Adaptive governance describes the purposeful collective actions to resist, adapt, or transform when faced with shocks. As governments are reluctant to intervene in informal settlements, community based organisations (CBOs) self-organize and take he lead. This study explores under what conditions CBOs in Mathare informal settlement, Nairobi initiate and sustain resilience activities during Covid-19. Study findings show that CBOs engage in multiple resilience activities, varying from maladaptive and unsustainable to adaptive, and transformative. Two conditions enable CBOs to initiate resilience activities: bonding within the community and coordination with other actors. To sustain these activities over 2.5 years of Covid-19, CBOs also require leadership, resources, organisational capacity, and network capacity. The same conditions appear to enable CBOs to engage in transformative activities. How-ever, CBOs cannot transform urban systems on their own. An additional condition, not met in Mathare, is that governments, NGOs, and donor agencies facilitate, support, and build community capacities. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Adaptive governance by community-based organisations: Community resilience initiatives during Covid‐19 in Mathare, Nairobi. which has been published in final form at doi/10.1002/sd.2682. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions
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Due to the environmental and nutritional benefits of insects, their consumption would be one of the solutions to feed the growing human population. Despite the increasing interest in the use of insects as food and feed, consumer acceptance is the major obstacle to successful implementation in Western countries and we studied the factors that influence consumer acceptance in a group of university students from Germany and the Netherlands. In this exploratory research, a survey was conducted (n = 222). Socio‐demographic and psychological factors were established from a theoretical review. In addition, we elaborated on questions regarding information on the health and environmental benefits of consuming insects. Initially, the data obtained are presented through descriptive statistics. The influence of the socio‐demographic and psychological factors, and the information on the willingness to accept insects as animal feed and human food was analyzed using correlations and multiple linear regressions. Results showed more willingness to accept insects as animal feed than in human food. The acceptance among German and Dutch students seems to be driven by issues similar to those in other European countries, such as visual aspects and knowledge about the benefits. The effect of the information on willingness constitutes an important finding of this study, especially for the use of insects in animal feed, since most of the previous studies have focused on the use of insects as human food. Our data support the need to inform and educate consumers about the environmental and health benefits of entomophagy. We conclude that effective efforts to implement entomophagy could increase the level of familiarity with the insect food and inform (or educate) consumers about its benefits. Insights from this study are useful to address studies focusing on specific segments of possible early adopters and consequently addressing communication strategies in this market segmentation.
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For children it is important to consume enough vegetables to establish healthy dietary patterns. Taste acceptance is an important factor contributing to food choice and consumption. Sweetness and sourness enhancement can increase acceptance of specific foods in children. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of sweetness and sourness enhancement on acceptance of cucumber and green capsicum purees in 5-6-year-old children. Three concentrations of sucrose (2, 5 and 10%) and citric acid (0.05, 0.08 and 0.15%) were added to cucumber and green capsicum purees. Children (n = 70, 5.7 ± 0.5 yrs) assessed acceptance of the vegetable purees using a 5-point hedonic facial scale. Sweetness enhancement significantly increased acceptance of cucumber purees (5 and 10% sucrose) and green capsicum purees (2 and 10% sucrose) compared to unmodified purees. Sourness enhancement (0.05, 0.08 and 0.15% citric acid) did not significantly influence acceptance of cucumber and green capsicum purees compared to unmodified purees. Children differed in acceptance of vegetable purees with added sucrose and citric acid. Sweetness likers (cucumber 77.1%, green capsicum 58.6%) accepted sucrose concentrations better than sweetness non-likers in both vegetables. Sourness likers (cucumber 50.0%, green capsicum 44.3%) accepted medium and high concentrations of citric acid better than sourness non-likers in cucumber and all citric acid concentrations in green capsicum. We conclude that enhancement of sweetness increases acceptance of cucumber and green capsicum purees in most children whereas enhancement of sourness is better accepted by only a few children. This study highlights the challenge to get children to better accept vegetables, since only sweetness enhancement improved acceptance while addition of sucrose is undesirable. For a small subset of children enhancing sourness might be an alternative strategy to increase acceptance of vegetables
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Craft your own audience: How can a technology-driven company use online gaming communities, like Minecraft, to reach and engage a young audience? This project creates a context in which reality is simulated, by having students work together for a real client in an international context. In this project we explore innovative ways in which Samsung can engage younger audiences through Minecraft, the world's best-selling game with almost 140 million monthly players (2023). This project is focused on on educating, researching and developing playable prototypes within Minecraft that demonstrate how online gaming communities can be used to connect technology companies with a new generation of users. Societal issueInclusion of different ages around technology literacy and education (21st century skills).Benefit to societyGlobal inclusive community around education and R&D, higher cultural awareness.Collaborative partnersManchester Metropolitan University; Samsung Benelux.
