Social Sciences

Abstract: This case study examines how archaeological heritage can inspire value‑added crafts to diversify livelihoods in marginalized rural regions while strengthening territorial identity. Focusing on Serra da Capivara (Piauí, Brazil) and Tierradentro (Cauca, Colombia), both UNESCO World Heritage Sites in predominantly agrarian territories, it explores how archaeological landscapes and material culture can underpin community‑based, heritage‑driven rural development. Methodologically, the paper adopts a qualitative comparative case study design, combining documentary analysis with rural development, territorial and creative‑industry frameworks. It analyzes Serra da Capivara’s ceramics project, which translates prehistoric rock‑art motifs into contemporary design objects linked to tourism, national markets and local employment, and then develops a project blueprint for Tierradentro. The article’s originality lies in bringing together sustainable livelihoods, territorial heritage and indigenous/community‑enterprise perspectives to design a pottery‑based diversification strategy grounded in indigenous governance and cultural rights, while proposing guidelines for reinterpreting archaeological ceramic forms and motifs under Nasa authority without commodifying sacred symbols.

Abstract: Purpose: This paper explores why evidence-based policies that appear effective in one context frequently produce uneven outcomes, exclusion, or legitimacy challenges when transferred across policy and governance contexts. It introduces the Contextual Research Validity Index (CRVI) as a diagnostic framework for evaluating whether the contextual conditions necessary for policy validity remain aligned across settings. Methodology: The study develops a conceptual and diagnostic framework that assesses contextual validity across four dimensions: epistemic alignment, institutional fit, cultural resonance, and operational feasibility. The framework is illustrated through an interpretive analysis of India’s Aadhaar digital identification system, drawing on secondary literature, policy reports, and institutional evidence. Limitation: The paper is conceptual and illustrative rather than predictive or causal. The CRVI scoring approach is heuristic and based on qualitative interpretation rather than statistical modelling or original empirical data collection. Findings: The analysis demonstrates that policy effectiveness cannot be separated from contextual conditions. The Aadhaar case shows that interventions regarded as technically successful may still generate exclusion, legitimacy disputes, and uneven outcomes when epistemic assumptions, institutional safeguards, cultural expectations, and operational realities are misaligned. Practical Implications: The CRVI provides policymakers and evaluators with a structured tool for assessing transfer readiness, contextual risk, and governance vulnerabilities before scaling or replicating interventions across settings. Social Implications: The framework supports more accountable and context-sensitive policymaking by helping reduce exclusion, governance failures, and legitimacy erosion in large-scale policy interventions, particularly in digital public infrastructure. Originality: The paper contributes to the policy evaluation and governance literature by reframing policy failure as a problem of contextual misalignment rather than of insufficient evidence alone, and by operationalising contextual validity through a transferable diagnostic framework.

Abstract: Complete neighbourhoods — places where residents can meet most daily needs on foot — have become a cornerstone of healthy and sustainable urban planning. Yet most assess-ment frameworks were calibrated for dense metropolitan environments, leaving rural and peri-urban municipalities without operational tools suited to their territorial realities. This article presents MilieuxVie, an open-source, browser-based interactive mapping applica-tion developed for the Laurentides health region of Québec (76 municipalities, 11 land-based unorganised territories, 2 indigenous territories and 4 aquatic administrative units; 93 territorial units in total; ~680,000 inhabitants). The tool evaluates the spatial ac-cessibility of 12 service categories drawn from the Vivre en Ville (2026) com-plete-neighbourhood framework and OpenStreetMap data, using residential parcels from the provincial property assessment roll (MAMH 2026) as origin points and weighting re-sults by number of dwelling units. Three adaptive radius tiers (urban, intermediate, rural) based on municipal area correct for the systematic under-performance of standard thresholds in low-density settings. A dedicated Urban Perimeter mode further disaggre-gates analysis to sub-municipal built-up zones, aligning the tool with Québec's provincial planning orientations (OGAT). Gap analysis outputs identify which service types fall be-low the 70 % coverage target, enabling evidence-based prioritization for elected officials and planners. Results illustrate the scope of accessibility deficits across the region and highlight the analytical limits of uniform distance thresholds when applied beyond met-ropolitan contexts. The tool is freely available and requires no software installation, mak-ing it directly deployable by local planning offices.

Abstract: This paper presents a theoretically informed critical review of climate change discourse in Sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on peer-reviewed scholarship and authoritative policy documents, it examines how climate knowledge is framed, communicated, authorized, and translated into public and policy use. Guided by decolonial theory and the Multiple Evidence Base approach, the review assesses climate discourse through four linked dimensions: epistemic authority, communicative accessibility, representational framing, and policy relevance. The review finds that recent scholarship and policy increasingly recognize Indigenous and local knowledge, public participation, climate education, and context-specific communication. However, significant gaps remain between formal recognition and operational integration. Climate literacy continues to vary across and within African countries; climate services become useful only when institutions align them with user needs and local decision-making contexts; and educational and policy discourse can still reproduce epistemic hierarchy even when it invokes inclusion. The paper contributes to sustainability scholarship by showing that demystification and decolonization are complementary requirements for inclusive climate governance and sustainable development. Demystification improves the intelligibility and usability of climate knowledge, whereas decolonization strengthens legitimacy by challenging hierarchies that privilege some knowledge systems while marginalizing others. A stronger climate discourse for Sub-Saharan Africa, therefore, requires institutional changes in how actors authorize knowledge, translate uncertainty, frame vulnerability and agency, and design climate communication, education, and services for public and policy use.

Abstract: The landscapes of most tropical regions have been shaped by the indigenous peoples’ and their livelihood practices. The utility of plants within these landscapes for traditional purposes has been facing intense competition from commercial logging. To gain insights into this conflict, this paper examined how landscape conditions may influence the presence and spatial distribution of indigenous subsistence and commercial logging ecosystem services relative to one another. Data on the ecosystem services and landscape conditions in the form of physical environment variables were obtained for twelve indigenous villages in the Rupununi, Southern Guyana. For each village, the relative log risk ratios of subsistence values to logging values were computed and regressed against six physical environment variables – village presence, distance to village, distance to road, distance to waterways, elevation, and slope – to examine if and how landscape conditions may favor the presence of one service over the other. The estimates were then used to map the relative differences in the spatial distributions of subsistence and commercial logging services in each village. It was found that mean relative log risk ratios for the villages were generally positive, indicating an inclination towards the presence of subsistence services. However, the maps revealed that while some areas within a given village were indeed more favorable for the presence of subsistence services, other areas within the same village were inclined towards the presence of logging services. Similar spatial analyses can be explored to guide policy-makers in developing land-use strategies that allocate forest lands between competing users by identifying areas that are best suited for indigenous peoples’ subsistence activities and for commercial logging operations.

Abstract: Mega-events like the Olympic Games present both opportunities and challenges for sustainable urban development. This study addresses a critical knowledge gap: how can temporary Olympic Villages transition into permanent, inclusive urban communities that deliver lasting social, economic, and environmental benefits. Drawing on grounded theory and cross-case analysis of six Olympic events, we establish a three-tier P-R-L model (Physical-Relational-Legacy) that explains sustainable community structure evolution. The Physical layer operationalizes resilient space design through adaptive infrastructure; the Relational layer institutionalizes equitable governance through stakeholder integration; the Legacy layer consolidates inclusive urban dividends beyond traditional metrics. Our findings demonstrate how these dimensions reinforce mutually to support sustainable community transitions, offering a replicable framework for mega-event planning aligned with SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). The research contributes actionable guidance for policymakers, urban planners, and event organizers seeking to maximize positive sustainability outcomes.

Abstract: Waerebo Village, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in Indonesia, represents a profound harmony between the Manggarai people, nature, and spirituality, yet the technical functional role of its traditional zoning remains under-researched. This study examines the Waerebo landscape model by integrating horizontal and vertical spatial patterns through literature reviews, field observations, interviews, and GIS-based analyses, including Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and multi-temporal NDVI from 2015 to 2025. Find-ings indicate that Waerebo’s landscape is organized into three concentric zone—core, uti-lization, and sacred zones—mirroring a tripartite spiritual framework of God, ancestors, and nature spirits. Geospatial data reveals a sophisticated indigenous landscape engineering system where the settlement is strategically positioned on a stable 16° terrace, while sacred forests are maintained on extreme 85° slopes to protect watersheds and mitigate landslides. Multi-temporal NDVI analysis confirms an increase in forest density from 0.47 in 2015 to 0.52 in 2025, validating the effectiveness of customary laws in maintaining ecological integrity despite tourism pressures. The study concludes that Waerebo's cosmic spiral model achieves a vital balance between culture, socio-economic survival, and environmental conservation, offering a functional blueprint for resilient cultural heritage management in challenging topographies.

Abstract: Transport infrastructure is commonly viewed as a key driver of development, alt-hough its actual contribution remains debated and appears to be dependent on geo-graphical and economic context. This study investigates the impact of transport infra-structure on regional economic growth in Romania, with a particular focus on spatial spillover effects Using panel data for Romanian regions over the period 2000–2024, the analysis applies spatial econometric techniques to capture both direct and indirect ef-fects of transport infrastructure and economic factors. A structured model selection procedure, based on Lagrange Multiplier tests and robust diagnostics, supports the use of the Spatial Autoregressive Model (SAR) as the preferred specification. The results reveal significant spatial dependence in regional economic performance, indicating that growth processes extend across regional boundaries. Nonetheless, the findings show that transport infrastructure does not exert a statistically significant direct effect on economic growth once spatial and structural factors are controlled. Instead, labor and private gross capital formation emerge as the primary drivers, generating both strong local impacts and substantial spillover effects. These results suggest that transport infrastructure acts mainly as an enabling factor rather than a standalone driver of growth, making the concept of “political mythification” of transport infra-structure effectiveness relevant in the Romanian context.

Abstract: Although the goal of a “sustainable” urbanism has generated an impressive array of international frameworks and declarations, systemic progress remains elusive. A prior paper by the author identified "lock-in" as a central cause: the economic incentives, professional standards, codes, and institutional feedback structures that reinforce un-sustainable patterns of urban development despite stated commitments to reform. This paper advances that diagnosis by asking what sustains the lock-in itself, and what structural intervention can address it at the root. We argue that the answer lies in a fundamental deficit in the feedback architecture governing urban development — a systematic failure to account for two categories of capital on which human welfare de-pends: natural and resource capital, whose depletion standard metrics render invisible, and human and value-added capital, including the built public realm and the economies of place that markets systematically undersupply. Standard welfare-economic instru-ments, including Pigouvian taxes, address this at the level of price signals but cannot resolve it there, because multiple forms of goods, which we term “polycapital”, are structurally interrelated and resist single scalar remedies. The paper advances two complementary conclusions: first, that a generative modeling methodology — capable of encoding the interrelated, multi-scale character of polycapital structures — is a necessary precondition for adequate institutional response, and that pattern language methodology provides this capacity; and second, that transactional mechanisms going substantially beyond Pigouvian instruments — non-linear, asymptotic, and per-capita in structure — represent a necessary but largely open research frontier.

Abstract: After the 2018 to 2020 protest peak, climate activism became less visible as a synchronized transnational movement, despite continuing protest, litigation, local organizing, and institutional advocacy. This article examines why a movement that reached exceptional visibility during the school-strike wave later appeared quieter without disappearing. The study uses a theory-guided qualitative explanatory synthesis and focused comparison of Fridays for Future, Greta Thunberg’s catalytic leadership, Extinction Rebellion, Stop Oil, Last Generation, Sunrise, Ende Gelände, and related campaigns. Rather than treating strike estimates, protest trackers, institutional reports, and legal reporting as a harmonized dataset, the study uses them as complementary indicators of visibility, participation, repression, tactical change, and organizational retrenchment. Deductive thematic coding identifies five interacting mechanisms: symbolic overconcentration around Thunberg-centered visibility; post-2019 protest-cycle contraction; tactical fragmentation across mass protest, litigation, institutional advocacy, and disruptive direct action; escalating criminalization; and selective media amplification. These mechanisms weakened global visibility, reduced transnational synchrony, raised participation costs, and shifted activism toward localized, less publicly legible repertoires. This study conceptualizes structured attenuation as a post-peak movement condition in which activism persists organizationally and tactically while losing public visibility, transnational synchrony, and mobilizing capacity. Climate activism’s apparent silence should therefore be understood as structured attenuation rather than political extinction. The movement remains substantively active, but its capacity to generate broad, synchronized, globally recognizable contention has diminished. The findings distinguish reduced public visibility from complete movement decline and show how repression, media selectivity, organizational strain, and post-peak comparison can make activism appear absent.

Abstract: Mozambique possesses significant natural gas resources. Yet, a vast majority of its population relies on solid biomass for cooking, resulting in detrimental effects on health, livelihoods, and productivity, as well as devastating environmental impacts. Domestic use of these resources could boost energy productivity, security and support sustainable development. We conducted a mixed-methods study involving interviews, descriptive statistics, and a multinomial logistic regression model. For this study, data was gathered from a random survey of 434 households in natural gas-rich peripheries within Northern Inhambane and Maputo City aiming to identify determinants of household energy choice for cooking. The results showed that as the income increases, the odds of choosing electricity, LPG, and biomass increase. Notably, in energy-rich peripheries, the odds of choosing biomass as an alternative fuel to natural gas are reduced by 96.2% when compared to non-energy-rich regions. The urban and more educated dwellers were more likely to switch to electricity and LPG. Energy infrastructure and system-related incidents were key reasons for switching away from natural gas to biomass. Based on these findings and given natural gas’s preference as a transition cooking fuel in energy-rich peripheries, the government should prioritize investment in energy systems, allocate more domestic gas, and promote its use. This effort aims to enhance access to clean cooking and raise public awareness of its health and environmental benefits.

Abstract: Contemporary urban governance faces structural obsolescence in municipal solid waste management, particularly in the Global South. This study analyzes the implementation of the Zero Waste Cities Platform, a digital public infrastructure (DPI) designed to facilitate the transition from linear to circular economies, within the context of the first public pro-curement for innovation in Florianópolis, Brazil. Using an embedded case study and a mixed-methods approach, including a questionnaire administered to 125 citizens, the re-search evaluates the platform through four analytical lenses: institutional, political, terri-torial, and ecological. The implementation results demonstrate a 31% reduction in collec-tion route time and a 17% decrease in operational costs. Furthermore, cluster analysis of the questionnaire responses citizen a high latent potential for digital engagement, with 94% of respondents expressing willingness to use applications integrated into the nation-al governmental platform (Gov.br) to participate in recycling initiatives. The study con-cludes that “citizen digitalization,” when anchored in open DPIs and social innovation, acts as a systemic transition vector that reconfigures the roles of the state, cooperatives, and citizens. These findings provide empirically grounded insights for local governments seeking to combine emerging technologies, such as IoT and data intelligence, with demo-cratic experimentalism to accelerate ecological transitions and urban sustainability.

Abstract: Industrial transformation in resource-based regions (RBRs) is a global challenge. Shanxi is a typical resource-based province in China. The long-term exploitation of coal resources has posed huge challenges to its ecological protection and high-quality development. Breaking away from the single-city perspective, this study focuses on the regional scale and comparative analysis, and attempts to construct a novel three-dimensional analytical framework, namely “industrial characteristics, industrial layout, and industrial policies”, to explore the industrial transformation path of typical RBRs. The results indicate as follows: (1) Shanxi Province does not have obvious advantages in terms of resource endowment, with a severely heavy industrial structure and strategic emerging industries still in the initial stage of development. At the national strategic level, it is still necessary to strengthen the application of the “pioneer and pilot” policies and mechanism innovation. (2) Under the background of high-quality development, Shanxi needs to clarify the orientation and transformation direction of industrial development: for agricultural development, it should highlight characteristic and efficient development; for industrial development, it should focus on the upgrading of advantageous industries and the cultivation of emerging industries; for tertiary industry development, it should form a pattern of “new producer services + characteristic tourism”. It is also necessary to form a macro pattern of “four provincial clusters and four inter-provincial plates” in regional development layout to promote inter-regional coordinated development. (3) In the new period, Shanxi should accelerate the construction of a comprehensive transportation system as the backbone network to improve the convenience of inter-regional cooperation; increase investment in education and scientific research to enhance the overall social innovation capacity; and strengthen the supply of differentiated regional development policies to promote high-quality industrial development. Focusing on the regional scale, the new logical analysis paradigm can provide theoretical references for RBRs to clarify the direction of industrial transformation and formulate transformation policies.

Abstract: Agrotourism constitutes a key strategy to stimulate territorial development by enhancing endogenous resources in rural areas. However, conceptual and methodological gaps persist regarding the definition of farms with agrotourism potential (FPAT) and their articulation, which limits their effective development. The objective of this research was to conceptualize FPAT, their articulation among themselves and with the locality, and to operationalize this latter concept through georeferencing and the value chain approach, with the purpose of designing agrotourism routes and providing inputs for agrarian policies aimed at territorial development in Cuba. A mixed methodology was employed, integrating theoretical analysis, documentary review, and statistical tools, complemented with georeferencing techniques and value chain analysis. The results show that this approach enables the articulation of farms into agrotourism routes and proposes actions that strengthen local governance and community resilience.

Abstract: This study examines climate-related policies in Turkana County in ensuring youth inclusivity, relevance, and effectiveness amid chronic climate variability. Despite the existence of national and county-level policies, climate risks continue to pose challenges. With all policies in alignment with the Paris Agreement, Turkana’s vulnerable youth continue to suffer from extreme socio-economic miseries triggered by repeated droughts, floods, heat stress, and wind storms. Based on PESTEL analysis and vulnerability theory, the research identifies notable policy gaps, including poor youth representation, inadequate financial support, and few engagement mechanisms. Findings indicate that climate risks significantly affect livelihoods, exacerbating poverty, particularly among young people, and underscoring their limited participation and voice in climate governance and decision-making. In addition, findings reveal that current policies do not make specific provisions for the inclusion of youths in decision-making, innovation, and climate resilience initiatives, thereby restricting their transformative agency. Policy limitations include a lack of youth-specific policies and fewer financial tools to encourage youth-led climate action. Proposals emphasize mainstreaming youth capacity-building, enhancing digital and peer climate education, and fostering youth-led green action. This transforms young people from vulnerable groups into active forces inspiring climate resilience and enhancing socio-economic development and sustainability in Turkana County.

Abstract: The challenge of context-free validity arises from the common belief that rigorous methodology ensures research credibility in various contexts, despite variations in epistemic foundations, institutional capacity, cultural norms, and operational conditions. This assumption is clear in Global South contexts, where research tools and evaluation frameworks from other regions are applied without proper adaptation, highlighting the limitations of claims to universal validity. The challenge is especially evident in socioeconomic research, where tools and frameworks are often applied across contexts without accounting for institutional capacity, cultural norms, or resource limitations. This paper presents the Contextual Research Validity Index (CRVI), a framework for evaluating how well a research design fits the epistemic, institutional, cultural, and operational aspects of its intended context. The CRVI views contextual validity as a form of legitimacy, emphasising that a method’s credibility relies not only on technical precision but also on how well its assumptions align with the realities of the environment. The framework includes four dimensions—epistemic alignment, institutional fit, cultural resonance, and operational feasibility—combined into a composite index for systematic assessment. By focusing on contextual alignment, the CRVI addresses shortcomings in existing validity frameworks and provides researchers, evaluators, and practitioners with a tool to anticipate misfits, adapt designs, and enhance interpretive robustness. By redefining validity as a relational outcome and treating contextual coherence as a quantifiable aspect of rigour, the CRVI provides a systematic framework for assessing the legitimacy of research across diverse contexts.

Abstract: Social media increasingly shapes how younger publics encounter environmental issues, sustainability themes, and knowledge about responsible natural resource use. Despite this influence, many institutions still choose platforms impressionistically, even though differences in platform scale, audience concentration, and communication affordances affect the reach and educational fit of environmental messaging. This paper examines how major social media platforms can be interpreted as strategic communication environments for advancing youth-oriented environmental awareness and literacy. The study employs a comparative secondary-data design and treats platform indicators as planning evidence rather than as proof of platform effectiveness. It synthesizes current global and platform-specific reporting from DataReportal alongside official company and investor records where available. The analysis compares platform-scale indicators, youth-relevant audience structure, and recent trend signals to identify communication opportunity structures for youth outreach. The analysis shows that major platforms differ not only in reported scale but also in metric type, youth concentration, and likely communication function. Visually driven and socially networked platforms appear especially relevant to youth-facing dissemination, while broader-reach or search-oriented platforms remain useful for explanation, search visibility, and sustained follow-through. At the same time, the evidence does not demonstrate that platform scale alone produces environmental literacy or behavioral change. The study concludes that validated platform indicators can support bounded inference about where youth-oriented environmental communication is most plausibly positioned to achieve visibility, repetition, and strategic fit. It provides a source-validated, cross-platform framework for utilizing social media to enhance environmental awareness and literacy among youth, while maintaining clear boundaries on what public platform indicators can demonstrate.

Abstract: Natural noises, especially the sounds of birds, have been found to be beneficial in lowering tension, anxiety, and agitation as well as promoting emotional healing. Recent laboratory research has mainly examined how public responses to birdsongs differ from those to other biological, artificial, or mechanical sounds, finding that birdsong promotes more effective physiological and psychological recovery. Our study continued this experiment with a questionnaire survey (N=202) in a non-lab on site outdoor setting in a larger Viennese recreational area, accompanied by soundscape analysis. Main findings show an overall effect on perceived mental health, with strongest effects in the field of emotional restoration (reduction of worries) than to cognitive clarity (clarification of thoughts). More in-depth analysis confirms low relevance of demographic variables age and gender but outlines the interesting relevance of the belief in the presence of animals in the recreational area. random forests, GAMMs, mediation, conditional inference trees, Bayesian models — suggest that it is not the acoustic composition per se that drives restoration, but rather how visitors perceive and interpret the soundscape. Interventions should therefore not focus solely on improving NDSI values but also on facilitating visitors’ awareness of the natural sounds already present.

Abstract: Underground and underwater geographies have garnered much traction lately in environmental and human geography, given that resource exploitations often occur in these deep spaces. Whilst such scholarly work has contributed to knowledge, such as insight concerning dangerous labour and chemical pollution, current human geographers have rarely theorised the inextricable multiple seafloor entanglement. This lacuna exists partly because no concept can help express multiple humans, aquatic life, and seafloor relations. In response to this issue, bringing together island studies, queer ecology studies, marine science studies, and science and technologies studies (STS) in oceanic geography literature, this paper introduces benthic geography to remediate the entrenched binary logic separating the seafloor from other spaces and bodies. This paper contributes to current environmental and human geography by expanding the use of the benthic concept from predominantly marine science (i.e., benthic ecology) toward environmental geography. Ultimately, this article invites readers to reflect on our unexpected entanglement with the seafloor and other spaces through how the materiality of the seafloor oozes within and beyond multiple spatial boundaries. Therefore, this article also encourages scholars to create seabed knowledge that puts offshore extractive industries under public scrutiny.

Abstract: Mississippi wetlands provide flood storage, water-quality regulation, habitat, shoreline protection, and climate resilience, yet long-term loss and degradation continue despite an extensive body of federal and state law. This paper examines persistence as an environmental governance problem rather than as a purely doctrinal legal question. It uses a qualitative analysis of legal, policy, and agency documents relevant to Mississippi wetlands, organized around jurisdiction, institutional fragmentation, permitting, enforcement capacity, and monitoring and participation. The analysis centers on 16 core federal and Mississippi laws and policies. It supplements them with agency guidance, public permitting materials, and selected scholarly sources to assess how formal legal protections operate in practice across the state. The findings show that Mississippi has a substantial formal framework for wetland protection, but that framework remains uneven in scope, geography, and implementation. State authority is most visible in coastal wetlands, whereas many inland wetlands depend more heavily on federal jurisdiction, interagency coordination, and administrative follow-through. The review further shows that legal accumulation has not produced consistent conservation outcomes because fragmented authority, variable enforcement, limited monitoring capacity, and land-use pressures weaken implementation. Recent jurisdictional narrowing after Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency intensifies that asymmetry and increases uncertainty for inland wetland protection. The paper argues that improving outcomes will require governance reform as much as legal reform. More effective protection depends on clearer jurisdictional triggers, stronger interagency coordination, more transparent permit administration, improved monitoring and compliance systems, and closer integration of regulation, restoration, and land-use planning. The study contributes to wetland governance scholarship by showing that legal accumulation alone does not secure conservation outcomes when fragmented authority, uneven implementation, and weak institutional integration persist.