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This chapter analyses the current situation and perceptions of quality assurance (QA) in adult education (AE) in Latvia. In the Latvian context, QA in AE is a challenge. According to recent studies, QA should have a formative character in order to facilitate targeted benefits for adult learners, whereas in practice AE in Latvia is more focussed on the institutional perspective rather than the individual’s needs and wishes. This is in contrast with the humanistic approach to adult learning and andragogy principles, which emphasise learner-centred education. The aim of the chapter is to research opportunities for improving the QA process in AE in Latvia in order to increase personal benefits for an individual. The systematic review of scholarly papers, monographs, scientific reports on QA in AE conducted in Latvia in the twenty-first century indicated a contradiction between the theoretical concepts applied to AE in Latvia and the implementation of the QA process in practice. This chapter contributes to the overall understanding of the terminology used in AE in the country, analyses the prevailing concepts and elaborates conclusions for QA improvements based on humanistic pedagogy principles.

Innovation project development is becoming more important in boosting competitiveness of universities and enterprises. It will not be possible to ensure rapid economic growth of enterprises without competitive innovations and without their introduction into education and business practice. The object of the research paper is innovations in teaching entrepreneurship. The subject of the research paper is analysis of the effective entrepreneurship education at the universities. The objective of the research paper is to study the integration process of technological business environment (TBE), intellectual capital (IC) formation, innovation project (IP) development at the universities and enterprises.

The tasks advanced in order to reach the objective: to identify the concept of IC, IP, the methodology of IP development at the universities, their main actions and methods; to carry out analysis of the TBE in Latvia, indicators characterizing it environment, the factors of TBE influencing IC, IP development at the universities and enterprises; to estimate the IP development as the teaching method at the universities and business practice in Latvia. The research period is from the year 2007 till the year 2020. This is the first research on the analysis of indicators of TBE influencing IC formation, IP development at the universities; the efficiency of involvement of academic staff in the formation of IC and IP development into entrepreneurship education in Latvia; definition of the IP development as the teaching method and presentation of its theoretical and practical interpretation.

This chapter offers a survey of education development in the Baltic region and the dynamics of global forces in the three Baltic states’ contexts. First, a brief overview of the incoming new-liberal global trend that impacted the education in the Post-Socialist European region will be provided, followed by a discussion of similarities and differences in the development of education in Baltic states as co-shaped by contextual contours of the post-socialist region at whole. It shows that the contextual social and cultural realities of Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania not only have a powerful mediating role on the impact of global forces but are in their own right an agency in shaping the education response of Post-socialist societies of this region. Second, the knowledge of the interrelationship between education and societal cultural contexts in the Baltic region will be explained, stressing the lack of research on informal settlements or the informal economy and its intersection with education. The International Comparative Education research agenda will not only be of significance for the Baltic states but to the entire world. Many aspects of the contextual architecture of the region are becoming increasingly evident world-wide tending the neo-liberalism in education as distinct from liberalism insofar as it does not advocate market-economic policy but instead is highly constructivist and approve a strong state to bring reforms in every aspect of society transforming the education and teaching labor market.

The digital age requires people of all ages to communicate and organise their lives through digital technologies. The project EQualCare investigates how the growing population of older people living alone is managing this transition, how it shapes their (non-)digital social networks and what changes on a local level need to be brought about. This paper aims to give insight into the process of participatory action research (PAR) with older people in the community across four countries and reflects on experiences made by academic and co-researchers.

Following the emancipatory underpinnings of PAR, which aims to reduce inequalities through collaboration and co-design, EQualCare involved nine teams of co-researchers across Finland, Germany, Latvia and Sweden making older people the centre of policy development. Co-researchers were involved in formulating research aims, collecting data, reflecting on data, formulating and disseminating recommendations for local policy stakeholders.

Co-researchers’ motivation to invest considerable time and effort was driven by a desire to create a more equal future for older people living alone. Moreover, they were keen to involve marginalised older people and became frustrated when this proved difficult. Power dynamics played a role throughout the process but became productive as roles and responsibilities were renegotiated. Doing PAR with older people can be emotionally challenging for co-researchers when negative feelings around ageing are encountered.

The paper advances understanding on the process of PAR in ageing research by reflecting on the social, cultural and political contexts of doing PAR with diverse sets of older people.

The purpose of this paper is to review and evaluate energy use and performance, as well as existing energy efficiency policy and measures in the Latvian industrial sector, in order to highlight possible scenarios for energy efficiency improvements in the future.

The paper takes the form of a literature review and data analysis.

It is concluded that the existing energy efficiency measures for the industrial sector in Latvia do not work effectively. Also, it is expected that the planned measures for energy efficiency improvements for the industrial sector will not reach the defined energy saving targets in the framework of the Latvian NEEAP. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a common strategy on energy efficiency in the industrial sector in Latvia. This should be accomplished by reviewing the existing literature and data, as well as drawing up new, well‐designed energy efficiency measures.

The results of this study can be applied and used in the development of energy efficiency policy for the industrial sector in Latvia. The paper also points out the main weak points of existing policy measures that can be improved in order to meet the energy saving target for the Latvian industrial sector.

In this paper, the Latvian industrial sector's energy efficiency policy and related measures have been organized and evaluated for the first time. Also, the importance of energy efficiency improvements in the industrial sector has been highlighted. This is evident from the fact that, currently, almost no energy efficiency measure for the industrial sector in Latvia works sufficiently.

Reviews trends in environmental protection and sustainability in Latvia and introduces a programme in this field at the University of Latvia in Riga. Concludes that regional changes are necessary.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the dominant strategy and business models of companies and to analyse the awareness of design and the stage of design application in business in its broader sense from the perspective of business executives in the manufacturing sector and professional designers in the design industry that lead to creating successful business models in Latvia and Estonia.

The questionnaire was used with two target groups – business executives (based on NACE 2, B-E sections, i.e. manufacturing companies) and professional designers in the design industry (NACE 2, M 74.10 section). In the first target group, 374 responses of business executives in Latvia and 371 responses of business executives in Estonia were received; in the second target group, 85 respondents in Latvia and 42 respondents in Estonia providing professional design services were analysed to identify the level of design awareness and its application in business in the respective countries.

There are national and regional specifics in Latvia and Estonia based on the development level of micro and macro factors that influence the entire innovation ecosystem. When comparing both countries in these terms, both target groups specify that design is applied more frequently in the processes of product development in Estonia, thus leading to new forms of innovation, than it is in Latvia. Conversely, in Latvia, many business managers still focus on short-term business solutions and cost-reduction as a sole challenge, with limited awareness of management approaches based on the broader application of design as a powerful innovation source for product development, improvement, and renewal of business models.

A suggestion for further research is to replicate the study in Lithuania and explore the perspective of other stakeholders.

The results of this research demonstrate the necessity to change the thinking patterns of business managers in order to develop their skills and capabilities to recognize emerging new driving forces of innovation unfolding through awareness of design and opportunities for its extended application that create successful business models for continuous value generation.

This paper makes a contribution to understanding the current stage of awareness of design and its application in the manufacturing sector in the Baltic States.

After the rapid and dramatic demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, 15 newly autonomous republics are restructuring their economies after decades of central Communist planning. The three Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had successful market‐oriented economies during more than two decades of independence between World Wars I and II and were comparatively strong performers within the USSR after being occupied in 1940. A case study of Latvia looks at the historic factors and political issues which are shaping the current reform process. A contrast of state‐run, collective and private enterprises is used to illustrate the rapid changes which now place Latvia at the forefront among post‐Soviet reformers. This analysis of the early progress and problems forms a foundation for considering the reform prospects across the former Soviet Union and leads to a suggestion that the results in Latvia will play a bell‐wether role.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the production and energy potential of refuse derived fuel (RDF) in Latvia, in order to understand how large an impact municipal waste incineration with energy recovery has on waste management and energy supply systems in Latvia.

The results of the study are based on historical data of municipal solid waste (MSW) management. The potential of RDF in Latvia is estimated and future sources of RDF production until 2020 are projected. The calculations of RDF potential are based on data on MSW generation, landfilling and composition, and on the calorific value of RDF fractions. The study also takes into account experimental results of RDF production trials in one landfill in Latvia.

The amount of MSW landfilled annually until 2020 will grow, therefore new waste management options will have to be found in order to comply with EU waste policy. One of the options is waste‐to‐energy. The energy amount potentially produced by incinerating RDF made of MSW in Latvia could account for approximately 2 per cent of the total energy amount produced in 2010, if the RDF conversion rate is assumed to be 30per cent, and up to 3.5 per cent – if the RDF conversion rate is 50 per cent.

There are just a few studies analysing RDF potential for a certain region (in this case – country). There is a lack of data and official projections of generated waste amounts which are typical for Latvia, therefore no detailed assessments are available on how much energy it would be possible to produce from the waste generated in Latvia. In this paper, the RDF production potential itself, as well as the energy potential produced via RDF in Latvia, is assessed. In order to estimate future availability of resources for RDF production, future MSW generation and landfilling amounts in Latvia until 2020 are projected.

The aim of this paper is to assess how the indicator sets presently used to monitor sustainable development in the European Union (EU) and Latvia reflect resource consumption and the production and use of anthropogenic substances.

The study was conducted by analyzing different sources as well as statistical information on development character in Latvia and human impact at first in respect to use of chemicals.

Many of the analyzed sustainable development indicators related to resource consumption interpret a reduction in consumption as a negative phenomena and thus contradictory to sustainability. The only relevant EU and Latvian indicator related to the use of anthropogenic substances is production of toxic chemicals. The EC Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation is being implemented in the EU in an attempt to ensure the safety of chemicals through the whole chemical supply chain.

A sustainable development indicator should consider the decrease in resource consumption as a positive trend. As an important aspect at the assessment of sustainability is monitoring of use of chemical substances. In Latvia, the information on production, import, distribution and use of chemical substances is dispersed between several institutions and thus an overall picture is lacking. As the REACH regulation requires registration of chemical substances exceeding certain quantities, there is a necessity to elaborate an approach to identify such substances. Enterprises that already provide data on chemicals to responsible authorities are important for a targeted enforcement of REACH requirements in Latvia. The existing approach of chemical substance management represents an attempt to manage point sources of anthropogenic substances with little attention being devoted to the more numerous small diffuse sources, which could be the hidden part of the iceberg. The limited access to compiled data on chemical substances within REACH makes it difficult to use it as a warning sign in political or public discussions regarding one of the central aspects of sustainability.

One of the main risks to global sustainability is the exceedance of the Earth's carrying and assimilative capacity through excessive resource consumption and anthropogenic loading. In the analyzed EU and Latvia, sustainable development indicator sets the reduction in consumption is frequently interpreted as a negative trend thus making the overall assessment regarding resource consumption inconclusive. As long as gross domestic product as a major indicator for macro‐economic activity does not reflect environmental sustainability and well‐being and society does not adequately value natural and human resources and until more comprehensive indicators are developed which better take into account social and environmental aspects, striving for economic growth will be the main cause of resource overconsumption.