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The overarching aim of this paper is to initiate a new conceptualisation of digital cultural heritage libraries' design and development that emphasises a holistic understanding of a digital cultural heritage as part of information ecology and of the activities taking place between and amongst the various elements of the ecology that are governed by social, cultural, political, economical, and technical affordances and constraints.

A research framework is developed based on viewpoints, reviews of existing literature and concepts of information ecology and activity theory.

The conceptual framework comprises of a set of dimensions: content; context; connectivity; consideration; collaboration; construction; confidence and continuity. These dimensions are indicative of the kinds of issues and questions that could be considered in transitioning a digital cultural heritage library into a system that is dynamic, and one which evolves within the stakeholders' socio-cultural contexts. The issues and questions highlighted and outlined under the dimensions may be used to help one to situate their digital cultural heritage in the space and environment it operates in, to discover which direction to take to transition the digital cultural heritage library and to safely navigate the journey for the transitioning. The dimensions may also signal the elements needing ongoing consideration as the digital cultural heritage library evolves on its journey within the ecologies concerned.

These dimensions are indicative of the kinds of issues and questions that could be considered in transitioning a digital cultural heritage library into a system that is dynamic and one which evolves within the stakeholders' socio-cultural contexts. The issues and questions highlighted and outlined under the dimensions may be used to help one to situate their digital cultural heritage in the space and environment it operates in, to discover which direction to take to transition the digital cultural heritage library and to safely navigate the journey for the transitioning. The dimensions may also signal the elements needing ongoing consideration as the digital cultural heritage library evolves on its journey within the ecologies concerned.

This research presents concepts from information ecology and activity theory that could be incorporated in digital library research, design and development.

This paper presents an interactionistic perspective that proposes three hypotheses: (1) Cultures have a life of their own: they change due to interactions in the cultural ecology; (2) Different modalities of a culture change at different paces and to different extents; (3) There appears to be an isomorphism between economic performance and cultural change. Should a cultural explanation of the Asian “growth” and “fall” be sought, it would be more meaningful to link economic performance to changes in Confucianism than to the static perception of that tradition. Managers should give more attention to the processes and impacts of cultural change in organizational behaviors in, especially, emerging markets.

Worldwide, dichotomies exist within macro- and micro-educational planning of systems of education. Inner Mongolia represents an interesting case in the sense that its educational system has been influenced by its historical and passive reliance on China’s political reforms and ongoing identity issues. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how cultural ecology and isomorphism can be compared and managed in the form of a dualism, involving complex organisational structures, operational procedures, and learning outcomes. These may be macro in focus but may also promote the development of social and cultural identity at micro levels. Emphasis is placed upon examining cultural ecology, a concept advocated by the cultural anthropologist, Roy Rappaport, but with concern for embracing indigenous knowledge as a complement to traditional educational attainment.

This discussion further considers the feasibility and implementation of a rubric (the Denman-James Rubric (DJR)) that is a custom-tailored pilot project designed to visually demonstrate one’s mastery of creativity and communication, reflective thinking, and analytical and problem solving skills. A demonstration of the DJR is presented to highlight the progress made in its usage and utility in Inner Mongolia and elsewhere.

A primary research goal is to investigate whether differing teaching and learning approaches and the use of alternative assessments over a period of time can promote, encourage, and empower students into taking greater ownership of their learning.

This narrative is an original look at Inner Mongolia’s educational system and how it has been influenced by its historical and passive reliance on China’s political reforms and ongoing identity issues.

This chapter focuses on the care of our “common home,” emphasizes the complexity of the crisis, and suggests the path to overcome it through renewed environmental, economic, anthropological, and social ecology. Starting from the premise of the Encyclical Letter Laudato Sì (Pope Francis, 2015), the chapter discusses the role of leadership models based on virtues and moral constructs to promote a new business culture. Which leadership models and which business models are necessary to guide companies toward the integral development?

After a review of the Encyclical Letter, the chapter traces the theoretical framework of leadership theories connected with the emergence of a sustainability-oriented business model. The empirical analysis explores three cases of exemplary Italian companies which show how entrepreneurs can promote cultural reorientation, can help others to unlearn the bad habits of “turbo-capitalism,” and place value on humanity, relationships, and the love of the place in which they do business.

This chapter contributes to the development of leadership approaches and models incorporating the orientation toward the common good. Accordingly, it highlights the “roots” of entrepreneurial and managerial behavior which appear to inspire a profound rethinking of business conduct. From the business examples analyzed, the chapter shows models that make integral development possible.

This chapter examines cultural value creation through the 24 Carrot Gardens Project. Initiated by artist and curator Kirsha Kaechele of the Museum of Old and New Art, the vision of 24 Carrot Gardens is to ‘sow seeds of lifelong learning’ in the areas of health, well-being and sustainability across school communities in Tasmania, Australia. What has eventuated over its five years is a complex relationship between the artful ‘gold standard’ delivered by professional artists and a contemporary art museum with an integrated teaching and site-based learning across the arts and sciences. Designed in response to the local environmental, cultural and socio-economic context, 24 Carrot Gardens has contributed to a growing sense of community engagement, interdisciplinary learning and a strong foundation of networked donor investment. With these multilayered interests across a diversity of stakeholders and partnerships, many competing systems of value are at play, with the potential to contribute a new value creation. Firsthand accounts of project contributors are situated amongst the scholarly literature to produce an examination of value exchange and creation including the cultural values identified in 24 Carrot Gardens: artistic and creative, economic and industrial and education and environmental. Following this interrogation of the expressed values in this case study, we offer a foundation for a new framework for understanding local cultural value.

This work aims to establish the relationship between painting art and sustainability, which allows for highlighting implications likely to improve sustainability for humanity's welfare.

To achieve this objective, painting art is measured by a composite index aggregating the quantity and quality represented by the market value. As for sustainable development, it is represented by a composite index comprising three variables: the climate change performance index (ecological dimension), the wage index reflecting distributive justice (social dimension) and the gross domestic product (economic dimension). The composite indices were determined through adjusted data envelopment analysis. In addition, two other methods are used in this work: correlation analysis and a neural network method. These methods are applied to data from 2007 to 2021 across the world.

The correlation method highlighted a perfect positive correlation between painting art and sustainability. As for the neural network method, it revealed that the quality of painting has the greatest impact on sustainability. The neural network method also showed that the most positively impacted variable of sustainability by painting art is the social variable, with a pseudo-probability of 0.90.

The relationship between painting art and sustainability is underexplored, in particular in terms of statistical analysis. Therefore, this research intends to fill this gap. Moreover, analysis of the relationship between both using composite indices computed via an original method (adjusted data envelopment analysis) and a neural network method is nonexistent, which constitutes the novelty of this work.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2023-0006

This chapter examines the historical relationship between Honduran Lenca worldview and how ecological resources are managed through ritual practice. The way in which the Lenca conceive of the biophysical environment is an active process of meaning-making that takes place through their interaction with the environment. The Lenca codify this relationship in the compostura, a complex set of ceremonial performances linked to economic practices that mediate human needs and desires with those of the ancestors who animate the landscapes surrounding households and communities. Through an examination of contemporary, historical, and archeological cases in western Honduras, this chapter explores how ritual economy shapes, and is shaped by, environmental worldview.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the designed cultural ecology of a hip-hop and computational science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) camp and the ways in which that ecology contributed to culturally sustaining learning experiences for middle school youth. In using the principles of hip-hop as a CSP for design, the authors question how and what practices were supported or emerged and how they became resources for youth engagement in the space.

The overall methodology was design research. Through interpretive analysis, it uses an example of four Black girls participating in the camp as they build a computer-controlled DJ battle station.

Through a close examination of youth interactions in the designed environment – looking at their communication, spatial arrangements, choices and uses of materials and tools during collaborative project work – the authors show how a learning ecology, designed based on hip-hop and computational practices and shaped by the history and practices of the dance center where the program was held, provided access to ideational, relational, spatial and material resources that became relevant to learning through computational making. The authors also show how youth engagement in the hip-hop computational making learning ecology allowed practices to emerge that led to expansive learning experiences that redefine what it means to engage in computing.

Implications include how such ecologies might arrange relations of ideas, tools, materials, space and people to support learning and positive identity development.

Supporting culturally sustaining computational STEM pedagogies, the article argues two original points in informal youth learning 1) an expanded definition of computing based on making grammars and the cultural practices of hip-hop, and 2) attention to cultural ecologies in designing and understanding computational STEM learning environments.