German Energiewende : A Way to Sustainable Societies?

Education must guide students’ emotional development, not only to improve their skills and help them achieve their maximum performance, but to establish the foundations of a more cooperative and compassionate society. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, therefore, implies focusing on emotional aspects as well as financial, social, environmental, and scientific objectives. In this line, the goal of this study is to show how emotional intelligence, which is an essential dimension in the development and management of emotional competences required to build sustainable societies, plays a key role in optimising student’s academic performance in the classroom through compassion and academic commitment. The research model was tested with a questionnaire addressed to 550 students from four higher education institutions and one secondary school. The results of a structural equation analysis confirmed the study hypotheses. Emotional intelligence was shown to be positively related to compassion and higher levels of commitment, which, consequently, led to better academic performance. This finding will encourage interest in developing emotional intelligence, not only for its long-term value in training healthy citizens, but also for its short-term results in the classroom.

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Conceptual framework for increasing legitimacy and trust of sustainability governance

Energy Sustainability and Society ◽

10.1186/s13705-021-00280-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Inge Stupak ◽

Maha Mansoor ◽

C. Tattersall Smith

Keyword(s):

Good Governance ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Economic Activities ◽

Governance System ◽

Governance Model ◽

Governance Systems ◽

Sustainability Governance ◽

Sustainable Societies ◽

Key Terms

AbstractWhile the quantity of sustainability governance initiatives and systems has increased dramatically, crises persist over whether specific governance systems can be trusted as legitimate regulators of the sustainability of economic activities. This paper focuses on conceptual tools to improve our understanding of these crises as well as the facilitating factors and barriers for sustainability governance to play a role in transitioning to profoundly more sustainable societies than those that currently exist. Bioenergy is used throughout the paper as an example to aid contextually in understanding the theoretical and abstract arguments. We first define eight premises upon which our argumentation is developed. We then define sustainability, sustainability transition, legitimacy, and trust as a premise for obtaining effectiveness in communication and minimising risks associated with misunderstanding key terms. We proceed to examine the literature on “good governance” in order to reflect upon what defines "good sustainability governance" and what makes governance systems successful in achieving their goals. We propose input, output, and throughput legitimacy as three principles constituting “good” sustainability governance and propose associated open-ended criteria as a basis for developing operational standards for assessing the quality of a sustainability governance system or complex. As sustainability governance systems must develop to remain relevant, we also suggest an adaptive governance model, where continuous re-evaluation of the sustainability governance system design supports the system in remaining “good” in conditions that are complex and dynamic. Finally, we pull from the literature in a broad range of sciences to propose a conceptual “governance research framework” that aims to facilitate an integrated understanding of how the design of sustainability governance systems influences the legitimacy and trust granted to them by relevant actors. The framework is intended to enhance the adaptive features of sustainability governance systems so as to allow the identification of the causes of existing and emerging sustainability governance crises and finding solutions to them. Knowledge generated from its use may form a basis for providing policy recommendations on how to practically solve complex legitimacy and trust crises related to sustainability governance.

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Developing sustainable societies – a dialogical network perspective

International Journal of Social Economics ◽

10.1108/ijse-08-2013-0193 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 42 (6) ◽

pp. 583-596 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Are S. Ingulfsvann ◽

Ove Jakobsen ◽

Øystein Nystad

Keyword(s):

Factor Analysis ◽

Modern Society ◽

Business Organizations ◽

Society Business ◽

Content Type ◽

Northern Norway ◽

The Usa ◽

Planning Processes ◽

Sustainable Societies ◽

And Control

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss how and to what extent creative dialogue processes can have an impact on regional political planning processes in Norway. Politicians at Nordland County invited representatives from six different regions in Nordland to participate in café dialogues. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical material is collected from café-dialogues in Northern Norway in which representatives from civil society, business organizations, local government, and NGOs participated. The data processing is based on triangulation of hermeneutic interpretation, frequencies, and factor analysis. Findings – The findings indicate that most people want a “greener” future; this can be described as sustainable societies based on ecological production, distribution, consumption, and redistribution. People take on a more radical position in their ideas about the future than most politicians. The factor analysis grouped the participants into the following categories; “Ecological economics”, “Small is beautiful”, “Entrepreneurs”, and “Growth and control”. A large number of the participants are categorized either as “Circulation economics” or “Small is beautiful”. Practical implications – To solve the challenges of modern society politicians can instigate more radical solutions than they are in the habit of doing. The participants in the café dialogues describe fundamental changes in order to attain viable local societies per 2030. Originality/value – In this paper the authors demonstrate that cultural creatives in the USA give a relevant context for interpreting attitudes to change in small societies in Northern Norway.

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Getting Back on Track to Being Human

Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership ◽

10.24926/ijps.v4i1.151 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Darcia Narvaez

Keyword(s):

Toxic Stress ◽

Weed Species ◽

Dominant Culture ◽

Human Culture ◽

Free Riders ◽

Earth Systems ◽

Technological Advances ◽

Sustainable Societies ◽

The Individual

Cooperation and compassion are forms of intelligence. Their lack is an indication of ongoing stress or toxic stress during development that undermined the usual growth of compassion capacities. Though it is hard to face at first awareness, humans in the dominant culture tend to be pretty unintelligent compared to those from societies that existed sustainably for thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of years. Whereas in sustainable societies everyone must learn to cooperate with earth’s systems to survive and thrive, in the dominant culture this is no longer the case. Now due to technological advances that do not take into account the long-term welfare of earth systems, humans have become “free riders” until these systems collapse from abuse or misuse. The dominant human culture, a “weed species,” has come to devastate planetary ecosystems in a matter of centuries. What do we do to return ourselves to living as earth creatures, as one species among many in community? Humanity needs to restore lost capacities—relational attunement and communal imagination—whose loss occurs primarily in cultures dominated by child-raising practices and ways of thinking that undermine cooperative companionship and a sense of partnership that otherwise develops from the beginning of life. To plant the seeds of cooperation, democracy, and partnership, we need to provide the evolved nest to children, and facilitate the development of ecological attachment to their landscape. This will take efforts at the individual, policy, and institutional levels.

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Nordic EPOS - A FAIR Nordic EPOS Data Hub

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2770 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Annakaisa Korja ◽

Kuvvet Atakan ◽

Peter H. Voss ◽

Michael Roth ◽

Kristin Vogfjord ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solid Earth ◽

Arctic Region ◽

Research Community ◽

The Arctic ◽

Data Sets ◽

On Line ◽

Scientific Expertise ◽

Sustainable Societies ◽

And Training ◽

The Arctic Region

Nordic EPOS - A FAIR Nordic EPOS Data Hub &#8211; is a consortium of the Nordic geophysical observatories financed by NordForsk. It is delivering on-line data to European Plate Observing System&#8217;s Thematic Core Services (EPOS&#8217;s TCSs). Nordic EPOS consortium comprises of the Universities of Helsinki, Bergen, Uppsala, Oulu and GEUS and Icelandic Meteorological Office. Nordic EPOS enhances and stimulates the ongoing active Nordic interactions related to Solid Earth Research Infrastructures (RIs) in general and EPOS in particular. Nordic EPOS develops expertise and tools designed to integrate Nordic RI data and to enhance their accessibility and usefulness to the Nordic research community. Together we can address global challenges in Norden and with Nordic data.The Nordic EPOS&#8217;s main tasks are to advance the usage of multi-disciplinary Solid Earth data sets on scientific and societal problem solving, increase the amount of open, shared homogenized data sets, and increase the scientific expertise in creating sustainable societies in Nordic countries and especially in the Arctic region. In addition to developing services better suited for Nordic interest for EPOS, Nordic EPOS will also try to bring forward Nordic research interest, such as research of Arctic areas in TCSs and EPOS-ERIC governance and scientific boards.The Nordic EPOS is organized into Tasks and Activities. The project has six main infrastructure TASKs: I - Training in usage of EPOS-RI data and services; II - Nordic data integration and FAIRness; III - Nordic station management of seismological networks, IV - Induced seismicity, safe society; V - Ash and gas monitoring; and VI- Geomagnetic hazards. In addition, the project has one transversal TASK VII on Communication and dissemination. The activities within the TASKs are workshops, tutorials, demos and training sessions (virtual and on-site), and communication and dissemination of EPOS data and metadata information at local, national and international workshops, meetings, and conferences.

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Public policies as strategic asset management enablers: the case of Portugal

H2Open Journal ◽

10.2166/h2oj.2020.052 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 428-436

Author(s):

H. Alegre ◽

R. Amaral ◽

R. S. Brito ◽

J. M. Baptista

Keyword(s):

Asset Management ◽

Public Policies ◽

Well Being ◽

Building Blocks ◽

International Standards ◽

Water Infrastructure ◽

Water Services ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Physical Assets ◽

Sustainable Societies

Abstract Urban water supply, wastewater and storm water services (globally, water services) are essential to society. The lack of permanent, safe, and respondent services has inevitable consequences on public health and the well-being of communities, on the economy, and on the environment. Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognizes this; failing to meet it necessarily affects the accomplishment of many of the other SDGs. Water services’ provision depends on expensive and long-lasting physical assets. Managing them strategically (e.g., according to the international standards on asset management, series ISO 55x and to the IWA recommendations on infrastructure asset management) is, therefore, fundamental for sustainable societies. Countries need to have sound public policies that enable asset management of water infrastructure. Portugal is a paradigmatic case. This paper elaborates on key government goals, on why asset management is important to meet them, and on key building blocks that a coherent public policy should consider in order to enable asset management of water infrastructure. It also presents how Portugal has been implementing this process, addressing the challenges that need to be overcome.

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