Jos Sanders (HAN), Melissa Selzener (Hanze) en Harm van Lieshout (Hanze) beschouwen de transformatie van een diplomagericht naar een skillsgericht ecosysteem van onderwijs en arbeidsmarkt. Ze zien binnen deze transformatie, indachtig het werk van nobelprijswinnares Elinor Ostrom (1990), ‘skills’ in onze samenleving als een zogenaamde ‘common’. Een common is een collectief goed dat zorgzaam wordt beheerd door een gemeenschap op basis van duidelijke afspraken en regels, gefundeerd in een duidelijk normen- en waardenpatroon. Ze zien het skillsgerichte ecosysteem van onderwijs en arbeidsmarkt als een ‘system of commons’ en gebruiken Ostrom’s acht principes voor ‘governing the commons’ (1990; 2000) om tot een realistisch toekomstperspectief te komen voor de verdere ontwikkeling van een succesvol skillsgericht ecosysteem van onderwijs en arbeidsmarkt. Zij roepen de overheid op om een veel actievere, aanjagende en coördinerende rol te pakken in deze transformatie: organiseer het skillsgerichte ecosysteem en zorg voor een goed geëquipeerde hoeder (‘marktmeester’) van dat ecosysteem.
DOCUMENT
Purpose: This paper aims to present the findings from a European study on the digital skills gaps in tourism and hospitality companies. Design/methodology/approach: Mixed methods research was adopted. The sample includes 1,668 respondents (1,404 survey respondents and 264 interviewees) in 5 tourism sectors (accommodation establishments, tour operators and travel agents, food and beverage, visitor attractions and destination management organisations) in 8 European countries (UK, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands and Bulgaria). Findings: The most important future digital skills include online marketing and communication skills, social media skills, MS Office skills, operating systems use skills and skills to monitor online reviews. The largest gaps between the current and the future skill levels were identified for artificial intelligence and robotics skills and augmented reality and virtual reality skills, but these skills, together with computer programming skills, were considered also as the least important digital skills. Three clusters were identified on the basis of their reported gaps between the current level and the future needs of digital skills. The country of registration, sector and size shape respondents’ answers regarding the current and future skills levels and the skills gap between them. Originality/value: The paper discusses the digital skills gap of tourism and hospitality employees and identifies the most important digital skills they would need in the future.
MULTIFILE
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the AI-related skills and roles needed to bridge the AI skills gap in Europe. Using a mixed-method research approach, this study investigated the most in-demand AI expertise areas and roles by surveying 409 organizations in Europe, analyzing 2,563 AI-related job advertisements, and conducting 24 focus group sessions with 145 industry and policy experts. The findings underscore the importance of both general technical skills in AI related to big data, machine learning and deep learning, cyber and data security, large language models as well as AI soft skills such as problemsolving and effective communication. This study sets the foundation for future research directions, emphasizing the importance of upskilling initiatives and the evolving nature of AI skills demand, contributing to an EU-wide strategy for future AI skills development.
MULTIFILE
Through the commodification of nature, the framing of the environment as a ‘natural resource’ or ‘ecosystem service’ has become increasingly prominent in international environmental governance. The economic capture approach is promoted by international organizations such as the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). This paper will inquire as to how forest protection is related to issues of social and ecological justice, exploring whether forest exploitation based on the top-down managerial model fosters an unequitable distribution of resources. Both top-down and community-based approaches to forest protection will be critically examined and a more inclusive ethical framework to forest protection will be offered. The findings of this examination indicate the need for a renewed focus on existing examples of good practice in addressing both social and ecological need, as well as the necessity to address the less comfortable problem of where compromise appears less possible. The conclusion argues for the need to consider ecological justice as an important aspect of more socially orientated environmental justice for forest protection. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892916000436 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
MULTIFILE
The ever increasing technological developments and greater demands from our society for qualitative better, safer, sustainable products, processes and systems are pushing the boundaries of what is possible from an engineer’s perspective. Besides the (local) grand challenges in energy, sustainability, health and mobility the world is getting smaller due to advances in communication and digitalization. The exponential increase of complexity and data driven systems (big data) which are integrated and connected to different networks calls for rethinking and inventing new business models [1]. To stay competitive in the world OEM’s and SME’s have to develop breakthrough technological, innovative and advanced systems and processes. These changes have a major impact on engineering education. The industry needs engineers with different competences and skills to fulfil the challenges and demands mentioned earlier. Universities should follow up on these changes and can only deliver and prepare the engineers of the future by close collaboration with the high tech industry. Fontys University is fully aware of this and developed a Centre of Expertise in High Tech Systems & Materials (CoE HTSM) to close the gap between the university and industry. This CoE is a public-private cooperation where applied research, projects and educational programs for different curricula are being developed and executed. By making the industry partner and giving them a role within the university, the engineering education programs and the future engineering profile can be better aligned in a faster and more structural way.
DOCUMENT
This report consists of two parts and describes the highlights of the investigations carried out in the Province of Groningen as part of the Right Project to understand the Regional Innovation Ecosystem in the region. The first part is focusses on the socio-economic and R&D profile (Part 1A) and a SWOT analysis on salient aspects related to Regional Innovation Ecosystems (Part 1B). The second part (Part 2) focuses on the SME innovation capacity and needs, and presents the highlights of 6 interviews with SMEs in the region. The RIGHT project, an Interreg North Sea Program, will contribute to territorial growth in the North Sea Region by connecting smart specialisation strategies to human capital and the skills of the workforce by defining existing and potential regional growth sectors and sub-sectors.
LINK
Ecocentrism has roots in environmental philosophy, which questions the conceptual dichotomy between humans and the environment, acknowledging nonhuman species' right to flourish independently of human interest (Naess 1973). Generally, ecocentrism refers to a planet- and nature-centered as opposed to the human-centered (anthropocentric) system of values. Inspired by this philosophy, ecocentric education focuses on intrinsic values of the ecosystem, environment, and individual living beings and habitats in environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD). https://rd.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
MULTIFILE
The methodology of biomimicry design thinking is based on and builds upon the overarching patterns that all life abides by. “Cultivating cooperative relationships” within an ecosystem is one such pattern we as humans can learn from to nurture our own mutualistic and symbiotic relationships. While form and process translations from biology to design have proven accessible by students learning biomimicry, the realm of translating biological functions in a systematic approach has proven to be more difficult. This study examines how higher education students can approach the gap that many companies in transition are struggling with today; that of thinking within the closed loops of their own ecosystem, to do good without damaging the system itself. Design students should be able to assess and advise on product design choices within such systems after graduation. We know when tackling a design challenge, teams have difficulties sifting through the mass of information they encounter, and many obstacles are encountered by students and their professional clients when trying to implement systems thinking into their design process. While biomimicry offers guidelines and methodology, there is insufficient research on complex, systems-level problem solving that systems thinking biomimicry requires. This study looks at factors found in course exercises, through student surveys and interviews that helped (novice) professionals initiate systems thinking methods as part of their strategy. The steps found in this research show characteristics from student responses and matching educational steps which enabled them to develop their own approach to challenges in a systems thinking manner. Experiences from the 2022 cohort of the semester “Design with Nature” within the Industrial Design Engineering program at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands have shown that the mixing and matching of connected biological design strategies to understand integrating functions and relationships within a human system is a promising first step. Stevens LL, Whitehead C, Singhal A. Cultivating Cooperative Relationships: Identifying Learning Gaps When Teaching Students Systems Thinking Biomimicry. Biomimetics. 2022; 7(4):184. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7040184
DOCUMENT
Climate change is undermining the importance and sustainability of cooperatives as important organizations in small holder agriculture in developing countries. To adapt, cooperatives could apply carbon farming practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance their business by increasing yields, economic returns and enhancing ecosystem services. This study aimed to identify carbon farming practices from literature and investigate the rate of application within cooperatives in Uganda. We reviewed scholarly literature and assed them based on their economic and ecological effects and trade-offs. Field research was done by through an online survey with smallholder farmers in 28 cooperatives across 19 districts in Uganda. We identified 11 and categorized them under three farming systems: organic farming, conservation farming and integrated farming. From the field survey we found that compost is the most applied CFP (54%), crop rotations (32%) and intercropping (50%) across the three categorizations. Dilemmas about right organic amendment quantities, consistent supplies and competing claims of residues for e.g. biochar production, types of inter crops need to be solved in order to further advance the application of CFPs amongst crop cooperatives in Uganda.
DOCUMENT
Anthropology is traditionally broken into several subfields, physical/biological anthropology, social/cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology, and sometimes also applied anthropology. Anthropology of the environment, or environmental anthropology, is a specialization within the field of anthropology that studies current and historic human-environment interactions. Although the terms environmental anthropology and ecological anthropology are often used interchangeably, environmental anthropology is considered by some to be the applied dimension of ecological anthropology, which encompasses the broad topics of primate ecology, paleoecology, cultural ecology, ethnoecology, historical ecology, political ecology, spiritual ecology, and human behavioral and evolutionary ecology. However, according to Townsend (2009: 104), “ecological anthropology will refer to one particular type of research in environmental anthropology—field studies that describe a single ecosystem including a human population and frequently deal with a small population of only a few hundred people such as a village or neighborhood.” Kottak states that the new ecological anthropology mirrors more general changes in the discipline: the shift from research focusing on a single community or unique culture “to recognizing pervasive linkages and concomitant flows of people, technology, images, and information, and to acknowledging the impact of differential power and status in the postmodern world on local entities. In the new ecological anthropology, everything is on a larger scale” (Kottak 1999:25). Environmental anthropology, like all other anthropological subdisciplines, addresses both the similarities and differences between human cultures; but unlike other subdisciplines (or more in line with applied anthropology), it has an end goal—it seeks to find solutions to environmental damage. While in our first volume (Shoreman-Ouimet and Kopnina 2011) we criticized Kottak’s anthropocentric bias prioritizing environmental anthropology's role as a supporter of primarily people's (and particularly indigenous) interests rather than ecological evidence. In his newer 2 publication, Kottak (2010:579) states: “Today’s ecological anthropology, aka environmental anthropology, attempts not only to understand but also to find solutions to environmental problems.” And because this is a global cause with all cultures, peoples, creeds, and nationalities at stake, the contributors to this volume demonstrate that the future of environmental anthropology may be more focused on finding the universals that underlie human differences and understanding how these universals can best be put to use to end environmental damage. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in "Environmental Anthropology: Future Directions" on 7/18/13 available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203403341 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
MULTIFILE
