paper proposes governance-relevant boundary conditions for corporate sustainability communication in water-stressed contexts: transparent sourcing of quantified claims, explicit role division with public and civil-society actors, alignment with basin-level and equity-sensitive governance, and avoidance of exaggerated individualization. Full article

Citizen science is seen as a valuable tool for improving sustainable tourism governance. This is especially true in environmentally sensitive and socially complex areas that need inclusive knowledge. This research examines how citizen science can capture the views of local stakeholders regarding tourism impacts. It aims to create a community-based evidence base that supports better decision-making. The study takes place in a rapidly transitioning coastal tourism community in northwestern Mexico. Perceptions were collected using a basic participatory model from 150 actors, including local residents, school representatives, business community members, civil society organizations, and public agencies. The survey covered economic, social, and environmental dimensions, providing broad insights into how residents experience tourism expansion. Results indicate that tourism is widely perceived as an important economic driver: over 80% of respondents associate tourism with job creation and regional economic growth, and 100% recognize its role in supporting local crafts and production. At the same time, 84% of participants report rising living costs, and approximately 70% perceive restricted access to public spaces linked to tourism development. Environmental concerns are even more pronounced, with 87% of respondents associating tourism expansion with declining water and air quality, and 77% noting increased pressure on energy and water resources during peak seasons. The findings emphasize growing dissonance between national narratives on sustainability and the lived realities of communities. Stakeholders view tourism as a major driver of the local economy, crafts, and job creation. However, respondents also report rising living costs, displacement pressures, and restricted access to public spaces. Environmental concerns are even more apparent: respondents link tourism to declining air and water quality, habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, waste generation, and resource competition. The study suggests that even simple forms of citizen science can provide early, community-driven signals of social and environmental risks, offering valuable insights into more flexible and inclusive tourism governance in coastal areas. Full article

Sustainability challenges increasingly require higher education institutions (HEIs) to demonstrate measurable social, institutional, and environmental impacts through their extension and social outreach activities. Within this context, social innovation has emerged as a key mechanism for advancing sustainable development, particularly when framed through collaboration models involving multiple actors, such as the Quintuple Helix (QH) framework. Although the QH model emphasizes the strategic role of academia in innovation oriented toward sustainability, the contribution of HEIs to generating sustainable social impacts remains insufficiently measured. This study proposes and validates a statistical model to assess social innovation impacts oriented toward sustainability and generated by university extension projects, based on the articulation among academia, industry, government, civil society, and the natural environment. Using data from 77 Colombian universities collected between 2019 and 2024, the research applies a methodological approach implemented in two sequential phases, combining Principal Component Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. The results confirm the robustness, reliability, and empirical validity of the proposed model, allowing HEIs to be classified according to their levels of global and governmental sustainability impact. This article is a revised and extended version of the conference paper titled “Incidence of the Quintuple Helix Model on Social Innovation Generated in University Extension Projects from the ‘Impact’ Variable”, presented at the International Conference on Project Management (ICPM2024), held in Bogotá, Colombia, on 6 September 2024. Full article

Informal learning increasingly occurs in digital environments, where citizens access, evaluate and apply knowledge outside of formal education. In the context of disaster preparedness, such informal learning is crucial for promoting individual and collective self-protection. This study examines how disaster preparedness knowledge is represented in German-language online resources, and how these materials can be categorised from an adult education perspective. An exploratory mixed-methods design combining expert-guided sampling, a qualitatively developed coding scheme, large-scale web scraping and AI-assisted classification was employed. A total of 7305 webpages were analysed in terms of actor type, topic, media format, and didactic design. The findings suggest that government and commercial organisations dominate the online preparedness landscape, with limited contributions from civil society and individuals. Thematically, most resources focus on general preventive measures and checklists, whereas scenario-specific and procedural content is underrepresented. Didactically rich and interactive formats are rare, with most materials relying on static, text-based communication. From an adult education perspective, these results suggest a gap between raising awareness and active learning. While online resources offer easy access to preparedness knowledge, they rarely facilitate deeper understanding, participation or collaborative learning. Methodologically, the study illustrates how AI-assisted analysis can combine qualitative interpretive depth with computational scalability in educational research. Full article

How can the interaction between the seismological community and society contribute to the exploitation and usage of renewable energy resources? We try to provide an answer by describing the seismic experiment realized in March–April 2025 in the hydrothermal area close to Contursi Terme municipality (Southern Italy). We deployed a 29-station seismic array thanks to the availability of local citizens, civic administrations, schools, and accommodation facilities, which provided hosting and power for six-component seismological instruments over a one-month period. By computing the Probabilistic Power Spectral Densities (PPSD) and spectrograms, we assessed the noise level and the quality of the dataset. The seismic recordings were also used for studying the local seismic response of the area by the HVSR method and detecting small magnitude (1.4–4.2) local and regional earthquakes. We thus described some solutions to tackle the challenges of a possible geothermal exploitation project in the area: (a) to map the energy resource through a tomography on good-quality ambient-noise data; (b) to manage the seismic risk related to the resource exploitation by installing a proper local seismic network; (c) to increase the acceptance by the population through a citizen-science action for instituting a fruitful alliance between different actors of civil society. Full article

Groundwater is increasingly relied upon in cities, particularly during drought, yet its management often lacks coordination and systems-based decision-making. Effective governance requires inclusive participation across sectors and scales, engaging actors with diverse knowledge, experiences, and priorities. In cities, this is challenging due to the wide range of roles and responsibilities tied to groundwater. This study examines the value of urban water metabolism analysis (UWMA) for enhancing groundwater governance in Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa—both recently affected by severe drought. Through a series of Learning Labs, we convened groundwater-related actors to co-develop a shared understanding of urban water systems. We brought together two methods of systems enquiry, UWMA and governance network analysis to explore physical stocks and flows of water across metropolitan boundaries with governance processes shaping groundwater management. The UWMA revealed that, prior to the 2015 drought, Nelson Mandela Bay’s water supplies were more diversified than those of Cape Town, despite Cape Town progressively pursuing managed aquifer recharge and wastewater reuse. The governance analysis surfaced the diversity of actors influencing groundwater flows across the public, private, and civil society sectors, yet highlighted the fragmented nature of the network, with geohydrology and engineering consultants often acting as intermediaries. This research found that UWMA was perceived to be most useful at larger scales (e.g., watershed/urban scales) and was considered a valuable tool for strategic discussion, though clearer language would increase accessibility. We conclude that UWMA helps identify knowledge gaps, integrate diverse perspectives, and foster stakeholder cooperation. Coupled with scenario planning, it can support participatory and inclusive decision-making. Full article

This study examines the roles, policy alignment, and challenges of civil society organizations (CSOs) in China’s disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts post-2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. Using qualitative analysis of national policies, international frameworks, and academic literature, it traces the evolution of Chinese CSOs from peripheral actors to state-integrated partners in disaster risk governance. Findings reveal that China’s top-down system has progressively institutionalized CSOs through Five-Year Plans, enabling their participation in emergency response and community resilience by using technological innovation. However, their contributions remain skewed toward short-term relief, with limited engagement in risk reduction or global humanitarian initiatives. Challenges include fragmented government–CSO collaboration and reliance on informal networks. While CSOs demonstrate growing technical proficiency, systemic barriers—such as funding gaps, weak institutionalized partnerships, and ideological divergences—hinder sustainability. Recommendations emphasize capacity building in risk education, policy literacy, and technology adoption, alongside reforms to formalize cross-sector collaboration and expand international engagement. By addressing these gaps, Chinese CSOs could transition from crisis responders to proactive agents of sustainable resilience, aligning local actions with global DRR agendas. This research offers critical insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to optimize CSOs’ role in national and local risk governance and invest in their development. Full article

This study examines Panama’s 2023 mining restrictions to illuminate persistent legitimacy crises in extractive governance. Employing a qualitative case study, it draws on 25 semi-structured interviews with government officials, industry representatives, Indigenous leaders, local communities, mining critics and other civil society actors, alongside policy and document analysis. Findings suggest that legitimacy reconstruction relies on four interdependent conditions: procedural justice, institutional trust, epistemic legitimacy, and relational governance. Stakeholders consistently emphasized transparency, capacity building, and inclusive engagement as essential for future mining activity, underscoring that technical standards alone are insufficient without credible institutions. Building on—but extending beyond—frameworks such as Social License to Operate (SLO) and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), this paper offers Social Legitimacy for Mining (SLM) as a provisional, co-produced framework. Developed through literature synthesis and refined by diverse stakeholder perspectives, SLM is applied in Panama as an illustrative proof of concept that may inform further research and practice, while recognizing the need for additional adaptation across jurisdictions. Full article

In the contemporary structure of political economy, one of the leading actors is Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Some of these organisations, to promote their goals, often engage in public disputes with enterprises that have publicly traded shares on the stock market. Consequently, they serve as channels for negative information relevant to these enterprises that falls within their discourse. In this paper, we examine the impact on the share price volatility of these enterprises due to the public debate initiated by an NGO aiming to change the enterprise’s behaviour on a particular matter (e.g., using more eco-friendly materials). Data from Greenpeace’s Detox Campaign are used to examine its influence on several enterprises. Using GARCH, OLS, and Difference-in-Differences models, we find that volatility increased significantly during the campaign for firms like Burberry (13.71%), Adidas (5.40%), and VFC Group (3.96%). After companies complied, volatility declined, notably in Burberry (−16.84%), Marks & Spencer (−3.24%), and VFC Group (−4.88%). These results highlight how NGO activism can heighten investor uncertainty in the short term but stabilise markets once companies respond, offering key insights for policymakers on the financial impact of civil Society’s engagement. Full article

The article evaluates the relationships between the individual actors of the Quintuple Helix model and sustainability across EU countries. The model is based on the idea that innovation arises from the collaboration of five key subsystems: government, industry (economy), academia, civil society, and natural capital. Various studies have been conducted to assess the development of the EU’s sustainability goals based on the Triple Helix approach from different perspectives and from the view of the Quintuple Helix. However, we see a gap in the research in that key aspects of the success of these models in the EU have not been examined in terms of their mutual relationships. Therefore, this paper focuses on examining Quintuple Helix systems in the EU, eco-innovation, and sustainability using cluster and correlation analysis. Based on the results, we can infer that Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, and Luxembourg are among the leading EU countries in applying the Quintuple Helix model and promoting sustainability through collaborative innovation processes. The most significant contributions to sustainability within this model come primarily from ecological innovations, intellectual capital, and governance. Full article