Maatalous on EU:n pisimmälle integroitu toimiala ja politiikanala. Yhteisen maatalouspolitiikan tarina 1960-luvulta nykyaikaan kuvaa muuttuvia ja monipuolistuvia yhteiskunnallisia haasteita, joihin politiikkatoimenpiteillä on vastattu. Alkuaikoina päähuomio oli elintarvikehuollossa ja viljelijöiden toimeentulossa, mutta ajan myötä mukaan on tullut vahvoja alueellisia, ympäristöllisiä ja myös kulttuurisia painotuksia. Kestävän kehityksen käsittein tarkasteltuna yhteinen maatalouspolitiikka on muuttunut moniulotteisemmaksi. Viimeisimmillä uudistuksilla on tavoiteltu kestävyyden sekä taloudelliseen, ympäristölliseen, sosiaaliseen että kulttuuriseen ulottuvuuteen liittyviä muutoksia. Kestävä kehitys ei ole ollut eksplisiittisesti uudistusten perusta, mutta lukuisilla maatalouspolitiikan omilla käsitteillä on kuvattu ja tavoiteltu kestävän kehityksen ideaalia. Kestävän kehityksen viitekehys voi olla hyödyllinen ratkaistaessa yhteiskunnassa kulloinkin ongelmallisina pidettyjä maatalouteen ja ruokahuoltoon liittyviä kysymyksiä, koska se ohjaa systemaattisesti asettamaan esimerkiksi tavoitteet, arvioimaan käytettäviä keinoja ja ennakoimaan vaikutuksia yhtä aikaa sekä taloudellisen, ympäristöllisen, sosiaalisen että kulttuurisen ulottuvuuden osalta.
Educational systems in Africa during the colonial period focused on a school system that was based on the perspectives of the colonial rulers. Nearly half a century ago African leaders, after the independence granted to their countries, were expressing the high hopes of positive political and economic development in their countries. But alas, the development has been regressive. Today Africa is the only continent in the world that has become poorer in the past 25 years. There has been a gradual fall in the school enrolment rate in the African countries. Countries like Nigeria, according to a recent joint study by Nigeria's National Planning Commission and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), had 57 percent of its population over the age of 15 that could read and write in 1991. But by 1999, the figure had fallen to 49 percent. By the year 2000, half the world's poor were in Africa compared with 10% in 1970. Vast majority of the population in the African countries, according to the World Bank, live on less than one US Dollar a day. The unemployment and underemployment rate is getting higher. So also, the standard of education has been falling due to lack of infrastructure, funds for teachers' salaries, corruption and diseases. Even though there is seemingly high rise of school enrolment, the over-stretched infrastructure and lack of good management of resources have continued to lower the standard of education. As one of the consequence there have been steady and drastic degradation of the environment and increasing abject poverty. A confounding situation in Zambia, for example, is that more than 70 percent of the population lives in poverty, the education achievement is being undermined by a shortage of teachers, according to the Global Campaign for Education. However, another source shows that 9,000 vacancies remain unfilled and that almost the same number of recently qualified teachers are also unemployed, apparently because of financial constraints that have resulted from the IMF's structural adjustment policies (South African Institute for International Affairs [SAIIA Report]) 2005. Even those who remarked that there has been progress in the education sector in Africa nevertheless indicated the huge problems constraining the sector. Govender, for example, told the Johannesburg gathering held Dec. 2, 2004 that "… at the current slow pace of enrolment growth, Africa will not achieve UPE until at least 2150 – and even then it may not acquire the skills it needs to truly develop". The socio-economic indicators show that African countries are not on the path of sustainable development. Education is one of the major instruments for sustainable development if properly planned and implemented. It is of no wonder that the United Nations declared 2005 to 2015 as the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. The declaration shows that the world, with the rapid on-going globalization and information technology, is in need of re-evaluating and overhauling the present educational policies and practices to achieve sustainable development. Many of the more economically advanced countries are regularly assessing their school curricula and making amendments to suit their development. The developing countries, especially those in Africa, are lagging behind in curricula development that could facilitate sustainable development. Without serious appraisals of the present school curricula in African countries, the continent will find it hard to be part of the information society. It is there therefore of no overstatement that Africa needs urgent researches to find the ways for re-assessing and developing school curricula for sustainable development. This book, a series of articles written by African and European researchers, is an attempt to contribute to the scientific discussion on education for sustainable development. The authors have brought up educational issues that are important for consideration in the process of reevaluation of school curricula for education for sustainable development and achievement of education for all. The articles focused on the educational issues in Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria. In some of the chapters general views of education as related to culture and value are discussed. A chapter is also dedicated for some views from experts in education for sustainable development. This is to show the attempts already being made in Europe, and possibility of learning from them to evolve curricula that are relevant to the everyday life and sustainable development in African.
Tensions between the well-being of present humans, future humans, and nonhuman nature manifest in social protests and political and academic debates over the future of Earth. The increasing consumption of natural resources no longer increases, let alone equalises, human well-being, but has led to the current ecological crisis and harms both human and nonhuman well-being. While the crisis has been acknowledged, the existing conceptual frameworks are in some respects ill-equipped to address the crisis in a way that would link the resolving of the crisis with the pivotal aim of promoting equal well-being. The shortcomings of the existing concepts in this respect relate to anthropocentric normative orientation, methodological individualism that disregards process dynamics and precludes integrating the considerations of human and nonhuman well-being, and the lack of multiscalar considerations of well-being. This work derives and proposes the concept of planetary well-being to address the aforementioned conceptual issues, to recognise the moral considerability of both human and nonhuman well-being, and to promote transdisciplinary, cross-cultural discourse for addressing the crisis and for promoting societal and cultural transformation. Conceptually, planetary well-being shifts focus on well-being from individuals to processes, Earth system and ecosystem processes, that underlie all well-being. Planetary well-being is a state where the integrity of Earth system and ecosystem processes remains unimpaired to a degree that species and populations can persist to the future and organisms have the opportunity to achieve well-being. After grounding and introducing planetary well-being, this work shortly discusses how the concept can be operationalised and reflects upon its potential as a bridging concept between different worldviews. ; peerReviewed
Voluntary environmental agreements (VEAs) are attracting considerable attention due to the complexity of the current environmental issues. Fostering collaboration between public and private parties is considered an effective means for achieving sustainable development goals. Even though VEAs have been studied in the past, little research has focused on the novel and successful agreements from the Netherlands (Green Deals) and the UK (WRAP agreements). Thus, this study aims at filling this gap of knowledge by exploring the way the Dutch Green Deals and WRAP agreements work and how their efficiency is measured. The data in this qualitative study was collected through theme interviews. In total eight experts from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment (3), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK (2), WRAP (2) and a consulting company in the Netherlands (1) were interviewed. The data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The study focused on exploring the development, implementation, and performance phases of the agreements. The added value and the key differences of the studied phenomena were also examined. According to the research findings, the Green Deals and WRAP agreements promote active knowledge sharing and learning. Furthermore, governments prefer to use voluntary approaches for tacking environmental issues and for achieving progress through collaboration and innovation. Critical factors for successful implementation of the agreements are ambition, sharing, communication, access to expertise, trust and respect.
Content The importance of being sustainable Towards a green economy Nordic SCP co-operation Cleaner technologies and innovations How can government support clean technologies? Resource efficiency in eco-design BAT – Best Available Techniques Green public procurement Promoting green technology by public demand Nordic push for EU green procurement criteria LCC – as easy as ABC? Environmental information and sustainable lifestyles Nordic Ecolabel – flying high Retailers facilitating green demand Sustainable lifestyles – lessons from successful projects SCP in small communities References
The aim of this thesis is to describe the decision making process and the discourses involved with it in Kiruna. The rationality of these political, social, economical and environmental discourses is studied. The research uses qualitative methods, in particular contents analysis as a research method to analyse the data. The main source data is thus qualitative in character, and involves conference presentations and email correspondence between the author and the interviewer. The most important conclusion is that the discourses are the "arena" for the decision implementation. It can, however, be argued that "discursiveness" of decision making is only seeming, because the decision has already been made, and even though the discourses were constructed already before the decision, its real influence on the decision cannot be proved. Whether the decision is made by consulting the whole community or only a handful of people, the outcome always seems to reflect the circumstances, the present situation and the future expectations of the local people. Discourses are constructed within the social context, and the prevailing ambience. The "togetherness" of the locals makes it easy to believe that the town will survive the upcoming challenges and changes without major social difficulties. The ability to cope and adjust, the resilience of the locals and their acceptance about the development is in this case the corner stone that can save the community. Since the decision in Kiruna was set up by the changing conditions, it can be argued that it was the circumstances that made the decision. The discourses only "cushioned" and justified what was already decided. The discourses are thus constructed in and with the help of the socioeconomic context. Based on the analysis it can be concluded that the sociopolitical circumstances that the decisions are made in are the driving force for the outcome. It should also be noted that the external pressure and influence on the outcome is crucial. In the case of Kiruna, it is possible that the community feels they own their livelihood to the company, thus they are willing to approve the expansion of the mine to have further resources exploited. As it has become evident, especially in the case of rational decision making, a decision can only be the best possible choice or the best choice available.
The excitement of public space exploration was for decades captured only in Hollywood science fiction productions, until the 2000s saw the emergence of the New Space industry, combining the activities of private space companies and governmental actors. As a sector of New Space, the commercial space tourism industry aims to satisfy the postmodern traveller's desire for new experiences, and is forecast to develop as a multi-billion tourism sector in the future. The emergent New Space tourism industry has three major operators, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, all from private and influential backgrounds and all originally benefiting from United States governmental initiatives, such as that to improve technology for a reusable launch vehicle. The first operational New Space tourism flights took place in 2021, however, the technological revolution has simultaneously created new possibilities for travellers to join various travel adventures virtually, thus democratising the space experience for the wider public, but also limited the physical experience in the pioneering stage to the wealthy elite. The global megatrend of sustainability was furthered by the concerns of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (2018) regarding the future effects of climate change on Earth. The growth of tourism has led to a significant increase in its environmental impact which can no longer be ignored, and thus the need for more sustainable future scenario planning in the New Space industry, including tourism. Apart from being an energy- and emissions-related driver of new technological developments, sustainable development has also brought responsibility and ethics to global tourism operations, and influenced the creation of global regulations. Rapidly advancing technological developments also contributed to Finland becoming a New Space industry nation in 2017. One of the objectives of Finland´s space strategy is to provide an attractive and sustainably-approached global environment for space-related business by 2025, and the country´s recently established space legislation advocates such future points of action. This PhD thesis expands the academic research on space tourism by creating alternative future scenarios to enhance elements of sustainability in the New Space tourism industry. The focus was on investigating how elements of sustainability could be included in development planning for New Space tourism, and identifying concepts relating to the contexts of space tourism and sustainability that could be highlighted through futures research, and how space tourism and sustainability is currently envisioned by the public and professionals in the field in Finland. The empirical research was conducted through in-depth interviews, a public survey and a professional Delphi study. The analysis, using futures methods to interpret weak signals, following the principles of grounded theory, and supplemented by the Delphi method and comparative content analysis, was collated into two peerreviewed articles and a book chapter, written between 2017-2021. The findings demonstrate that sustainability in New Space tourism industry could be supported through three alternative future scenarios: through the planning of global space regulations, through improving global fairness, and through the implementation of virtual and technological innovations. ; Avaruusmatkailu on vuosikymmenien aikana tullut suurelle yleisölle tutuksi etenkin Hollywood-lähtöisten fantasiamaailmojen kautta. Askel kohti operatiivista toimintaa otettiin kuitenkin vasta vuosituhannen vaihtumisen jälkeen, jolloin uusi kaupallinen avaruusliiketoimintasektori, "New Space", kehittyi tuoden uudet yksityiset avaruusyritykset toimijoiksi perinteisten avaruusvaltioiden rinnalle. Kaupallisen avaruusturismin tavoitteena on luoda postmodernille matkailijalle uusia elämyksiä Virgin Galactic, SpaceX ja Blue Origin ovat avaruusmatkailuliiketoiminnan tunnetuimmat, yksityisen rahoituspohjan omaavat yritykset, jotka toteuttivat ensimmäiset avaruusturismilentonsa vuonna 2021. Yritykset myös hyödynsivät toimintansa alkuvaiheessa Yhdysvaltojen hallituksen hankerahoituksia uudelleenkäytettävien kantorakettien tekniikan kehittämiseksi, edistäen massoille suunnattavan avaruusturismin kehitystä. Teknologian nopea kehitys on luonut uusia mahdollisuuksia kokea matkailua myös virtuaalimaailmojen kautta, mitä voisi tulevaisuudessa hyödyntää myös avaruuselämyskontekstissa - etenkin kun fyysinen avaruusturismi rajautuu alussa vain varakkaimpiin matkailijoihin. Kaupallinen avaruusmatkailu on alkamassa aikakautena, jolloin kestävän kehityksen globaali megatrendi vahvistui synkkäennusteisen kansainvälisen ilmastoraportin (IPCC, 2018) myötä. Matkailuteollisuuden kasvu on lisännyt myös negatiivisia ympäristövaikutuksia, minkä vuoksi uuden New Space matkailuliiketoiminnan tulevaisuusskenaariot tulisi luoda kestävän kehityksen linjauksia mukaileviksi. Samalla kun eri teollisuusalat toteuttavat yhä ympäristöystävällisimpiä energia- ja päästöratkaisuja, myös yhteiskunnallisen yritysvastuullisuuden sekä lainsäädännön merkitykset ovat korostuneet entisestään. Piensatelliittiteknologian kehitys ja kaupallisen avaruusliiketoiminnan edistys mahdollisti Suomen liittymisen perinteisten avaruusvaltioiden joukkoon vuonna 2017. Suomen avaruusstrategian yksi tavoitteista on luoda kilpailukykyinen ympäristö kaupalliselle avaruusliiketoiminnalle vuoteen 2025 mennessä, painottaen kansallisessa avaruuslaissa esiintuotuja ja kestävää kehitystä mukailevia toimintamalleja. Tämä väitöskirja laajentaa avaruusmatkailukontekstin akateemista tutkimusta luomalla vaihtoehtoisia skenaarioita kestävän kehityksen vahvistamiseksi uudessa New Space matkailuliiketoiminnassa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteina oli selvittää, miten kestävää kehitystä voidaan sisällyttää New Space matkailuliiketoiminnan tulevaisuussuunnitteluun, tunnistaa avaruusmatkailun ja kestävän kehityksen konteksteihin liittyviä käsitteitä, jotka korostuvat tulevaisuuden tutkimuksen avulla ja kartoittaa avaruusmatkailun ja kestävän kehityksen näkemyksiä suomalaisen väestön ja asiantuntijoiden keskuudessa. Empiirinen tutkimusaineisto koostui asiantuntijoiden syvähaastatteluista, yleisökyselystä sekä Delfoi asiantuntijapaneelista. Tulevaisuuden tutkimusta ja grounded theory- metodologiaa hyödyntäen, Delfoi-menetelmällä ja vertailevalla sisällönanalyysilla täydennettyinä, julkaistiin tutkimustuloksista kaksi vertaisarvioitua tiedeartikkelia sekä vertaisarvioitu kirjaluku vuosien 2017-2021 aikana. Tutkimustulokset osoittivat, että kestävää kehitystä New Space matkailuliiketoiminnassa voidaan tukea kolmessa vaihtoehtoisessa tulevaisuusskenaariossa: globaalin avaruuslainsäädännön edistämisen kautta, globaalin oikeudenmukaisuuden huomioimisen kautta sekä virtuaalisten ja teknisten innovaatioiden käyttöönoton kautta.
Sustainability is a wide concept including environmental, economic, social/culture, and political dimensions. Currently, sustainability research is a rich scientific discipline producing a significant number of research papers. However, sustainability in the context of insolvency proceedings has attracted little research compared with, for example, how much attention corporate social responsibility has received in company law research. This article studies sustainability in the context of liquidation and restructuring proceedings and the preservation of different kinds of resources (natural, manufactured, human, and social capital) in insolvency procedures. The purpose of insolvency proceedings may prevent the full implementation of sustainability. In bankruptcy, the administrator must maximise the selling price for creditor satisfaction, and there are few possibilities to promote sustainability. When facing an acute environmental hazard, in the name of public interest, a bankruptcy estate with assets usually has to act unless the law stipulates that society is responsible for taking care of the problem. In restructuring proceedings, the main purpose is to continue the debtor's business. It depends on the markets how sustainable the debtor company must be to achieve profitability. If becoming a profitable company in a "green" or otherwise sustainable market requires costly efforts, creditors' interests may require the sale of the assets. The author views through sustainability lenses EU Restructuring and insolvency Directive (2019) and finds there is not much of a sustainability approach included. ; Peer reviewed
Tämä tutkimus keskittyy selvittämään kestävän kehityksen innovaatioita laivanrakennuksen alalla ja vaikutuksia johtamiseen. Tavoite oli luoda tieteellisen tutkimuksen kautta ohjeistus käytännön johtamistyöhön. Ensin kehitettiin teoreettinen viitekehys kirjallisuuteen pohjautuen. Sitä testattiin käyttäen laivanrakennuksesta kertovaa ei-tieteellistä kirjallisuutta. Viitekehys oli pohjana hermeneuttiseen strategiaan perustuvan empiirisen tutkimuksen suunnittelussa. Viiden Etelä-Koreassa ja neljän Kiinassa sijaitsevan telakan johtajia käytettiin laadulliseen tutkimuksen tiedonlähteinä. Tutkimustulokset visualisoitiin alustavassa mallissa, joka koostuu ohjaavista tekijöistä, jotka vaikuttavat kestävään kehitykseen innovaatioissa. Liiketoiminnan kannattavuus on sisällytetty alustavaan malliin uudenlaisella tavalla. Tulokset antavat viitteitä siitä, että ylimmällä johdolla on voimakkain ohjaava vaikutus, ja seuraavana tulevat strategia ja liiketoimintaan liittyvä lainsäädäntö. Tuloksissa on esitelty uudella tavalla ajan merkitystä johtamisprosesseissa, jotka ohjaavat innovaatioita kestävän kehityksen suuntaan. Tutkimustulosten pohjalta luotiin käytännöllinen tapa arvioida yritysten suoriutumista kestävän kehityksen tuomiseksi innovaatioihin. Lopuksi luotiin tehtävälista yritysjohdolle, joka haluaa johtaa innovaatioita kohti kestävää kehitystä liiketoiminnassaan. ; This research focuses on identifying sustainability in shipbuilding innovations and reflections on management. The aim was to develop practical guidance for managers and leaders in their work through systematic scientific research. First, a theoretical framework based on literature was developed. It was tested using secondary literature from shipyards and used as a basis for empirical research based on hermeneutic strategy. The management teams from five shipyards in South Korea and four in China were used as sources for data for qualitative analysis. The research results were visualised in a proposed, new model consisting of drivers that impact sustainability development in innovations. The profitability of the business is included in the model in a novel way. The results indicate that top management is the strongest driver, followed by strategy and relevant legislation in the business context. The aspect of time in management activities whilst developing sustainability is presented in a new way. Based on the research, a practical concept for assessing company performance on the journey towards sustainability in innovations was developed. Finally, a 'to-do' –list was created for management personnel who wants to lead innovations towards sustainability in their businesses. ; fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed|
"….Taking the structure and functioning of the Arctic regional economies and the degree of economic dependence as a point of departure, these region's self-reliance and comparative socio-economic performance is analyzed. The fundamental problem is still the dependency Arctic regions have on their mother economies in the south" "….the impact from climate changes and the global economy strongly influence the self-sufficiency constraints and potentials of the Arctic societies. Traditional approaches to economic valuation may not be sufficient to capture these relationships. Neo-classical economics and the trade off model look upon nature as a good commensurable with all other goods, and henceforward there is a substitution possibility. The rational self-interest and 'homo economicus' is however, not the same as responsible self-interest included in ecological economics. This suggests broader approaches to environmental uncertainties, which take into account ethical values and conflicts of interest". Contributors: Hans Aage, Iulie Aslaksen, Andrée Caron, Gérard Duhaime, Solveig Glomsröd, Jón Haukur Ingimundarson, Ivar Jonsson, Jack Kruse, Joan Nymand Larsen, Svein Mathiesen, Anna Ingeborg Myhr, Birger Poppel, Rasmus Ole Rasmussen, Erik Reinert, Hugo Reinert, Chris Southcott, Gorm Winther, Lyudmila Zalkind.
Poverty is a multi-dimensional global problem that is at the core of the current concept of the development. The thesis focuses on the social sustainability in the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) -process of Nepal. PRSP process is created by the World Bank and IMF in the 1990s. The developing countries prepare their national PRSP, which defines the guidelines of the development politics. I ask in the thesis, what kind of positions are given to different subjects in the PRSPs of Nepal and what these positions tell about the poor's political agency and capacities to decide about their own lives. The theoretical framework of the thesis consists of the earlier researches about the development, poverty, sustainable development and deliberative democracy. The key concept is the socially sustainable poverty reduction, which main idea is that poverty is not reduced unless poor are capable of deciding about their own lives. The material of the thesis consists of three documents of the PRSP process of Nepal from 2003 to 2010. The material is analyzed with the qualitative methodology of the theoryguiding content analyze, the actantial model and the concept of the subject position. The PRSP process of Nepal structures hierarchical positions to the different actors. The poor people and communities are labeled as the passive objects of the development. To the government, organizations, communities and the private sector the documents structure the position of the political agents and the international agencies have power to define the targets of the process. The results reveal how the present development discourse reflects the power structure of the global politics, where the poor people of developing countries remain without a voice. ; Köyhyys on moniulotteinen poliittinen ongelma, jonka vähentäminen on nykyisen kehitysdiskurssin keskiössä. Tutkimuksessa tarkastelen sosiaalisesti kestävää köyhyyden vähentämistä Nepalin köyhyyden vähentämisstrategiossa (PRSP). PRSP on Maailmanpankin ja Kansainvälisen valuuttarahaston luoma prosessi, jossa kehitysmaat valmistelevat kansallisesti köyhyyden vähentämissuunnitelman. Se on ehtona Maailmanpankin lainahelpotuksiin ja moniin kehitysapuohjelmiin ja määrittelee mkehityspolitiikan keskeisimmät prioriteetit. Tutkimuksessa kysyn, millaisia asemia eri toimijoille rakennetaan Nepalin PRSP -prosessissa ja mitä nämä asemat kertovat köyhien poliittisesta toimijuudesta ja kapasiteeteista päättää omasta elämästään. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys koostuu kehitystä, köyhyyttä, sosiaalisesti kestävää kehitystä ja deliberatiivista demokratiaa käsittelevistä aiemmista tutkimuksista. Keskiössä on sosiaalisesti kestävä köyhyyden vähentäminen, joka vittaa kestävästä kehityksestä nousevaan ajatukseen, että köyhyys ei vähene elleivät köyhät kykene itse päättämään omasta elämästään.Tutkimusaineisto koostuu kolmesta Nepalin PRSP -dokumentista vuosilta 2003-2010. Analysoin niitä laadullisesti teoriaohjaavalla sisällönanalyysillä ja yhdistän siihen Greimasin luoman aktanttimallin ja diskurssianalyysissä käytetyn subjektiaseman käsitteen. Subjektiaseman avulla tarkastelen millaisia kontekstuaalisia subjektiasemia poliittisissa dokumenteissa rakennetaan. Nepalin PRSP prosessi rakentaa hierarkisia asemia eri toimijoille: Köyhät ihmiset ja yhteisöt ovat kehityksen passiivisia kohteita, ja hallitus, hyvin organisoidut järjestöt ja yksityinen sektori ovat aktiivisia poliittisia toimijoita. Kansainväliset kehitystoimijat vaikuttavat vahvasti papereiden tavotteisiin. Prosessi tuo köyhät kehityspolitiikan keskiöön, mutta lisää niiden poliittista toimijuutta vain rajoitetusti. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, miten nykyinen kehitysdiskurssi heijastelee maailmanpoliittisia valtarakenteita, joissa köyhien maiden köyhät jäävät ilman ääntä.
There is no economic or social sustainability without ecological sustainability, yet the latter can hardly be achieved without the other forms of sustainability. While contemporary consumer societies are still today fundamentally unsustainable, advancing the overall sustainability transition as well as mitigating and preventing the ecological crisis should be high on the social work and community development agendas. On one hand, this is because the ecological crisis both causes and increases social inequality and vulnerability. On the other hand, aspiring sustainability requires profound social and cultural changes, bringing about which belongs to social work and community work's areas of expertise. Asking how to respond to the socio-environmental crisis and its ramifications in social work education, this article focuses on the currently evolving ecosocial framework in Finnish social work education and practice, paying special attention to the opportunities and hindrances in its realization. The inquiry is based on thematic analysis of advanced level social work students' views on these issues, as presented on a 5 ECTS (credits as per the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) course Social Work in Ecosocial Transition, part of the University of Jyväskylä's social work master's degree curriculum. In countries like Finland, where community development has a marginal role, adoption of the ecosocial framework would inherently strengthen the community based and political orientation in social work. ; peerReviewed
Sustainability reports have recently become a central tool for a corporation in convincing different stakeholder of their sustainability performance. The research and especially criticism towards sustainability reports is increasing. One solution for the criticism would be that companies provide more monetary arguments of their sustainability work. Currently there is a research gap of the content of the monetary sustainability reporting. This paper aims to address this gap by analysing how three Finnish companies construct the classification of stakeholders in terms of monetary information in their sustainability reports between 2003 and 2012. We studied three Finnish companies which represented three different business sectors, namely aviation, energy and financial. The sustainability reports of these three case companies from 2003-2012 were used as research material in this study. The reports were content analysed. Monetary information is understood here as quantitative information in connection with a currency unit. We identified seven different stakeholder groups in relation to monetary information in the sustainability reports: corporation, internal stakeholders, governmental stakeholders, financial stakeholders, supply chain stakeholders, societal stakeholders and service provider stakeholders. The corporation was the most often mentioned stakeholder but also internal and supply chain stakeholders were rather often mentioned. We further categorized the monetary information within the stakeholder groups into descriptions of the aims, benefits, futures, investments, philanthropic actions, recognitions, statements, sufferings and trends. Most often the monetary information was represented as statements and trends. The results portray the limitedness of monetary information in the sustainability reports. Monetary information is still clearly the minority of the sustainability information provided by the companies. In addition, the monetary information remains mainly disjointed with the rest of the content of the report. The sums, their magnitudes or developments are not commented. Based on the findings of this study, we encourage companies to reconsider the use of monetary information in the reports. Monetary information would serve as a powerful argument for sustainability in business. However, the current disjointed and unexplained use of it is more likely to increase criticism towards sustainability reports than to serve the integration of sustainability into business and stakeholder relationships. ; peerReviewed
One of the most significant environmental and social problems of the world corresponds to unsustainable patterns of production, distribution, consumption and disposal of products. These unsustainable patterns are the result of choices made by a myriad of actors across the value chain of products. These choices can be influenced by making credible and meaningful information about the products they are producing, trading or consuming more readily available to market actors and decision-makers to enable them to make more informed choices. Such information should be based on the impacts of a product´s life cycle to ensure the net improvement and avoid burden shifting7.In this sense, ecolabels and other product information tools have played an important role in advancing more sustainable consumption and production patterns. Their function is to provide information about environmental and/or social aspects of products to all actors of the value chain. Ecolabels not only guide manufacturers towards the right choices of raw materials, production processes, packaging and end-of-life logistics, but also influence the behaviour of consumers so that their choice of product comes with an environmental and/or social conscience (Prasad, 2012). Thus, ecolabels are widely supported as an integral component of comprehensive policy frameworks and initiatives aimed at achieving sustainable consumption and production patterns (DEFRA, 2010).In this respect, Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) plays a crucial part in the uptake of ecolabelling. Public procurement constitutes a significant part of domestic consumption. Through specific SPP policies, governments have backed the creation of markets for domestic ecolabelled products (Horne, 2009). Equally, ecolabels are a key element for the widespread and better application of SPP, as they can be used to outline and comply with specifications of tendering processes (AMPHOS 21, 2011). The strong inter-linkage between ecolabelling and SPP is evidenced in the case of the EU Ecolabel, where diverse countries have implemented successful national ecolabelling programmes that have facilitated the development of sound SPP policies (AMPHOS 21, 2011).Compared to developed regions, Southern Cone (SC) countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) have little experience with the use of ecolabelling and SPP for promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns. At the same time, there is a wide range in the levels of activity across the countries in the SC.
