Social Acceptance Issues Research Articles

Research on the Implications of the Energy Transition in the Middle East

This paper critically examines the implications of the energy transition in the Middle East, a region historically reliant on fossil fuel revenues. The research explores the economic, technological, social, and geopolitical impacts of shifting from conventional energy sources to renewable alternatives. Through a detailed analysis, the study highlights the region's involvement in solar and wind energy projects, reflecting an emerging awareness of environmental sustainability. The regional objectives include reducing domestic fossil fuel consumption and curbing exports of oil and gas. While the transition offers significant potential for sustainable development, it also uncovers considerable challenges, particularly financial constraints, social acceptance issues, and political hurdles, as evidenced by comprehensive case studies. The paper advocates for a phased approach to achieving a greener energy sector, emphasizing the necessity of financial support, social initiatives, and political reforms. By situating the energy transition within a regional context, this study provides valuable insights for stakeholders and policymakers, offering a holistic perspective on the path toward sustainable growth.

Potential water reuse pathways from a life cycle analysis perspective in the poultry industry

Achieving sustainable water use in the food industry requires a paradigm change and transforming it towards circularity by exploring opportunities for water reuse. Life Cycle Assessment can comprehensively evaluate the environmental impacts of the water management and reuse options throughout their life cycle to ensure improvement of environmental performance. Through the example of a poultry processing plant it was shown that improving wastewater treatment technology can reduce the metal depletion category by almost 30 % by cutting down chemical use by 90 %. Further mitigation of environmental damage could be achieved by either choosing technological or agricultural reuse options depending on the needs or local constraints. While the improvement is not massive since the implementation of additional technologies require further resources, the Reduce scenario (technological reuse with 50 % reduction of water consumption) compared to the direct discharge into a surface water body resulted a decrease of 11.0 % and 17.1 % in freshwater consumption and 7.6 % and 2.6 % in metal depletion units. On the contrary, irrigation is better than technological reuse with regard to human health and resource scarcity indicators. Legislative requirements and social acceptance issues might slow down the process of closing the loop in the water management of the food industry; nonetheless results show that opting for water reuse is an environmentally sound solution even in this sector.

Online polarization and identity politics: An analysis of Facebook discourse on Muslim and LGBTQ+ communities in Finland

AbstractThis study employs a mixed‐methods approach to investigate the nature of Facebook posts related to Muslims and LGBTQ+ individuals in Finland, spanning a period of 4 years. Through the use of the CrowdTangle platform, the researchers extracted and analyzed Facebook posts that encompassed predetermined keywords indicative of potential hate speech. The findings underscored divergent patterns of engagement and sentiment toward these two groups, with implications for the different levels of societal acceptance and tolerance exhibited. Posts related to Muslims typically elicited controversy and were often depicted as threats, whereas posts about the LGBTQ+ community generally advocated for inclusivity. However, persistent negative stereotypes about the LGBTQ+ community were also evident. The analysis also brought to light how political parties strategically used these discourses to steer conversations, consolidate their ideological positions, and mobilize their respective supporters. Grounded in the social identity theory, this study sheds light on the complex dynamics of online political discourse, revealing its far‐reaching impacts on societal attitudes, intergroup relations, and formation of group identities. The nuanced understanding derived from these observations suggests that interventions fostering healthier public discussions on social media platforms could contribute significantly to combating societal division, prejudice, and bias. This research underscores the importance of scrutinizing online discourses to address issues of societal cohesion and social acceptance.

Terminally ill head and neck cancer patients and AI: Opportunities and prospects

Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) presents unique challenges due to its psychological impact, particularly regarding facial disfigurement and social acceptance issues, especially in advanced stages and among terminally ill patients. Despite the critical importance of advance care planning and end-of-life discussions, these aspects are often overlooked, further compounded by the stigma and negative quality of life issues associated with visible morbidity in HNC patients. This commentary explores the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in addressing the multifaceted needs of terminally ill HNC patients. These include pain management and symptom control through predictive modeling, psychosocial support via AI-powered chatbots, treatment decision support by synthesizing patient data, automated radiation planning, end-of-life planning with AI-driven decision support systems, facilitating family communication through structured guidance and emotional support, and legacy building using AI-enabled digital platforms for preserving personal narratives. We propose the AI's potential in reducing suicidal ideation among HNC patients, a significant concern in the HNC patient population. AI can enhance patient safety and promote psychological well-being during the end-of-life journey. This commentary underscores the transformative role of AI in improving the holistic care and quality of life of terminally ill HNC patients, offering practical and compassionate support throughout their challenging journey.

Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Drones in Solar Photovoltaic Energy Applications—Safe Autonomy Perspective

While there is evidence of substantial improvement in efficiency and cost reduction from the integration of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Drones (RAID) in solar installations; it is observed that there is limited oversight by international standards such as the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in terms of the hazards and untapped potentials. This is partly because it is an emerging application and generally burdened with social acceptability issues. Thus, the safety regulations applied are adaptations of device-specific regulations as deemed fit by individual companies. Also, due to the fast-paced technological development of these platforms, there is huge potential for applications that are not currently supported by the device-specific regulations. This creates a multi-faceted demand for the establishment of standardized, industry-wide polices and guidelines on the use of RAID platforms for Solar PV integrations. This work aims to address critical safety concerns by conducting a comprehensive high-level system examination applicable to the monitoring and maintenance of Solar PV systems. Standard safety assurance models and approaches are examined to provide a safe autonomy perspective for Solar PVs. It is considered that, as RAID applications continue to evolve and become more prevalent in the Solar PV industry, standardized protocols or policies would be established to ensure safe and reliable operations.

Integration of renewable energy in industrial operations: experiences from Canada, USA, and Africa

This research paper explores integrating renewable energy into industrial operations, drawing insights from experiences in Canada, the United States, and various African nations. Against a global imperative to transition towards sustainable energy sources, the study delves into this transformative process's economic, environmental, and technological dimensions. The economic implications encompass a detailed analysis of upfront capital costs, return on investment, and broader considerations such as job creation and market competitiveness. Environmental impacts, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air and water quality, underscore the transformative potential of renewable energy integration. The technological landscape, marked by innovations in renewable energy technologies and energy storage solutions, offers opportunities for industries to embrace cleaner and more efficient energy practices. However, challenges related to intermittency, grid integration, and technological risks necessitate strategic planning. Barriers and challenges, ranging from regulatory uncertainties to social acceptance issues, are examined, emphasizing the complexities of the transition. The conclusion emphasizes the need for a holistic and strategic approach, including stable policies, financial mechanisms facilitating access to capital, and initiatives promoting awareness.

Appliance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medical Field

This essay is targeted to provide a summary about the basic mechanism of Artificial Intelligence (AI), appliance of AI in the medical field, and the issues in applying AI to the medical field. In the first part of the article, the mechanism of AI like machine learning, natural language processing, neural network, deep learning and machine vision/computer vision are briefly introduced. At present, AI could be applied in drug development, medical imaging, clinical trials, and diagnosis. Then, the issues of applying AI to the medical field are summarized in the article. The issues contain social acceptance issues, ethical issues, and legislation issues. In conclusion, if these issues could be solved, AI could unleash its potentials in the medical field and have positive effects like increased efficiency, lowered costs, and more accurate results in medical research and healthcare.

Performance parameters, design considerations, social adoption, and computational techniques for solar box cooker development: current status and future possibilities

Practical utility of solar cookers is on rise nowadays. However, due to certain technological challenges this is not catching very fast. Present review paper encompasses studies and future possibilities for solar box cooker research. Various aspects like thermal performance param-eters, various phases of designs improvements, social acceptability issues and computational methods of analysis have been discussed in relation to Solar box cookers so that technical difficulties may be minimized. This paper discusses about introduction to solar box cookers, advantages, disadvantages, various practical considerations that are key factors for any SBC. Further, there is a handsome discussion on the various computational techniques like Com-putational fluid dynamics, Artificial intelligence techniques, IoT etc. Introduction, review of applications till date, and future possibilities related to research using application of these computational techniques have been presented. Emphasis has been given to future possibili-ties for solar box cookers development so that it could be a well-accepted future technology.

Social license to operate: Social acceptance in the Quebec context

Issues of social acceptance around development projects are widespread in our societies. Whether for exploiting natural resources, constructing an airport, or building a waste treatment plant, public controversies clearly reflect the importance of social acceptance for civil society, public authorities, and project proponents. Several articles have presented frameworks, indices, scales, analytical models, and measurements to synthesise these issues to assess various projects' social acceptance levels. Although helpful, our main contention is that these frameworks and scales have not paid enough attention to the context (social, political, and institutional) in which social acceptance issues emerge and develop. Our article calls for greater contextualization of models to understand the social acceptability of projects. To illustrate our argument, we analyze the socio-historical foundations of social acceptance over half a century in Québec, Canada, which allows us to develop a contextualized analysis framework that considers the specific Québec context. We have developed an analysis grid with three pillars (issues, context, and discourse), seven related categories and 33 social phenomena to observe. Our intention is to help decision-makers at the local and regional levels in places such as Quebec understand controversies in their communities early in developing a project.

Does agrivoltaism reconcile energy and agriculture? Lessons from a French case study

BackgroundAgrivoltaism is presented as an innovative production system that may combine agricultural activity and energy production on the same parcel of land. The deployment of this innovation has already begun in France as part of the energy transition initiatives, and many actors consider that its deployment only depends on social acceptance issues. However, given that agrivoltaism cuts across the agricultural and energy sectors, social, technical, and political concerns have arisen. While these concerns are primarily reflected in conflict and opposition, the problem goes far beyond the simple question of social acceptance. Indeed, it relates to the dynamics of innovation and governance, structured in different arenas at different scales that shape how this innovation is deployed.MethodsThe authors conducted a qualitative study revolving around three methodological approaches: a press analysis, a review of scientific literature, and fieldwork in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques district in France. Drawing on the case of a disputed project, several semi-structured interviews were conducted. These interviews explored how the public sector, institutions, energy companies, and local farmers perceive the development of agrivoltaics and how they organise the dynamics of governance to control its deployment.ResultsOur analysis highlights four main results: (i) agrivoltaism is an innovation conceptualised in techno-scientific arenas which seek to define its agricultural viability; (ii) at the national level, the remote control by the State does not provide a framework for governance capable of involving the various actors in the fields of agriculture and energy; (iii) the deployment of agrivoltaism systems across regions engenders conflict while placing key local actors in a situation of uncertainty with regard to how best to manage this innovation; (iv) while individuals are subjected to territorialisation, this paradoxically favours structural policy innovations which outline the contours of territorial governance.ConclusionsThis study shows that agrivoltaism is the result of interactions between techno-scientific actors in the energy and agricultural fields. However, its political backing in France does not promote dynamics of governance capable of bringing these two fields together. At the local level, the deployment of agrivoltaism has faced opposition, but it has also led to the organisation of territorial governance strategies involving actors and institutions from different sectors.

Social license to operate: An integrative framework

The literature generically addresses controversies related to the lack of social acceptance of projects, generally overlooking their specificities. We argue instead that each trajectory of social acceptance (or lack thereof) is unique. This article demonstrates this through a qualitative analysis of three controversial projects: Matoush uranium mining (2006-2020), Facebook’s cryptocurrency (2017-2021), and Covid-19 vaccination (2020-2021). We develop an analytical framework that conceptualizes social acceptance as a dynamic trajectory of legitimation and justification revolving around three pillars: eco-traditional, symbolic, and technical. This article enriches our understanding of social acceptance issues and offers research perspectives at the interface of social acceptance, legitimation, and institutional logics.

“Data makes the story come to life:” understanding the ethical and legal implications of Big Data research involving ethnic minority healthcare workers in the United Kingdom—a qualitative study

The aim of UK-REACH (“The United Kingdom Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers”) is to understand if, how, and why healthcare workers (HCWs) in the United Kingdom (UK) from ethnic minority groups are at increased risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19. In this article, we present findings from the ethical and legal stream of the study, which undertook qualitative research seeking to understand and address legal, ethical, and social acceptability issues around data protection, privacy, and information governance associated with the linkage of HCWs’ registration data and healthcare data. We interviewed 22 key opinion leaders in healthcare and health research from across the UK in two-to-one semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were coded using qualitative thematic analysis. Participants told us that a significant aspect of Big Data research in public health is varying drivers of mistrust—of the research itself, research staff and funders, and broader concerns of mistrust within participant communities, particularly in the context of COVID-19 and those situated in more marginalised community settings. However, despite the challenges, participants also identified ways in which legally compliant and ethically informed approaches to research can be crafted to mitigate or overcome mistrust and establish greater confidence in Big Data public health research. Overall, our research indicates that a “Big Data Ethics by Design” approach to research in this area can help assure (1) that meaningful community and participant engagement is taking place and that extant challenges are addressed, and (2) that any new challenges or hitherto unknown unknowns can be rapidly and properly considered to ensure potential (but material) harms are identified and minimised where necessary. Our findings indicate such an approach, in turn, will help drive better scientific breakthroughs that translate into medical innovations and effective public health interventions, which benefit the publics studied, including those who are often marginalised in research.

UnIC: Towards Unmanned Intelligent Cluster and Its Integration into Society

• Collaborative unmanned systems have emerged to meet our society’s wide-ranging grand challenges, with their advantages including high performance, efficiency, flexibility, and inherent resilience. • Increasing levels of group/team autonomy have been achieved due to the embodiment of artificial intelligence. • The current networked unmanned systems are primarily designed for and applicable to a narrow range of domain-specific missions. • The current networked unmanned systems do not have sufficient human-level intelligence and human needs fulfillment for the challenging missions in our lives. • We propose a vision of human-centric networked unmanned systems: Unmanned Intelligent Cluster (UnIC). • Within this vision, distributed unmanned systems and humans are connected via knowledge sharing and social awareness to achieve collaborative cognition. • This paper details UnIC’s concept, sources of intelligence, layered architecture, and reviews enabling technologies for achieving this vision. • In addition to the technological aspects, the social acceptance issues are highlighted. Collaborative unmanned systems have emerged to meet our society’s wide-ranging grand challenges, with their advantages including high performance, efficiency, flexibility, and inherent resilience. Increasing levels of group/team autonomy have also been achieved due to the embodiment of artificial intelligence (AI). However, the current networked unmanned systems are primarily designed for and applicable to a narrow range of domain-specific missions, and do not have sufficient human-level intelligence and human needs fulfillment for the challenging missions in our lives. We propose in this paper a vision of human-centric networked unmanned systems: Unmanned Intelligent Cluster (UnIC). Within this vision, distributed unmanned systems and humans are connected via knowledge sharing and social awareness to achieve collaborative cognition. This paper details UnIC’s concept, sources of intelligence, and layered architecture, and reviews enabling technologies for achieving this vision. In addition to the technological aspects, the social acceptance issues are highlighted.

PRAVNA LICA I IZBEGAVANJE POREZA KAO GRAĐANSKOPRAVNI I/ILI KRIVIČNOPRAVNI DELIKT

The paper discusses the issues of justification and social acceptance of taxes by legal entities and the frequency of related abuses. The discussion covers two research questions. The first item is the terminological delimitation of categorical terms related to tax policy. The second is the analysis of the ten-year frequency of the crime of tax evasion in the Republic of Serbia. The research aims to confirm the hypothetical assumption that tax evasion is a crime against the economy. In addition to damaging the budget system and damaging the company image, it is a significant obstacle to further economic development and the international economic reputation of the country. The paper uses the following methods: searching scientific databases on the subject, general scientific statistical and comparative methods, and documents' content analysis methods. There are two main findings in the paper. The first is that tax evasion negatively affects the economic picture of the Republic of Serbia and has a detrimental effect on the value structure of public revenues of the "common treasury of all citizens". Second, the frequency of committing the crime of tax evasion affects the development of the economy and demands for greater involvement of all institutions of Serbian society and a radical tightening of penal policy and court practice for this type of crime.

Applications of solar PV tree systems with different design aspects and performance assessment

ABSTRACT Solar energy is deemed as the most abundant, reliable, eco-friendly and totally free resource of energy. There is a wide range of techniques to harness solar energy for different purposes. Among all the available methods, direct conversion of sunlight into electricity through photovoltaic (PV) phenomenon is the most mature and popular process. Progress of PV technology in market is perspicuous; however, it has still some drawbacks such as notable land requirement in cities, energy conversion efficiencies that already reached the theoretical limits and social acceptance issues due to aesthetic details. To overcome the aforesaid challenges, solar PV tree concept has been recently developed, and the simplicity, compact structure and elegance of this novel technology have been in the focus of researchers. Within the scope of this review, the concept of solar PV tree has been extensively investigated in terms of various design aspects and potential applications. Current performance characteristics of solar PV tree systems and power management strategies in real applications have been discussed. Challenges involved with the solar PV tree technology have also been addressed as well as suggestions on the direction of further works.

Trust in business operators of smart city projects

In recent years, the implementation of smart city projects has accelerated around the world, including in Japan. One of the potential challenges of the implementation is the issue of social acceptance. As a factor closely related to the social acceptance of smart city projects, we focus on trust in business operators. This study examines the relationship between trust in business operators and (1) perceptions of shared value (i.e., perceptions that self and business operators pursue the same value), (2) perceptions of others’ attitudes (i.e., perceptions of what attitudes other citizens have toward the project), (3) perceived sincerity, (4) perceived competence, (5) perceived future potential, and (6) perceptions of the amount of personal information (i.e., perceptions of the extent to which personal information is obtained). In this study, an online survey was conducted in which participants (N = 9,320) read one of the four vignettes about smart city projects and responded to the items listed above. The vignettes were related to either personal credit assessment, garbage collection, human flow measurement, and countermeasures against COVID-19. The structural equation modeling showed that (1) those with a higher degree of perceptions of shared value and others’ attitudes had higher perceived sincerity and competence, (2) those with higher perceived competence had higher perceived future potential, (3) those with a higher degree of perceived sincerity, future potential, and others’ attitudes had higher trust in business operators, and (4) those with lower perceptions of the amount of personal information had higher trust. Similar results were obtained for the four vignettes. This study is a vignette-based survey, which has the major limitation of lacking reality. In the future, it is important to conduct a survey targeting residents of cities where smart city projects are actually implemented. We should consider a model similar to this study with respect to a wide range of smart city projects.

SOCIAL STIGMA ENGENDERS IDENTITY CRISIS OF TRANSGENDER: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ENQUIRY IN KANDHAMAL AND KHORDHA DISTRICTS OF ODISHA

Most of the people are not aware that the Transgender evolve due to their biological i.e. genetical factors and hormonal changes in the body. Transgender is a social and biological minority or as a concept, denoting the identity crisis and diversity of practices embodied between or beyond the categories of male and female. Transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from their sex assigned at birth, which is laden by the social stigma at the expression in grown up stage. This resulting tension of identity crisis adversely affects their personal growth and development by arresting themselves when the society as a most oppressed class, denied most of the human rights enjoyed by other humans. Most of the people now in India never realize that Transgender are also part of our society so they should be treated as equal as others in the society. India’s trans-women or transgender community has a long history as long as our civilization. Indian law recognizes trans-women as third gender but still they are struggling for their identity and acceptance by the society. The objectives of the study is to investigate the problem faces by transgender community due to stringent stigma of the binary concept of gender in this globalised society on the grounds of education, political pressure, social acceptance, employment and various other issues in Odisha

The Social Acceptance of Collecting and Utilizing Personal Information in Smart Cities

In recent years, active efforts to implement smart cities have increased worldwide. In smart cities, a large amount of personal information is captured, and urban development is based on these data. In Japan, implementations of smart cities continue to gain momentum, but the issue of social acceptance has become apparent, as smart cities are not fully accepted by citizens because of concerns about data leaks and misuse of personal information. This study examines the social acceptance of collecting and utilizing personal information in smart cities in relation to a variety of factors such as trust and perceptions of risk, justice, benefit, and necessity. An online survey was conducted wherein participants (N = 568) were presented with a vignette depicting an overview of a typical smart city. The results of structural equation modeling showed that perceived justice was positively related to trust and trust was negatively related to perceived risk and positively related to perceived benefit and necessity. Trust, perceived benefit, and perceived necessity were significantly related to social acceptance, with trust having the greatest relationship. The model obtained in this study contributes to practical efforts for the implementation of smart cities, and future directions are discussed.

How Is Social Acceptance Reflected in National Renewable Energy Plans? Evidence from Three Wind-Rich Countries

This article contributes to discussions of the social acceptance of renewable energy (RE) by developing an analytical framework that considers three dimensions (community, market, and political-regulator) at three different scales (macro, meso, and micro). This framework is conceived in order to identify those dynamics that are potentially counterproductive to the energy transition and need further policy emphasis, as well as supporting those that demonstrate a positive impact. Using this framework, we critically reflect on the 2010 National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) policies of three European countries with high wind resources: Denmark, Ireland, and the UK. Within the RE policy landscapes of these three countries lies the contentious issue of social acceptance of wind power. The framework analysis reveals similar policy profiles for each country, characterized by a heavy focus on the market dimension at all scales, an effort to allow private business to steer the transition, and a low focus on the community dimension. In doing so, our research reveals how policy-making processes have privileged the voice of actors who are able to communicate quantifiable data and evidence to support their position, and these actors thereby have greater influence to shape national energy policies.

An ex ante assessment of value conflicts and social acceptance of sustainable heating systems: An agent-based modelling approach

This paper demonstrates an approach to assess, ex ante, the social acceptance of sustainable heating systems in city districts. More sustainable heating systems are required in city districts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, these systems may lack social acceptance as they often require significant adjustments to homes and may lead to a noticeable loss of in-home thermal comfort. Predicting social acceptance is often difficult due to the long-term planning horizon for energy systems. It is therefore unclear which design requirements and policy guidelines need to be specified ex ante. We suggest an approach to anticipate social acceptance by identifying value conflicts embedded in sustainable heating systems in specific social settings. These value conflicts might cause a lack of social acceptance over time due to value change. We demonstrate this approach using a case of community-driven heating initiative in The Hague, the Netherlands. We identify value conflicts embedded in various sustainable heating systems using an agent-based model. We formulate scenarios of value change to understand the severity of resulting social acceptance issues and discuss suitable heating systems for the city district. The approach can be used to support the decision-making process of policymakers at the local level, even in situations of limited local expertise.