On the human impacts and governance of large-scale tree plantations

Because of the pace and magnitude of land cover change, terrestrial ecosystems across the globe are under unprecedented pressure. Industrial production of wood in large-scale tree plantations is one of the drivers of this change. The development of funds of natural capital on private lands for marketable commodities, however, often comes at the expense of other non-marketable benefits that people derive from ecosystems. The disturbances to existing ecosystems and social systems caused by the establishment of plantations can be drastic. Identifying factors that foster and impede actors and institutions to solve problems and address injustices thus becomes crucial for advancing sustainability through changes in policies and practices. This dissertation synthesises findings from four articles. It takes on the task of filling two gaps in the previous scholarly literature: the first concerning the human impacts of large-scale tree plantations (articles I and II); the second concerning the different institutions that shape their governance (articles III and IV). It also brings these contributions together under a framework for empirical analysis, which combines and structures key concepts of environmental social sciences ranging from systems ecology to sociology. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods have been used in the four articles. Article I presents the findings from a systematic review of the impacts of large-scale tree plantations for local communities. The review shows that impacts are frequently grounded in the process of land acquisition for plantations and the subsequent loss of livelihoods. Plantations have often caused more losses of livelihoods than created jobs. Article I also identifies gaps in the evidence base. Article II applies the concept of resilience and qualitative content analysis to analyse the Uruguayan beekeepers’ experiences of and responses to land cover change to plantations. The results show that the community faces this change as multiple interlinked challenges (e.g., lower honey yields and higher costs), to which they generally have a limited capacity to adapt. Both articles III and IV use data from the domain of South African tree plantation policy. Based on an analysis of policy beliefs, the former identifies two competing coalitions: a dominant business-as-usual coalition, of which ideas a minority justice and change coalition challenges. Article III also clarifies the role that beliefs concerning specific policy instruments play in coalition formation. Article IV focuses on policy learning – the acquisition and dissemination of information between actors with diverse knowledge. It tests hypotheses concerning actors’ information exchange behaviour and finds that actors tend to exchange information and build trust with those who think alike. However, its findings support the idea that co-participation in policy forums enables policy learning. Large-scale tree plantations have often caused negative impacts for local communities. The unfolding of impacts, however, also depends on the context (e.g., land use rights). The impacts are in many ways rooted in the governance of plantations, the dynamics of which can be better understood through coalition formation and policy learning

Collective Action and Social Innovation in the Energy Sector: A Mobilization Model Perspective

This conceptual paper applies a mobilization model to Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs) in the energy sector. The goal is to synthesize aspects of sustainable transition theories with social movement theory to gain insights into how CAIs mobilize to bring about niche-regime change in the context of the sustainable energy transition. First, we demonstrate how energy communities, as a representation of CAIs, relate to social innovation. We then discuss how CAIs in the energy sector are understood within both sustainability transition theory and institutional dynamics theory. While these theories are adept at describing the role energy CAIs have in the energy transition, they do not yet offer much insight concerning the underlying social dimensions for the formation and upscaling of energy CAIs. Therefore, we adapt and apply a mobilization model to gain insight into the dimensions of mobilization and upscaling of CAIs in the energy sector. By doing so we show that the expanding role of CAIs in the energy sector is a function of their power acquisition through mobilization processes. We conclude with a look at future opportunities and challenges of CAIs in the energy transition.This research was conducted under the COMETS (Collective action Models for Energy Transition and Social Innovation) project, funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Program of the European Commission, grant number 837722

Active ageing – Enhancing digital literacies in elderly citizens

Being digital and information literate is crucial in nowadays society, although not every citizen has the necessary means and resources to achieve these skills, especially the elderly ones. Therefore it is necessary to develop ways to help them to enhance their digital and information competences. In this paper we will present an ongoing project that was designed and implemented with the goal to provide elderly citizens with the necessary skills of a networked society, contributing for an active ageing. The methods used were based on a set of hands on workshops delivered by a team of voluntary students and teacher, with the help of collaborators from a nursing home. The workshops were developed accordingly with the detected needs of a group of elderly citizens, based on the answers of an implemented questionnaire.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio