Surveying Climate Relevant Behavior

This open access book discusses the contribution of sociology and survey research to climate research. The authors address the questions of which behaviors are of climate relevance, who is engaging in these behaviors, in which contexts do these behaviors occur, and which individual perceptions and values are related to them. Utilizing survey research, the book focuses on the measurement of climate-relevant behaviors with population surveys and develops an instrument that allows a valid estimate of an individual’s GHG emissions with a few core items. While the development of these instruments was based on surveys and qualitative interviews conducted in Austria, the instruments were subsequently tested in a set of 31 European countries, revealing the international relevance of such research. The book also concludes with a brief consideration of the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on environmental attitudes, situating the project globally.

This open access book discusses the contribution of sociology and survey research to climate research. The authors address the questions of which behaviors are of climate relevance, who is engaging in these behaviors, in which contexts do these behaviors occur, and which individual perceptions and values are related to them. Utilizing survey research, the book focuses on the measurement of climate-relevant behaviors with population surveys and develops an instrument that allows a valid estimate of an individual’s GHG emissions with a few core items. While the development of these instruments was based on surveys and qualitative interviews conducted in Austria, the instruments were subsequently tested in a set of 31 European countries, revealing the international relevance of such research. The book also concludes with a brief consideration of the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on environmental attitudes, situating the project globally.

Sustainability policies shape the ways that society and the economy interact with the environment, natural resources and ecosystems, and address issues such as water, energy and food security, and climate change. These policies are complex and are, at times, obscured by contestation, uncertainty and sometimes ignorance. Ultimately, sustainability problems are social problems and they need to be addressed through social and policy change. Social Science and Sustainability draws on the wide-ranging experience of CSIRO’s social scientists in the sustainability policy domain. These researchers have extensive experience in addressing complex issues of society–nature relationships, usually in interdisciplinary collaboration with natural scientists. This book describes some of the evidence-based concepts, frameworks and methodologies they have developed, which may guide a transition to sustainability. Contributions range from exploring ways to enhance livelihoods and alleviate poverty, to examining Australians’ responses to climate change, to discussing sociological perspectives on sustainability and how to make policy relevant. Researchers, policy-makers and decision-makers around the globe will find this book a valuable and thought-provoking contribution to the sustainability literature. It is also suited to academics and students in postgraduate-level courses in social sciences and sustainability, or in courses in applied sociology, applied social psychology and other applied social sciences.

This book presents carefully selected chapters from the proceedings of the 6th International Scientific Conference on Business and Economics (ISCBE),Tetovo, North Macedonia, which took place in May 2023. The chapters address a wide range of areas relevant to contemporary business and economics issues such as economic shocks, high inflation, energy crisis, COVID-19, growth prospects, economic forecast, labor market, gender inequalities, migration, entrepreneurship, and family businesses, firm development and innovations, technological transformation, etc. Researchers learn about the latest studies that discuss emerging challenges and perspectives of business and economics in the perspective of post-crisis economic recovery, consolidation, and stability.

There is a widely acknowledged evaluation gap in the field of e-participation practice and research, a lack of systematic evaluation with regard to process organization, outcome and impacts. This book addresses the state of the art of e-participation research and the existing evaluation gap by reviewing various evaluation approaches and providing a multidisciplinary concept for evaluating the output, outcome and impact of citizen participation via the Internet as well as via traditional media. It offers new knowledge based on empirical results of its application (tailored to different forms and levels of e-participation) in an international comparative perspective.​ The book will advance the academic study and practical application of e-participation through fresh insights, largely drawing on theoretical arguments and empirical research results gained in the European collaborative project “e2democracy”. It applies the same research instruments to a set of similar citizen participation processes in seven local communities in three countries (Austria, Germany and Spain). The generic evaluation framework has been tailored to a tested toolset, and the presentation and discussion of related evaluation results aims at clarifying to what extent these tools can be applied to other consultation and collaboration processes, making the book of interest to policymakers and scholars alike.

Human Factors in the Chemical and Process Industries: Making it Work in Practice is a comprehensive overview of human factors within this sector, focusing on the practical application. It has been written by acknowledged industry experts from the Keil Centre, which is a leading practice of chartered ergonomics and human factors specialists, chartered safety specialists, registered occupational psychologists, and registered clinical psychologists. The book was inspired by the international human factors training course run by the Keil Centre with the IChemE, which has reached four continents across the world. The book is written for those who want a comprehensive overview of the subject, focusing on the practical application of human factors. It has been written for safety professionals, engineers and operational disciplines within industry, and those aspiring to these disciplines, who either deal with human factors issues or any aspect of the ‘human element’ in their core role. The book explains what ‘human factors’ is about and how human factors issues are best managed from a practical perspective. It will help readers develop a greater understanding of the area and how to establish more effective solutions for human factors related issues. Provides comprehensive coverage of the most relevant human factors within this sector, with succinct overviews of each topic Uses case studies and practical examples to illustrate topics and explains the material in a fully accessible, easy to understand style Written by a single team of eleven industry practitioners, drawing on the combined expertise of different human factors specialisms which are rarely comprehensively combined in a single resource

This unique multidisciplinary volume examines the dynamics of behavioral change and its maintenance, from the individual to the wider domains of public policy. Coverage traces how change may be achieved, sustained, or derailed, as well as underlying neurobiological, behavioral, and social processes that fuel unhealthy and risky behaviors. Contributors offer a wide range of prevention and intervention strategies for supporting positive health habits from improved food choices to abstinence to compliance with treatment. These mechanisms are then transferred to the societal level in studies of evolving public perception of salient issues such as climate change, gender disparities, and drug policy. Included among the topics: Motivating change in addiction via modulation of the dark side. Changing drug use and other health-related behavior in vulnerable populations. Change and maintaining change in school cafeterias. Understanding social structural barriers and facilitators to behavioral change. Strategic communication research to illuminate and promote public engagement with climate change. A provocative rendering of motivation in its macro and micro dimensions, Change and Maintaining Change will interest researchers, practitioners, and clinicians interested in diverse areas such as smoking and other addictions, improvement and relapse in therapy, development and treatment of anxiety disorders, and social cognition and decision-making.

This book presents a life-oriented approach, which is an interdisciplinary methodology proposed for cross-sectoral urban policy decisions such as transport, health, and energy policies. Improving people’s quality of life (QOL) is one of the common goals of various urban policies on the one hand, while QOL is closely linked with a variety of life choices on the other. The life-oriented approach argues that life choices in different domains (e.g., residence, neighborhood, health, education, work, family life, leisure and recreation, finance, and travel behavior) are not independent of one another, and ignorance of and inability to understand interdependent life choices may result in a failure of consensus building for policy decisions. The book provides evidence about behavioral interdependencies among life domains based on both extensive literature reviews and case studies covering a broad set of life choices. This work further illustrates interbehavioral analysis frameworks with respect to various life domains, along with a rich set of future research directions. This book deals with life choices in a relatively general way. Thus, it can serve not only as a reference for research, but also as a textbook for teaching and learning in varied behavior-related disciplines.