Search Results (40)

This study examines the intersection of renewable energy and tourism by exploring why domestic tourists visit wind farm sites for recreation. Traditionally seen as industrial facilities, wind farms are now recognized as dual-purpose attractions that promote environmental awareness and local economic growth. Using the Value–Belief–Norm (VBN) theory, Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) as theoretical lenses, we investigate the psychological, social, and cultural factors influencing wind farm tourism. The key determinants of tourist behavior include attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, personal norms, and environmental beliefs. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicates that personal norms have the strongest direct impact on tourists’ intentions (underscoring the importance of internalized moral obligations in this context), with additional indirect effects through environmental citizenship factors. The findings highlight wind farms’ potential to foster sustainability, community engagement, and rural development. Managerial recommendations include providing visitor amenities, targeted marketing, and community involvement to enhance wind farms’ appeal as tourism destinations. This study contributes to tourism theory by expanding the definition of attractions to include renewable energy sites. Future research should examine the moderating role of past behavior and incorporate additional environmental citizenship variables to deepen insights into wind farm tourism. Full article

Sport can serve as a powerful tool for community building, fostering inclusion, challenging intolerance, and advancing social justice. It also supports positive youth development and active citizenship. When embedded in local life and accessible beyond athletics, sport creates unique conditions for community development and inclusive action. Sport and equity-focused community development are about relationships. The perspectives and behaviors stemming from youth participation in sport—what they learn about human relationships, relationship building, and life skills—carry forward through time in all phases and facets of their lives. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Ireland’s largest amateur sporting and cultural organization, exemplifies this potential. More than a sports organization, the GAA plays a central role in Irish society, offering opportunities for people of all ages to engage in sport, fitness, and well-being, while actively contributing to community life. GAA clubs often function as local social hubs, creating spaces for connection across generations. This article uses the GAA as a case study to explore how sport can be a unifying and inclusive structure for community building. Specifically, we will (1) examine the link between sport, youth, and active citizenship; (2) explore connections between sport, community, inclusion, and social justice; (3) offer a historical and cultural overview of the GAA; and (4) consider how organizations like the GAA can support efforts around inclusion, tolerance, and sustainability. The discussion will highlight implications for future community programming and policy. Full article

Career and College Readiness (CCR) generates higher levels of persistence, grit, motivation, and competencies in performing work- or school-related tasks among learners during post-secondary life. One primary limitation defining the present scholarship on CCR is the authentic analysis of the on the ground or field practices high schools perform to increase learners’ CCR competencies. The inadequate research on actual CCR practices in high schools motivated this study. To learn more about how high schools prepare students for post-secondary life, 16 principals from high schools provided detailed narratives on CCR practices in their institutions. Principals completed interviews of one to two hours using Microsoft Teams, supplying the researcher with specific information and examples of how their institutions equip students for future careers and higher education. Manual qualitative thematic analysis of the entire transcript guided the organization and interpretation of the findings, allowing the presentation of meaningful themes supported by a plethora of illustrations. Six themes representing 18 distinct CCR practices emerged, and the themes were rigorous curriculum, content knowledge, key academic behaviors, key cognitive strategies, multiculturalism, and citizenship development. Results partially supported the pervasive CCR model based on Conley’s readiness index. Increasingly, diversity and citizenship learning have defined high schools’ CCR work in preparing learners to become effective local and global citizens. The current investigation paves the way for future observational and field research uncovering whether schools truly prepare students or not, and such preparation varies across community, country, and institutional characteristics. Full article

Over the past two decades, the expanding environmental and ecological crises highlight the need to broaden the concept of sustainability to encompass support for cultural sensitivity and social well-being. This study explores the role of architectural education in fostering cultural sensitivity and social well-being in embassy architecture within a framework of environment–behavior studies. It starts from the premise that the architectural values of a culture are deeply rooted in the relationship between the users, architecture, and surrounding environment. State-sponsored architectural works (e.g., embassies, consulates, cultural centers) built outside the country are viewed as symbolic representations of a nation’s diplomatic and cultural influence. These architectural typologies hold a unique potential to act as bridges for cross-cultural dialogue and foster a collective sense of global citizenship. In order to develop and assess the teaching curriculum, a specific assignment was given to master’s students of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, with the aim to explore how engineering education can be adopted to motivate students toward sustainable attitudes and design solutions. While traditional diplomatic architecture emphasizes inward-facing, fortress-like design strategies, establishing physical and symbolic barriers between the embassy’s territory and the surrounding context, this research advocates for a more holistic approach oriented toward cultural sustainability, openness, and integration within an urban context. Key findings highlight creative solutions for balancing cultural representation with functional requirements while prioritizing community engagement, environmental responsibility, and user well-being. By demonstrating the two distinctive architectural strategies, this study contributes to the culturally responsive embassy design within the broader context of sustainable architectural education. Full article

The climate emergency is increasingly looming, and its consequences on nature and human systems are increasingly severe and pervasive, as reported by the world’s leading conferences and organizations on the subject. There appears to be an immediate need to adopt more sustainable behaviors in order to stem consequences that are becoming increasingly dramatic. In this regard, environmental psychology and other related disciplines have sought and still seek to understand how to translate the environmental concerns of individuals and communities into effective and efficient conservation and protection actions to contain the emergency and avoid further consequences. The contribution of psychological theories, particularly the transtheoretical model of change and the planned behavior model, appears very promising for assessing and promoting the potential for activation toward sustainability. The aim of this study was to develop a new conceptualization of the psychological construct of readiness to change (RtC) applied to sustainability issues and validated internally and externally through two separate studies (N1 = 228, N2 = 713). The sample for the two studies was recruited by distributing an anonymous online survey. For Study 1, we administered an online survey investigating basic sociodemographic characteristics and the preliminary set of 42 items of the readiness to change scale. For Study 2, the survey was composed of the following tools: a sociodemographic form, the readiness to change scale, a connectedness to nature scale, a climate change attitude survey, consumers’ perceived readiness toward green products, and a pro-environmental behaviors scale. Through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, 29 items were selected from an initial set of 42. The 29 items were divided and organized into seven factors (namely: perceived importance of the problem/change, motivation, self-efficacy, effectiveness of the proposed solution, social support, action and involvement, and perceived readiness). Each factor showed adequate reliability (McDonald’s ω range: 0.74–0.87). Regarding external validity, the scale showed correlations—with typical to large effect sizes—with pro-environmental identity, green attitudes, sustainable intentions, and pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) (i.e., conservation, environmental citizenship, food, transportation). Given the results obtained, we can say that the scale we constructed can infer the individual’s propensity to enact PEBs, and consequently it can give input to the implementation of interventions aimed at stimulating RtC and, therefore, sustainable behaviors. In conclusion, the scale appears valid and usable for assessing the activation potential of both individuals but also at the group and community levels—the latter factor being an important contribution to scientific research, since most of the instruments used to date fail to estimate this aspect. Full article

Identified as an increasingly pivotal aspect, the benevolent extra-role characteristic of community citizenship behavior contributes to destination development efficiency and social cohesion. Based on the egoistic–altruistic motivation framework, this study investigated three motivations that propel residents to exercise community citizenship behaviors in a positive social contact context, namely self-focused, other-focused, and place-focused motivation. A conceptual model combined with positive contact, personal benefit, sympathetic understanding, place identity, and community citizenship behavior was developed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) through data from 366 residents in Kaifeng, China. The findings showed that of the three motivations for community citizenship behaviors, place identity contributed the most, and personal benefits failed to predict community citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, sympathetic understanding with tourists was most fostered by residents from the perception of positive contact with tourists. These findings offer a novel theoretical framework for scholarly investigation and provide practical insights for tourism managers regarding strategies to influence residents’ community citizenship behavior. Full article

Understanding the factors and motivations that drive consumers to engage in eco-friendly behavior within the realm of social commerce is essential to provide insights into crafting targeted marketing efforts and campaigns. By aligning eco-friendly initiatives with the inherent motivations of social commerce users, businesses can enhance the effectiveness of their sustainability efforts. Despite that, limited research has investigated the potential impact of social commerce, aligned with green customer citizenship, on eco-friendly behavior and staying in green hotels. To address this gap, this study aims to examine the level to which social commerce practices contribute to shaping customers’ eco-friendly behavior in the context of eco-friendly hotels. A quantitative approach design using a questionnaire survey to collect primary data was conducted. Based on valid responses from 336 participants, a structured equation modeling was performed using Smart PLS 4.0 to examine the conceptual model and justify the hypotheses of the study. The findings highlighted the critical role of social commerce in shaping customer eco-friendly behavior and staying in green hotels. The results also confirmed the moderating role of green customer citizenship in supporting the linkage between social commerce and customer eco-friendly behavior in hotel settings. These results contribute to the growing hospitality body of knowledge and provide some valuable practical implications enabling eco-friendly hotels to leverage social commerce as a medium for promoting green initiatives and services. Full article

This study addresses the urgent need for comprehensive climate education amid a climate emergency. Human (energy) behaviors are developed from childhood and early adulthood. This study hypothesizes that transcending a nation’s net-zero energy ambition can be accomplished through experiential education. An Urban Governance Lab plus nEt-Zero Energy league model is introduced. Various behavioral interventions are designed based on the principles of serious games. Discussions provide rich narratives on how a nation with so many diverse communities can forge a rapid net-zero transition. The blended multi-disciplinary STEM education can drive energy citizenship in campus-like communities. A scenarios-based analysis demonstrating the potential of the proposed model in shaping energy behavior in young citizens leading to net zero is presented. The results from the scenario analysis present optimistic evidence underlining how campus-like communities driven by bottom-up initiatives can realize net-zero ambition beyond hope. Full article

This study investigated how residents’ empowerment influences their engagement in the sustainability of the convention industry in their community, specifically, their citizenship behavior (CB) toward convention visitors and support for convention development in their community. Additionally, the current study examined the moderator of a convention center’s innovativeness. The sample used for data analysis was 415 residents from Seoul and Busan, South Korea. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that residents’ empowerment enhances their participation in CB toward visitors and support. The multi-group comparison analysis suggested that a convention center’s innovativeness moderates the effect of residents’ empowerment on their CB toward visitors but not on convention development support. These results highlight the important role of empowering residents in convention host communities in psychological, sociological, and political ways in promoting community engagement and support for convention development. Local authorities and convention center management should ensure that residents have sufficient knowledge about the benefits of convention development and involve them in decision-making processes. Full article

The growing prevalence of cybercrime, particularly among young adults, necessitates the promotion of digital citizenship to educate students about responsible online behavior and to equip them with the skills to mitigate cyber risks. The specific objective of this study was to investigate the effect of digital citizenship skills on the prevention of cybercrime among higher education students. A mixed-method approach, including surveys and interviews, was employed to collect data from 652 students in Saudi Arabia. This study found that digital citizenship generally has a significant impact on students’ awareness and prevention of cybercrime through the development of responsible online behavior. Knowledge of digital law came first, followed by beliefs about digital manners. Digital communication skills came third, followed by digital rights, knowledge, and duties in fourth place. Then, digital commerce skills and digital health beliefs came fifth and sixth, respectively. This was followed by digital access skills, then digital security, and finally digital culture. The results also revealed a negative statistical relationship between digital citizenship and cybercrimes’ various forms including national, financial, banking, social, immoral, insulting, slanderous, defaming, threatening, and harassment in virtual learning environments. These findings have significant implications for the understanding of how higher education institutions can promote digital citizenship and prevent cybercrime by integrating digital citizenship education into their curriculum, providing training for educators, and establishing clear policies and guidelines for responsible online behavior. Full article

Over the past two decades, the internet has become an increasingly important venue for political expression, community building, and social activism. Scholars in a wide range of disciplines have endeavored to understand and measure how these transformations have affected individuals’ civic attitudes and behaviors. The Digital Citizenship Scale (original and revised form) has become one of the most widely used instruments for measuring and evaluating these changes, but to date, no study has investigated how digital citizenship behaviors relate to exogenous variables. Using the classic Big Five Factor model of personality (Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), this study investigated how personality traits relate to the key components of digital citizenship. Survey results were gathered across three countries (n = 1820), and analysis revealed that personality traits map uniquely on to digital citizenship in comparison to traditional forms of civic engagement. The implications of these findings are discussed. Full article

The paper is based on the crucial value of food as “a condensed social fact”. The analysis focuses on food narratives, responsible consumption, battles for the food emancipation of subaltern and low-income subjects, and attention to the quality, fairness, and traceability of food products as an expression of individual agency, as well as an expression of public engagement with food democracy/citizenship conflicts and frictions. Preliminarily, the paper moves from a discussion of collective agency on food strategies and representations to a critical approach to food democracy and sustainable society. This public arena for food debates is then confronted with personal behaviors embodying food citizenship in the contemporary scenario of socio-economic and environmental transition. The paper addresses the following sustainable development goals: responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), ending hunger, food security, improved nutrition, sustainable agriculture (SDG 2), and health and well-being (SDG 3). Starting from the democratic/neoliberal dichotomy, the paper will consider food governmentality as a positive alternative to food emancipation and democracy, as well as a personal need and a neo-communitarian political approach opposed to agroindustry and food consumerism and dispossession. Three case studies, all situated in the central–southern Italian region of Molise, will discuss different models of food citizenship and governmentality, as well as the relationship between individual responsibility and desires and collective commitment and perspectives. These issues will be framed within a rural economy paradigm and articulated through an ethnographic methodology: local data collection, emic/ethic representations, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. This long-term observation has been realized in the framework of several projects that were coordinated and developed by the authors, who worked for several years in the regional territory, especially on projects focusing on local/regional/national policies of sustainable rural development and bio-cultural heritage conservation and valorization according to the mission of the research center, which they founded and coordinated over the last seven years. The case studies and discussion allow for some final consideration of the impact of individual and community agencies on the achievement of SDGs, the presence of not exclusively consumeristic and hedonistic behaviors, and the growing attention to ecological concerns being paid food producers and distributors, as well as new forms of rural–urban circularity and entanglements aiming toward greater awareness and democratization of food access, security, and sustainable agriculture. Full article

Community involvement and citizenship have been crucial drivers in energy transitions worldwide. To deepen our understanding of the energy transition and to further promote energy citizenship, we leverage Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital to shed light on the inequities in community-centered energy transition processes. More specifically, this study demonstrates that cultural capital is an important indicator of an individual’s willingness to participate in renewable energy-related behavior and social movements. Using survey data in the Netherlands as a case study, it finds that depending on the type of energy citizenship, i.e., material participation (investments) or communicative participation (protest), different types of cultural capital are in play. The results of this study imply that a nuanced approach towards both concepts, namely energy citizenship and cultural capital, is needed. The scholarly and practical implications of this study are discussed, and the study concludes with pathways for more comprehensive community engagement. Full article

Through social exchange theory, this study explores the relationship of virtual social interaction on customer citizenship behavior. By using a sample of 363 fitness enthusiasts from China, this study found that the three dimensions of virtual community interaction have a positive impact on customer citizenship behavior. Moreover, this study found that psychological empowerment partially mediated the relationship between the three dimensions of virtual community interaction and customer citizenship behavior. Secondly, this study also found that the effect of virtual community interaction on psychological empowerment was conditional on a sense of community. The results of this study suggested that managers should pay attention to the important role of user interaction in a virtual community and guide users to form high-quality interactions. Furthermore, managers should also pay attention to the importance of customer citizenship behavior to make users as employees participate in the interaction in a virtual community to enrich the integrity of the interaction. Lastly, managers need to pay attention to users’ sense of belonging and identity regarding the virtual community and encourage users to obtain incentives through the combination of online and offline activities to create the most benefits for the virtual community of fitness clubs. Full article

Due to the impact of COVID-19, a large number of employees of organizations around the world have been forced to work remotely from home starting in 2020. As a result, leaders and followers face new communication and interaction challenges. If an enterprise is to be successful in the new wave of economic development, it must embrace the role of employee followers. However, there is currently no relevant research. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the interaction between organic leadership and implicit followers from the perspective of followers who are working remotely and further analyze their relationship with trust in their supervisor, organizational citizenship behavior, and active followership. Using the method of questionnaire measurement, multigroup analysis and ANCOVA and PLS-SEM analysis found the following. First, difference in leadership styles (IV) and implicit followers (IV) had significant effects on employees’ trust in supervisor (DV), organizational citizenship behavior (DV), and active followers (DV). Secondly, the influence of the leaders’ styles (IV) on employees’ trust in supervisor (DV), organizational citizenship behavior (DV), and active followership (DV) was significantly affected only when IFTs were anti-prototypical traits. Finally, organizational citizenship behavior (Med) had an indirect effect between trust in supervisor (DV) and active followership (DV). This article not only fills the gaps in the literature related to leaders and followers, but also provides analytical evidence and new thinking which will enable companies to propose management strategies more effectively for employees working remotely in the face of the impact of the epidemic. Full article