Social and Economic Outcomes of Fisheries Certification: Characterizing Pathways of Change in Canned Fish Markets

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) eco-labeling program provides fisheries a pathway to demonstrate their sustainability by undergoing an environmental certification. Like other standard-setters, the MSC’s ‘theory of change’ presumes that markets use this information to select for sustainable products, providing an incentive for producers to improve their practices and become certified. However, the underlying mechanisms which actually work to link market behavior and participation in the program in different contexts have not been systematically identified. We draw on broad MSC field experience to identify processes that have supported the theory of change in individual fisheries. Then, we develop a broadly applicable rapid assessment protocol, relying on a semi-structured interviews of key informants, to gather systematic evidence for key dynamics within the theory of change: the effects of going through MSC certification on market processes, partnerships in the fishery, and governance. In a pilot test of the protocol, we identify important common and idiosyncratic processes in three canned product fisheries: United States west coast albacore tuna, Brittany sardines, and Portuguese sardines. We find that the harvesters and buyers/processors in these fisheries sought certification primarily to expand or maintain their market share, and that certification was synergistic with stakeholder cooperation. The cases demonstrate how our rapid assessment interviews allow program participants to relate their experience in their own words yet facilitate systematic comparison to identify common mechanisms within the theory of change. We propose its wider application to systematically advance our understanding of social and economic processes that drive of eco-label interventions in different geographies and supply chains around the world.

The effects of social marketing efforts in motivating unemployed adults' participation in skills training programmes in South Africa

PurposeThe concern in this article is that there is low interest in adult education and training (AET) programmes of the unemployed adults in developing countries. The purpose of the article is to determine the effects of social marketing efforts in motivating adult learners to acquire marketable skills for poverty reduction.Design/methodology/approachThe study used the qualitative (semi-structured interviews) method for data collection from 12 adult learners and five managers of AET centres of South Africa. The qualitative method in the form of semi-structured interviews helped the researcher to present the data from the perspective of the centre managers and adult learners on how the AET centres used social marketing efforts in motivating to acquire and utilise skills in entrepreneurial ventures.FindingsThe findings reveal that the effects of social marketing efforts consisted of persuading adult learners to enrol for skills training programmes, to attract their engagement to acquire marketable skills and to form business groups or co-operatives as a means of transition from skills acquisition to entrepreneurial ventures. As elements of social marketing effort in the skills training delivery, the AET centres used teaching and learning approaches and motivated the adult learners to acquire skills.Practical implicationsFrom the social marketing perspective, the practical implication of the findings for the policy consists of demonstrating the importance of social marketing efforts in skills training programmes to reduce poverty amongst poor and unemployed adults. The findings demonstrate the need for coordinated campaign activities at AET centre regional levels to motivate the engagement of the unemployed adults; hence, they will become aware of the benefits of the skills training programmes to improve their lives.Social implicationsThe lack of motivation is still the main barrier for participation in adult skills programmes, although there is significant progress made in many countries. In addition, social marketing efforts point to a need to promote, encourage and recognise participation from private sector for joint stakeholder cooperation.Originality/valueThis article is unique because it provides empirical findings on how to mitigate the barriers blocking adult participation in skills training programmes by using the social marketing efforts in motivating them to acquire marketable skills. The article contributes to the body of knowledge by determining the effects of the social marketing efforts in motivating adult learners to acquire marketable skills for poverty reduction. The efforts entail developing and implementing campaigns to motivate adult learners in their communities and stakeholder cooperation.

Health co-inquiry in migraine: Online participation and stakeholder experiences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

A migraine is more than head pain, and chronic migraine can dramatically impact a person and those around her/him/them. To better understand those effects it is important to study the experiences of persons with migraine and their caregivers, family, friends, and health and mental health providers. When they collaborate, stakeholders may improve outcomes for persons with chronic migraine. One type of stakeholder cooperation is Health Co-Inquiry, involving a person-centered approach, activation of persons toward collaboration and improved health, evidence-based practice, and integrated care. The current study investigated Health Co-Inquiry at online forums, blogs, and bulletin boards where people came together to discuss migraine. A “Bifurcated Method” was used to conduct inductive, thematic analyses, quantitize themes, and cross-check themes using a robot program, which crawled the Internet to gather data about stakeholder sites and posts related to migraine. Key themes in the online narratives of migraine stakeholders included seeking and providing advice, help, and information. In addition, giving personal stories and testimonials, selling computer applications and products, and providing misinformation were frequent. Differences in the types of posts by various stakeholder groups were identified and may inform researchers about their varied perspectives and goals. Remarkably, migraine is still migraine–before a pandemic and during it. As such, migraineur concerns remained stable across thematic analyses of blog and forum posts before and during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

One Atmosphere: Integrating Air Pollution and Climate Policy and Governance

Few challenges pose a greater threat to a healthy planet and people than air pollution and climate change. Over the past three decades, research has demonstrated that integrated solutions to air pollution and climate change can yield co-benefits that support cost-effective, coherent policies. However, research on co-benefits has yet to generate policy responses consistent with this promise. This paper argues that realizing this potential requires more rigorous research on how governance affects the opportunities and incentives to align the interests of government agencies, scientists, and other stakeholders at multiple levels. The article proposes a “One Atmosphere approach” consisting of three building blocks to strengthen that alignment: (1) continually incorporating and strategically timing the introduction of integrated visions; (2) reforming governance arrangements to encourage interagency collaboration and multi-stakeholder cooperation; and (3) supporting integrated visions and institutional cooperation with standardized metrics and assessment methods. This article is also the introduction to the Special Issue ‘One Atmosphere: Integrating Air Pollution and Climate Policy and Governance’, aimed at fostering the multidisciplinary dialogue needed for more integrated air pollution and climate change policies.

Current and Future Professional Insights on Cooperation towards Circular Economy Adoption

A circular economy aims to capture the remaining value in waste through several disruptive actions such as reuse, recycle, recover, and regenerate. However, stakeholders in this transition often find themselves in conflict due to their different objectives and priorities. Cooperation is regarded as a critical feature in the implementation of a circular economy; however, it is not easily achieved in practice. Additionally, there is limited research regarding stakeholder cooperation in circular economy development. This paper aims to address this gap by analysing the characteristics of stakeholder cooperation through questionnaire surveys of two stakeholder groups with an interest in the adoption of circular economy principles for municipal solid waste management in Birmingham, UK: 101 MSc students focussing on urban sustainability and 27 businesses engaged in alternative sustainable materials. The paper’s primary contribution, being the first to survey participants about perceptions of other stakeholders, has been to gain insights into how stakeholder cooperation is key to facilitating the transition to a circular economy approach. The analysis demonstrated that circular economy awareness, cooperation, and readiness from stakeholders were high, yet their practices do not sufficiently align with this necessary foundation. That said, the study also revealed several encouraging perspectives from stakeholders toward circular economy development, despite benefits and costs not always being evident to all participants.

Cocreation for Climate Change—Needs for Actions to Vitalize Drivers and Diminish Barriers

This study determines the conditions and provides a recommendation for fostering cocreation for climate change adaptation and mitigation (CCA&M). In postulating that insufficient cocreation by stakeholders in the quadruple helix model is an important factor contributing to the low effectiveness of climate actions in the regions, we have focused our research on identifying real stakeholder engagement in climate action and identifying the needs, barriers, and drivers for strengthening the cocreation process. We identified the needs for action highlighted by stakeholders as having an impact on reducing barriers and stimulating drivers. We treated the identified needs for action as deep leverage points (intent and design) focused on three realms—knowledge, values, and institutions—in which engagement and cocreation can be strengthened and have the potential to increase the effectiveness of climate action taken by stakeholders within our quadruple helix. We recommend knowledge-based cocreation, which puts the importance of climate action in the value system and leads to paradigm reevaluation. The implementation of the identified needs for action requires the support of institutions, whereby they develop standards of cooperation and mechanisms for their implementation as a sustainable framework for stakeholder cooperation. The research has proved how the quadruple helix operates for climate action in the Poznań Agglomeration. We believe that this case study can be a reference point for regions at a similar level of development, and the methods used and results obtained can be applied in similar real contexts to foster local stakeholders in climate action.

TREATMENT OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE BATTERY WASTE IN CHINA: A REVIEW OF EXISTING POLICIES

This paper reviews existing policies for supporting the treatment of electric vehicle (EV) battery waste in China, and identifies some of their major shortcomings that policy makers may like to consider while making policy decisions. The shortcomings of existing policies identified in this paper include: 1) no clear provisions for historical and orphan batteries; 2) no target for battery collection; 3) unclear definition of the scope of authority among various central and local agencies involved in the regulation of waste battery treatment; 4) unclear requirements for data auditing and verification for tracking the entire life cycle of EV batteries; 5) limited consideration of the challenges to ensure stakeholder cooperation; and 6) no explicit specification of the mechanisms for financing waste battery treatment. This paper also makes some practical policy suggestions for overcoming these shortcomings.

Strategies for Handling Stunting in Bandung City

Despite being one of the metropolitan cities in Indonesia, the prevalence of stunting in Bandung City is more than the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. Stunting is a threat to the quality of human development, also lowering economic productivity. A strategy to reduce and handle stunting is needed so that social and environmental aspects are essential to facilitate the policymaker. This study analyzes the stunting situation in Bandung City and then arranges villages based on the stunting risk index to get an operative recommendation. The quantitative method analysis uses climate change adaptation which includes hazard and vulnerability indicators. At the same time, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) forms the qualitative method with key persons to identify problems and formulate impressive strategies. The results showed that 14 villages have the highest risk of stunting in Bandung City, to be intervention priority. These villages have relatively high poverty, poor access to sanitation, and low adaptive capacity. Recommendations from this study are focused on regional development planning, increasing community participation, and multi-stakeholder cooperation through strengthening innovation, collaboration, and innovation.