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Painting art and sustainability: relationship from composite indices and a neural network
Abstract
Purpose
This work aims to establish the relationship between painting art and sustainability, which allows for highlighting implications likely to improve sustainability for humanity's welfare.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve this objective, painting art is measured by a composite index aggregating the quantity and quality represented by the market value. As for sustainable development, it is represented by a composite index comprising three variables: the climate change performance index (ecological dimension), the wage index reflecting distributive justice (social dimension) and the gross domestic product (economic dimension). The composite indices were determined through adjusted data envelopment analysis. In addition, two other methods are used in this work: correlation analysis and a neural network method. These methods are applied to data from 2007 to 2021 across the world.
Findings
The correlation method highlighted a perfect positive correlation between painting art and sustainability. As for the neural network method, it revealed that the quality of painting has the greatest impact on sustainability. The neural network method also showed that the most positively impacted variable of sustainability by painting art is the social variable, with a pseudo-probability of 0.90.
Originality/value
The relationship between painting art and sustainability is underexplored, in particular in terms of statistical analysis. Therefore, this research intends to fill this gap. Moreover, analysis of the relationship between both using composite indices computed via an original method (adjusted data envelopment analysis) and a neural network method is nonexistent, which constitutes the novelty of this work.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2023-0006
This work aims to propose a method for synthetically evaluating and analyzing the tourism performance in Morocco with regard to a benchmark and in line with the data to be processed. To achieve the above objective, the Adjusted Slack-Based Data Envelopment Analysis Method is used to elaborate a composite index for synthetically evaluating the tourism performance and to analyze this performance. The findings show that composite indexes from 2015 to 2019 in Morocco are mediocre or average compared to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) mean in terms of tourism performance. Furthermore, the analysis of the results reveals that the performance gap between Morocco and the mean of the OECD countries comes mainly from tourist receipts and the number of overnight stays. The originality of this work resides in the method elaborated for assessing and analyzing adequately the tourism performance, which is necessary for an appropriate tourism change. It also lies in using optimal weightings of the elementary indicators to elaborate an appropriate composite index, which is not widely employed in the area of assessing tourism performance.
To accomplish the high-quality development target in Yellow River Basin, the current study investigates the impact factors of the rural sustainable development efficiency in Yellow River Basin from the period of 1997 to 2017, by using Super efficiency Slack-based Measure, improved STIRPAT, and the OLS regression. The findings illustrate that rural sustainable development efficiency in Yellow River Basin is maintaining a fluctuating upward trend during the investigation. The impact factor analysis reveals that at the entire basin level, the population density and industrial structure have the greatest impact on rural sustainable development efficiency, while the technology level has the least impact. The industrial structure and GDP per capita negatively impacted rural sustainable development efficiency in the upper and middle basin, while they have non-significant positive impact in the lower basin. Besides, urbanization level inhibited rural sustainable development efficiency in upper basin (except middle basin and lower basin), and technology level has promotional effect in rural sustainable development efficiency at the entire basin as well as at the 3 sub-basins, while the influence effect is not significant in the lower basin. Therefore, these empirical results indicate that the impact effect of these factors exist spatial heterogeneity. Thus, decision-makers should consider this reality fully and make differential measures when they construct the development long-term strategies for rural sustainable development efficiency in yellow river basin.
Arts and cultural engagement is a potential strategy for reducing or preventing reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors (those previously and problematically termed as “delinquent”) in adolescence. However, most research to date has focused on arts-based interventions and has not tested arts and cultural engagement in large population-based longitudinal studies. This study investigated whether arts and cultural engagement reduced reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors in two large nationally representative cohorts, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 10,610; 50% female, 72% White, age range = 11–21 mean = 15.07) and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (n = 15,214; 50% female, 73% White, age range = 13–16 mean = 14.38). Structural equation modelling also allowed exploration of two potential mechanisms that might link arts and cultural engagement to reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors (self-control and attitudes towards these behaviors). More arts and cultural engagement was associated with fewer reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors, better self-control scores, and fewer positive perceptions of reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors concurrently and one to two years later. Arts and cultural engagement may provide opportunities for adolescents to realize positive developmental outcomes, reducing their risk of reportedly antisocial or criminalized behaviors.
National culture (NC) plays a crucial role in transitioning societies toward sustainable development (SD) which is based on the triple bottom line (TBL) approach. The impact of NC should be broadly analyzed, taking into account the perspective of individuals, organizations, societies, etc. This constitutes the general field of “national culture sustainable development” (NCSD). To the author’s knowledge, this is the first literature review conducted on the above-defined NCSD field and based on a mixed-methods analysis. It contributes to the development of knowledge by presenting the scientific structure of the general NCSD research field and the main detailed problems addressed in the papers assigned to this field, synthesizing the previous research findings, and emphasizing the need to examine SD holistically. This study revealed that the interest of academics in the NCSD field is growing. The scientific structure of this field is formed by 80 articles, including 63 empirical papers which were based mostly on the analysis of secondary data. The most popular topic in previous studies was the relationship between cultural dimensions (authored by Hofstede) and practices related to reporting on sustainability. Cultural characteristics were combined with the data from different sources and covered different numbers of countries. Subsequent research projects were methodologically separate from the previous ones which implied inconsistent results. Papers discussing the linkage between national culture and all elements of the TBL concept together are rare. The above highlights, i.e., the need for more research based on a holistic approach to SD, methodological rigor and continuity.
In today’s society, the resilience of communities is in the spotlight. How can communities shape and respond to the challenges they face in order to achieve a better future? For researchers focusing on this question, researching artistic practices can provide valuable insights and inspiration. From a resilience perspective that seeks to incorporate people’s everyday lifeworld and local knowledge, community arts in particular hold much potential, being an art form that actively engages people in the creative process. Evidencing the impact of community arts projects has become more important over the years. However, as this chapter discusses, there are several tensions and concerns around evaluating the impact of the arts. The chapter takes as its empirical focus one such project in particular: the multi-year theatre-trilogy Grutte Pier, which took place in the Dutch village Kimswerd between 2014 and 2018. In this village, the site-specific theatre company PeerGrouP worked together with the inhabitants to create a trilogy around the village’s historical figure Grutte Pier. The chapter reflects on an explorative research project into the impact of this community arts project on the village. Hereby, it contributes to the understanding of how meaningful change can be achieved in communities, preparing them for a more sustainable future. The reflections on the explorative research support the need to adopt a critical perspective with regard to assessing the value of artistic practices. The experiences in Kimswerd show that community arts projects can be an evocative way of engaging a community and can result in a variety of effects. The chapter discusses both personal effects, relating to personal growth, people’s social life and feelings of pride, as well as effects at the village level, such as the creation and strengthening of bonds between the inhabitants. Effects are expected to go a long way and be a great boost for a community’s organizational capacity and future activities. In light of these findings, it appears to be a successful formula to have artists coming to a community as ‘outsiders’, actively engaging inhabitants in a large community arts project that is both locally grounded and offers the inhabitants various ways of participating themselves.
The political news media play an important role in the successful working of democratic societies. In order to fulfill this role, a sufficient level of journalistic quality is required. Most Western societies rely on the market as means to assure this level of quality. This implies regulation of the media sector by competition law, which may take different attitudes towards market power. While it is undisputed that some aspects of competition between political news media firms yield beneficial social outcomes, empirical findings regarding the impact of changes in market power are less straightforward. In the present analysis, I aim to understand whether an increase in market power may lead to an increase in journalistic quality. To this end,I formally model a demand function for media outlets based on the empirically justified assumption that preferences for journalistic quality systematically differ among consumers according to their education. I refer to this finding as consumption capital in a wide sense. Using a model of monopolistic competition, I find that, if consumption capital is sufficiently high, an increase in market power is associated with an increase in journalistic quality.
In light of the sociological insight that it is left to the art system what counts as art, new artistic forms inevitably alter the prevailing concept of art. The article examines how artistic morphogenesis occurs in a twofold manner in the case of contemporary art: as self-referential process through new form combinatorics or asynchronous artistic operations whose artworks elude the gaze, and as other-referential relation. One of the main features of contemporary art lies in its strong reference to the present, based on a conception of operative time. Time is not understood as a sequence of past, present, future, but rather as the linking of respective presences. Contemporary art shares this understanding of time with event-based social theories. This is analysed as other-referential act of synchronization within the art system with its societal environment. Empirical evidence is provided by select works of art and by self-descriptions of the art system.
In recent years, a profusion of methods, practices, and experiences has emerged in the interface between arts and sustainability science. Drawing from two strong currents within sustainability science, namely, the emphasis on transdisciplinary approaches and the need to move towards societal transformations, such hybrid approaches seemingly contribute with unique methods to sustainability research. Despite repeated claims from sustainability scientists about art’s role in sustainability transformations, joint analyses with artists and practitioners are still rare. We conveyed a collaborative and exploratory workshop with scientists, artists, and practitioners from the fields of education, public engagement, and activism to identify the potentials for arts-based sustainability research. Participants were invited to facilitate and trial various artistic practices from disciplines of performative, literary, narrative, audio-visual and plastic arts. In this paper, we present five key areas identified in the workshop, where arts-based methods can significantly contribute to sustainability research: embracing more-than-cognitive aspects of knowledge, improving communication, grappling with power dynamics, shifting relationships to nature, and facilitating futures visioning. Workshop participants also identified challenges related to power dynamics, tensions across paradigms, and implementation conditions, providing insights into how to leverage arts’ potential to respond to global environmental challenges while boosting societal transformations. We then discuss research questions identified that address challenges and limitations for arts-based research in sustainability. Overall, these results suggest there are yet untapped resources and experiences within the field of arts-based sustainability science. (Audio-visual abstract available on S1)
This essay argues the importance of interdisciplinary, contemplative, place-based pedagogy. The Ecology and Colour in 1m² study has students from the sciences and the arts observe a small quadrat in their local community over several weeks, engaging in both scientific and creative expression. The connection to Aldo Leopold’s teaching principles and its relevance during our current screen fatigue pandemic and increasing disconnection from the natural world are outlined. We review contemplative practice in relation to education, such as sit spots or “site-specific” learning. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the Ecology and Colour in 1m² study and aligned with Leopold’s emphasis on fostering a personal connection with nature, our paper also includes three narratives and examples of student reflections and visual artwork created during this project.
The objective of this research is to assess the impact of ethics on research productivity within laboratories of public universities. To achieve this objective, neural networks’ method is used to highlight impacting and impacted variable modalities. Findings show ethical variables having the greatest impact on research productivity are ethics supporting document and transparency, while the variables most impacted by ethics are publications and scientific projects. Finally, the originality of this work lies in the reconciliation of two dimensions that appear to be irreconcilable a priori, namely, ethics which has a social connotation and productivity which has an economic connotation. It also resides in employing neural networks’ method, with is rarely used in social sciences.
Paintings experience chemical, mechanical and biological damage over time. Whereas chemical and biological alterations have been widely studied in the recent decades, the study of the mechanical behaviour of painted structures deserves more attention. Damage to paintings (such as cracks, flaking paints or delaminations) has been traditionally associated to humidity and temperature fluctuations. While such assumptions are not completely wrong, the environment is not always the reason behind the failure observed in paintings. A deeper insight into the interactions between pigment and medium, as well as between the different paint layers is crucial to interpret damage found in the painted surface, but also to take more informed conservation decisions to ensure paintings stability over time. The Failure Mechanisms in Picasso’s Paintings Topical Collection in the journal SN Applied Sciences brings together a series of papers aimed to understand this relationship between the composition of painting materials and mechanical damage. Results suggest that slight modifications introduced by the artist in his works can induce different vulnerabilities, whose effects can be seen over time.
Effective strategies to learn about and engage with climate change play an important role in addressing this challenge. There is a growing recognition that education needs to change in order to address climate change, yet the question remains “how?” How does one engage young people with a topic that is perceived as abstract, distant, and complex, and which at the same time is contributing to growing feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and anxiety among them? In this paper, I argue that although the important contributions that the arts and humanities can make to this challenge are widely discussed, they remain an untapped or underutilized potential. I then present a novel framework and demonstrate its use in schools. Findings from a high school in Portugal point to the central place that art can play in climate change education and engagement more general, with avenues for greater depth of learning and transformative potential. The paper provides guidance for involvement in, with, and through art and makes suggestions to create links between disciplines to support meaning-making, create new images, and metaphors and bring in a wider solution space for climate change. Going beyond the stereotypes of art as communication and mainstream climate change education, it offers teachers, facilitators, and researchers a wider portfolio for climate change engagement that makes use of the multiple potentials of the arts.
Through their synergies, trade-offs, and contradictions, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have the potential to lead to environmental justices and injustices. Yet, environmental justice (EJ), and social justice more broadly, are not currently embedded within the language and spirit of the SDGs. We part from the premise that “many ‘environmental’ problems are, by their very nature, problems of justice” (Lele, Wiley Interdiscip Rev Water 4:e1224, 2017). We review progress in EJ frameworks in recent years, arguing for the need to move beyond a focus on the four principles of mainstream EJ (distribution, procedure, recognition, and capabilities) towards a more intersectional decolonial approach to environmental justice that recognises the indispensability of both humans and non-humans. EJ frameworks, and the SDGs should recognise power dynamics, complex interactions among injustices, and listens to the different ‘senses of justice’ and desires of theorists, activists, and other stakeholder from the Global South. We analyze how EJ frameworks are, or fail to be, incorporated in the SDGs with a focus on the food–water–health nexus (SDG2, 3, 6); climate-energy (SDG7, 13), conservation (SDG14, 15); and poverty and inequality (SDG1, 10). We call attention to the ‘elephant in the room’—the failure to go beyond GDP but instead include economic growth as a goal (SDG8). We argue that sustainable degrowth and intersectional decolonial environmental justices would create better conditions for the transformative changes needed to reach the broader aim of the SDGs: to leave no one behind.
This manuscript explores the possibilities and challenges of art–science integration in facilitating collaborative sustainability action in local settings. To date, much sustainability education is prescriptive, rather than participatory, and most integrated art–science programming aims for content learning, rather than societal change. What this means is that learners are more often taught “what is” than invited to imagine “what if?” In order to envision and enact sustainable alternatives, there is a need for methods that allow community members, especially young people, to critically engage with the present, imagine a better future, and collaboratively act for sustainability today. This manuscript introduces a methodological framework that integrates the arts and sciences to facilitate: (1) transdisciplinary learning, focusing on local sustainability challenges; (2) participatory process, bringing experience-based knowledge into conversation with research-based knowledge; and (3) collaborative sustainability action, inviting community members to envision and enact sustainable alternatives where they live. The transformative potential of this framework is examined through international case studies from countries representing the richest and poorest in the Western hemisphere: a multi-site research study and after-school program for climate change education and action in collaboration with children in the Western US; and a multi-cycle research study and community arts center course for environmental photography and youth-led water advocacy in Southern Haiti. Despite many shared characteristics, case studies diverge in important ways relative to the sustainability challenges they sought to address, the specific context in which activities took place, and the manner in which art–science integration was practiced. Across cases, however, art–science integration facilitated participants’ learning, connection, and action for sustainability. Framed by the shared aims of transdisciplinary approaches, this manuscript discusses methodological hurdles and practical lessons learned in art–science integration across settings as well as the transformative capacity of alternative pedagogical and research practices in building a sustainable future.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the social turn in contemporary capitalism and contemporary art through the lens of art-based social enterprises (ASEs) that aim to create positive social benefits for young people experiencing forms of marginalisation, and which trade creative products or services to help fulfil that mission. A growth in ASEs demonstrates a growing interest in how the arts can support social and economic development, and the ways new economic models can generate employment for individuals excluded from the labour market; extend opportunities for more people to participate in art markets; and challenge dominant market models of cultural production and consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper considers a number of challenges and complexities faced by ASEs that embrace a co-dependence of three goals, which are often in tension and competition – artistic practice, social purpose and economic activity. It does so by analysing interviews from staff working with 12 ASE organisation’s across Australia.
Findings
While the external forces that shape ASEs – including government policy, markets, investors and philanthropy – are interested in the “self-sufficient” economic potential of ASEs, those working in ASEs tend to prioritise social values and ethical business over large financial returns and are often ambivalent about their roles as entrepreneurs. This ambivalence is symptomatic of a position that is simultaneously critical and affirmative, of the conditions of contemporary capitalism and neoliberalism.
Originality/value
This paper addresses a gap in social enterprise literature presenting empirical research focussing on the lived experience of those managing and leading ASEs in Australia.
Objectives
Participation in the arts has well-documented benefits for health. However, participation in the arts is socially patterned, and it remains unclear why this is: what factors act as barriers or enablers of individual arts engagement. Therefore this study explored how individual characteristics predict individuals’ capabilities, opportunities and motivations to engage in participatory arts activities.
Methods
We analysed data from 6,867 adults in the UK (61.2% female, average age 46.7 years) who engage infrequently in performing arts, visual arts, design and crafts, literature-related activities, or online, digital and electronic arts. We constructed a structural equation model to explore the relationship between demographic factors (including age, sex, ethnicity or socio-economic status), health factors (including physical and mental health) or social factors (including living alone, urban density, loneliness or socialising) and perceived barriers to arts engagement.
Results
Individuals with poorer physical and mental health experienced more barriers affecting their perceived capabilities to engage in the arts, whilst individuals with poorer mental health also described experiencing more barriers affecting their motivations to engage. Individuals of lower SES reported more barriers in terms of opportunities to engage, whilst loneliness was related to more barriers around opportunities and motivations and living alone was associated with more opportunity barriers. Interestingly, adults who were older experienced fewer barriers relating to capabilities or opportunities, as did men, whilst being of white ethnicity was associated with fewer barriers across all three domains. Adults who were more socially engaged or who had poorer physical health experienced fewer barriers relating to motivations. Geographical area of dwelling was not related to any barriers.
Conclusions
This study has shown for the first time where the barriers leading to differential patterns of arts engagement lie. The findings could inform future behaviour change interventions designed to encourage arts engagement amongst individuals who are least likely to engage.
Human actions and conduct have both positive and negative effects on humankind and its environment. This is why ethicists have propounded different theories that are supposed to guide peoples’ conduct in order to distinguish the right from the wrong. Environmental ethics as an aspect of environmental philosophy attempts a justification of the rightness and wrongness of human activities as they affect other non-human members of the society or environment. Despite the efforts of both ethicists and environmentalist, humans have continued to conduct themselves in a manner, most unhealthy to the environmental resources. This is the problematic that informed this research on “Ethics, Environment and Philosophy: Towards Sustainable Development in Africa”. The main objective is to apply selected ethical theories to the philosophical study of environment in order to ascertain their implications for sustainable development in Africa. To achieve this goal, philosophical methods of critical analysis, conceptual clarification and deduction were employed in the examination and exposition of the nature and tenets of the following selected ethical theories: Platonism, Hedonism, Subjectivism, Teleologism and Deontologism. It was discovered upon application that, these theories present both positive and negative implication for environment, philosophy and development. Hence, humans must be positively minded whenever they undertake any action be it from the perspective of Platonists, Hedonists, Subjectivists, Teleologists or Deontologists. If there must be development and sustainability in the environment, then the positive aspects of each of these theories must be harnessed to yield what this paper describes as environmental eclecticism. Keywords: Ethical Theories, Environment, Philosophy, Sustainable Development, Environmental Eclecticism.
Usual efficiency evaluation methods, such as Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Estimation tend to calculate efficiency scores which are valid only at a given moment and for the units where in the sample. At most, Malmquist index determines efficiency scores for period t+1. Those drawbacks can be avoided by translating efficiency scores in terms of probabilities trough the Discriminant Analysis which enables also, to provide appropriate weightings activities of research laboratories, object of this study. In addition to Discriminant Analysis, Hierarchical Cluster Analysis is used to classify those activities into homogeneous groups, while Data Envelopment Analysis is employed to categorize laboratories in efficient and inefficient structures. This method is applied on a public university in east of Morocco. This study shows that indexed publications as well as the supported doctoral thesis or in state of supervision have the greatest impact on efficiency of the research laboratories.
Scenario development has been recognized as a potential method to explore future change and stimulate a reflective process that can contribute to more informed decision-making. The assessment process under IPBES (the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) has how-ever shown that the current predominantly biophysical and economic models and scenario processes for exploring the future of biodiversity, ecosystem services and their contributions to human wellbeing are insufficient to capture the complexity and context-specific nature of the problems facing these sectors. Several important challenges have been identified that require a more in-depth analysis of where more imaginative scenario efforts can be undertaken to address this gap. In this paper, we identify six key characteristics necessary for scenario processes: adaptability across diverse contexts, inclusion of diverse knowledge and value systems, legitimate stakeholder engagement that foregrounds the role of power and politics, an ability to grapple with uncertainty, individual and collective thinking mechanisms and relevance to policy making. We compared four cases of imaginative, arts-based scenario processes that each offer aspects of meeting these criteria. These approaches emphasise the importance of engaging the imagination of those involved in a process and harnessing it as a tool for identifying and conceptual-ising more transformative future trajectories. Drawing on the existing literature, we argue that there is value in fostering more inclusive and creative participatory processes that acknowledge the importance of understanding multiple value systems and relationships in order to reimagine a more inclusive and just future. Based on this, we reflect on future research to understand the transformative role that imagination can play in altering and enhancing knowledge-making for global assessments, including IPBES. We conclude that creative scenario co-development processes that promote imagination and create an opening for more empathetic responses should be considered as complementary tools within the suite of methodologies used for future IPBES scenario development.
Sustainable development (SD) has become a popular catchphrase in contemporary development discourse. However, in spite of its pervasiveness and the massive popularity it has garnered over the years, the concept still seems unclear as many people continue to ask questions about its meaning and history, as well as what it entails and implies for development theory and practice. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discourse on SD by further explaining the paradigm and its implications for human thinking and actions in the quest for sustainable development. This is done through extensive literature review, combining aspects of the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the Recursive Content Abstraction (RCA) analytical approach. The paper finds and argues that the entire issue of sustainable development centres around inter- and intragenerational equity anchored essentially on three-dimensional distinct but interconnected pillars, namely the environment, economy, and society. Decision-makers need to be constantly mindful of the relationships, complementarities, and trade-offs among these pillars and ensure responsible human behaviour and actions at the international, national, community and individual levels in order to uphold and promote the tenets of this paradigm in the interest of human development. More needs to be done by the key players—particularly the United Nations (UN), governments, private sector, and civil society organisations—in terms of policies, education and regulation on social, economic and environmental resource management to ensure that everyone is sustainable development aware, conscious, cultured and compliant.
In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in interest about the relationship between the arts and the sciences. This article explores this developing relationship and the suggestion that science and science learning are not complete without the arts. We see three levels at which the arts might improve the teaching and learning of science. The first is at a macro-level, concerned with ways in which subjects (including the arts and sciences) are structured and options for studying them provided and packaged. The second is at the meso-level, guiding approaches constructing science curricula that engage learners through using STS (Science, Technology and Society) contexts. The third is at the micro-level, of pedagogical practices in science and teaching that can be drawn from the arts. The drivers of STEAM (Science, Technology, Arts, Engineering and Mathematics) add new dimensions to the nature of science in the twenty-first century and make science likely to diverge even more rapidly from school science unless new pedagogies, including those from the arts, help close the gap. The result could be a more authentic and engaging school science, one more relevant to the needs of the twenty-first century.
Humanity has never lived in a world of global average temperature above two degrees of current levels. Moving towards such High-End Climate Change (HECC) futures presents fundamental challenges to current governance structures and involves the need to confront high uncertainties, non-linear dynamics and multiple irreversibilities in global social-ecological systems. In order to face HECC, imaginative practices able to support multiple ways of learning about and experiencing the future are necessary. In this article we analysed a set of arts-based activities conducted within the five-year EU-funded project IMPRESSIONS aimed at identifying transformative strategies to high-end climate change. The exploratory artistic activities were carried out alongside a science-led participatory integrated assessment process with stakeholders from the Iberian Peninsula. Our arts-based approach combined a range of performative, visual and reflexive practices with the ambition to reach out to more-than-rational but also practical elements of HECC futures. Our study suggests that the arts-based approach helped to bring out new ways of seeing, feeling and interpreting the world which may support the development of individual and collective sensibilities needed to address HECC.
The integration of creative arts–based methods into scientific research offers a host of advantages, including the ability to capture the complex texture of lived experience, explore interconnections between nature and culture, support nonhierarchical relations, and communicate insights in engaging and empowering new ways. In this article, we describe a new method—CreativeVoice—integrating the creative arts and qualitative research, which we developed and applied in a context of pursuing community-based conservation of agricultural biodiversity. We developed CreativeVoice as an integrative method to help us understand the local contexts, cultures, and perspectives from community members of different ages and genders, in two contrasting farming communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. CreativeVoice effectively adapts and extends the Photovoice method so as to retain its benefits but address some of its limitations. This includes allowing participants to choose a genre of artistic expression connected to their own specific individual or cultural contexts and providing the capacity to move beyond capturing present-day realities to directly bring in connections to the past and visions for the future. This article describes both the CreativeVoice approach and the significant value of integrating arts-based methods into research for advancing sustainability.
In this study of an economic field and its relationships to a cultural field, we apply Pierre Bourdieu’s central concepts of economic capital, cultural capital, symbolic capital and field, and thus follow in a tradition that at the outset was considered to be post-structuralism, but which by Bourdieu later has been brought into the realm of realism. We have mapped relationships between the actors and thus the field structures that these relationships entail. The fields in which a segment of an art world is operating is represented in multi-dimensional figures which illustrate relationships and bonds between the different categories of organizations. Some of the business actors we have studied are engaging in cultural activities with a great deal of autonomy, others are connected to the cultural field in less active ways. In participating in the cultural field they are in different ways and to different extents accumulating symbolic capital including prestige and honor. The method we have applied is multiple correspondence analysis which was frequently used by Bourdieu.
Decision making on sustainable consumption and production requires scientifically based information on sustainability. Different environmental sustainability targets exist for specific decision problems. To observe how well these targets are met, relevant environmental indicators are needed. In this study, we reviewed indicators applied in life cycle assessment (LCA), planetary boundary framework (PB), and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) developed under United Nation. The aim is to 1) identify their applications and relevant decision context; 2) Review their indicators and categorize them into Drivers-Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses scheme for comparison and; 3) provide suggestions for indicator system choice and important aspects to consider when choosing.
The International Society for Justice Research (ISJR) aims to provide a platform for interdisciplinary justice scholars who are encouraged to present and exchange their ideas. This exchange has yielded a fruitful advance of theoretical and empirically-oriented justice research. This volume substantiates this academic legacy and the research prospects of the ISJR in the field of justice theory and research. Included are themes and topics such as the theory of the justice motive, the mapping of the multifaceted forms of justice (distributive, procedural) and justice in context-bound spheres (e.g. non-humans). It presents a comprehensive "state of the art" overview in the field of justice research theory and it puts forth an agenda for future interdisciplinary and international justice research. It is worth noting that authors in this proposed volume represent ISJR's leading scholarship. Thus, the compilation of their research within a single framework exposes potential readers to high quality academic work that embodies the past, current and future trends of justice research.
The literature on sustainability often focuses on its technical side, such as in studies of life cycle assessment, supply chain management and cleaner production systems. It traditionally assumes that creativity and sustainability are two separate entities in organizations. Contrasting with this implicit assumption, this study analyses the process of how aesthetics serve as a mediating tool to translate individual creativity into sustainable messages within and beyond the organization. Empirical evidence is drawn from the Brazilian luxury fashion house Osklen. Aside from introducing the conceptual construct of aesthetic mediation, the paper also proposes a methodological contribution: by combining interviews with aesthetic inquiry, the article pushes the boundaries of ‘traditional’ qualitative methods. The aim is to encourage sustainable entrepreneurship and organization scholars to expand their methodological horizon in order to capture the emotionally charged, value-laden processes they study. Through a two-level coding of Osklen fashion collections forged through aesthetic inquiry, this study conceptualizes the process of aesthetic mediation in terms of four sequential practices: opening up to inspiring phenomena, having an epiphany, connecting to a sustainability message and translating the message into a tangible product. In particular, the translating a sustainability message into a tangible product involves the support of three techniques: preservation, transformation and adding novelty. The authors conclude by drawing general implications for developing and communicating sustainability messages in organizations.
The purpose of this research was to identify the factors upon which museum sustainability depends and the way in which this can be measured. Methodologically, we applied a qualitative research approach, using semi-structured interviews with experts from the Romanian museum sector, complemented by an in-depth study of the literature in this field. Results indicated that any objective measuring of sustainability must take into account the size of a museum’s collections and its organizational structure. It was also found that museum type can affect sustainability via its competitive advantage. However, the sustainability of a museum is not strictly determined by these factors, but also by the management and marketing strategies applied. Based on analysis of literature- and respondent-based factors influencing sustainability, this article proposes a set of 33 indicators that can be used by museums to measure their sustainability, as well as a model that enables evaluation of the sustainability levels of various museums comparatively, regardless of their type, size or importance (e.g., national, regional and local). The results obtained are useful both from a theoretical point of view, given that there are few writings on this topic, and from a practical point of view, as they provide a basis for a clear, objective model of museum sustainability measurement.
The eighteenth century witnessed the historical change from aesthetic instrumentalism to aesthetic autonomy. Aesthetic research has often attempted to capture this change in teleological terms, wherein British aesthetic instrumentalism appears to contain the seeds of its own decline. The purpose of this article is to restore a balance between these two major historical modes of appreciating art, and to display the uniqueness of British aesthetic instrumentalism. During especially the first half of the eighteenth century, aesthetic instrumentalism was revitalised due to a new rationale for art in the reinforcement of a national body politic and in the strengthening of a British identity. In order to recognise the distinctiveness of aesthetic instrumentalism, as well as to acknowledge by what means it operated, I make essentially two claims: (1) aesthetic instrumentalism rediscovered its effective interaction with a national body politic by exploring a possible nexus between Britain and classical antiquity, and (2) although the philosophy of art advanced by Joseph Addison (1672–1719) frequently is held as a possible commencement of aesthetic autonomy, it was, first and foremost, characterised by a systematic aesthetic instrumentalism intended to reinforce the British body politic.
Governments, schools, and other nonprofit organizations are engaged in critical budget decisions that may affect our economic development success. The assumption is that arts and crafts are dispensable extras. Research suggests, however, that disposing of arts and crafts may have negative consequences for the country’s ability to produce innovative scientists and engineers who invent patentable products and found new companies. A study of Michigan State University Honors College science and technology graduates (1990-1995) yielded four striking results: (a) graduates majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are far more likely to have extensive arts and crafts skills than the average American; (b) arts and crafts experiences are significantly correlated with producing patentable inventions and founding new companies; (c) the majority believe that their innovative ability is stimulated by their arts and crafts knowledge; and (d) lifelong participation and exposure in the arts and crafts yields the most significant impacts for innovators and entrepreneurs.
Purpose
Business excellence relies heavily upon sustainable innovation. Still, sustainable innovation is an emerging concept in business practices and has yet to reach a common perception among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study aims to address sustainable innovation in SMEs and the factors driving sustainable innovation development.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory study was conducted to gain insight into the emerging concept of sustainable innovation in the SMEs’ context. Empirical evidence was collected from five case studies. Twenty-five interviews were conducted.
Findings
This study findings show that SMEs have different ways of understanding sustainable innovation, resulting in different approaches to integrate sustainable innovation into their business. In SMEs, sustainable innovation may not be a fixed concept due to its ambiguous boundaries and various ways of understanding. External and internal factors are driving SMEs’ sustainable innovation. It depends mainly on organizational culture and the capabilities of SMEs and their members in terms of cooperation and integration in work teams, conditions to achieve consensus, articulation of activities, coherence and commitment to the firms’ objectives. These factors collide and enhance each other and positively impact SMEs’ sustainable innovation.
Originality/value
The scientific relevance of this study lies in the integration of sustainable innovation research in the context of SMEs. There has been limited exploration of how SMEs perceive and engage in sustainable innovation and the factors that drive sustainable innovation development outside of large firms. This study empirically explored the concept of sustainable innovation in the context of SMEs to understand underlying factors related to sustainable innovation.
The vulnerability of the global economy has been starkly exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Longer term thinking and new approaches to development and prosperity are urgently required. In this paper, we forward a series of principles on which economic and development policy for the post-COVID era should be developed. These are outlined as five ‘pillars’ from which to rebuild the global economy, based on principles of a shared sustainable prosperity. These pillars are: (I) an ecological prosperity; (II) a decarbonized economy; (III) a shared cost burden; (IV) a governance new deal; (V) a just resilience. In outlining the ‘5 pillars’ we explicitly recognize that sustainability cannot simply be a ‘green’, or environmental concern. Social and economic dimensions of sustainability are key for societal stability and continuity. This is made ever starker in the context of the fundamental economic and societal restructuring forced by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, the pillars represent a triple bottom line framing of sustainability, of mutually supportive domains of economic, social and environmental well-being. The five pillars are informed by principles of distributive and procedural justice, recognizing the importance and advantages of real community engagement and empowerment and giving due respect and deference to the ecological carrying capacity of our fragile planet. We argue that the post-COVID-19 re-build represents a once-in-a generation opportunity to markedly shift developed trajectories to more sustainable pathways, to rebalance the domains of sustainability, and in the process, to address longer-term crises including those of climate and biodiversity loss.
Purpose
This study aims to highlight the negative effects of innovation with regard to innovation typologies and human, organizational, economic and societal variables in local authorities.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the above objective, radial basis function, based on Softmax activation function, and partitioning variable, is applied on a sample of Moroccan local authorities.
Findings
The findings show that the typologies of innovation that significantly impact the aforementioned variables are standard innovation/tailor-made innovation, social innovation/commercial innovation and incremental innovation/breakthrough innovation. They also reveal that the modalities considerably impacted by innovation are deviance in reaction, procedural injustice, increase of hidden costs and negative effect on ethics-culture.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is original in that it can contribute to the research in the field of innovation, as it deals with its negative effects in terms of typologies, which are rarely processed in innovation research. Additionally, to overcome these negative effects, this work uses neural networks that are very scarcely used in such studies on innovation.
Sustainability is achieved by fulfilling economic, environmental, and social goals. Until recently, social sustainability indicators had not received much attention in the literature. Social sustainability and its indicators are poorly understood, which makes it somewhat difficult to oversee the design and implementation of sustainability projects. This paper responds to this by investigating Social Sustainability Indicators (SSIs) across many sectors to learn how they could potentially apply to the energy sector, with special attention given to classifying those indicators into energy supply chains (ESCs), stakeholder, and impact levels. It does this by critical reviewing 420 social indicators in the literature and proposing a practical set of categories related to the energy sector. The findings show that a majority of SSIs address the “production” and “demand” stages of ESC. SSIs related to employees are also common, based on a stakeholder analysis. The analysis highlighted the importance of internal stakeholders, in particular, in achieving social sustainability. The number of SSIs at the strategic level far exceeds those at the tactical and operational levels. There is no consensus on definitions of SSIs, and, subsequently, there is no agreement on their measurement or the data needed for that purpose. Potential SSIs that may conflict with one another are investigated to identify implementation challenges. The contribution of this paper is classifying the SSIs, identifying the gaps, investigating implementation challenges, discussing implications, and proposing future research directions to promote awareness about renewable energy for better progress towards sustainability.
This article focuses on Garin Nugroho’s stage play The Planet: A Lament, which combines song and dance, predominantly from Eastern Indonesia, with video and other visuals that bewail the human destruction of the natural environment. I argue that the performance embodies a call for planetary citizenship that bridges art and spirituality as well as aspects of deep ecology and political ecology. The combination of art and spirituality facilitates intimate connections between audiences and phenomena that are otherwise relatively inaccessible and difficult to grasp due to their specific philosophical, scientific, socio-political or cultural-linguistic character. Moreover, the stage play draws connections between some of the worst environmental disaster zones in Indonesia and the socio-political, religious and cultural suppression or marginalisation of the people living in the affected areas. I seek to demonstrate how its engagement with marginalised ethnic groups, cultural traditions and religions provide a foundation for environmental renewal. At the same time, some aspects of this foundation are weakened by ambiguities around the sponsorship and promotion of the production. This article discusses the play’s structure, aesthetics and representation of race and religion; its position in Nugroho’s larger socially, politically and environmentally engaged oeuvre; and the politics of promotion and sponsorship.
The popularity of the notion of sustainable development has increased immensely in today's fast-paced business environment. The public's awareness of various sustainability challenges around the world has also increased, and also most people are well-versed in them. We also require qualified managers who can contribute to the overall growth and development of society. In response to the worldwide call for action, management education institutions should maintain their curriculum up to date to meet industrial requirements as well as the changing environmental and social needs of people all over the world. The integration of the concept of sustainable development in management education will help in the creation of a sustainable culture in our society, encouraging every individual to start behaving responsibly and contribute to positive social change. The purpose of this study is to identify the major factors that influence the integration of the concept of sustainable development and sustainability in management education in India.
Education through the arts is a journey—a creative and reflective process capable of promoting awareness and social sustainability through appreciation and consideration of the diversity of being. The arts and arts-based methodologies encourage learning through practice as an ongoing, emergent, and engaging experience leading to a more holistic understanding of self, others, and the environment by emphasizing the process of affect. This a/r/tographic chapter will explore sustainability through quality education and boosting well-being by valuing subjectivity of experience in alignment with UNESCO’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). It will discuss the values of arts education in improving consciousness and reflective skills of all learners by means of practice and artistic engagement. Separating the arts from education and ignoring its potentials can hinder artists’ roles as communicators, deteriorate their artistic decisions, and lower their contributions in educational aspects. As a result, the importance of collaboration and partnership between teachers, artists, and art teachers to realize educational objectives, and more comprehensive and selective education for artists will be addressed.
Public art’s accessibility to a broad audience and its potential to bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds have granted it a unique power to make strong, enduring impacts on cities, places and people’s lives. The impacts warrant a systematic review and categorization, the results of which will provide insights that contribute to justifying the integral place of public art in society. As no such systematic review has previously been carried out, this article seeks to provide a qualitative synthesis of original articles selected from four major databases of international journals using a combination of keyword searches and filtering procedures. The 839 articles retrieved from the initial searches were screened by title and abstract. The remaining 132 articles were read in full, with 50 studies eventually being selected for analysis and synthesis. The public art impacts identified were organized into eight categories, in terms of placemaking, society, culture, economy, sustainability, wellbeing, wisdom and innovation. Implications were then drawn with respect to future research on the impacts and evaluation of public art.
In this article I present how the development and implementation of the Social Work and Art Project, Paint Your Heart with Love, which was carried out during the period from 2018 to 2021 in the Puerto Rican context, as an innovative strategy for working with groups. Its main purpose is aimed at strengthening the socio-emotional learning of childhood in the school stage, through the integration of the group method and art as a medium, based on five competencies: self-knowledge, self-regulation, social awareness, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. In addition to this, during all phases of the project it has had the participation of social work students at the undergraduate level, which contributes to the innovation of the project. Topics presented include everything from the idea phase to the training and publication of the activity guide. This project offers its workshops from an experiential approach to professionals who are trained to facilitate the eventual implementation of the project, which makes it more relevant. As part of this trajectory, in 2019 it was recognized by International Association for Social Work with Groups as a SPARC project.
Universities around the world are making considerable efforts to contribute to sustainable development through their institutional frameworks, education, research or community awareness. This article discusses how young artists connect with sustainability problems through an analysis of individual artistic creativity (visions, sources of inspiration, messages and communicative strategies) by means of a novel interpretive arts-based research methodology: mail art. A collection of mail art individually created by 29 young artists who also provide self-reports on the meaning of their work, the creation process and its intent are analyzed using a qualitative content analysis methodology complemented by an aesthetic inquiry into the artistic qualities and creative techniques of the collection. The research concludes that the collection reproduces but also produces messages promoting a sustainability culture. It promotes individual actions for sustainability with everyday creativity using expert knowledge and describes visions and attitudes expressed by young people to detect gaps and to develop a more informed education for sustainable development in universities. Although there are individual differences, the participants generally show appropriate values -such as universalism-, and a desire for ethical action within an ecocentric worldview, displaying constructive hope. However, the collection stands out for a collective, global and future-oriented, versus individual, local and present-oriented framing, running the risk of becoming visions that can delay transformative actions. Some of the most conclusive recommendations of the study are the need to work on the issues of equity and equality in universities today, to enhance the critical perspective of students and to change their current role from that of merely observers to agents for change.
Purpose
This work aims to propose an alternative method of human capital calculation for research laboratories of public university, taking into account some drawbacks of the methods currently applied in this field.
Design/methodology/approach
This method is implemented via a linear program extracted from Data Envelopment Analysis based on slack movement. This is the formulation of Copper et al. (2000), which is used as the starting point for developing the proposed method through important transformations.
Findings
The proposed method is supported by an illustration related to a Moroccan public university. This illustration showed that 57 per cent of the laboratories and all the research activities that they perform are in deficit with respect to target scores.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed method has technical limitations related to scores equal to 1 and to variables when those are numerous. To solve them, it is possible to use peer benchmarking system for the first limitation, and methods of regrouping the variables when those are numerous for the second limitation. Equally, the proposed method does not associate slack with important factors like governance and the impact analysis of research on innovation, competitiveness, and societal aspects. Likewise, it does not use the slack to measure individual efficiency at the same laboratory. Future research can fill these gaps.
Practical implications
This work allows making appropriate budgetary and research policy within university, through budgeting process and management control by using raw and adjusted target values as well as actual ones. Also, the highlighting of the excessive slacks leads the university to take actions to reduce them, according to the most loss-making research activities.
Originality/value
The proposed method is original, since it fills a deficit in terms of human capital target values calculation and of the slack movement concept in relation to the efficient frontier. Additionally, it transforms the Data Envelopment Analysis program into a program that eliminates the slacks linked to the inputs, the radial movement related to the outputs and treats only the outputs and slacks related to these outputs.
Arts have great potential to facilitate sustainability. However, as a growing research field, it is still not clear how and what factors of arts can be applied to promote sustainable behavior. This paper summarizes five key factors of artistic thinking, including novelty, criticism, perfectionism, unique, and passion; each of them reveals clues to addressing sustainability issues. Meaningful examples are presented to demonstrate the proposed ideas, and the implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed. The results suggest that turning any form of art-making processes into service offerings can help companies work with their customers and co-create sustainable value with them. Artistic thinking also encourages hands-on programs and problem-based learning that benefit education for sustainability. To link artistic thinking to behavior change, more art-making and art learning programs for citizens and communities should be developed.
When, perhaps in a hundred years from now, educational historians look back at the turn of the millennium, they may well ask ‘What was that all about?’ They may well wonder how, in a rather short period of time, almost the entire globe became obsessed with measurable learning outcomes, with league tables, with comparison and competition, and with creating education systems that, in the name of lofty ambitions such as that every child supposedly matters, were actually producing insurmountable hierarchies and inequalities where few could win and many would lose. They may well wonder how the OECD managed to become the McDonald’s of twenty-first century education, not just as the organisation that suddenly was everywhere when matters of education were being discussed (as an ‘obligatory passage point’ - see Callon, 1986), but also as the organisation that successfully promoted a rather narrow educational ‘diet’ - perhaps effective in terms of what can be measured but not very nourishing. And maybe some educational historians may also wonder how the arts became caught up in all this - how art became redefined as creativity, how creativity became redefined as a skill and, for some, a ‘twenty-first century skill’, and how such skills were deemed to be important for survival in the uncertain world created by global capitalism. They will also conclude, with a sigh of relief, that in the 30s - the 2030s that is - the educational globe came to its senses, realising that, in its search for effectiveness and excellence, it had been creating an unsustainable monster that was doing the very opposite of what education should be doing - serving humanity in its struggle for meaningful and peaceful coexistence within the boundaries of what the earth can sustain - but instead had become an aim in itself, always asking for more. © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Christopher Naughton, Gert Biesta and David R. Cole.
Children’s culture is multifarious and pluralistic, displaying layers of subcultures, meanings, and adult influences, extending from infancy through pubescence. It is recognized that the arts contribute significantly to promoting children’s wellbeing. Symbolic self-expression through the arts allows children to express complex feelings and hybrid identities. It supports validating individual and collective identities. It not only empowers children but also helps to improve their health and wellbeing. This chapter provides a review of the literature on the role of art and creativity in child wellbeing and socialization. Much of the literature is written by therapists, educators in the arts, and scholars in psychology and sociology. Each of these disciplines adopts a standpoint to discuss children’s wellbeing and happiness, sometimes at variance with each other. The foci of this review include (a) an overview of child wellbeing and the arts in the Western history; (b) the arts and play in child culture; and (c) the spiritual benefits of the arts. The discussion at the end offers a critique of some current views of children and the arts, reveals gaps in existing literature, and outlines suggestions for future research directions for child wellbeing in the arts from a holistic perspective.
The search for decisive actions to remain below 1.5 C of global temperature rise will require profound cultural transformations. Yet our knowledge of how to promote and bring about such deep transformative changes in the minds and behaviours of individuals and societies is still limited. As climate change unravels and the planet becomes increasingly connected, societies will need to articulate a shared purpose that is both engaging and respectful of cultural diversity. Thus, there is a growing need to 'raise the temperature' of integration between multiple ways of knowing climate change. We have reviewed a range of literatures and synthesized them in order to draw out the perceived role of the arts in fostering climate transformations. Our analysis of climate-related art projects and initiatives shows increased engagement in recent years, particularly with the narrative, visual and performing arts. The arts are moving beyond raising awareness and entering the terrain of interdisciplinarity and knowledge co-creation. We conclude that climate-arts can contribute positively in fostering the imagination and emotional predisposition for the development and implementation of the transformations necessary to address the 1.5 C challenge.
Sustainable industrial development can be advanced through the development and application of sustainability metrics. This study addressed the application of social sustainability metrics to the measurement of sustainability performance within process industry and to metal production at the plant level in particular. The applied social sustainability indicators are one part of the overall sustainability index which aims at presenting a balanced and holistic view of plant-level sustainability performance. Application of plant-level indicators can support informed decision-making and fill in potential gaps in corporate-level assessments and reporting initiatives with respect to plant-level social sustainability performance. The social part of the overall index provides information on both in-plant sustainability performance and on the direct and in-direct impacts of plant operations on the surrounding society with special emphasis on the supply chain and emerging social due diligence aspects. The results of pilot implementation of social indicators in Ruukki Lappohja plant indicated a very high level of social sustainability performance with minor areas of improvement such as social risk management auditing covering the whole supply chain, suppliers communication on social responsibility requirements to workers and sub-suppliers, signing of the code of conduct by employees and reporting on policies on local community relations, safety in supply chain covering suppliers and contractors and factory health and safety performance in relation to average field of industry performance in this field.
Performance art - take a look at the types of performance art
- Artcontxet