The EU's common fisheries policy (CFP) has successfully reduced the size of the fishing fleet and the amount and type of fish landed. However, these interventions have had significant social consequences for fishers and their communities that are often overlooked. This article focuses on how social dynamics within fishing communities are shaped by the EU CFP, with a particular focus on the longstanding and well-known fishing town of North Shields in the UK. Ethnographic field research conducted between 2017 and 2020 reveals a significant exodus of fishers from the industry, with the remaining individuals experiencing dramatic changes in their lives. Their social relationships, identity, sense of place, and even the fabric of the town itself were profoundly affected. The findings will contribute to the development of more socially inclusive interventions and policy-making in the fisheries sector.

This study delves into the effects of the European Union's (EU) quota-based regulations on fishers’ access to marine resources, focusing on the experiences of fishers from North Shields, UK. Employing Hall, Hirsch, and Li's framework of powers of exclusion, this study examines how fishers experience evolving access to sea resources within the EU CFP. The findings illuminate the intricate interplay of regulatory, market, and legitimization powers, which drive exclusionary processes and profoundly influence fishers' access to resources and livelihoods. Importantly, this research underscores the necessity of comprehending the complex dynamics of exclusion within quota-based fisheries management, particularity within the unique socio-cultural contexts of fishing communities. Based on this research, further investigation into the socio-cultural dimensions of fishing is advocated to foster more inclusive policies and practices in fisheries management.

Discussions and practices for biodiversity and the environment are associated predominantly with duty ethics, which spell out the do’s and don’ts of good behavior. Virtue ethics offer an alternative that is much more inspirational, provided we do not reduce it to a mere enumeration of environmental virtues. Moreover, a virtue ethic is truly humanistic, in that it builds on inborn human capacities rather than on external sources of morality. Grounded in the classic Greek account of virtue ethics and in interaction with medieval and modern visions, this paper articulates a virtue ethic for the Earth. Accessible to a broad audience, we address the foundational concepts of nature-inclusive telos, eudaimonia, virtues and friendship, and connect these with social-scientific research findings. This elucidates how the virtues, sometimes supported by moral exemplars, work in lives that include nature in their flourishing. A virtue ethic for the Earth, we think, can be helpful for policy making but most of all act as a platform for people to become more inspired, courageous and effective friends of nature and the planet as a whole.

Batik is closely associated with Indonesia, and it has gradually become both an icon of Indonesia and an expression of Indonesian identity. How this came about is investigated in this article by adopting a descriptive approach and involving the idea of a tipping point, which refers to a crucial juncture at which a small change can lead to a significant and irreversible effect. This study focused on specific narratives about batik and Indonesia, formed and sustained in people's minds, subject to historical change. By identifying important junctures within these narratives, we systematically identified the possible motives, potential effects, feedback loops, enabling circumstances, key actors, and interventions that generated crucial and irreversible changes, i.e. tipping points. Our study revealed that batik's contemporary place in Indonesian society is the outcome of a process that began in the late 19th century, but with roots dating to events much further back in time, which in retrospect turned out to be crucial tipping points. Identifying tipping points and exploring processes both towards and following them proved an effective way to understand the long and complex story of Indonesian batik's journey to becoming a national symbol. Small changes indeed can have a big impact.

The UK's fishing industry has contracted considerably since 1972 due to overfishing, increased fuel prices, and implementation of the European Union (EU) Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Despite this decline affecting the industry at large and the incomes of fishers, some fishers have carried on, or even freshly started or returned to the business. Why have these fishers done so despite the challenges they encounter in the fishing industry? In this article, we investigate why some fishers still choose to fish in the wake of all the EU regulations designed to control overfishing by reducing the size of the industry and discouraging entry by taking measures that affect revenues. Our data are collected through ethnographic research involving participant observation and interviews with fishers in North Shields, England. Based on our findings, we argue that the decision to carry on fishing, or even to return, is predominantly based on so-called intrinsic motivations, rather than on cost-benefit calculations, and stems from three interlinked basic human emotional needs which fishing seems to fulfil: the need to connect (sometimes also defined as the need to relate or belong); the desire for autonomy; and the desire to show competence (and have that competence recognized by relevant others). As such, the findings offer a fresh way to explain fishers' decisions, based on a deliberated choice, to remain or leave the sector, and to understand and interrogate the challenges confronting present-day fishing both on a local level in the UK and also for Europe at large.

•Cash crop plantation expansion, triggered by international trade, is one of major causes of global land use/cover change including deforestation•Oil palm plantation expansion is one of the most rapid.•In Indonesia, expansion of plantation to customary land requires local people's approval.•Oil palm companies seek local people's approval by way of economic promises.•We found no straightforward correlation between people's economic conditions and belief of these promises.•People with high embeddedness and interest in the future however disbelieved the promises and rejected the conversion to oil palm.

Relational values reflect the qualities of the relationships between humans and nature, such as care, social bonding, place attachment and spiritual meanings. In this perspective article, we argue that understanding relational values is vital for nature conservation, and we identify how incorporation of these values may function as leverage points for achieving more effective nature policy. We discuss the distinctive features of the concept of relational values and elaborate how relational values strongly influence people’s perceptions of, engagement with and action for nature. Relational values can also provide important deep leverage points for policy interventions aiming to support citizen’s contribution to nature conservation, to strengthen biodiversity policy and the relationship between people and nature. Based on three realms of leverage (re-think, re-structure and re-connect), we distinguish six routes through which relational values can be integrated in policies and practices of nature conservation: (1) incorporation of pluralized meanings of nature; (2) the uptake of relational language in policy discourse; (3) a prioritization of landscape-based policy; (4) empowering citizens in nature conservation; (5) re-orienting nature education to stimulate people’s personal bond with nature; and (6) using digital technology to stimulate new relationships with nature.

Environmental activism, defined as a range of difficult pro-environmental behaviors, is analyzed within the conceptual framework of Significance Quest Theory (SQT). In Study 1, 40 interviews were carried out on two groups of people in the European Union: Committed Actors for Nature (CANs, n = 25) versus Committed Actors for Society (CASs, n = 15). Results demonstrated that Significance Quest (SQ) motivates each group to be strongly committed to their chosen action and the main difference between them being in their ideology (pro-social vs. pro-environmental). In Study 2 ( N = 131), the relationship between SQ and intention to enact difficult pro-environmental behaviors was assessed. Results suggested that the higher the SQ, the higher the tendency to enact difficult pro-environmental behaviors, but not average or easy ones. Moreover, the higher the pro-environmental ideology, the stronger the indirect effect of SQ on difficult behavior through willingness to sacrifice.

Biodiversity and nature conservation have become prominent issues in the political agenda, at both local and global level, and in this regard the importance of considering people lifestyles, habits and behaviours has received increasing attention. The present study verified an extended version of the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory (Stern et al., 1999) in the prediction of action for biodiversity and nature conservation. Here we found that the VBN sequential path (including biospheric values, general pro-environmental beliefs, awareness of consequences of action, ascription of responsibility for action, and moral norm), integrated by perceived behavioural control and social norms, predict action for nature and biodiversity. Participants (N = 183), recruited in seven European countries, had performed outstanding actions either in nature-related issues or in other areas (or were just involved in some biodiversity/nature relevant actions). They filled in an online questionnaire measuring the examined constructs. Results confirmed the paths predicted by the VBN. In particular, moral norm and biospheric values, as well as perceived behavioural control, showed a direct impact on action for nature/biodiversity. On the other hand, social norms (notably, injunctive norm) showed only an indirect influence on action, via other dimensions. These outcomes suggest that communication and educational agencies should promote the dissemination of biospheric values in the community, in order to trigger the moral obligation of doing something relevant for nature and biodiversity conservation. A major implication is that by increasing the proportion of people acting in a committed way for biodiversity conservation should then provide a social cue for the ones not yet acting.

Abstract In 2014 more people lived in urban areas than in rural areas. In the energy sector that is the highest proportion of all carbon emission sectors, urban area release carbon 71-76% of global carbon emission. The first priority solution for solving climate change is carbon emission reduction in urban areas. The low carbon city is an area base management to meet the target of city carbon emission reduction. One of means for develop the carbon emission behavior in everyday life of the people is collaborative action in form of networking. The social network is the one of major concept for urban study. It used to focus in individual behavior, but now extended to study group of urban people as community network. The objective of this research was to study the pattern of community network for carbon emission reduction in Urban of Northeastern Thailand as Khon Kaen city. Data were collected via in-depth interviews as well as by participatory and non-participatory observations with 24 key informants who were the community heads and members from 4 communities in Khon Kaen city. Data analyses were content analysis with ATLAS.ti program and social network analyzed by UCI-net program. The results of the study indicated that there are three patterns of community network for carbon emission reduction in Khon Kaen city; One-center network, Dual-center network, and Full network.

Despite the great emphasis on sustainable forest management in the 1998 Indonesian reform movement, deforestation has only accelerated since then, with Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) exhibiting the highest rate of forest loss. Some forested areas have, however, been preserved by local communities. We investigate how and why two of these communities in Kapuas Hulu district, West Kalimantan, have managed to maintain their forests against the pressures of illegal logging and conversion to oil palm plantations. One village community had the capacity to act on its own, while the other needed additional capacity through intercommunity collaboration. Motivations behind these villages' decisions were both economic and eudaimonic; their desire for meaningful lives related to the community and environment and to past and future generations. The findings enrich the literature on land use change because description and analysis of successful resistance against logging and oil palm is still rare. As such, the findings offer a different way to understand and interrogate the challenges confronting present-day forest communities in Kalimantan and beyond, standing out against the mainstream impression that communities are still powerless or unwilling to resist the short-term economic lures. We also refer briefly to the environmental justice perspective.

Biodiversity loss is a widely debated world problem, with huge economic, social, and environmentally negative consequences. Despite the relevance of this issue, the psychological determinants of committed action towards nature and biodiversity have rarely been investigated. This study aims at identifying a comprehensive social-psychological profile of activists committed to biodiversity protection and at understanding what determinants best predict their activism. A questionnaire investigating relevant social-psychological constructs identified in the literature on environmental activism was administered to 183 outstanding leaders (vs. non-leaders) in biodiversity protection across seven EU countries. Leaders (vs. non-leaders) in biodiversity protection showed, among other constructs, higher scores on environmental values, attitudes, identity, perceived control, a feeling of union and spirituality with nature, and willingness to sacrifice for their cause. Results are discussed within the theoretical framework of a motivation model of committed action for nature and biodiversity protection. Applications of the results are also proposed.

•Relational values are strongly represented in people everywhere.•Relational values can be constitutive values in partnerships, lives and places.•Relational values can also be intrinsic values of people-nature-relationship triads.•Partnership with nature is a concept with a strong, action-oriented ethic.•Nature-inclusive eudaimonia highlights nature as a source of flourishing life.

Some radical transformations are taking place in the Indonesian cacao sector that are highly relevant for the further development of far-reaching corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable entrepreneurship. Leading international firms in the cacao sector of Indonesia are increasingly seeking sustainable long-term solutions and innovations by adapting a variety of context-specific measures through dialogue, negotiation, and collaboration with various stakeholders in order to secure the long-term production of cacao by smallholder farmers. At first sight, this seems highly paradoxical: they are in the process of upgrading their CSR activities, but avoid labelling it as such. In this chapter, we examine the contemporary policies and practices of these leading firms, and their collaborations with other stakeholders in the field, to unravel this paradox. Based on the findings, we argue that the CSR debate needs to be reframed and moved from a consumer-informed to a producer-informed approach – shifting the focus from downstream consumption to upstream production, i.e. sustainable production and entrepreneurship.

Citation for published version (APA): Scopelliti, M., Molinario, E., Bonaiuto, F., Bonnes, M., Cicero, L., De Dominicis, S., ... Bonaiuto, M. (2018). What makes you a 'hero' for nature? Socio-psychological profiling of leaders committed to nature and biodiversity protection across seven EU countries. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 61(5-6), 970-933. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2017.1421526

The public justification for nature conservation currently rests on two pillars: hedonic (instrumental) values, and moral values. Yet, these representations appear to do little motivational work in practice; biodiversity continues to decline, and biodiversity policies face a wide implementation gap. In seven EU countries, we studied why people act for nature beyond professional obligations. We explore the motivations of 105 committed actors for nature in detail using life-history interviews, and trace these back to their childhood. Results show that the key concept for understanding committed action for nature is meaningfulness. People act for nature because nature is meaningful to them, connected to a life that makes sense and a difference in the world. These eudemonic values (expressing the meaningful life) constitute a crucial third pillar in the justification of nature conservation. Important policy implications are explored, e.g. with respect to public discourse and the encounter with nature in childhood.