Empirical agent-based modelling of everyday pro-environmental behaviours at work

We report on agent-based modelling work in the LOCAW project (Low Carbon at Work: Modelling Agents and Organisations to Achieve Transition to a Low Carbon Europe). The project explored the effectiveness of various backcasting scenarios conducted with case study organisations in bringing about pro-environmental change in the workforce in the domains of transport, energy use and waste. The model used qualitative representations of workspaces in formalising each scenario, and decision trees learned from questionnaire responses to represent decision-making. We describe the process by which the decision trees were constructed, noting that the use of decision trees in agent-based models requires particular considerations owing to the potential use of explanatory variables in model dynamics. The results of the modelling in various scenarios emphasise the importance of structural environmental changes in facilitating everyday pro-environmental behaviour, but also show there is a role for psychological variables such as norms, values and efficacy. As such, the topology of social interactions is a potentially important driver, raising the interesting prospect that both workplace geography and organisational hierarchy have a role to play in influencing workplace pro-environmental behaviours

The synergistic impacts of anthropogenic stressors and COVID-19 on aquaculture: a current global perspective

The rapid, global spread of COVID-19, and the measures intended to limit or slow its propagation, are having major impacts on diverse sectors of society. Notably, these impacts are occurring in the context of other anthropogenic-driven threats including global climate change. Both anthropogenic stressors and the COVID-19 pandemic represent significant economic challenges to aquaculture systems across the globe, threatening the supply chain of one of the most important sources of animal protein, with potential disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities. A web survey was conducted in 47 countries in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic to assess how aquaculture activities have been affected by the pandemic, and to explore how these impacts compare to those from climate change. A positive correlation between the effects of the two categories of drivers was detected, but analysis suggests that the pandemic and the anthropogenic stressors affect different parts of the supply chain. The immediate measurable reported losses varied with aquaculture typology (land vs. marine, and intensive vs. extensive). A comparably lower impact on farmers reporting the use of integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) methods suggests that IMTA might enhance resilience to multiple stressors by providing different market options under the COVID-19 pandemic. Results emphasize the importance of assessing detrimental effects of COVID-19 under a multiple stressor lens, focusing on areas that have already locally experienced economic loss due to anthropogenic stressors in the last decade. Holistic policies that simultaneously address other ongoing anthropogenic stressors, rather than focusing solely on the acute impacts of COVID-19, are needed to maximize the long-term resilience of the aquaculture sector.publishe

Effects of different types of hand gestures in persuasive speech on receivers' evaluations

Hand gestures have a close link with speech and with social perception and persuasion processes, however to date no one has experimentally investigated the role of hand gestures alone in persuasive speech. An experiment with undergraduates was conducted using 5 video-messages in which only hand gestures of the speaker were manipulated along five types. ANOVAs reveal effect of gesture type on receivers’ evaluation of message persuasiveness, speaker communication style effectiveness, and speaker’s composure and competence. A control study (Experiment 2) confirms that these effects are due to visible gestures. Speech accompanying gestures appear to play a causal role in social perception

Agricultural cooperative “Co.r.ag.gio.”, an example of urban agriculture in Rome (Italy) as a resilient strategy against urban climate change.

In urban contexts, cultivated agricultural land increases permeability, improves positive atmospheric exchanges, protects the complexity of agricultural ecosystem and helps general resilience to urban climate changes. We present the Italian case study of the EU-FP7 funded project called “GLAMURS - Green Lifestyles, alternative models and upscaling regional sustainability” (www.glamurs.eu). GLAMURS investigates transitions to sustainable lifestyles and green economies, through an interdisciplinary approach in seven different regions of Europe. In the Lazio Region of Italy, the young agricultural cooperative "Co.R.Ag.Gio" (“Courage”), COoperativa Romana AGricoltura GIOvani (Roman Agricultural Cooperative of Youth), encourages citizens and institutions to conserve environmental heritages abandoned in the Roman agricultural outskirts. CoRAgGio was founded in 2011, as a free association of young people (farmers, agronomists, chefs, architects, day workers, industrial worker, anthropologists, educators). It promotes an original work perspective in this economic crisis, enhancing passions and experiences in agricultural and horticultural activities, teaching and training (educational farms, courses in sustainable agriculture), food (spreading good practices, 0-km production), crafts. It strives to make public land available to all citizens, and preserve agricultural soils from the expansion of the building sector. It promotes an agricultural urban model that is healthy, organic, multi-functional, replacing the degraded concrete buildings with a proposal of a new way of living, based on ecological concerns, respecting labour dignity, and social meanings of agriculture. The implications of promoting sustainable urban agriculture will be discussed, in terms of economic values, ecological services and food production, improvement of life quality, soil protection, earth resources and biodiversity conservation