Sustainability Crisis Research Articles

Images of the future for a circular economy: The case of Finland

A transition from a linear to a circular economy (CE) is one of the key solutions to the sustainability crisis. A CE requires new mental models and insights, especially of a desirable future towards which to move. A CE aims at making better use of resources and jointly considers economic, environmental and social sustainability aspects in the long run. The objective of this study is to develop alternative images of the future for CE in Finland in 2050. The study was performed using qualitative research methods and covers extensive data from 61 interviews with experts. We analysed the data using qualitative content analysis. Four alternative images of the future were generated: A circular success story, A circle of disaster, Local circles, and Structural, regulated circularity. This study contributes to the CE literature by using a futures studies approach and describing alternative futures for a CE through images of the future. By creating alternative futures, one can better reflect on and discuss future possibilities. Our images of the future provide insights to achieve a CE both in Finland and globally.

Smart Dustbins - Automatic Segregation & Efficient Solid Waste Management using IoT Solutions for Smart Cities

Abstract: Sustainability is the ability to exist continually. In the 21st century, it generally refers to the capacity for the biosphere and human civilization to coexist. There has been a spike in solid waste generation in recent times. Solid waste management is a crucial issue towards global sustainability crises. Governments across the world are taking initiatives to transform cities into smart cities. An appropriate mechanism for solid waste collection and management is vital for bringing this change. The economic value of waste is not realized unless it is appropriately managed. Internet of Things (IoT) Technologies can efficiently handle such services in smart cities. Way to sustainability is an efficient use of technology to achieve solutions to global environmental problems; solid waste management is one of the significant issues. In this paper, we are proposing an IoT based Smart dustbin monitoring system with dynamic scheduling and routing of trash collector along with moisture detection of smart dustbins. Real-time status of each smart bin is sent to the cloud. A mobile application assists the trash collector using optimal dynamic routes. Municipal corporations monitor the entire waste collection process using the proposed system. We also propose a way to automatically segregate wet and dry waste using moisture detection. Keywords: Automatic segregation, Cloud, Dynamic scheduling, Route optimization, Solid waste management, Smart cities, WetDry waste segregation.

In Support of Sustainability: The Historical Ecology of Vertebrate Biodiversity and Native American Harvest Practices in the Florida Keys, USA

The Florida Keys are currently experiencing unprecedented loss of lifeways, biodiversity, and cultural heritage due to sea-level rise, catastrophic storm events, unsustainable traditions of resource exploitation, and land development. Yet, these islands have a long history of human occupation and socioecological systems underlying their current sustainability crisis that date back at least 2500 years. Here we report early results of ongoing zooarchaeological research from Upper Matecumbe Key designed to explore anthropogenic engagement with vertebrate fauna between AD 800 and 1250, providing an approximately 500-year window on marine fisheries and terrestrial faunal harvesting for this small island archipelago. Focusing on one of the few remaining, nearly intact Native American archaeological sites in the region, our research contributes to critically needed long-term anthropogenic perspectives on harvest patterns relevant to regional biodiversity conservation and sustainability initiatives.

Archiving social movement memories amidst autocratization: a case study of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement Visual Archive

ABSTRACT There has been a rise in archival activism, including the birth of social movement archives, leveraging marginalised communities’ voices, and challenging mainstream discourses. Through a case study of the Umbrella Movement Visual Archive (UMVA) in Hong Kong, this paper explores the risks faced by and the strategies of the archivists when preserving social movement objects amidst rapid autocratisation. Based on semi-structured interviews and documents analysis, this paper argues that autocratisation significantly restrains political opportunities for archival activism. When Hong Kong was relatively liberal before 2020, the UMVA encountered problems common in community archives in liberal democracies, such as sustainability crises and loss of public attention. Even so, archivists could still manage the risk by facilitating public communication and group solidarity. Nonetheless, the rapid autocratisation of Hong Kong since 2020 has created extreme political risks for archivists and the collection. Archivists could only migrate the archives overseas, resulting in public inaccessibility of the collection. While most extant literature on archival activism focuses on democratic or post-transitional context, this project offers an authoritarian-political perspective that tests the limits of the notion in the global wave of democratic backsliding.

How Advanced Technological Approaches Are Reshaping Sustainable Social Media Crisis Management and Communication: A Systematic Review

The end goal of technological advancement used in crisis response and recovery is to prevent, reduce or mitigate the impact of a crisis, thereby enhancing sustainable recovery. Advanced technological approaches such as social media, machine learning (ML), social network analysis (SNA), and big data are vital to a sustainable crisis management decisions and communication. This study selects 28 articles via a systematic process that focuses on ML, SNA, and related technological tools to understand how these tools are shaping crisis management and decision making. The analysis shows the significance of these tools in advancing sustainable crisis management to support decision making, information management, communication, collaboration and cooperation, location-based services, community resilience, situational awareness, and social position. Moreover, the findings noted that managing diverse outreach information and communication is increasingly essential. In addition, the study indicates why big data and language, cross-platform support, and dataset lacking are emerging concerns for sustainable crisis management. Finally, the study contributes to how advanced technological solutions effectively affect crisis response, communication, decision making, and overall crisis management.

Doubling Down on Wicked Problems: Ocean ArtScience Collaborations for a Sustainable Future

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development recognizes the current ocean sustainability crisis and calls for a transformation of ocean science. Many of the key challenges recognized by the UN Decade are examples of wicked problems: intractable and messy situations with high stakeholder divergence. Addressing wicked ocean sustainability problems requires adaptable, iterative, and participatory approaches that can embrace multiple ways of knowing. It also requires a re-imagining of our relationship with the Ocean from extraction and resulting environmental degradation, towards the building of a sense of connection and stewardship. We propose ArtScience as a means to this end by highlighting how transdisciplinary collaborations can help create sustainable ocean futures. We reflect on a recent ArtScience event emerging from Ocean Networks Canada’s Artist-in-Residence programme. By situating ArtScience in a broader context of inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations, we demonstrate how ArtScience collaborations can help transform ocean science by envisioning previously unimagined possibilities, and establishing and strengthening relationships with diverse stakeholders through long-term mission-driven or place-based inquiry. We conclude with a call to action to acknowledge the potential these collaborations hold for addressing the challenges of the UN Ocean Decade.

The Sustainability Crisis . . . Again

The Sustainability Crisis . . . Again

A call to expand disciplinary boundaries so that social scientific imagination and practice are central to quests for ‘responsible’ digital agri‐food innovation

AbstractThis editorial introduces a special issue (SI) concerning quests for responsible digital agri‐food innovation. We present our interpretations of the concepts of responsible innovation and digital agri‐food innovation and show why they can and have been productively interrelated with social science theories and methods. First, each of the articles in this SI is briefly introduced and synthesised around three themes: (1) the need for a critique of digital ‘solutionism’ in current interdisciplinary research, development and innovation settings; (2) that social science contributes value via the ideas it brings to life to challenge dominant power dynamics and (3) that social scientific imagination and practice is a valuable long‐term investment to both mitigate risk but also embrace socioenvironmental opportunities as we face ongoing sustainability crises into the future. Second, we identify future research considerations arising within the field, sitting at the intersection of social science and agricultural sociotechnical transitions. Our insights relate to challenges and opportunities to ‘do’ social science within the context of contemporary and nascent transitions such as increasing digitalisation. Researchers trained in social science theory and practice can make distinctive contributions to agri‐food innovation processes by making social stakes visible and by advancing inclusive processes of research policy and technology design.

Facilitating transformative science education through futures thinking

PurposeThe aims and pedagogies in the field of science education are evolving because of global sustainability crises. School science is increasingly concerned with responsible agency and value-based transformation. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to argue that perspectives and methods from the field of futures studies are needed to meet the new transformative aims of science education for sustainable development.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyses some contemporary challenges in science education and gives reasons for introducing a futures perspective into science classrooms. The suggestion is illustrated by reviewing some results, published elsewhere, on future-oriented activities trialled within the European Union project “I SEE” and students’ experiences on them.FindingsRecent research has shown that future-oriented science learning activities, involving systems thinking, scenario development and backcasting, can let students broaden their futures perceptions, imagine alternatives and navigate uncertainty. Practising futures thinking in the context of contemporary science offers synergies through shared perspectives on uncertainty, probabilities and creative thinking.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the relevance of the futures field for science education. Future-oriented activities appear as promising tools in science education for fostering sustainability, agency and change. Yet, further work is needed to integrate futures aspects into science curricula. To that end, the paper calls for collaboration between the fields of futures studies and science education.

CSR crises from the consumers’ perspective: a multidimensional typology and future research agenda

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a multidimensional corporate social responsibility (CSR) crisis typology from the consumers’ perspective and to provide an agenda for future research.Design/methodology/approachBasic content-related dimensions for characterizing CSR crises from the consumers’ perspective are derived from a review of relevant static crisis typologies. Different types of consumer responses to negative CSR information are derived from various theoretical approaches. Dynamic process models of corporate crises are reviewed to assign various types of consumer responses to different crisis phases. Linking both static and dynamic approaches leads to a comprehensive consumer-oriented typology of CSR crises that is illustrated with examples.FindingsA CSR crises typology is developed based on three consumer-related dimensions: the extent to which the company is attributed blame by consumers; the amount of perceived damage potential; and the perceived CSR relevance of the crisis situation. The combination of these dimensions results in eight different crisis types. For each of these crisis types, different forms of consumer responses are assigned that prevail in the so-called potential, latent and manifest crisis phase.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could address the empirical review of the crisis typology presented, its refinement by considering various consumer and stakeholder segmentation approaches and the advanced dynamic analysis of CSR crises by including stakeholder characteristics that impact the diffusion of CSR-related negative publicity.Practical implicationsThe results of this paper support early crisis detection and effective crisis management by identifying relevant target variables for crisis communication.Originality/valueThe typology developed enables a broad spectrum of CSR crises to be classified, including those that have been neglected in previous systematization approaches, such as CSR-related tensions, general sustainability crises and product-harm crises. Due to its theoretical foundation, this paper also contributes to a clearer demarcation of existing CSR crisis constructs.

Corporate sustainability crisis: Theoretical framework and stakeholder‐oriented typology

AbstractResearch on corporate crises has yielded numerous, partly overlapping crisis concepts from the corporate perspective without adequately addressing the stakeholder perspective and sustainability and corporate social responsibility characteristics. This conceptual paper aims to develop a stakeholder‐oriented typology of corporate sustainability crises. For this purpose, conceptual gaps and requirements are identified, and a theoretical framework is developed from which stakeholder‐related typology criteria are derived. The typology developed differentiates between eight crisis types that are interrelated and can also develop dynamically over time. By including and delimiting various crises concepts within a uniform framework, this paper contributes to the further development of knowledge in this still underdeveloped research field. As a result, insights into the early identification and further development of crises can be gained, which is especially important for crisis managers. In addition, public policymakers and actors of nonstate governance are supported in assessing the prerequisites and potentials of companies and stakeholders as actors of nonstate governance in dealing with various types of corporate sustainability crises, thereby contributing to achieving sustainability goals.

Analysis of Crisis Management for Sustainable Development of Fitness Center during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this research was to verify the importance and performance of sustainable crisis management in Korean fitness centers using Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). For this study, 304 fitness center executives and managers in Seoul and Gyeonggi region were selected from 21 March to 17 May 2020. Frequency analysis was performed using SPSS 24.0, and exploratory factor analysis was conducted to verify the validity and reliability. Priority analysis and IPA analysis were performed to compare the mean values, and the following results were obtained. In the first quadrant, there were six attributes besides keeping social distancing between employees and customers. In the second quadrant, there were four attributes in addition to regular disinfection of the gymnasium. In the third quadrant, there were six attributes besides maintain clean furniture. Third, there were six attributes other than maintaining clean furniture in the third quadrant. Lastly, in the fourth quadrant, there were three attributes in addition to the restriction of face-to-face meetings. The conclusion was as follows. First, equip supplies for the prevention of COVID-19, keep social distance, and check government support policies. Second, analyze economic support policies, and research their application methods. Third, prepare various non-face-to-face communication methods and Untact (noncontact) marketing strategies. Fourth, make a checklist for factors with relatively little importance.

PRODUCTION OF BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS AS SUBSTITUTE FOR CONVECTIONAL PLASTICS IN NIGERIA

The world is moving towards the 2050 net-zero emissions goal and tackling the ever-growing environmental and sustainability crisis by implementing the European Green Deal. The move towards a more sustainable society in Nigeria is success with the production, use, and disposal of plastic in Nigeria. Emissions generated by plastic production, and unlimited-growing of plastic waste has a huge negative impact on the living organisms because of the large accumulation in the landfills and aquatic environment. Adoption of bioplastics, which is under assessment, is one way to decouple Nigeria from the use of fossil resources, and to mitigate specific environmental risks related to plastic waste. In this work, we aim at reviewing the viability of bioplastics production in Nigeria, work done and yet to be done for effective production and commercialization. We also discuss some of the merits and challenges that can be currently identified with the adoption of these processes in Nigeria.

Challenges of Teachers Amidst Sustained Global Health Crisis

Teachers around the globe encountered challenges during the onset of the pandemic. This study, therefore, aimed to identify the challenges faced by the teachers in the Division of Manila amidst sustained global health crisis. This study employed quantitative and qualitative research designs to determine the challenges encountered by the teachers. There were 61 teacher respondents for the survey questionnaire and six head teachers for the online interview. The results showed that teachers encountered several challenges on classroom management, training, resources, technical skills, and communication, and were vouched by the head teachers who shared their perspectives on the aforementioned challenges. While teachers were at their best to deliver the lessons despite various challenges, they needed instructional and administrative supports during this trying time where the situation is entirely new to everyone.

Sustainable Denim Washing by Process Optimization

Now-a-days sustainability is a crucial issue in denim washing. This research initiative is performed aiming to resolve the crisis of sustainability in denim washing by process optimization technique which highlights the reduction of water, chemical and time as well as costing of denim garments. In this research work, process optimization technique is administered by reducing several wash & chemical application baths into a single bath confirming without alteration of physical properties and color fastness of denim fabric. For confirmation without alteration of physical properties and color fastness, several tests are carried out like tensile and tear strength, color fastness to rubbing, color fastness to wash, color fastness to water, color fastness to perspiration and CMC (Carboxy Methyl Cellulose) value for both conventional and sustainable washing method. BOD, COD and pH of waste water is determined which shows better result in sustainable washing method also. Reduction of rinsing time in sustainable washing method results in less consumption of water by 475 and process time by 19% and also saves $0.34/ dozen garments which validate the cost effectiveness of this sustainable washing method.

A Sustainability Crisis Makes Bad Law! - Towards Sandbox Thinking in EU Sustainable Finance Law and Regulation -

A Sustainability Crisis Makes Bad Law! - Towards Sandbox Thinking in EU Sustainable Finance Law and Regulation -

Reinventing the Steppe: The Agromeliorative Complex in the Russian Periphery

For centuries, the steppe had served as a frontier and as a borderland to the Russian empire. In the 1930s, however, the semi-arid fields to the northeast of Stavropol became the object of intensified agricultural reclamation. Following the Central Asian example of dryland irrigation, the Soviet leadership dreamed of transforming the steppe biome into an oasis of high-modernist progress. Promises of plentiful yields fueled the planning of new hydro-infrastructures devised to counter the destructive forces of nature and to make the steppe bloom. Poverty, hunger, and natural disasters were to be threats of the past. As large swaths of land in the North Caucasus were re-imagined on the drawing boards of Soviet hydro-engineers, an agromeliorative complex evolved that favored large-scale solutions over locally adapted means. From 1965, this complex was represented by the Ministry of Melioration and Water Management (Minvodkhoz). It was supported by leading members of the nomenklatura like Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. However, their one-sided reclamation policies ignored ample warnings on soil erosion and agricultural degradation that were caused by excessive irrigation. As a result, yields declined whereas state investment continually increased. This paper shows how the vision to convert semi-arid lands into blossoming oases of progress created a path dependency with largely devastating consequences, as the hydro-engineers did not acknowledge the fragile ecosystem of the steppe. This reveals a deep and systemic sustainability crisis within Soviet agriculture that contributed to the economically fueled collapse of 1991.

Smart Supply Chain Platforms During State of Emergency: The Role of Digital Academic Libraries in Fostering Sustainable Crisis Operation Management

Smart Supply Chain Platforms During State of Emergency: The Role of Digital Academic Libraries in Fostering Sustainable Crisis Operation Management

Environmental education and socio-ecological resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from educational action research

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted daily life globally, including education. Environmental science cautions that we must expect further disruptions as the sustainability crisis deepens. Resilience to these disruptions will be key to humanity’s survival in years to come. The pandemic constitutes a litmus test for environmental education’s effectiveness in fostering socio-ecological resilience. This paper uses Educational Action Research (EAR) to report on the impact of an environmental education intervention on students’ socio-ecological resilience during the pandemic. Using two-step participatory thematic analysis as part of the reflection phase of the EAR cycle, the author interviewed twenty students from a liberal arts college in The Netherlands about their perspectives on the pandemic. The findings suggest that environmental education can catalyse a change of perspective on the purpose of education, from instrumental to social-transformative; bring about greater concern for others in times of crisis; help to develop greater awareness of the systemic underpinnings of crises; and spur some students to take concrete action for change. However, the research cautions against undue optimism, as many students reverted to old patterns of thought and behaviour after the intervention. The EAR cycle closes with suggestions for developing better pedagogies to reach through to these students.

A feminist ethos for caring knowledge production in transdisciplinary sustainability science

Transdisciplinary Sustainability Science has emerged as a viable answer to current sustainability crises with the aim to strengthen collaborative knowledge production. To expand its transformative potential, we argue that Transdisciplinary Sustainability Science needs to thoroughly engage with questions of unequal power relations and hierarchical scientific constructs. Drawing on the work of the feminist philosopher María Puig de la Bellacasa, we examine a feminist ethos of care which might provide useful guidance for sustainability researchers who are interested in generating critical-emancipatory knowledge. A feminist ethos of care is constituted by three interrelated modes of knowledge production: (1) thinking-with, (2) dissenting-within and (3) thinking-for. These modes of thinking and knowing enrich knowledge co-production in Transdisciplinary Sustainability Science by (i) embracing relational ontologies, (ii) relating to the ‘other than human’, (iii) cultivating caring academic cultures, (iv) taking care of non-academic research partners, (v) engaging with conflict and difference, (vi) interrogating positionalities and power relations through reflexivity, (vii) building upon marginalised knowledges via feminist standpoints and (viii) countering epistemic violence within and beyond academia. With our paper, we aim to make a specific feminist contribution to the field of Transdisciplinary Sustainability Science and emphasise its potentials to advance this field.