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The purpose of this paper is to operationalize theories of social learning and collective action for campus sustainability practitioners at higher education instititions (IHEs) to enhance their work, and to introduce the concept of collective action competence as a practical tool.

This paper presents a theoretical argument based on the concepts of learning and collective action for stronger consideration of social learning, action competence and voluntary collective action in campus sustainability initiatives.

Many important sustainability outcomes depend heavily on voluntary behaviors by groups of campus stakeholders, making voluntary collective action an important, although underused, tool for campus sustainability practitioners. The term “collective action competence” is introduced and defined as the capability of a group of people to direct their behavior toward a common goal based on a collective literacy, a collective competence, and a collective need or goal.

The term “collective action competence” is introduced as a novel unifying concept that articulates a critical capability needed for collective behavior change in social settings such as HEIs. Collective action competence is based on the theories of collective action and of social and free-choice learning and on the concepts of action competence and strategic competence.

This paper aims to investigate issues affecting the integration of retired military officers into civilian work using a competence model as an analytical framework.

The paper combines literature review with empirical study. The primary method of data collection was a series of in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 25 retired army officers in Lithuania.

Despite evidence that a career as an officer in the military develops valuable competencies that have obvious potential in the civilian labour market, the integration of retired army officers into the civilian labour market is fraught with difficulties. Apart from the obvious inappropriateness of specific competencies associated with armed combat for civilian occupations, even competencies acquired in military service that align closely with those required in civilian jobs do not necessarily translate because of different contexts and different value systems.

The empirical basis is limited to army officers in Lithuania, and the authors urge caution in extrapolating to other military personnel and other countries. To the extent that the approach has generic value, there are clearly implications for demobilisation after major conflicts or return to civilian life of personnel involved in international peace-keeping.

This exploratory research suggests that a competence framework can identify limits and possibilities of aligning competencies acquired in military service with those required in civilian occupations, provided context and values are incorporated as part of the analysis. The approach piloted in this paper could be useful more widely for facilitating mobility between sectors and occupations arising from the adoption of disruptive technologies.

The paper demonstrates the value of a structured approach to comparing competencies in context and the mediating role of values in moving from military to civilian occupations.

The paper starts from the increasing spatial and functional fragmentation of value‐added chains, global de‐regulation and dis‐embedding of “markets”, and interdependencies among the Net‐based digital technologies. It develops a socio‐economic setting with ubiquitous direct interdependencies and interactions, Net‐externalities, “strategic” strong uncertainty, and omnipresent collective‐good and social‐dilemma problems. These entail co‐ordination failures, either in the form of conventional market failure (i.e. collective blockages of action) or of “wrong” or outmoded institutional co‐ordination and, thus, wide‐spread technological “lock‐ins” that are indicative of insufficient ability of collective action. This is particularly true for de‐regulated, individualistic cultures. In contrast, sustainable innovation, used in a broad, i.e. technological and institutional, sense, requires an effective collective action competence. This, in turn, requires a new and increased co‐ordination. Against this background, the global corporate economy has spontaneously developed private individualist substitute arrangements to cope with the new complexity, such as local clusters and hub‐and‐spoke networks, which all have severe shortcomings. With reference to what we call the “Linux” paradigm, the paper discusses the possibility of a spontaneous evolutionary, i.e. collectively learned, institutional co‐ordination through emergent collective action and networks with “good” governance. The paper argues that only a hybrid system that consists of “well‐governed” networks and a new approach towards more comprehensive and deliberate “interactive” and “institutional” public policy, supporting collective learning and emergent institutional co‐ordination, is capable of solving the complexity and co‐ordination problems of the “new” economy by increasing certainty, stability and more continuous and comprehensive innovation. This new policy approach is outlined at the end.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss teachers’ practices, barriers and facilitating factors associated with a regional school-based action-oriented sexuality education (SE) project with the use of information and communication technology.

This qualitative research was anchored in a constructivist paradigm, set up as a multiple case study (six schools) with exploratory aims. Observation, teacher group interview, online class-diaries and contents of the project website were used for data collection. Cross-case analysis was carried out following single case analyses.

It was found that when teachers attend in-service teacher education and training they develop professional competences to act as facilitators of students’ inquiry-based learning on action-oriented knowledge and on carrying out collective actions to promote sexual health and well-being. Collaborative and reflexive work among teachers emerged as a facilitator factor and SE integration in the school curriculum as the principal barrier.

The results of the cross-case analysis of this qualitative research based on single cases developed in their own social contexts can only be generalized with caution to other similar contexts.

Despite the limitations of this study, it has great importance for both research and practice as it contributes to the evidence regarding the implementation of the combined action of the democratic approach (participatory and action-oriented) and the use of ICT on SE.

This paper provides important information for those working on school health education projects, particularly considering how action-oriented SE is applied in different contexts.

The purpose of this study is to examine how employee competences can be developed through corporate volunteering (CV). Specifically, this study focuses on diversity of volunteering studies categorized according to the type of beneficiaries and intensity of volunteer contact with them. The study examines how the beneficiary-employee relation influences the development of employee competences in CV projects.

In this qualitative empirical study, interview data collected in Poland about the perceived effects of CV projects on employee competences was used.

The findings suggest that to understand the competences generated in CV, attention needs to be paid to the nature of the volunteering study itself. The study proposes four different logics of competence development in CV, based on the type of the beneficiary and contact with them.

The study builds on managers’ perceptions of competence development. For a holistic understanding, future research should include employees’ perceptions of the process. Also, more research is needed regarding national and organizational settings as factors in competence development through CV.

The study suggests how companies could best engage in volunteering programs and improve existing ones to make them more beneficial for all parties involved.

The findings build the better business case for CV and other corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, i.e. they deliver rationales for business engagement in this regard.

The study contributes to the conceptual understanding of CSR activities by presenting four logics of competence development in CV.

There is a growing call for novel approaches in education with respect to sustainable development. Transformative learning lacks empirical research. This paper responds to that gap and aims at analysing how transformative learning nurtures ecological thinking.

The Students Swap Stuff sustainability project is the result of a transformative and action-oriented learning process within the course Corporate Social Responsibility of the Master Environmental, Health and Safety Management, Faculty of Economics and Business at KU Leuven, Brussels, Belgium. Framed by the appreciative inquiry method, students set up a swapping system to limit overconsumption, waste and spillage caused by students’ stay in Brussels for a semester or longer. The paper is focusing on participatory action research, using semi-structured interviews with twenty-two participating students exploring whether their assumptions regarding the dominant paradigms in management have been transformed. Forty-nine participants in the closet swap completed a questionnaire related to their motivations.

The project was helpful in rethinking the traditional economic system and in decentering the economic element allowing for a different way of thinking, integrating trust and restoring the value of just giving. Four insights from the Students Swap Stuff project are relevant for other action-oriented learning approaches: start from a specific framework to guide the action; give enough time to dream what might be, but always link it to delivering what will be; insert sufficient moments of reflection; and give the students ample opportunities to express their feelings during the project.

First, the research focused on one case, the Students Swap Stuff, with a limited number of students participating in the project. The aim of action-oriented learning, however, was not mere action, but the action had to lead to insights that are helpful for other cases and situations. Second, the interviews were set up between peers. Information about their background, such as families, preferred activities during leisure time, attitudes in favor of the environment, were not directly integrated in the semi-structured questions. This could be part of follow-up research emphasizing aspects of environmental psychology.

This study reveals that transformative and action-oriented learning demand a lot from students and lecturers. To avoid confusion on the concept “action,” praxis could be used to emphasize that thinking and doing exist simultaneously. Students learn in a natural way, but do not always see the effects immediately. Lecturers have to respond to this in a constructive way and have to include reflection moments on a regular basis.

Apart from the dominant research on students as objects, there is little research with students. This paper goes further by combining two stances: students as co-creators of knowledge; and students as participants in action research.

As noted in the Department of Homeland Security's National Response Framework, disasters are inherently local and ultimately the responsibility of the lowest jurisdictional level present within the impacted area. Given these parameters, this paper aims to sharpen the concept of national resilience by recommending a framework which positions community resilience as an integral variable in understanding the ability of impacted areas to effectively manage the consequences of disasters. Conceptualized as a dependent variable, community resilience is influenced by the relationships government (public) agencies develop with private sector partners and the resilience of relevant supply chains and critical infrastructures/key resources which exist in their communities.

The authors augment a topical literature review of academic and practitioner journals by synthesizing existing findings into a holistic framework of community resilience.

This paper argues that interdependent systems like social and economic networks will ultimately influence the ability of communities to adapt and respond to the consequences of disasters. In addressing the resilience of these systems, all levels of government must recognize and embrace the public‐private interfaces that can improve their ability to manage the response and recovery phases of disaster management. While 85 percent of critical infrastructure is owned by the private sector, 100 percent of it exists within communities and impacts the ability of the nation to recover from disasters. Resilience calls upon active management and relies upon assessment and a willingness to take action in the face of adversity.

Resilience is discussed within economics, behavioral sciences, supply chain management and critical infrastructure protection. This paper integrates these research streams to develop a framework for shaping national resilience.

This paper aims to present the results of a study aimed at performing a first diagnosis of energy literacy and energy use in a Faculty of Education, by means of identifying energy consumption patterns, as well as energy literacy and commitments regarding energy transition. This diagnosis is the basis for establishing the foundations of a path toward energy transition in the faculty and further designing energy saving and education strategies.

Quantitative and qualitative data were collected in a mixed-method approach. A survey was arranged to assess the attitudes, habits and knowledge regarding the current energy system within the community of the Faculty (407 responses). Comparisons among the main collectives that make up the community were performed, i.e. students, teaching and research staff and management and services staff. In parallel, the general electric consumption of the faculty was monitored. The results of these diagnostics were presented at several forums and workshops on energy transition held in the faculty where personal commitments in favor of energy transition were gathered and further categorized (105 initiatives).

Positive attitudes toward energy saving were observed, reflecting in different generic habits. Additionally, some belief or hope for a technological solution for current and future energy problems was detected, as well as a lower level of implication or commitment when specifying personal attitudes. Similarly, widespread ignorance of the current energy context was revealed, regarding both the energy system and household energy consumption. Concerning the undertaking of personal commitments, low impact energy saving habits prevailed, and knowledge was not identified as being a necessary element of energy saving education in attitudes and habits.

This research provides relevant information for the design of educational interventions to promote energy literacy in higher education institutions.

The survey provides valuable insights regarding future educators’ and their current teachers’ energy literacy in a challenging energy context. The lack of general knowledge about the energy context in the community, together with the limited impact of the commitments gathered among students, stresses the need for integration of basic energy contents, both within education degrees and the management strategy of the faculty.

The present study aims to describe the implementation of a facilitated dialogue model intended to improve communication across professional logics and knowledge boundaries in two units of a large health-care organization in Sweden.

This is a mixed-methods study with interviews, field observations and follow- up questionnaires that were conducted during the implementation process.

The conclusion drawn in this study is that it is possible to change and improve the dialogue between health-care professionals with the help of a tailored, facilitated dialogue model. The authors found that different professional logics can indeed meet and share perspectives if the right conditions are provided. Moreover, an improved dialogue between different professional groups may contribute to work satisfaction, engagement, social cohesion and communication between professionals.

This study shows that the right organizational conditions, such as support from managers, must exist if the model’s inherent possibilities are to be used. Inhouse facilitation may be a sustainable model for facilitated workplace dialogue when its implementation is supported by the overall organization.

The contribution is an empirically based analysis of a new form of model for mediating perspectives within an organization with distinct professional roles. This study shows how, under the right conditions, the model can contribute to a perspective awareness and thus a more mature work organization.