Search results

Following the recommendation of the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations in agricultural innovation, for taking advantage of emerging technologies, in benefit of small-farmers, the present study explores one of the most ancient crops in the world that privileging the application of tacit knowledge, to become a succulent plant called agave, into the so-called drink of the gods, the mezcal. For this, the purpose of this study is to discover innovation opportunities and reconfiguring knowledge interaction dynamics of the agricultural artisan production of agave-mezcal from Oaxaca, Mexico, using emerging technologies

Following a qualitative-quantitative approach, the study was carried out with 44 mezcal producers from Oaxaca, Mexico, through face-to-face session, questionaries’ application and field visits, based on the model of socialization, externalization, combination and internalization (SECI) through Likert-scale questions, combining the non-parametric statistical analysis and digital compass, for the detection of technological opportunities

Basing on artisanal process, context-knowledge place, technological resources and SECIs model results, the opportunities must go in the route of labour in the logic of digital performance. In this sense, becomes relevant to develop an easy-use mobile application for improving the interaction of mezcaleros with external agents and another’s producers., A second proposal is the creation of mezcal-tech-hub, thinking as collaborative space, for promoting the interaction producer-to-producer and producer-to-external agent.

The value of the present study is the empirical description of knowledge dynamics interaction contained in the agricultural artisan production of agave-mezcal through SECI model; the identification of problems, failure or barriers contained in the knowledge interaction dynamics of the agricultural artisan production agave-mezcal; the proposal of innovation opportunities for reconfiguring the knowledge interaction dynamics of the agricultural artisan production agave-mezcal from a developing economy, using emerging technologies.

In the past few decades, sustainability in higher education has become ever more prevalent, although the diversity in pace of adoption and the wide range of interpretations and practices is huge. The purpose of this study is to present recent research on organizational change processes in universities.

The methodological approach applied corresponds to the social issue maturation framework, to identify, describe and assess patterns of change across higher education institutions. The maturation of sustainability in universities can be divided into four stages: emergence, popularization, formalization and maturity.

The findings indicate that sustainability processes often begin as ad hoc processes which grow and mature over time as a range of different actors join in. However, sustainability in universities is increasingly connected with sustainability in the private sector and with other public actors. Moreover, there is a growing acknowledgement of the interactions between society, industry and academia.

The value of the paper is to provide a critical assessment of the potential of living lab projects initiated in Belgium (Brussels) and Chile (Santiago de Chile) to anchor sustainability firmly both in the functioning of the university and in the interactions with the neighborhood. The authors reflect on the requirements and the implementation of these initiatives as a strong indication of mature sustainability integration in, and by way of, universities.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a panoramic and systematic view of 10 Sustainable Campus Network (SCN) universities’ internal entities in charge of the sustainability effort – such as offices, committees, units, programs, or other, showing how some institutions have gained increasing deployment and momentum. However, their appearance and growth pathways have had significant disparities.

Global and local agendas have had a strong influence on Chilean higher education institutions. A relevant signal has been the creation of the SCN, formed by 21 Chilean universities, whose vision is to help shape a fair and environmentally healthy civilization contributing from the higher education realm. This work adopts a survey design methodological approach. It describes the following resulting components obtained from the aggregated data: (a) emergence processes and environments, (b) governance models and operational mechanisms, (c) networks and collaboration, and (d) final products generated, for sustainability governing entities within universities in Chile.

The main findings indicate that at the institutional level, the Cleaner Production Agreement for higher education institutions and the creation of the SCN have been key drivers in the formalization of several entities leading the sustainability efforts within Chilean universities. Also, regarding the degree of commitment to sustainability, the most active internal stakeholder corresponds to students.

The present work represents a pioneering effort in the Chilean context to identify and systematize the challenges, organizational structures, and key accomplishments of sustainability governing entities in higher education nationwide.

The authors use media research and crowdsourced mapping to document how the first wave of the pandemic (April–August 2020) affected the Mapuche, focussing on seven categories of events: territorial control, spiritual defence, food sovereignty, traditional health practices, political violence, territorial needs and solidarity, and extractivist expansion.

Research on the effects of the pandemic on the Mapuche and their territories is lacking; the few existing studies focus on death and infection rates but overlook how the pandemic interacts with ongoing processes of extractivism, state violence and community resistance. The authors’ pilot study addresses this gap through a map developed collaboratively by disaster scholars and Mapuche journalists.

The map provides a spatial and chronological overview of this period, highlighting the interconnections between the pandemic and neocolonialism. As examples, the authors focus on two phenomena: the creation of “health barriers” to ensure local territorial control and the state-supported expansion of extractive industries during the first months of the lockdown.

The authors intersperse our account of the project with reflections on its limitations and, specifically, on how colonial formations shape the research. Decolonising disaster studies and disaster risk reduction practice, the authors argue, is an ongoing process, bound to be flawed and incomplete but nevertheless an urgent pursuit.

In making this argument, the paper responds to the Disaster Studies Manifesto that inspires this special issue, taking up its invitation to scholars to be more reflexive about their research practice and to frame their investigations through grounded perspectives.

Central America is exposed to a variety of natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and floods. The region, located on four connected tectonic plates with 24 active volcanoes and in the path of hurricanes, has experienced 348 major disasters from 1981 to 2010, resulting in 29,007 deaths and US$16.5 billion in direct economic losses. Therefore, all six Central American countries rank among the top 35 countries in the world at high mortality risk from multiple hazards. The countries in this region, including Costa Rica, began paying attention to the disaster risk management (DRM) initiative recently, after Tropical Storm and Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which was the region’s worst catastrophe of the century. After the devastation by Mitch, several local DRM capacity development projects were implemented in the region. By reviewing these project profiles of local DRM implemented in the region, this chapter identifies outcomes, lessons, and challenges of DRM at the local scale, from Mitch to the present, as a baseline for incorporating climate disaster risk reduction into local development planning.