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In recent years, Portugal has witnessed the siting of 250 wind farms, particularly in mountainous and rural areas. Even though, unlike other European countries, general public consensus seemed at first to prevail, protests by local population and ENGOs have been increasing of late (many broadcast by the media) – the outcomes of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) provide a good example. This chapter has two main objectives. On one hand, it examines how rural landscapes are discursively framed in the press when the Portuguese media picks up wind energy issues. On the other hand, by analysing EIA reports, it aims at identifying the social actors involved in the decision process of the siting of wind farms in rural or peri-urban areas, the arguments for and against the location of these facilities and how the (rural) landscape is framed and represented. The empirical material is drawn on three different sources: media analysis of the public discourse on landscape issues related to wind farms; an analysis of EIA reports regarding wind farms in Portugal and an analysis of official positions on this issue assessed through the Environmental Impact Declarations (EID) of EIA processes. It is concluded that despite the lack of media attention to landscape impacts’ of wind farms, the existing discursive frames are often attached to dichotomized cultural meanings: it either deems wind farms as technological tools for landscape progressive transformation or as a risk to its pristine image. As to the EIA reports, landscape matters are more visible and important and at times sufficient to reject approval or change of the siting of a wind farm.

Since the 1990s, several policy instruments have been produced in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to improve accessibility to urban mobility systems, especially for people with disabilities. However, the city still faces important shortcomings in understanding the demands of the population with disabilities and in implementing an appropriate urban structure. The present work identifies mobility practices and demands for accessibility of this population based on a descriptive analysis of the city’s origin/destination survey (2012) and results of a focus group with representatives of the population with disabilities and public authorities. The analysis demonstrates that the demands of persons with reduced mobility are characterised first by a high level of immobility, comparing to people without disabilities, which has important consequences on access to urban goods, especially jobs and health and educational services. Second, mobility has a relevant role in producing forms of discrimination and exclusion. Third, in addition to the problems faced by the general population, people with reduced mobility also face greater challenges in using transport systems. Ultimately, this analysis points out that the main needs for people with disabilities are related to the problems of articulation between public places and transportation systems, both in terms of infrastructure and in terms of attitude and behaviour of service providers and other citizens.

This chapter examines why U.S. offshore wind farms do not exist and identifies sites most suitable for development based on European offshore wind farms. A survey of current literature indicates that U.S. development is stalled due to a lack of government and financial support. The literature identifies common attributes associated with the successful deployment of European offshore farms and provides a basis for a multi-criteria decision analysis of potential U.S offshore wind farm sites. A review of European wind farms indicates that a small, 10–50 MW farm located in shallow waters of less than 20 m might be more successful than previous U.S. development efforts. The review also identifies common European attributes deemed critical for success. These attributes are modified, taking into account unique U.S. factors, and a set of nine critical attributes are derived for use in a multi-criteria decision analysis model of suitable U.S. locations. The nine critical attributes (wind quality, water depth, shore distance, state support, public support, industrial support, population density, weather, and energy costs), along with associated utility function values, are applied to 23 past and current proposed U.S. sites. The model identified three sites, in Galveston Island, TX, Port Isabel, TX, and Block Island, RI, as being most favorable for a small wind farm.

Continuously changing networked society chiefly takes more active role in ongoing transformations worldwide. Governments are dealing with numerous organized groups which arise from seemingly nowhere with particular set of requirements to make social change. In a globalized world quickly moving information flows, expanded physical mobility of people formed a new society with increased demand for better life, which cannot be emphasized without greater social responsibility of every actor in society. And this cannot be minded out, since modern society holds crucially powerful tools, such as media and internet, to fight for justice, values, and believes.

Territorial governments, even in most distanced regions, start facing similar challenges as those in crowded cities due to the call from society for greater social responsibility. Only set of stakeholders insignificantly vary in countryside compared to cities when calling for social change; however, the general body consists of variety actions to live better in a socially responsible way. Lately, farmers in countryside as well as local governments, even in post-soviet countries, are more frequently requested to mind the principles of social responsibility from the general public. Scientific literature proposes that it signalizes about the shift from industrial to postindustrial stage of development—knowledge and information age. However, any scientific evidence to disclose the factors that influence farmer's choice to act as a community citizen had not been provided yet. Authors presuppose that particular farmer's background characteristics, such as age, generation, education, or others, might be among the factors that highly shape the way farmers act with local communities as well as territorial governments from social responsibility perspective.

The main aim of this article is to disclose the factors that define social responsibility of agribusiness in their attitudes toward territorial government and local community.

Scientific literature analysis and generalization, survey, interview, and descriptive statistical analysis methods were applied. Data were collected in spring 2017 and autumn 2018 in Lithuanian farms. Research results helped disclose that age, generation, and education are among important factors in changing social responsibility attitudes of agribusiness. Significant dependency was observed among age and most of agribusiness representatives' social responsibility counterparts when dealing with territorial government and local community development.