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The purpose of this paper is to provide answers regarding the factors that motivate or discourage the quadruple helix (QH) stakeholders and the wider public in citizen science (CS) activities. The research reveals a current overview of the perceptions, attitudes, concerns and motivation with regard to development of CS ecosystem in four countries: Greece, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Spain.

The researchers deploy a mixed methodology, entailing an in-depth literature review and a large-scale quantitative survey (approximately 2,000 citizens) targeting QH stakeholders and general public from the local national ecosystems. The results contain both descriptive statistics and statistical analysis per country. After the comprehensive overview of drivers and barriers regarding the participation in CS activities in general, the focus is narrowed down on the engagement motivation of different QH stakeholders and the differences in enabling/hindering factors at the local ecosystems.

Depending on the country and the pre-existing level of CS maturity, the results provide a complicated network of factors that unlock or block participation in CS activities. These factors include, to name a few, political maturity, civic engagement, technological infrastructures, economic growth, culture of stakeholder collaboration, psychological stimulus and surplus of resources. The implications of the findings necessitate the alignment of the envisioned CS ecosystem with the local dynamics in each country.

The quantitative nature of the survey method, limited sample size and only four countries context are noted as limitations of the study and offer future research potential for longitudinal settings and mixed-methods studies.

The results contribute to the wider literature on CS that focuses on perspectives, possibilities and differences in local contexts with respect to the public engagement by developing CS ecosystem. At the same time, its added value lies in the overall practical proposition, and how the latter can effectively and efficiently attract and retain different stakeholder groups and citizens, under a collaborative approach.

At the centre of Chapter 2 is higher education that places greater emphasis on lifelong learning journeys and equitable access to quality education at all stages of an individual's life and career. This chapter articulates the relevance of learning outcomes for both the world of work and for citizenship in a global and interconnected world. One way to operationalize this dual emphasis is through micro-credentials, which offer a flexible and modular way to learn new skills and knowledge. The chapter notes current challenges with implementing micro-credentials in a robust and quality assured manner, and suggests ways to overcome these.

Mentoring is a valuable support system for academics wishing to implement micro-credentials and contribute to the achievement of all sustainable development goals. Mentors can help nurture initial ideas, guide the design and delivery of micro-credentials and ensure that they are aligned with the needs of students and university external stakeholders. The dialogue included in this chapter illustrates a specific scenario at undergraduate level. There is, however, recognition that a broader range of contexts for micro-credentials exists, where mentoring can provide equally valuable support towards achieving desired goals.

With specific reference to mentoring, the chapter discusses ways in which mentoring relationships can develop and be maintained over time. It considers the impact that the setting in which mentoring meetings take place can have on the quality of the learning experience. Equally importantly, discussion touches on digital dimensions of mentoring – the metaverse as a setting and artificial intelligence complementing a real mentor or coach.

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) can be a valuable tourism asset for both government and local communities. Due to the fragmented nature of ICH data, it becomes difficult for the researchers to comprehend its impact on the psychology of the interacting tourists. Prior research has shown that traditional crafts and craftsmanship as ICH could be used to promote a place. However, ICH has scarcely been considered as a place branding element. The study apprehends that branding places with ICH will not only upscale the place in terms of ethno-cultural significance but also will integrate the visiting population with the ICH and thereby ensure knowledge propagation and preservation and reinforce the cultural roots. The study proposes a reflective brand model in the context of ICH of Natungram, a village known for its legacy of craftsmanship of wooden dolls. The study used crossover analysis framework (CAF), as a part of causal mixed-method research design, to inquire into the complex psyche of the tourists while interacting with the ICH and the artisans at Natungram. Three distinct brand elements were identified through a qualitative thematic content analysis, namely subjective vitality, authentic experience, and experiential quality. The brand model was tested for its impact on the behavioral pattern of the tourists by using appropriate quantitative method. The results confirmed both direct and partially mediated effects of the brand elements on the tourist behavior. In future, the model could be extrapolated spatiotemporally for places of ICH significance.

The paper aims to address a gap in foresight study and practice relating to the lack of unifying theoretical systems frameworks capable of examining empirical data from across a wide range of different ecological, social, political and economic systems. It attempts to develop a new “collective forward intelligence” that can not only make sense of these disparate trends and processes as symptoms of a wider planetary system but also, on this basis, construct accurate and plausible future scenarios to underpin national and international decision-making.

This study conducts a transdisciplinary integration of C. S. Holling’s adaptive cycle with phase-transition phenomena across biology, physics and chemistry, applied on societal and civilisational scales. A systems methodology is then applied to integrate historical and empirical data across the energy, food, transport, materials and information sectors of civilisation’s production system.

The paper develops planetary phase shift theory as a new collective forward intelligence framework for foresight study and practice, formalising the notion that humanity has arrived at an unprecedented historic and geological turning point. It finds that multiple global crises across both earth and human systems are symptoms of the last stages of the life-cycle of global industrialisation civilisation, which is the potential precursor either for collapse, or for a new civilisational life-cycle that may represent a new stage in the biological and cultural evolution of the human species.

The research sets out a new empirically grounded theoretical framework for complex scenario analysis. This can develop more robust approaches to foresight study and practice, scenario development and forecasting. It suggests the need for a new research programme to understand the dynamics of the planetary phase shift and its diverse implications for societies, industry, technology and politics. The research is limited in that the current paper does not explore how it can be applied in this way. It identifies broad scenarios for a post-industrial civilisational life-cycle but does not identify the variety of complex subsets of these.

The paper provides powerful practical implications to develop new methodology based on planetary phase shift theory for strategic planning, risk assessment and management, as well as public policy and decision-making.

The paper suggests the urgency and necessity of bold and radical societal transformation and implies key areas for civil society to focus on in innovating new values, worldviews and operating systems with a focus on the next life-cycle.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper provides the first integrated transdisciplinary theoretical and empirical framework to understand how the interplay of earth system crises, societal change and technology disruptions is driving large-scale civilisational transformation with complex local ramifications.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain empirical understanding of organic food buyers in the context of emergent organic food market (i.e. Bosnia and Herzegovina) by using a segmentation approach.

A self-administrated online survey was carried out among organic food buyers (n=202) using the snowball sampling technique. Measurement items were mainly adapted from the prior studies.

The authors analysed the heterogeneity of organic food buyers with latent class model. Four distinct latent classes (i.e. segments) of organic food buyers were identified. Those segments were named as enthusiastic social-seekers, enthusiastic moralists, hostile seldom shoppers, and hostile heavy shoppers.

Though the study was exploratory, the identified segments of organic food buyers can enhance our knowledge about differing characteristics of organic food buyers in the context of the country where the organic food industry is in the early stages of development. The findings of this study will give organic food producers and marketers a much better framework for making product, pricing, distribution and marketing communications decision. Moreover, the identification of organic food consumer profiles will provide an insight into how policymakers should tailor their public policy and strategies to expand the size of the organic food market.

Little research directly examines leader self-development among marginalized workers. The authors offer a framework to explain the role of internalized prejudice in limiting leader self-development, and the authors use that framework to suggest organizational interventions aimed at enhancing leader self-development among marginalized workers.

The framework is grounded in the incompleteness thesis with its attention to the mutual shaping of culture and mind, and the interventions are drawn from principles of social movements with their focus on changing culture and the minds of individuals. The framework and interventions address the role of status in internalized prejudice.

Status-related experiences in culture shape status-related thoughts in the mind, resulting in internalized prejudice. Internalized prejudice reduces the status-related behavior of leader self-development, which serves to shape status in the culture. This repeats in an ongoing, recursive process that can be disrupted through organizational interventions. The social movement principles of common purpose and networking can provide new status-related experiences to reduce internalized prejudice, and habit-breaking can stop automatic self-limiting behaviors that can arise from internalized prejudice.

By focusing on status, the authors provide a framework that allows integration of literature across marginalized groups, providing a guide for understanding both commonality and uniqueness of experience. The authors bring principles of social movement to the discussion of leader self-development among marginalized workers as a guide for developing organizational interventions.