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An important wave of anti-austerity protests has swept across Western Europe in recent years. We can thus distinguish between three different types of protest occurring in Western Europe recently: “old” issue protests, relating to the trade union and labor movement; “new” issue protests, relating to culture and identity issues; anti-austerity protests, emerging directly in reaction to austerity measures and cuts enacted in the current period. Following previous literature, we hypothesize that anti-austerity protests have attracted a new constituency to the streets and that they will be different from both “old” and “new” protests in terms of their social composition, value orientations, and action repertoires. We expect anti-austerity protesters to be on the whole younger, and in more precarious working conditions, to be more concerned with economic over social issues, but also to be considerably less institutionalized and embedded in organizational networks, and to have fewer experiences of previous extra-institutional participation. We test these hypotheses by analyzing a unique and novel dataset containing data from over 10,000 protestors from 72 demonstrations (2009–2013). Our results lend broad support to our hypotheses with the exception of the idea that “precarity” forms a new social base for anti-austerity protests.

Opening the special issue on global protest and democracy since 2011, this article surveys the key dimensions of the debate. It provides a critical overview of significant protest events in the post-2011 period and explores a range of the analytical tools that may be used to understand them, before proceeding to identify, disaggregate, and draw into question some of the major claims that have emerged in literature on the post-2011 mobilizations. The articles contained within this volume are then outlined, revealing the novel and nuanced insights provided by the contributors with respect to the post-2011 protests’ composition, mobilization forms, frames, democratic practices, and interrelationships with other actors in pursuit of democratic reform. The article concludes with a discussion of the opportunities for further research into protest and democracy.

Europe currently displays a fascinating complexity. It experiences severe disruptions in the economic and educational systems, the labour markets and the political orientation. Also, we see demographic issues with not enough young people on the one hand, and also not enough acceptable jobs on the other hand. All this raises questions regarding the consequences resulting from these dynamics for the young generation. This chapter deals in particular with the so-called ‘Generation Z’, which started – depending on the chosen author – between 1990 and 1995. In this analysis, the concept of ‘generation’ by Karl Mannheim plays an important role since it explains to us why and how cohorts of people are shaped in a specific period of time in a very similar way. When dealing with Generation Z, the following hypothesis of global convergence immediately comes up: since Generation Z is a digitally connected generation, it must move in the same direction. Even though this is partially true on the global scale, we see differences – even within Europe, since Europe is a heterogeneous space. Therefore, we cannot talk about ‘the European Generation Z’ but rather about the ‘Generations Z in Europe’ with their differences, their similarities and their dreams about their future. Besides arriving at the letter ‘Z’ in Generation Z by just continuing from X and Y to Z, the ‘Z’ provides us another interpretation: It stands for ‘zeitgeist’ and for a promising vision of Europe.

In this chapter, I examine stories that foster care youth tell to legislatures, courts, policymakers, and the public to influence policy decisions. The stories told by these children are analogized to victim truth testimony, analyzed as a therapeutic, procedural, and developmental process, and examined as a catalyst for systemic accountability and change. Youth stories take different forms and appear in different media: testimony in legislatures, courts, research surveys or studies; opinion editorials and interviews in newspapers or blog posts; digital stories on YouTube; and artistic expression. Lawyers often serve as conduits for youth storytelling, translating their clients’ stories to the public. Organized advocacy by youth also informs and animates policy development. One recent example fosters youth organizing to promote “normalcy” in child welfare practices in Florida, and in related federal legislation.

This opening chapter of the edited volume, Childhood, Youth and Activism: Demands for Rights and Justice from Young People and Their Advocates, explores activism and advocacy – by and for children and young people. It begins by considering how activism has been understood in the scholarly literature, before making a case for a broad and inclusive conceptualisation of what counts as this particular form of social action. Relatedly, it examines the contours of the relationship between activism and advocacy, drawing attention to the ways in which these concepts converge, an issue that is particularly salient when applied to the categories of child and youth. Themes that emerge in research on child and youth activism are then drawn out and we identify some of the key issues that animate this work across various disciplines. These include observations that young people have long been central to social movements, the role of social media in youth activism, the nature of child and adult relationships in social movement organisations, and some of the issues that arise for young activists in relation to intersectional identities. To this we add debates regarding the politics of recognition, questions of voice and agency, and responsibility and their temporal registers. This discussion also foreshadows themes that emerge in the chapters across this volume. Finally, we offer a reflection on some of the conceptual issues raised when considering the book in its entirety, including those of voice, responsibility for the future, the politics of possibility and hope, and the many different forms and practices that activism and advocacy for and by young people take.

This study examines challenges to the retrospective financial evaluation of continuous improvement (CI) activities. Through a review of the literature and active engagement with CI implementations, we identify several issues that may lead to divergence between operational and financial assessments. Out of this conflict emerges a set of concepts that we find important − the delineation of soft versus hard capacity benefits, the distinction between capacity used and capacity paid for, and the data gaps that relate to these benefits – and recognize operational improvement and financial improvement as distinct, yet interrelated, theoretical constructs. This study helps explain a series of persistent gaps in the management accounting literature: Conflict between operations and accounting managers, the divergent perspectives of Johnson and Kaplan after their publication of Relevance Lost (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987), and the need for both operational control (including detailed capacity control) and accounting control in CI firms. Instead of one control system being at odds with the other, or co-existing despite each other, each of these systems support a different component of the financial improvement process. Operational control systems in CI firms emphasize non-financial information and social and behavioral controls that empower decision-making by employees, while accounting control systems seek to motivate and translate operational gains into financial gains. Soft and hard benefits linked to capacity play an integral role in understanding the difference in focus of each control system, while data limitations help to explain why these systems remain loosely coupled in practice (or absent, as seems to be the case with detailed Capacity Management Systems).

This study empirically explores the factors that influence consumers’ readiness toward engagement in circular food consumption.

A conceptual model based on the motivation–opportunity–ability (MOA) framework was developed. In addition to all the classical relationships in this theoretical framework, respondents' age and education were added to the model. An online survey was conducted, resulting in an overall sample of 411 Italian participants. Data were statistically analyzed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results indicated that motivation, opportunity and ability had positive effects on consumers’ readiness toward engagement in circular food consumption (CFC). Of all the constructs, intrinsic motivation had the most significant impact on consumers’ readiness toward engagement in CFC. The results also showed that sociodemographic traits—particularly age and gender—significantly influenced consumer readiness toward engagement in CFC. Practical and policy implications are proposed based on the study findings.

The study analyzes factors influencing consumers' readiness to engage in CFC. While great attention has been paid toward circular economy (CE) implementation in food consumption, empirical evidences on how to prompt the consumers' readiness toward CFC are still lacking. More specifically, the authors explore for the first time, sociopsychological factors affecting consumers' readiness to reduce, reuse and recycle technical components of food products, using the MOA theory as conceptual model.

The study, within the Increasing Resilience of Cultural Heritage (ResCult) project, aims to support civil protection to prevent, lessen and mitigate disasters impacts on cultural heritage using a unique standardised-3D geographical information system (GIS), including both heritage and risk and hazard information.

A top-down approach, starting from existing standards (an INSPIRE extension integrated with other parts from the standardised and shared structure), was completed with a bottom-up integration according to current requirements for disaster prevention procedures and risk analyses. The results were validated and tested in case studies (differentiated concerning the hazard and type of protected heritage) and refined during user forums.

Besides the ensuing reusable database structure, the filling with case studies data underlined the tough challenges and allowed proposing a sample of workflows and possible guidelines. The interfaces are provided to use the obtained knowledge base.

The increasing number of natural disasters could severely damage the cultural heritage, causing permanent damage to movable and immovable assets and tangible and intangible heritage. The study provides an original tool properly relating the (spatial) information regarding cultural heritage and the risk factors in a unique archive as a standard-based European tool to cope with these frequent losses, preventing risk.

In the last few decades, tourism has become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world, with an increasing economic, social and environmental role. It has been recognised as a strategic driver, able not only to heighten economic growth, employment and enhancement of cultural values, diversity and heritage, but also to help countries transition towards more inclusive and resilient economies. In this framework, slow tourism has been playing an important role, compliant with the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Its different forms – such as eco-tourism, rural and village tourism, as well as religious routes – can improve social inclusiveness, poverty reduction and environmental protection while empowering host communities, generating trade opportunities and fostering peace and intercultural understanding.

The pilgrimage on religious routes in particular has been showing a renewed potential. This ancient practice, largely rooted in many confessions as an expression of a mainly religious experience has been gaining new values for both people and territories hosting destinations: its target groups of travellers have enlarged to those looking for spiritual holidays (individuals and groups) as well as well-being and integrated experiences combining religious sites, cultural heritage, landscape and nature, traditions and crafts, food, wine and local events (shared with local people to feel part of the local community). This form of tourism responds to the sustainability challenge as an opportunity for local development in depopulated areas, but still rich in history, nature, art and traditions.

On this basis, this chapter deals with eco-sustainable and religious tourist routes in Sicily (South Italy), focusing on: (1) their relevance in relation to emerging strategies and policies (i.e. cultural ecclesial parks, regional development plans, etc.) (2) and their aptitude to generate sustainable and innovative local development. In particular, it addresses the recent experiences in progress on the Itinerarium Rosaliae in Sicily as opportunities for sustainable and local development.