With the large increase in transportation over the last decades and the associated negative impacts upon the environment and society, a more sustainable use of transport is a crucial policy issue. This analysis focuses on road freight transport of selected produce (carrots, cabbage, apples and pears) with the aim to appraise the sustainability of road freight transport of these for the Slovene market. To this end, we take into account self-sufficiency, import and export features, transport needs, produce origin and prices differences between domestic and non-domestic produce. The method used for obtaining transported quantities, exported from and imported to the county, was material flow accounts (MFA). Then we undertook an analysis of sustainability of road transport of produce where we considered the country's transport needs. The study finds that road freight transport for selected produce is not sustainable. Recognising the normative dimensions of sustainability, the role of social marketing in this context is explored and suggestions on how to promote more sustainable transport solutions advanced.

Purpose: Mekong Delta's shrimp farming contributes to socio-economic development but tends to reduce the mangrove area. On the one hand, NGOs advocate balancing ecology and economy, while on the other hand, the Vietnamese government supports intensifying shrimp production. The latter strategy increases shrimp diseases and marginalises smallholders. To influence the opinions, knowledge and behaviour of shrimp farmers, we developed and tested a serious board game. Approach: Through several iterations, we designed a realistic board game mimicking local shrimp farming. Then, after conducting three sessions of gameplay with farmers in three sites, we assessed how this gameplay influenced players. We used a semi-experimental set-up by collecting data on the day of the gameplay, and on two further time-points. Findings: After the gameplays, farmers reported to have learned about the risks of monoculture-intensive-shrimp system and the advantages of hybrid systems. Likert ratings showed that players adopted innovations faster and, in case of shrimp diseases, consulted commercial service-providers less, but with other farmers more. They confirmed to have learned that the best strategy for them would be to adopt hybrid systems, i.e. intensify part of the area of mixed-mangrove or improved-extensive shrimp farms. Theoretical implications: Realistic board games can create opportunities for social learning and training of groups which are not always easy to reach. Practical implications: Board games can support transfer of knowledge and skills to farmers, and can develop their critical thinking. Creation: The findings that board games are effective in the context of a top-down extension systems offer value opportunities.

Previous studies of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGO) have primarily taken place within a nation-state perspective without considering multiple levels of politics and governance. Because environmental problems are usually cross-border phenomena, environmental movements must develop transnational features to play constructive roles in politics and governance. This study contributes to the theorizing and study of transnationalization of ENGOs by illuminating the different regional conditions for this process. The conditions for ENGOs to develop transnational collaboration are explored by comparing ENGOs from six countries in two macro-regions: Sweden, Germany, and Poland in the Baltic Sea region, and Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia in the Adriatic-Ionian Sea region. Grounded in the literatures on social movement theory and ENGO transnationalization, the study identifies how different national, macro-regional, and European institutional structures shape the conditions under which ENGOs develop cross-border collaborations, and demonstrate the importance of long-term and dynamic interplay between processes that occur at the domestic and transnational levels.

Most environmental problems are extremely long term and have cross-border implications. For environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) to achieve significant impact on environmental governance cross-border and sustained activities are required. The purpose of the paper is to identify key barriers and possible pathways to develop sustained and transnationalenvironmental activism among ENGOs operating in strikingly different political contexts.  

Our analysis is based on qualitative methodology and empirical analyses of ENGOs in six countries (Sweden, Germany, Poland, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia) and two regional contexts, the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic Sea regions. The study is based on document analyses and semi-structured interviews with representatives from 4-6 key ENGOs in each country. The theoretical framework departs primarily from social movement theory.

The paper reveals intriguing similarities and differences between the countries regarding ENGOs' abilities to develop sustained and cross-border activism. We pay particular attention to differences in opportunity structures for resource mobilization. The last decades, the European Union (EU) has emerged as a key opportunity structure that in various ways facilitate cross-border collaboration and capacity building among ENGOs, particularly in Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. However, the EU also considerably shapes the conditions for ENGOs to set independent long-term agendas. With the exception of Germany and Sweden, ENGOs rely heavily on their ability to develop a "project mind-set", which in turn requires fund-raising skills and procedures. Also ENGOs in Germany and Sweden make use of public grants. However, the fact that they historically have been able to mobilize huge number of members/supporters –which is still extremely difficult particularly in post-communist countries - have profound implications for abilities to develop transnational and sustained environmental activism. We discuss the role of (dis)trust (institutional vs. family-based trust), political culture and historical legacies to analyze these remarkably different conditions for resource mobilization.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are championed for providing co-benefits to cities and residents, yet their environmental justice impacts are increasingly debated. In this paper, we explore whether and how hybrid governance approaches, such as Mosaic Governance, may contribute to just transformations and sustainable cities through fostering long-term collaborations between local governments, local communities, and grassroots initiatives. Based on case studies in three major European cities, we propose and then exemplify six possible pathways to increase environmental justice: greening the neighborhood, diversifying values and practices, empowering people, bridging across communities, linking to institutions, and scaling of inclusive discourses and practices. Despite the diversity of environmental justice outcomes across cases, our results consistently show that Mosaic Governance particularly contributes to recognition justice through diversifying NBS practices in alignment with community values and aspirations. The results demonstrate the importance of a wider framing of justice in the development of NBS, sensitive to social, cultural, economic and political inequities as well understanding potential pathways to enhance not only environmental justice, but also social justice at large. Especially in marginalised communities, Mosaic Governance holds much potential to advance social justice by enabling empowering, bridging, and linking pathways across diverse communities and NBS practices.

The concept of ecosystem services has been extensively studied in recent decades. Most studies have focused on describing the specific aspects such as production, spatial extent, valuation of services and the trade-off between services. Few studies however assess the practitioners? views on the frameworks, models or tools developed. In this paper, we report on a multi-stakeholder workshop where two tools were tested (i) the ecosystem service cascade framework was tested as a means to frame the issues and (ii) a participatory-spatial modelling method, QUICKScan, was tested as an aid to support discussion over natural resource management and planning in a multi-use landscape. A focused group discussion was utilised to determine stakeholders? views of the cascade framework and pre- and post-workshop questionnaires quantified the stakeholders? views of the QUICKScan method. The stakeholders identified both positive and negative aspects of both tools. The diversity of views expressed were associated with (i) the past experience of the individual with the issues discussed, (ii) the technical aspects of the tools i.e. the ability with GIS and (iii) the level of new shared knowledge they reported acquiring on the day which was related to their initial knowledge of the issue and area studied.

Nature-based solutions directed at improving biodiversity, on both public and private land, can provide multiple benefits, but many of these benefits are not being fully realised. One reason is the normative and cognitive disconnect between people and nature, highlighting the need for new learning programs to foster better nature connections. More is known about learning in the context of community gardens than in relation to private gardens. Using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, this study explores learning among residents engaged in home gardening for biodiversity in Winnipeg, Canada. We uncovered diverse and interconnected learning processes/activities founded on formative childhood experiences. The processes/activities were non-formal and informal, and included individual, social and blended experiences. Learning outcomes were also mutually influencing and multi-levelled, comprising normative, cognitive/behavioural and relational changes. The results support an analytical framework suggesting how learning-focused initiatives can enhance biodiversity on private property and aid in delivery of nature-based solutions.

Intergenerational justice (IGJ) has long been utilized in academic contexts such as philosophy and political theory. However, IGJ has increasingly become politicized. That is, it has been translated into more tangible ideas and discourses for public scrutiny, contestation, and action. This politicization is strongly represented by youth activism, which has utilized the concept to demand urgent political action and to defend the right to be included and represented in decision-making processes, particularly regarding climate change-related issues. The central topic of discussion in this perspective article is the strategic identification of youth inclusion with IGJ, and specifically the risks involved in accepting this identification. In this article we focus on urban environmental planning and argue that it is important to separate the practice of youth inclusion and the concept of IGJ to address these concerns and explore alternative strategies for incorporating IGJ in urban environmental planning. We then proceed to explore potential urban environmental planning approaches that are more intergenerationally just and conclude by critically reflecting on how the current political economy enables or hinders a more intergenerationally just approach to urban environmental planning.

This paper describes the development of an interactive tool which allows playing different soundscapes by mixing diverse environmental sounds on demand. This tool is titled Our Sound Space (OSS) and has been developed as part of an ongoing project where we test methods and tools for the participation of young people in spatial planning. As such OSS is meant to offer new opportunities to engage youth in talks about planning, placemaking and more sustainable living environments. In this paper, we describe an implementation of OSS that we are using as an interactive soundscape installation sited in a public place daily visited by people from a diversity of entities (e.g. university, a gymnasium, a restaurant, start-ups). The OSS installation is designed to allow simultaneous activation of several prerecorded sounds broadcast through four loudspeakers. The installation is interactive, meaning that it can be activated and operated by anyone via smartphones and is designed to allow interaction among multiple people at the same time and space. 

In Sweden, the twenty-first century came with a new generation of biosphere reserves (BRs). Between 2005 and 2011 , five nomination forms for BRs were submitted to the Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme, hosted b the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for inclusion in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Interestingly, in all of these cases, actors at different leels mobbilized and collaborated to endorse the BR proposals. The inclusion of governmental and municipal autorities, civil society and in some cases the private sector, has provided an opportunity for inter-sectoral leaning on sustainable development. Two more nomination forms were submitted in 2018, both clearly showing that they had learned from previous nomination processes and from the actual implementation of the BRs.

The youth movement “Fridays for Future” has spurred new interest from the research community aboutthe way in which young people engage in politics and governance of social and physical environment.The recent wave of youth activism originated from school strikes concerning the failure of the adults totake any serious measures against climate change. Over the past two years, there is a growing researchinterest to study how youth articulate their concerns about the present and the future, and how adults payattention to these, and act on these demands in practical terms e.g., if, and how these translate into currentsocial and political affairs. Youth research trending in the last decades has investigated why youth politicalorganizations fail to attract young people. Researchers have investigated the ways in which young peopleengage politically e.g. via social media, rather than being loyal to traditional political parties. Much ofthis literature is research done on the young, but more recently a new strand of research has been emergingwhere researchers work with the young, in order to gain a better understanding of how social and politicalengagement can be articulated.

In spatial planning of urban areas, there is a need for new methods for meaningful inclusion of less represented voices as those of young people. This study focuses on how participatory design, design fiction and sound design can be combined to engage youth in urban planning processes. This is investigated by developing and testing a method called participatory sound fiction. The method was tested with a group of young residents in a suburban area in Sweden. Sound fictions of the suburb in 2170 were created and discussed among the youth participants. The results show that through discussions and speculations about the future, important insights were revealed about the youths’ reality, which can be of value in spatial planning processes as well as in understandings of how the youth experiences their living area. Furthermore, the study found that sound can broaden youths’ perspective on their immediate environment, that participatory sound fiction has the potential to engage youths, and that youths prefer to discuss the present to feel that their voices are being heard.

This article reports on a study where we used a novel method to work with university students at a media technology and design programme to innovate on questions related to futuring in an educational context. Participating students used creative methods, paper crafting and design methods to “hack” the university campus in a post-COVID-19 scenario. This study situates hackathon as a design method that can be used to foster problem-solving and critical thinking skills in the context of current challenges. The students were asked to identify possible challenges in a post-COVID-19 return on campus and consider solutions to these challenges. They were tasked to shape their solutions in the form of a “sustainable artefact” meant to facilitate a smoother, safer, and welcoming return to campus life. In this study we reflect on how they engaged critically with the campus green and built infrastructure and how have they considered changes that would make their return to campus life a positive experience. Through the analysis of students’ assignments, we demonstrate how this method allowed for space in finding one’s own voice, how the design material supported students’ work on future design, and how aspects of future design are helping students finding a way of acting upon current calls to re-work our cities.

Cities are becoming increasingly complex as a multitude of interests, needs, values and ways of living converge. For this reason, it is important to understand this diversity and explore how it could be captured by planning and governance processes. This is commonly done in participatory spatial planning processes where well-educated, adult, and economically stable citizens would commonly provide input to the process. Younger demographic groups as children and youth are rarely involved. In 2022 Sweden, however, passed an act that states that children and youth shall be part of spatial planning when they are to be affected by given interventions. 

There are many diverse good examples of youth participation that offer valuable insights and grounding to this new turn. Yet, youth is not an easy catch. Youth is a very diverse group, and more often than not, they are critical of the status quo, and thrive most when challenged on tasks that they find interesting. Engaging youth in classical workshop sessions with experts discussing maps or models might not work at all. Here some have suggested that art, crafting, and novel technology could help to develop meaningful participatory processes. 

In the study presented here, we report on an attempt to explore a novel method. We introduce an activity where 52 students at a media and design bachelor program at a Swedish university explored the use of art and design methods to ‘hack’ their campus in a post-Covid-19 scenario. The students were asked to work with the design materials – paper and cardboard – to give shape to alternative ideas about how to hack the campus environment. They were asked to develop a “sustainable artefact” representing a solution to the challenge of returning after the pandemic. They were asked to critically look at the current infrastructure and think about what they would like to change to make it a more sustainable place. 

The data set for this study consists of 52 assignments including tangible material representations of the work in the form of images of i) the resulting designed artifact  (details, work-in-progress, final prototype), ii) of montage images of the designed artifact contextualized and placed into the campus environment, as well as iii) written reflections about the task at hand. The assignments were analyzed using a thematic content analysis and analysis of the sustainable artifacts. 

The designed artifacts were created from a range of different ideas and observations. Some were made with the purpose to reduce stress, others to promote mental and physical health, or to boots social gatherings and togetherness. The typology of these spans from artifacts that are inspired by furniture that promotes meetings and social interaction, collective gardening areas, bird nests, litter containers, green houses, training equipment, tools to provide feedback, interactive screens and power stations both for bikes and phones. 

Young people are an important group in the cities, but young people's perspectives are not always included in processes for urban planning. The interdisciplinary research project Planning with youth (2019-2024) funded by FORMAS examines how youth can be involved in the work of planning the city's change by exploring new methods. The aim of the project is to elaborate on meaningful participation, justice and novel ways to engage youths in governance of urban living environments. Scientific literature on spatial planning recognizes diversity of needs and the importance of inclusivity when seeking to make public space safer, secure, and greener. However, young people’s voices are often missing in the planning of our living environments, especially in ethnically and socio-economically diverse communities. Recently, the child convention law promotes planners to involve youth in addition to the normative expectation of having more inclusive planning. In turn, there is a knowledge gap on how different participatory tools allow young people to reflect upon and express their needs, values and preferences about green-blue infrastructure. The project in this position statement seeks to fill this knowledge gap by 1) mapping current challenges and questions planners face in relation to the involvement of youth in planning, 2) testing and comparing participatory tools with different groups of young people, and evaluate if/how they are allow to express their preferences and needs, and 3) creating a framework with recommendations on how to engage youth in the design of green and blue public space, to support planners and other practitioners. This has been done by testing and elaborating on digital gaming activities, artbased activities and creative workshops, and we would like to share the insights from these activities in line with the theme of sustainability and inclusivity.

Qualitative research related to the human dimensions of conservation and environment is growing in quantity. Rigorous syntheses of such studies can help develop understanding and inform decision-making. They can combine findings from studies in varied or similar contexts to address questions relating to, for example, the lived experience of those affected by environmental phenomena or interventions, or to intervention implementation. Researchers in environmental management have adapted methodology for systematic reviews of quantitative research so as to address questions about the magnitude of intervention effects or the impacts of human activities or exposure. However, guidance for the synthesis of qualitative evidence in this field does not yet exist. The objective of this paper is to present a brief overview of different methods for the synthesis of qualitative research and to explore why and how reviewers might select between these. The paper discusses synthesis methods developed in other fields but applicable to environmental management and policy. These methods include thematic synthesis, framework synthesis, realist synthesis, critical interpretive synthesis and meta-ethnography. We briefly describe each of these approaches, give recommendations for the selection between them, and provide a selection of sources for further reading. © 2019 The Author(s).

In the coastal area of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, much of the mangrove forest has been cut to make space for expansion of industry and aquaculture. Export-oriented shrimp farming is a particularly fast-growing business. Nonetheless, the importance of tropical mangrove forest ecosystems for coastal protection and marine biodiversity is widely recognized. The Vietnamese government, supported by non-governmental organizations and donors, has sought to restore mangrove forest. To this end, the government has promoted mixed or integrated mangrove-shrimp systems in which farmers maintain at least 40 per cent of their area under mangrove cover. Since 2012, mangrove reforestation, care and protection has benefited from local authority stimulus as well. Multiple studies have examined the condition of the mangrove forest in Ben Tre and other coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta. However, no research has investigated the role of social dynamics in farmers' willingness to shift to, or maintain, integrated mangrove-shrimp systems. Specifically, the influence of information, group dynamics and social learning on farmer decision-making is poorly understood and, indeed, hardly investigated in Vietnam. This article reports on a study of social processes in three communes in Binh Dai District, Ben Tre Province, Vietnam. We conducted 42 semi-structured interviews (with 34 farmers and eight local officials) and used secondary data. Our preliminary findings indicate that social dynamics in these communes were issue-driven and played an important role in farmers' decisions to adopt, or convert to, the integrated mangrove-shrimp farming system. Television, radio, the internet, books, neighbours and training courses all had some influence in farmer decision-making processes. However, our findings suggest that the accessibility, usefulness, relevance and approach of these communication methods must be improved if they are to adequately inform and support local farmers.

The aim of this synthesis fact sheet is to present a sustainable spatial planning framework for revitalising green spaces and meeting spots for social inclusion, biodiversity and well-being, including safety and security. We provide important insights for city planners about how new partnerships can be established between social entrepreneurs, NGOs, municipalities and marginalised groups, with a view to achieve social inclusion, biodiversity and well-being outcomes in green spaces and associated meeting spots. This work is supported by VIVAPLAN, an international research consortium funded by FORMAS, The Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development.

On the 25^th January, 25 researchers, social entrepreneurs and policy makers attended a MOVIUM and SLU Urban Futures funded workshop on “Rethinking urban nature to promote human well-being and livelihoods”.  The objectives of the workshop were to identify and discuss integrated digital, social and nature solutions for the use, management and governance of urban nature in the City of Malmö; and to provide a platform for knowledge sharing and networking between researchers and practitioners.

Multiple enlightening presentations on how to plan, design and manage urban nature were provided by the cities of Malmö and Copenhagen, social entrepreneurs and academics. Each presentation guided a creative workshop activity that involved four groups creating an integrated solution using Lego and other materials to address the concerns of citizens presented in different scenarios relevant to the use and management of urban nature in Malmö.  Each group was asked to present their presentation to the wider group, what inspired them the most from the workshop activity and how their understanding of integrated solutions in urban nature changed over the day. This report presents a summary of each group’s creations and findings.

This datafile contains information about movements at a global scale, that were identified as being composed mainly by mothers, fathers and others who have close connections with youth and children, on behalf of whom they seek and demand change.

The data summarized in this file is about groups, movements and organizations made up in large extent of mothers who in that role engage in activism and related activities in the public sphere.

The accuracy of interdisciplinarity measurements depends on how well the data is used for this purpose and whether it can meaningfully inform about work that crosses disciplinary domains. At present, there are no ad hoc databases compiling information only and exclusively about interdisciplinary research, and those interested in assessing it have to reach out to existing databases that have been compiled for other purposes. Karlovčec and Mladenić (Scientometrics 102:433–454, 2015) saw an opportunity in a national database that brings together information meant to be used for assessing the scientific performance of the Slovene academic community, which they used to obtain information that was then applied to measure interdisciplinarity. However, the context and purpose for which databases are produced have certain implications on their use. In their study, the authors overlooked the social and political context within which that specific database was created, is maintained and is used for (evaluation of research performance). This resulted in an incomplete interpretation of the results obtained and description of the current situation. This commentary addresses two aspects that warrant further consideration: one pertains to the limitations of the dataset itself and the measures used to debunk these, while the second pertains to the line of reasoning behind the integration and use of IDR measures in this study.

This analysis reflects on the use of multidimensional constructs for the study of social learning in natural resource management. Insight from deliberative democracy and adult learning literature are used to ground the identified four dimensions (the moral dimension the cognitive dimension, the relational dimension and trust). Then, a selection of empirical cases is surveyed with the aim to develop and understanding how well the empirical outcomes reported by these sit against the insights borrowed from the deliberative democracy and pedagogy literature. The paper concludes with some recommendations for future research.

Contemporary approaches to environmental research are calling for a type of scientific inquiry that is able to bring together the natural and social sciences. This with the aim to advance our understanding of environmental issues and produce synthetic and actionable knowledge meant to address these. Yet, interdisciplinarity research of this type is a demanding and challenging pursuit; many have shown that in certain thematic areas and geographic regions practice falls behind discourse. We bring together ideas about interdisciplinary research collaborations (after Patricia L. Rosenfield) and interdisciplinary epistemic synthesis (after Julie T. Klein) that are used to analyse a sample of research projects funded (from 2006 to 2013) by the Slovene Research Agency. We triangulated interview data (with principal investigators) with document analysis and integrated these with other secondary data. Our results suggest for the sample of environmental projects to be interdisciplinary in a narrow sense, this prevalently within natural and life sciences with little input from the humanities and social sciences. Also, the results obtained suggest that environmental research with unambiguous problem solving objectives is preferred over research with a high degree of abstraction, as involved in theoretical and conceptual work.

The concept of Mosaic Governance rests on relationships grounded in local context and puts forward ideas about how these relationships can be catalysed for transformative change. As part of the research project VIVA-PLAN we designed a Working Package where some of these assumptions have been put forward for further experimentation and testing. As part to this our project team partnered with a local NGO Läsfrämjarinstitutet for the organization of an on-site local stakeholder event which was held on the 25th of August 2021 in Södertälje (Sweden). The ambition for this event was to bring together ideas and insights from two different and now emerging engagement methods: i) hackathons and ii) co-creation, to create opportunities for discussion, visioning and local engagement. At this event, we shared data (summarised in data visualization sheets) collected in the course of our project about local conditions in Ronna, a residential area in Södertälje. In total, 15 participants attended the event, all affiliated with public or private organizations that are active in or near Ronna with a clear role and contribution to community building there. The event helped to unpack some of our findings and to further discuss challenges that emerged from data collection in Ronna. The event was a productive gathering where important questions were raised and discussed about the challenges and opportunities of the Ronna residential area, and how they align with ideas about more sustainable living environments as currently advanced by Swedish planning policy

Background: The marine natural environment is under high pressure. Not only are marine resources as flora and fauna intensively used (with consequent decrease of stocks) but in recent times, the seas have become the next frontier of a specific type of anthropization (i.e. the conversion of open space by human action) that of energy infrastructure. While this is a current process and, within the European Union, only recently policy actions have been taken in order facilitate a more coherent coordination of interventions (Marine Strategy), little research has been done about formal and informal institutional arrangements already existing between the many stakeholders who have specific stakes in the Adriatic Sea.

The North Adriatic Sea is an area characterised by a history of (between state) conflicts and tensions that impacted on the development of collaborative arrangement for the management of the marine environment. Of interest to this research, therefore, was to map out formal and informal institutional arrangements currently in place between stakeholders from Italy, Slovenia and Croatia - countries with coastal access to the North Adriatic Sea. Also, of an interest was to understand if, and how, participatory practices are being used in relation to decision-making and management of the marine natural environment ( in particular siting of an energy infrastructure).

Methods:  In this case study we used interviews, archive material, policy documents and other secondary data (statistics, official documents) for the analysis.

Findings: The preliminary analysis of our data suggests that the North Adriatic Sea is a highly politicized area over which different stakeholders advance claims but engage in little, or no cooperation. Marine resources appear to be under high pressure and in the following months we will continue the exploration into the institutional arrangements. 

Abstract Spatial decision support systems (SDSS) represent a step forward in efforts to account for the spatial dimension in environmental decision-making. The aim of SDSS is to help policymakers and practitioners access, interpret and understand information from data, analyses and models, and guide them in identifying possible actions during a decision-making process. Researchers, however, report difficulties in up-take of SDSS by the intended users. Some suggest that this field would benefit from investigation of the social aspects involved in SDSS design, development, testing and use. Borrowing insights from the literature on science-policy interactions, we explore two key social processes: knowledge integration and learning. Using a sample of 36 scientific papers concerning SDSS in relation to environmental issues, we surveyed whether and how the selected papers reported on knowledge integration and learning. We found that while many of the papers mentioned communication and collaboration with prospective user groups or stakeholders, this was seldom underpinned by a coherent methodology for enabling knowledge integration and learning to surface. This appears to have hindered SDSS development and later adoption by intended users.

In this chapter, recent literature on nature-based tourism is discussed in terms of its potential in the eastern part of Kraški Rob,in terms of characteristics and natural features of touristic interest. Kraški Rob is a geomorphological structural stage north of Slovenian Istria. It is an area of high ecological interest and parts of it have been declared Natura 2000 sites. It is rural, sparsely inhabited, and characterised by ageing and declining population trends. In recent years it has begun to attract a growing number o fhikers and other visitors, but still remains at the fringe in terms o fregional development. Data collected from three villages—Zazid, Rakitovec, and Podpeč—is reported and an adapted version of the two-dimensional model suggested by Fredman et al. (naturalness and accessibility) has been applied to the analysis. Additionally, three features that stand out most for each of the selected villages have been identified and summarised.

Social movements are known to be a driving force of change processes. Scholars long had an interest in how social movements form, develop and fade out, and how such activism is shaping public discourse and policy change at different levels. Also, there has been growing interest in studying what motivates people to engage in activism and what they get activated about. Of special interest is the last wave of mothering activism – understood to be activism undertaken by mothers who mobilise and become active in groups and movements made of other mothers seeking change in the context of environmental equity and climate justice (Sengupta, 2022). Overall, mothering activism emphasizes the interconnectedness of personal and social change, the importance of addressing the needs and experiences of families and communities, and it puts forward care as a fundamental pillar and cornerstone for a better society.The latter is of a special interest to research that seeks to advance understanding of how an ethics of care could inform more contemporary governance models. Thus,we are interested to learn more about how mothering activism might be challenging models and ideas of care,and how it might be contributing at pushing and redefining care in the context of inter- and intra- generational equity. To the best of our knowledge no study of this specific aspect is currently available. With the ambition to fill this gap we undertook an inventory of mothering activism at a global scale. In this report we introduce the database developed in that process and summarise some first trends we observed emerging from that preliminary investigation.

Urbanization is putting a lot of pressure on city planners who need to navigate the many needs that different stakeholder groups have in terms of access to services, infrastructure, and other amenities in urban areas. This, combined with ambitions for more sustainable living environments, often puts planners and practitioners in challenging situations where they need to navigate complex combinations of needs and priorities with limited or little information available for them to use. Given the complexity and the push for evidence-based policymaking, we are witnessing a more or less steady growth of Decision Support Tools and Systems - often referred with the acronym DST and DSS - meant to assist practitioners in planning and designing our cities and living environments. This report serves as a summary of our efforts in inventorying and summarizing currently available Decision Support Tools, providing a valuable resource for those engaged in the dynamic field of urban planning and governance.

The purpose of this event was to bring together scholars and practitioners in order to create opportunities for an exchange of ideas, methodologies and experience. Participants  with expertise in different areas i.e., adaptation research, resource management, policy studies, and adult learning, were invited to share latest research outcomes and engage in a collaborative reflection around the challenges of environmental governance in an increasingly complex world. Adaptation, collaborative learning and knowledge integration were the topics on which the event has focused. 

The use of serious games in the governance of natural resources and the environment is progressively increasing and includes games used for research and data collection, teaching and training, and fostering a change of practices. However, this diversity remains underexplored and underreported. In view of a growing interest in the use of serious games in natural resource and environmental governance, the absence of discussions about how differences in intended use and delivery influence the performance, assessment, and outcomes of games is problematic. Here we present an inventory, and a description, of such different uses then, by focusing on serious games used as interventions, we discuss when, and how, games could be used to generate learning and social learning. To that end we use a narrative review of selected literature, and insight from research on social learning, to develop an inventory of game use, and within that inventory we conceptualize the use of serious games as a social learning intervention. Also, by means of an illustrative case of a serious game (developed as part of the Assessing the Learning Effects of Games on Attitude of Stakeholders toward Sustainable Shrimp Farming - ALEGAMS research project) we reflect on a few key aspects of game use. We suggest that developing a serious game needs several iterations and, although the learning outcomes can be assessed, the impact of games aiming at changes in current practice and policy will likely fall beyond the timespan of usual project periods. This is something future research should consider as it has implications for the research design and methodology.

In this report, we give a summative overview of the activities our project team has offered to the participants of the 2022 Södertörn University Summer School. The Summer School, coordinated by our colleagues at Södertörn University and held in June 2022 on campus at Flemingsberg, hosted a group of 26 pupils who are enrolled at four public primary schools in the region. Aligned with our project mandate we offered activities centred on how urban environments where the pupils live are made e.g., green or not, urbanised or not, and how that makes them feel. We worked with the role that our senses – hearing and seeing - have and how certain urban areas make us feel. We used different hands-on demonstrations to allow participants to have a practical sensory experience. In this report, we summarize the activities and the impressions that the participants shared about their living environments, which include the following neighbourhoods: Ronna, Lina and Hovsjö in Södertälje municipality and Källtorp in Järfälla municipality.

This article reports on a study examining the pathway to and practices for inclusive participatory planning in Sweden. Recently, the Swedish government has transposed the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child into national law, making it a requirement for Swedish planners to involve children and youth in participatory spatial planning processes. The challenges planners face when needing to open up planning and engage children and youth in more structured ways, have not been discussed very much just yet. This study uses Sweden-centered empirical literature together with interviews with a selected group of respondents to contribute at that debate.

This study explores the implications of engaging students vs. professionals / stakeholders in pilot-testing of SDSS and discusses likely differences in terms of experiences and outcomes for the given pilot-test. To this end we use data collected during two pilot tests of a novel SDSS. The pilot-tests were done with two different groups; one made of thirteen doctoral students, while the other of twelve professionals / stakeholders. The pilot-test served to gather feedback on SDSS usability and other aspects of interest to the development team. Based on the outcomes obtained we develop an analytical framework meant to summarise key aspects impacting on how different (tester) profiles will engage during a pilot, and on feedback they provide. These key aspects include expertise, stage of life, and institutional context (ESI). This framework could offer some help to SDSS / DSS development teams in planning, organizing, and delivering pilot-test, and processing the assessments received.

The discourse on environmental challenges has evolved significantly in recent years, with climate change emerging as a central global concern. This transformation has been heavily influenced by the last wave of youth-led social movements, notably the Fridays for Future movement, who have mobilized young people at a global scale contributing at a shift in public discourse on the topic of climate action. However, despite the impact of the newly emerged youth-led movements it is still rather unclear if and where has youth gained recognition as a group with special interests within environmental policy and governance. In this study we report on a research were we investigated the positioning of youth in contemporary environmental governance, and propose a theoretical perspective to understand how the subject category of “youth” is constructed in public discourse and its implications for political recognition. We study the progressive emergence of Greta Thunberg as a voice for a generation of youth climate activists and undertake a document analysis of selected material generated in relation to selected international political events. By addressing questions of recognition, discourse structure, and legitimacy, this research aims to shed light on the nuanced dynamics shaping the role of youth in environmental policy and governance.

Natural resource management (NRM) is complex and often characterized by a multitude of stakeholders at different scales, each with their own goals. Increasingly, serious games are used in these contexts as (social) learning tools and boundary objects to facilitate collective learning and support local decision-making. However, despite the well-established interest, the scientific evidence of the impact of serious games remains a debated topic. Here, we present a brief overview of the most recent literature. Our aim is to contribute to that debate with a conceptual proposal based on the issue-attention cycle, we suggest to clearly linking game objective, desired learning, and associated impact assessment method to support researchers and practitioners in their efforts to move from knowledge to action while building scientific evidence about the impact of serious games.

Over recent years youth has emerged as an influential voice on the topic of climate change, raising the alarm about climate change-related risks and calling for policy action. Youth have been active and mobilising across squares and streets from where they called upon those in power to act on their duties to protect citizens from environmental harm and to secure a sustainable future. In addition to street protest, youth of different ages, including children, have been turning to courts to sue national governments for non compliance with national and/or international law, or conventions. Youth-led litigation appears to be emerging as a significant tool for promoting the representation and inclusion of young people’s voices in contemporary decision-making processes. In this report, we present the outcomes of a project activity where we sought to map and compile informationon litigation cases. The result of this activity is a descriptive database summarizing the status of youth-led litigation cases as of April 2023. In this document,we provide a summary of that information and highlight a few observed trends, which can serve as a resource for those interested in studying youth-led mobilization and its governance outcomes for a more sustainable future.

Interdisciplinary research is understood to be the preferred way for scientific research to deepen understanding about environmental issues and challenges for sustainability. Two well-defined interdisciplinairy research fields, Ecosystems services (ES) and Common-pool resources (CPR), have taken different approaches that integrate the natural and social sciences to address environmental conundrums collaboratively. Several recent studies bring together insight from each, yet little is known about the breadth or directions, of the interdisciplinary conversation between the two fields of research. Moreover, the potential of this interaction to advance theory and practice relevant for sustainability is underexplored. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by addressing three questions: 1) What are the motives for the interaction between CPR and ES fields?, 2) How are these two fields of research interacting?, and 3) How does the interaction of CPR and ES contribute to research on sustainability? We conducted a systematic map to identify, select, describe and analyse research of our interest. We mapped out motivations for researchers to bring together insights from these two lines of inquiry and examined how they are doing so.

Many have discussed the crucial role that environmental nongovernmental organizations (ENGOs) have played in the implementation of nature protection policies across European member states. However, there are important differences in the opportunity structures among new and old member states that influence how ENGOs can act and undertake activities. This article seeks to clarify the role of ENGO capacity building within the context of multilevel environmental governance and focuses on a case in which Slovene ENGOs mobilized against the siting of 80 windmills in a natural area suggested for protection under the EU Birds and Habitats Directive. The dispute involved ENGOs seeking to pursue nature protection objectives against state authorities who prioritized green energy infrastructural development. The article analyses the mobilization strategies pursued and the combination of material, cognitive, social and symbolic resources used. The results suggest that these resources had to be mobilized and organized along both horizontal (domestic) and vertical (international) axes, and that this combination appears key in advancing an environmental protection agenda.

Protected areas and Natura 2000 sites requires that adequate management and use are planned and implemented for maintenance of the ecological status of these. In many geographical areas e.g. the karst landscape located in the NE Italy (see: Rodela, 2012) much of the Natura 2000 sites are located on land which is owned and managed collectively (common property regimes, hereinafter CPRs). Thus, suggesting these having a role to play not only in terms of use and management (customary use) but also maintenance of Natura 2000 sites according to contemporary policy programs and standards foreseen by these. For instance the European Union, with its recently adopted EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 (Action 5) is now pursuing the implementation of a conceptual framework which recognizes the dependence of our society on the natural environment and foresees the need to understand, identify and map ecosystem services across the EU [1]. Ecosystem services are identified as all benefits that people get from ecosystems and contribute to human well-being (MA, 2005). This includes all different ecosystem services including cultural aspects embedded into landscapes. On this specific aspect a further document, the European Landscape Convention (2003) exposes the need to take into account different stakeholders and their needs with the aims to develop a complex management and governance able to maintain cultural landscapes. There is, thus, a role to be played by CPRs to contribute at the maintenance of ecosystem services (supporting, regulating and cultural ES). This workshop was a collaboration between researchers at Södertörn University and at Anton Melik Geographical Institute ZRC SAZU

Social learning studies emerged as part of the ecological economics research agenda rather recently. Questions of how human societies and organisations learn and transition on the basis of environmental knowledge relate to the core ideas of ecological economics with its pluralistic understanding of human behaviour in contrast to the limited focus on incentive-driven behaviour. Our study analyses the emergence and thematic foci of social learning studies within ecological economics over the past 15 years. We selected and analysed 54 articles published after peer review in established journals adhering to the epistemological tradition of ecological economics. This study is guided by the interest in how social learning is conceptualised, how this research is positioned in terms of process dynamics, causal factors and outcomes of learning. Results show, that the number of related papers grew substantially in recent years. Also the role of formal or informal institutions has been found to be a strong causal factor for social learning and change processes vis-à-vis technological, economic or political factors. In addition, there is a growing awareness of social learning processes in various environmental policy fields such as biodiversity governance, water and land management, fisheries, and climate adaptation. We conclude that these insights can give new impulses to research on socio-ecological transition and to the related debate on societal change and transformation processes as core topics for ecological economics.

Inclusive Business (IB) is increasingly popular as a way to address the sustainable development goals (SDG) by including the poor in business. While the IB model is commonly believed capable of making a real impact on poverty reduction, it is not without critique. With the empirical evidence still largely lacking, and with continued power imbalances and knowledge disparity among actors, the question of how much IB as a top-down business-led approach can push towards the SDG agenda remains unanswered. New inclusive business models need to be developed, based on inclusive decision-making throughout the value chain. Here, we show the untapped potential of serious gaming, that is, games for serious purposes rather than entertainment, as a ‘truly’ inclusive approach to facilitate IB. © 2019 The Authors

Despite a long-term focus on learning in natural resource management (NRM), it is still debated how learning supports sustainable real-world NRM practices. We offer a qualitative in-depth synthesis of selected scientific empirical literature (N = 53), which explores factors affecting action-oriented learning. We inductively identify eight key process-based and contextual factors discussed in this literature. Three patterns emerge from our results. First, the literature discusses both facilitated participation and self-organized collaboration as dialogical spaces, which bridge interests and support constructive conflict management. Second, the literature suggests practice-based dialogs as those best able to facilitate action and puts a strong emphasis on experimentation. Finally, not emphasized in existing reviews and syntheses, we found multiple evidence about certain contextual factors affecting learning, including social-ecological crises, complexity, and power structures. Our review also points at important knowledge gaps, which can be used to advance the current research agenda about learning and NRM.

Learning is considered as a promising mechanism to cope with rapid environmental change. The implications of learning for natural resource management (NRM) have not been explored in-depth and the evidence on the topic is scattered across multiple sources. We provide a qualitative review of types of learning outcomes and consider their manifestations in NRM across selected empirical literature. We conducted a systematic search of the peer-reviewed literature (N = 1,223) and a qualitative meta-synthesis of included articles, with an explicit focus on learning outcomes and NRM changes (N = 53). Besides social learning, we found several learning concepts used, including policy and transformative learning, and multiple links between learning and NRM reported. We observe that the development of skills, together with a system approach involving multi-level capacities, is decisive for implications of learning for NRM. Future reviews could systematically compare how primary research applies different learning concepts and discusses links between learning and NRM changes.

The article presents the results of a research done in rural settlements located within the area of the prospective Dragonja Landscape Park. We analysed documents of local communities, undertook observation of a workshop, and interviewed ten local inhabitants in order to obtain information about local inhabitants’ awareness and their interest in being involved in rural development, and about their valuing of the environment and natural resources, and to gain insight into their expectations in the matters of quality of life. We have established that our respondents are entirely familiar with the past and current development programs and projects, that they are well aware of the importance the protection of natural and cultural heritage has for sustainable development, and that they want to participate actively in the future. With the help of our respondents, observation in the workshop, and analysis of the documents also the less promising aspects of development have been revealed. We found out that local participation was weak in the past, that those who were active are in the minority, and that changes depend on the collective efforts of individuals. Those living in the remote villages located in the area of the prospective Dragonja Landscape Park are few and mostly of advanced age. It seems that the younger ones have resigned themselves to being powerless, and therefore it is urgent, in order to foster their participation in local development, to increase their awareness and motivation and extend their education. We also can expect that the incoming young people will have an important role to play.