Ambiente e Sustentabilidade / Environment and Sustainability
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Percorrer Ambiente e Sustentabilidade / Environment and Sustainability por Domínios Científicos e Tecnológicos (FOS) "Ciências Sociais"
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- Assessing portuguese healthcare professionals' perspectives on climate change-related health policies and national health service readiness: a qualitative studyPublication . Ponte, Nidia; Alves, Fátima; Vidal, Diogo GuedesO resumo enquadra-se na necessidade de reforçar a preparação do setor da saúde perante os impactos das alterações climáticas, da perda de biodiversidade e de tensões sociopolíticas. O estudo analisa as perceções de médicos em Portugal sobre as políticas de saúde relacionadas com as alterações climáticas e sobre o grau de preparação do Serviço Nacional de Saúde para responder a esses impactos. Recorreu-se a metodologia qualitativa, com 13 entrevistas semiestruturadas a médicos de várias especialidades (28–73 anos). Conclui-se que as políticas existentes são ainda incipientes e exigem medidas mais proativas e articuladas, destacando-se a necessidade de comunicação mais consistente e de orientações clínicas mais claras para lidar com efeitos das alterações climáticas na saúde pública.
- Assessing social sustainability: contributions to the structuring and empirical application of an assessment frameworkMartins, João José de Almeida; Albuquerque, Rosana; Martinho, Ana PaulaThe main object of this doctoral thesis is the concept of social sustainability and the search for its operationalization in a framework of social sustainability assessment, a framework not only reactive, but guiding and proactive, which assesses, but also promotes, the sustainability of planned actions (policies, plans, programs, or projects), from a critical and emancipatory perspective. The process of constructing the dominant concept of sustainable development, its main characteristics, and the structural contradictions it entails has been analysed. The analysis was then centred on the notion of social sustainability, in search of a clarification of its meaning. From the critical analysis of various proposals for the definition and operationalization of the notion, as well as other perspectives, conceptions and proposals that, not directly addressing social sustainability, deal, in fact, with its problematics, such as human rights approach, the capability approach of Amartya Sen and Marta Nussbaum, the perspective of buen vivir, and the updating of the Aristotelian concept of flourishing developed by critical realism current, resulted a proposal of social sustainability as a relational process of human flourishing, and as a process of caring, comprising an actual dimension and an utopian dimension, understanding as utopia, following Karl Manheim, the search for the realization of desirable, emancipatory and achievable futures, in a horizon of possibilities. This proposal was configured in a set of principles of social sustainability and a set of social sustainability objectives, resulting from those principles, presented as an open proposal, and seeking to integrate and express the articulation of the individual and relational dimensions, structure and agency, objective and subjective. This set of principles and objectives, of an ethical nature, constitutes a matrix basis for the normative orientation of practical action and, concomitantly, of reference of values for the assessment of the social sustainability of planned actions. Based on the field of sustainability assessment, a framework for assessing and promoting the social sustainability of projects is proposed, with contributions at the level of theoretical foundations, the methodological process, the dimensions of social sustainability, the definition of the scope and the assessment criteria.
- Caminhos regeneradores para Tocar-no-Mundo: vivências transformadoras da relação com a NaturezaPublication . Moreira, Jorge; Alves, Fátima; Castro, Paula Cristina de Oliveira; Mendes, José Manuel; Crespo Aznar, Pablo; Echavarren, José Manuel; Figueiredo, Elisabete; Guerra, João; Mañas Navarro, José Javier; Vidal, Diogo GuedesEsta comunicação refletiu sobre as práticas e experiências regeneradoras que aprofundam a relação sensível e transformadora com o mundo natural — um contributo inspirador para repensar o nosso lugar na teia da vida.
- Digital transformation in contemporary society: an introductory analysisPublication . Jacquinet, Marc
- Ecological footprint assessment as a pathway to sustainabin the OpenEU AlliancePublication . Nicolau, Paula Bacelar; Martins, Rute; Caeiro, Sandra; Mapar, Mahsa; Casanova, DiogoThe integration of sustainable practices into the daily operations and infrastructure of HigherEducation Institutions (HEIs) plays a vital role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) (Purcell et al., 2019; Žalėnienė & Pereira, 2021). Developing action-oriented competenceswithin HEIs, such as collaborative sustainability governance strategies and actions, is a key inthis process (Mapar & Caeiro, 2024; Saleem & Dare, 2023). As part of this effort, assessing andreducing the Ecological Footprint (EF) has become a priority in many HEIs, with EF monitoringserving as an essential decision-making tool to encourage more responsible resource use withinthe institution (Valls-Val & Bovea, 2021). The OpenEU Alliance, coordinated by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, brings together tenEuropean HEIs — including both Distance Teaching and face-to-face HEIs — in a joint effort todrive digital transformation in higher education and establish a pan-European, student-centred,inclusive, digital, and green Distance Teaching university. As a part of this broader initiative, aspecific task has been set to reduce the Alliance EF by 5% over four years (2024–2028). To thatend, the adopted tool was the University Footprint Calculator (Mancini et al., 2022), an open-access digital tool, developed under the EEUSTEPs Erasmus project (EUSTEPs, n.d.), that allowsHEIs to evaluate and keep records of consumption of natural resources and ecosystem serviceswithin their activities and operations. The methodology involved: (i) establishing the baseline EFfor each university in Year 1, and propose a set of recommendations to reduce the EF based onthe most impactful categories; and (ii) monitoring the changes over the following three years, totrack the progress towards the overall OpenEU EF reduction by Year 4. This study presents the outcomes of the first year of OpenEU Alliance EF assessment, in whichkey initial milestones were achieved, including the establishment of a Community of Practice inEcological Footprint, with representatives from all partner universities. Activities comprised twointroductory meetings and a training session to explain the EUSTEPs calculator and the datacollection process, followed by regular meetings to share the efforts and challenges within theprocess. Based on that, each partner university collected its data on infrastructure and utilitycategories (e.g., energy use, buildings) and community-related activities (such as mobility foracademic purposes or food services). The achieved results provide a solid foundation fordeveloping the recommendations and implementing future actions. The collaborative framework, fostered within the OpenEU Alliance and supported by its baselineassessment, not only enhances data transparency but also builds institutional capacity toimplement targeted, impactful measures for reducing the EF. Through continued monitoringand shared learning, the Alliance will achieve its ultimate EF reduction target by 2028,contributing tangibly to the broader goals of the OpenEU Alliance on digital transformation,inclusivity, and green higher education.
- Fast growing informal peri-urbanization in Africa: the role of local practices in assessing sustainability and planningPublication . Carrilho, João; Balas, Marisa; Dgedge, Gustavo; Trindade, JorgePeri-urbanization occurs differently across world regions, through urban sprawl, local development, and rural exodus. The latter is typical in primarily rural, fast urbanizing underdeveloped regions in an African context. In those regions, semi-urban settlements develop informally from local practices. For their large numbers, undertaking formal assessments and land use planning to any significant extent is impractical. The study applied a flexible framework to assess the role of local practices on sustainability in rapidly expanding settlements in peri-urban areas and how technical resources and narratives can influence and take advantage of such practices. The work reports a mixed-methods case study conducted in settlements North of Maputo, Mozambique using territorial and social cohesion as proxies for sustainability and as a guide for planning interventions priorities. The study used publicly available and participatory geographic information, limited expert opinion surveys, focus group discussions, and individual satisfaction surveys. We show that, while facing limitations, informal practices are conscious of the local suitability of risks in settlements land use planning and favor social cohesion. The framework supports existing theories and reveals that local microscale traditional physical planning brings marginal gains. The research suggests priority to interventions with a higher impact on territorial and social cohesion, such as narrative-based local institutional innovations, enhancing knowledge exchange on standards and risk management solutions, enforcing regulations, and improving regional networking infrastructure and practices, in face of limited resources and city and regional planners. Research is needed to improve the frameworks' replicability as a new tool to assist in peri-urbanization governance.
- Plural nature(s): an overview of their sociocultural constructionPublication . Alves, Fátima; Vidal, Diogo GuedesThe social construction of nature aims to emphasise that the concept of nature has multiple meanings that vary in different socio-cultural contexts. This underlines the multiple ways in which both structures and individuals understand, explain, and engage with nature and the environment. Consequently, nature and cultures/societies are not separate entities, but are intertwined in complex and interdependent relationships. Therefore, nature is the result of human perceptions and social practices. The way we interact with, perceive, interpret, and value nature is influenced by a given society’s history and sociocultural factors. This intimate relationship is closely linked to powerknowledge and influence relations. Those with more power can impose a particular vision of, and relationship with, nature, resulting in inequalities and potentially harmful relations that can explain the environmental degradation that the contemporary world faces globally, despite its expression in particular contexts, thus configuring plural natures.
- Sustainability and social security futures: the case of Guinea BissauPublication . Bá, Mamadu Udi; Jacquinet, Marc; Sucuma, Arnaldo; Martins, António Eduardo Pais Falcão BarbosaGuinea-Bissau (GB) faces significant challenges in maintaining and developing a sustainable social security system over the next two to three decades. This analysis explores for future scenarios and their implications for the country's social protection framework, considering multiple interacting factors. Besides demographic and macroeconomic indicators, the present paper tackles the issues of the structure of the population, the main categories of vulnerable people, climate change, the technological change and practices and advance the idea of social security for vulnerable people and times of multidimensional change