Johannes M. Luetz

UNSW Sydney | UNSW · School of Social Sciences

Atoll island communities are naturally vulnerable to flooding hazards such as king tides, storm surges and overtopping, among others. Climate change can be expected to catalyse the susceptibility to flooding through extreme weather events, sea level rise (SLR) and other climate related pressures. Further, population growth in coastal proximity can...

This entry scrutinizes approaches to research, knowledge creation, and education through the prism of “disciplinarity” and “interdisciplinarity.” The discourse also explores alternative and competing conceptual approaches, terminology, and typology, including “multidisciplinarity,” “systems theory,” “multiliteracies,” and “anti-disciplinarity.” Whi...

Background Climate change is a problem which is global in nature, and whose effects go across a wide range of disciplines. It is therefore important that this theme is taken into account as part of universities´ teaching and research programs. Methods A three-tiered approach was used, consisting of a bibliometric analysis, an online survey and a s...

Climate change negatively impacts the livelihoods of indigenous communities across the world, including those located on the African continent. This Comment reports on how five African indigenous communities have been impacted by climate change and the adopted adaptation mechanisms.

Achieving global environmental sustainability is a current issue, and one of profound importance for the future of humanity. However, environmental sustainability cannot be meaningfully discussed as an issue in isolation, for it is deeply intertwined with other social justice issues such as education, spirituality and—by extension—humanity’s collec...

This research investigated the Indigenous knowledge of artisanal fisherfolks in Ondo State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used. Two coastal communities (Aiyetoro and Igbobini) and two riverine inland communities (Ogbese and Owena) were purposefully selected because of extensive fishing activities in the region. Fifty respondents were...

Anthropogenic climate change is among the most defining challenges confronting the current era, with impacts already affecting both the health of the environment and the functioning of virtually every sector of society. In the present study, four environmental indicators were used as proxies to analyse the footprints of climate change in the mangro...

Art therapy in prisons remains widely under-researched in Australia and beyond and represents a major gap in the literature. Despite evidence that art therapy can be a tool for social change, to date, there are no recorded studies in Australia which have investigated the therapeutic benefits of art in prison populations with measured outcomes. Lite...

Contemporary South Africa reflects complex, diverse, and evolving religious realities. Changes continue to manifest at the confluence of encounters between various religions and rapid changes in social institutions that affect, in one way or another, various religions in the nation. These realities are typically embedded in sociocultural contexts a...

While different in emphasis, spirituality and sustainable development are intertwined concepts that cannot be meaningfully discussed in isolation from each other. This is especially pertinent in Pacific Island countries that are characterised by both high degrees of vulnerability to climate change and high degrees of religious engagement. There is...

The consequences of sexual addiction (hereafter SA) and compulsive sexual behavior (hereafter CSB) are manifold and can be challenging to qualify and quantify accurately. Individuals suffering from SA/CSB and their intimate partners typically encounter a host of devastating ramifications. The purpose of this comment piece is to highlight selected o...

The influence of humanity on the environment and the use of natural resources may be affected by spirituality, through awareness for developing a greater conscience about the implications of human actions and needs to adjust these in achieving sustainable development. However, the literature indicates a lack of consensus about op-erationalizing spi...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe disturbances in the work of hundreds of millions of people around the world. One of the groups affected is the academic staff at higher education institutions, whose original business model, i.e., presence teaching, suddenly changed to online learning. This has, in turn, exacerbated pre-existing problems such...

The COVID-19 escalation of cases in Australia in March 2020 instigated a swift and comprehensive conversion of classroom instruction to online learning for all students and staff at Christian Heritage College (CHC), a private Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Brisbane. Technology integration exploded on “all fronts,” including online lectures,...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is believed to have a significant potential use in tackling climate change. This paper explores the connections between AI and climate change research as a whole and its usefulness in climate change adaptation efforts in particular. Using a systematic review of the literature on applications of AI for climate change ada...

Bangladesh has a unique coastal system with both proximity of climatic vulnerability and opportunity, having rich coastal resources. The upkeep of people's livelihoods in the coastal zone largely depends on the degree to which key stakeholders at all levels of decision-making can participate in climate adaptation planning and implementation process...

There has been a surge of research articles in the last two decades about sexual addiction (SA) and compulsive sexual behavior (CSB). In the literature, SA/CSB is mostly presented as being comparable to other behavioral addictions and similarly involves a problematic consumption model: loss of control, psycho-social impairments, and risky sexual ac...

Background and objectives Recent years have seen a surge of articles related to compulsive pornography consumption or pornography addiction, with experts warning of potentially detrimental consequences. Whereas much research has focused on the male consumers of pornography, fewer studies have examined the impacts of pornography-linked compulsive se...

This chapter focuses on mainland coastal towns that have populations of between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants. Through six case studies, the chapter develops an understanding of the characteristics that shape each of the communities. By exploring the climate change hazards each of the case studies are experiencing now and forecast into the future,...

Over recent years, globalisation occasioned a dramatic rise in cross-cultural interactions until this was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ability to competently engage in a multicultural world is often considered the “literacy of the future”. Global interconnectedness has brought studies into intercultural competence to centre stage. This h...

Over recent years globalisation has occasioned a dramatic rise in cross-cultural interactions – until this was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic (OECD 2018, Nelson & Luetz 2021). The ability to competently engage in a multicultural world is often considered the “literacy of the future” (UNESCO 2013, OECD 2018). Global interconnectedness has brough...

Since January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the media and exercises pressure on governments worldwide. Apart from its effects on economies, education systems and societies, the pandemic has also influenced climate change research. This paper examines the extent to which COVID-19 has influenced climate change research worldwide during th...

Small Island States (SIDS) are among the nations most exposed to climate change (CC) and are characterised by a high degree of vulnerability. Their unique nature means there is a need for more studies focused on the limits to CC adaptation on such fragile nations, particularly regarding their problems and constraints. This paper addressed a perceiv...

Countries in the majority world are widely argued to be most severely affected by the corona pandemic. To fight the outbreak of the virus and reduce risks of economic hardships and starvation these countries need an ability to innovate and quickly develop feasible solutions in areas such as health, education, and business. In response to this crisi...

This pilot study critically reviews the implementation of World Vision’s Early Warning Early Action System (EWEAS) after 18 months of field testing in 13 countries in the East and Southern Africa region following the 2011 Horn of Africa (HoA) food crisis. It makes a critical contribution to our understanding of the need for better disaster predicti...

Many environmental problems can be attributed to human behaviour, and education is seen as a means of shaping human behaviour that is pro-environmental. The role of the formal education system in supporting pro-environmental behaviour is considered pivotal and duly highlighted in key documents/plans on sustainable development. This chapter is based...

Ecotheology is an area of growing interest to faith communities both denominationally and ecumenically. This includes Pacific Island nations, which are characterised by a comparatively high degree of Christianisation. Ecotheological ideas commonly explore the interrelationships between religion and nature in the light of contemporary environmental...

Armed conflict has been part of the human experience for all recorded history, and together with peoples and cultures, the environment has been a major casualty of this. The causes and costs of war are numerous, complex and invariably expensive, leaving a toll that is measured not only in financial terms, but also in terms of the impact on the natu...

This interdisciplinary book explores the science and spirituality nexus in the Pacific Islands Region and as such makes a critical contribution to sustainable climate change adaptation in Oceania. In addition to presenting case studies, literary analyses, field projects, and empirical research, the book describes faith-engaged approaches through th...

Given that almost every Pacific Island resident is spiritually engaged to a degree that is uncommon in western secular societies, an evaluation of the role of religion in climate-change adaptation in this exposed region is overdue. This chapter explains the nature of Pacific Island people’s religious engagement, its undoubted links with culturally-...

Sexual addiction (SA) and hypersexual disorder (HD) describe prevalent contemporary phenomena that the public remains poorly educated about. Notwithstanding widespread agreement among concerned stakeholders that SA and HD constitute an understudied and underappreciated challenge, the analysis digested in this research converges around the synthesis...

The biblical books of Acts (12:1; 12:5), Matthew (11:12) and Romans (16:7) all speak of the apostles Peter, Paul and John interacting in prison discipleship with other followers of Christ. These references are the first documentation of New Testament prison chaplaincy, and the Gospel of Matthew (25:36) goes even further, admonishing Christians to b...

Owing to the expansion of globalisation, cultural interactions have brought studies into Intercultural Competence (IC) to centre stage (UNDP 2004; Bissessar 2018; Nelson et al. 2019). According to leading scholars and organisations, educational institutions have a vital role to play in helping their students develop the necessary knowledge, skills...

Research in Christian education is in its infancy and there is limited published work of a good standard to consult. In order for Christian education research to mature, educators need examples of conceptual, empirical and practice-based research modelled from different disciplinary standpoints and within formal and informal educational settings. T...

Throughout the history of the Church, those who have devoted their attention to formulating a theology of the Christian faith have concentrated primarily—indeed almost exclusively—on the relationship between God and humanity, with scant attention paid to the place of the natural world in the economy of God. This oversight is remarkable in light of...

Small Island States (SIDS) are among the nations most exposed to climate change (CC) and are characterised by a high degree of vulnerability. Their special nature means there is a need for more studies focused on the limits to CC adaptation on such fragile nations, particularly in respect of their problems and constraints. This paper addressed a pe...

This book reformulates Christian education as an interdisciplinary and interdenominational vocation for professionals and practitioners. It speaks directly to a range of contemporary contexts with the aim of encouraging conceptual, empirical and practice-informed innovation to build the field of Christian education research. The book invites reader...

Background: Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have health care systems with a limited capacity to deal with pandemics, making them especially vulnerable to the economic and social impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19). This paper examines the introduction, transmission, and incidence of COVID-19 into Pacific SIDS. Methods: Calculate...

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are known to be particularly vulnerable to climate change, which poses a challenge to their economic and social development. This vulnerability is expressed in several ways, from exposure to sea level rises, to salt intrusion, and extensive droughts in some areas. Despite this rather negative trend, there are e...

In the Pacific, the capacity of curriculum writers for integrating the content of climate change into their curricula and/or taught Resilience [Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) & Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)] in education is limited. This paper described the findings of a 2018 study on the integration of climate change into primary and secondary sc...

The Pacific Islands region is highlighted in the literature as one of the most vulnerable geographic areas in the world, with a high priority for adaptation to climate change. In consequence, many interventions have been proposed and implemented over the years that approach environmental sustainability and adaptation to climate change in the Pacifi...

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Globalization has contributed to unprecedented migration of people across countries and continents. With critique on some previous models on migrant acculturation, this research discusses transnationalism as an alternative lens through which to view transnational migrants. The research focussed on the experiences of South Africans who have migrated...

Climate change-related human migration is an area of growing interest and policy concern. Although climate change is not easily isolated as the predominant cause of human movement, it is increasingly impossible to dismiss its role as a key contributing migration push factor. Moreover, there is agreement among experts that its contribution to migrat...

This entry investigates the role of disaster-resistant schools for the promotion of disaster-resilient education and disaster-prepared students. According to Mutch (2014), “[t]here is very little in the disaster literature about the part schools have played or could play in a co-ordinated way in wider disaster preparedness, response and recovery” (...

Climate change is one of the major challenges of modern times. Its impacts are manifold and vary from sea level rise (especially relevant to those living in coastal areas), to the increased frequency of extreme events such as cyclones and storm surges, which not only poses problems to property and infrastructure, but also to human health. Climate c...

The science of human behavior change is a complex field of investigation (Young 2017). On the one hand, there are those who promote the idea that education alone is sufficient to instigate behavior change. According to this view, all that educators need to do is to educate people with sound science about the physical causes of environmental degrada...

The situation of the Carteret Islanders, often characterised as the first ‘climate change refugees’, has attracted much research interest. What is the impact of such interest? And are standard ethics compliance processes appropriate? Open Access: https://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/ethics/luetz.pdf

Climate change-related human movement typically occurs within a complex web of commingled contributory causative factors. Hence the multicausality inherent in human movement makes attribution or disaggregation of causality an almost intractable problem. Nevertheless, climate change is now widely recognized as a key contributing migration push facto...

Definition: Climate change-related human migration is an area of growing interest and policy concern. Although climate change is not easily isolated as the predominant cause of human movement, it is increasingly impossible to dismiss its role as a key contributing migration push factor. Moreover, there is agreement among experts that its contributi...

Community gardening (CG) has been the subject of growing interest, both within and without the realm of academia. The reasons for this increase in interest are straightforward, given that CG typically offers benefits in at least three areas: (1) fostering a sense of community among contributing stakeholders; (2) promoting a sense of social responsi...

Social responsibility (SR) and sustainable development (SD) are dissimilar yet complementary concepts. Over recent decades their increase in popularity has seen the two terms become firmly integrated within international development policy discourse. Nevertheless, even though both terms are intertwined and cannot be meaningfully discussed in isolat...

Social responsibility and sustainable development are concepts of growing interest to the corporate sector, including in the so-called developing world. Although the benefits are manifold and typically include mutual learning, innovation, humanitarian engagement, intercultural exchange, new markets, and effective theory-praxis integration that is a...

Leading and sustaining change efforts is widely recognised as an important success factor for achieving progress on matters pertaining to environmental sustainability. There are several reasons for this. For example, transitioning from a fossil fuel based global economy to one that is based on renewable energy is a challenge that is widely understo...

In many countries of the world the dream of achieving education, free and compulsory for all, remains elusive for large parts of the population. Bangladesh is a case in point. Drawing on field research conducted in Bangladesh in 2008, 2011 and 2012, including in conjunction with the international development organisation World Vision, this chapter...

Globalisation has increased human migration, spawning issues of identity, integration and wellbeing (Wampole, 2016; Hsu, 2011; Elliot, 2011; Bauman, 1996). Reaching beyond the traditional perspective that conceives of persons primarily as individuals, this research offers insights into impacts on migrants’ relational and social identities by specif...

Education for environmental sustainability is increasingly highlighted as an important success factor for environmentally conscious and conscientious living, including the advancement of global poverty reduction and the attainment of developmental goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As such, education can be comprehended as a de...

This book is an arresting interdisciplinary publication on Christian education, comprising works by leading scholars, professionals and practitioners from around the globe. It focuses on the integrated approaches to Christian education that are both theoretically sound and practically beneficial, and identifies innovative pedagogical methods and to...

This chapter introduces the reader to the notion of learning and loves in relation to Christian education. In particular, it draws from James K. A. Smith’s (2016a) keynote address at the 2016 research symposium “Learning and Loves: Reimagining Christian Education” and sketches a range of contemporary perspectives on the nature and purpose of Christ...

South Asia is one of the most densely settled and disaster-prone regions in the world. Furthermore, in many low-lying coastal contexts both slow-onset and rapid-onset natural disasters coalesce with existent conditions of poverty and vulnerability to progressively erode and compromise human adaptive capacity, resulting in a persistent flux of livel...

Climate change is a significant threat to health and well-being, in particular to people’s spiritual well-being, in coastal areas and communities. This paper describes the findings of a 2013 study on impacts of climate change on people’s spiritual well-being in 5 coastal communities in Tongatapu, Tonga: Kanokupolu, ‘Ahau, Tukutonga, Popua and Manuk...

Education and environmental sustainability are issues of great importance. Both are intertwined and cannot be meaningfully discussed in isolation. Nevertheless, it is education that serves the cause towards environmental sustainability. This would suggest that education in itself is incomplete if it fails to firmly integrate environmental sustainab...

In many small island contexts natural disasters and environmental change can combine to overwhelm communal coping capacities, at times triggering ad hoc human migration responses which can be lacking in anticipatory foresight, relevant preparedness, community coordination, and needed funding support. In the foreseeable future on-going urbanisation...

High levels of human mobility brought on by global megatrends such as population growth, urbanisation, globalisation, coastward migration, environmental degradation, resource depletion, and sprawling of slums in developing countries are likely to be reinforced by climate change, making it plausible that human mobility will increase significantly du...

Disaster Preparedness: The word “disaster” is derived from the Greek pejorative prefix “dis-” (bad) and “aster” (star). According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word’s root in astrology literally denotes an “ill-starred” event. For many centuries people believed that a catastrophic event resulted under a “bad star” – a dis-aster. But while natural d...