We currently face several, interlinked environmental crises, including climate change, habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. However, many governments seem unwilling to take strong and immediate action to address these threats, preferring to promote neoliberal approaches to allow consumers and the general public to make environmentally friendly choices. This is despite neoliberal approaches being much less likely to be successful than government leadership, taxation, subsidies, and legislation in addressing environmental issues. In this study, we examine public perception of environmental threats and solutions to these threats, in a survey, mainly completed in the UK. Climate change is seen as the biggest issue, likely due to recent activist campaigns and subsequent media attention on the issue. Neoliberal attitudes, such as green consumer choices to environmental concerns, do still dominate in a series of possible presented solutions, and score more highly than lifestyle changes such as changing diet. However, when questioned specifically about plastic pollution, government intervention to ban all unnecessary plastic scored very strongly, indicating a shift from a consumer driven response. Furthermore, most participants think they are at best only partly ‘doing their bit’ to protect the environment. The results demonstrate that the public are aware that not enough is happening to protect the environment and provide evidence that there is willingness for stronger government intervention to address environmental issues, although there is potential resistance to major lifestyle changes.

Although it may seem paradoxical, primary care and mental health professionals develop prejudices and discriminatory attitudes towards people with mental health problems in a very similar way to the rest of the population. The main objective of this project was to design, implement and evaluate two awareness interventions respectively tailored to reduce stigma and discrimination beliefs and attitudes towards persons with a mental health diagnosis among primary care (PC) and mental health (MH) professionals. These interventions were developed by Obertament, the Catalan alliance against stigma and discrimination in mental health. The TLC3 (Targeted, Local, Credible, Continuous Contact) methodology was adapted to the Catalan PC and MH professional contexts. Activists with lived experience of mental health diagnosis carried out awareness-raising interventions in PC and MH health centres. The efficacy of these interventions was evaluated using two prospective double-blind cluster-wait-list-randomized-controlled trial experimental designs. Stigmatizing beliefs and behaviours were measured with the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers in primary care centres and with the Beliefs and Attitudes towards Mental Health Service users’ rights in mental health centres. Positive reductions in both PC and MH professionals’ stigmatising beliefs and attitudes were found in the 1-month follow-up, although a ‘rebound effect’ at the 3-month follow up was also detected. This emphasizes the importance of the continuity of the presence of anti-stigma activities and messages. Attrition rates where high, which can hamper the reliability of the results. Further follow-up studies should enquiry effects of long-term interventions aimed at reducing stigmatising beliefs and attitudes among primary care and mental health professionals.

The practice of outsourcing tasks to a large group or community, typically through an open call on the internet or mass media, with the aim of harnessing collective intelligence, skill sets, and creativity to address a critical problem or achieve a specific goal is known as 'Crowdsourcing.' In criminal investigations, law enforcement agencies often employ this approach to gather information, tips, or leads from the public via social media platforms, online forums, or mobile applications. Crowdsourcing emerges as a potent tool for police investigations due to its capacity to swiftly reach a broad audience and uncover information that might otherwise remain unnoticed. Moreover, it fosters trust between law enforcement and the community, showcasing a collaborative effort to solve crimes.This chapter critically analyses the efficacy and inefficacy of employing crowdsourcing in erstwhile criminal investigations by drawing insights from prominent cases influenced by this method.

This article argues that philosophy and its influential narrative should take and think "food" - the gastro-world - in order to radically renew itself and develop a gastrocentric view of the world and the future of humanity. It discusses first some of the basic ideas of a gastrocentric understanding of the world, second the adventure of becoming a Terran, and third the daily practice of what I will call "terra madre forming". It tells us this: If there is to be a future of human survival and well-being on Earth, if we are to achieve the goals of sustainable development, then we have a clear agenda for tomorrow with the re-humidification of the soil - madre terra - that nourishes us. What needs to be done is quite simple and down-to-earth: We, each of us, if possible, must participate in the regeneration of the earth. In conclusion, it is time for the Slow Food movement to blossom into a geo-gastro-activism. The future task of this organization is to make itself electable as a political party to support the much-needed transformation of humans into Terrans.

Since the 1990s, the understanding of how and where politics is made has changed radically. Scholars such as Ulrich Beck and Maria Bakardjieva have discussed how political agency is enacted outside of conventional party organizations, and political struggles increasingly focus on single issues. Over the past two decades, this transformation of politics has become common knowledge, not only in academic research but also in the general political discourse. Recently, the proliferation of digital activism and the political use of social media is often understood to enforce these tendencies. This article analyzes the Pirate Party in relation to these theories, relying on almost 30 interviews with active Pirate Party members in Sweden, the UK, Germany, the USA, and Australia. The Pirate Party was initially formed in 2006, focusing on copyright, piracy, and digital privacy. Over the years, it has developed into a more general democracy movement, with an interest in a wider range of issues. This article analyses how the party’s initial focus on information politics and social media connects to a wider range of political issues and to other social movements, such as Arab Spring protests and Occupy Wall Street. Finally, it discusses how this challenges the understanding of information politics as a single issue agenda.

The IRRESISTIBLE Project (FP7, Grant 612367) had the aim of involving teachers, students and the public in the discussion on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), promoting both the construction of knowledge on cutting-edge (and controversial) research topics and the discussion about the criteria that these research/innovation processes should respect in order to be considered as responsible. These criteria also represent a strong contribution to a more sustainable future for all. This quantitative research evaluates the impact of IRRESISTIBLE’s student-curated exhibitions – about the RRI dimensions of cutting-edge research topics (socio-scientific issues) – on students’ perceptions regarding their scientific competences and the science classes. A pre and post-questionnaire was developed, validated and applied to students from 10 countries. The overall results of the statistical analysis indicate that students improved their perceptions regarding their competences for developing exhibitions in science classes as a way of creating awareness on topics relating science-technology-society. This activity reinforced students’ perceptions that in science classes they: a) discuss current issues and how they impact their lives; b) develop socially and relevant projects; and c) learn how to influence other citizens’ decisions about social issues related to science, technology and environment with the aim of assuring a more sustainable future.