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In this book chapter, we analyse social entrepreneurship (SE) development in the Western Balkans and present a regional overview. SE has become a globally known contributor to alleviating societal, economic, social, and environmental concerns. Its influence on increasing people’s quality of life has put the concept on a pedestal, and the Balkans are no different. The new advances have increased the efforts from the third sector in advocating for increased visibility, recognition, and support for social enterprises (SEs) as contributors to the development of resilient communities and facilitating the countries’ recovery from economic, social, and environmental crises. To provide a regional development overview, we use the institutional perspective. We base the analysis on data by applying qualitative methods, including document analysis, conference speeches, round tables, consultations, and other impactful events conducted over the last decade. The evidence suggests that the Western Balkan countries are similar in their development and lack a clear vision, a strategic pathway, and sustainable solutions to accelerate the sector’s growth. The awareness of the SEs’ contributions is still low, hindering their impact and potential scalability. Raising awareness campaigns is much needed to increase SEs’ visibility, recognition, revenues, and financial sustainability. Intersectoral collaboration is not at a suitable level, and the coordination and partnerships between the SE actors are lacking. The region needs to make a significant and consistent effort to facilitate the sector’s development and support SEs to provide the expected societal impact.

This study explores how the national artificial intelligence (AI) strategies and policies in four sub-Saharan African countries – Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana and Gabon – influence the adoption of AI in journalism. In the journalistic world, AI have been mainly used for news gathering, production and distribution. Irrespective of the prospects, the pervasive nature of AI brings with it a host of challenges concerning privacy, gender, and ethnic bias. Despite its relevance to journalism, the challenges associated with using AI necessitate the need for policy frameworks that guide the development and usage of these technologies. At a global level, UNESCO has established a normative framework which lays out principles and standards regarding how member states formulate policies that ensures ethical and healthy development of AI. Using document analysis and the technological determinism theory, the study investigated how the national AI policies and strategies of these countries is impacting journalism and highlights the challenges to the adoption of the technology in the field. In lieu of the AI-specific laws, the countries seem to loosely rely on their data protection acts to govern aspects of AI use involving automated decision making. Mauritius was found to be the only country in the study with a set national AI strategy.

In 2015, the UN adopted 17 goals for the Agenda for Sustainable Development. The library’s work is visible in all the primary goals, particularly with respect to public access to information, technology, and lifelong learning. Libraries are at the intersection between culture, education and lifelong learning, public health, and social work.

The Norwegian Parliament adopted the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) as a foundation for regional and municipal planning. SDGs are also incorporated in the Strategy for Libraries (2020–2023). In connection with the Strategy, the National Library of Norway (NB) allocating funding for projects aimed at the development of public libraries and special libraries.

The authorities want people to enjoy and participate in outdoor life and trials. This improves health and quality of life, and it is a central part of the Norwegian cultural heritage.

In the last years, it has become popular to bring the library to people enjoying the outdoors. People can encounter both books and literary activities when out in nature or at a cabin far from the public library. Through the project and development funds and the celebration of National Book Year 2019, and measures related to the Strategy, the NB has supported projects for open-air libraries. This makes public libraries more visible and available to people and will reach new user groups and promote a sustainable society. Several of the SDGs are utilized through the development and use of new methods for creating open-air libraries.

14 projects are presented to show the importance of bringing the library to people enjoying the outdoors.

The historical evolution of the economy of Ireland's South East region is traced, highlighting Waterford's key role as the region's leading urban centre and port. What had been a rather traditional regional economic structure underwent considerable modernisation in the last two decades, but lacks the sectoral specialisation which provides a strong economic base in other Irish regions. The National Spatial Strategy, launched in 2002, sought to promote regional specialisation in exporting sectors, but lacked the governance structures required to drive the process. The current National Planning Framework is more focused on building up the main regional centres, but is likely to leave Waterford City well short of the scale required to be competitive in global markets. An alternative strategy is proposed, whereby Waterford would work in collaboration with the South East's unique set of strong county towns to create a distinctive and coherent, region-wide and sectorally focused, urban system. The success of such a project, however, would be dependent on the creation of a strong regional government tier and the devolution to the regions of a wide range of powers and functions currently concentrated at national level.

Active and transformative learning is a holistic strategy for the enhancement of the unique value proposition of education and learning. In Chapter 1 of this edited volume we introduced a unique value proposition on the impact of ATL in higher education and we communicated a five-tier value framework including pillars related to ATL, higher education, industry, entrepreneurship, research& development, and innovation. In this concluding chapter we move the discussion on another context. With emphasis on the robust and resilient strategy of the Vision 2030 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia we comment on the capacity of the ATL to facilitate, to enable and to transform positively the added value of the Vision 2030 implementation. The chapter is organized as follows. At the beginning, we provide a short overview of the Vision 2030 mandate, and then based on the ATL metaphors we presented in Chapter 1 of this edited volume, we strategize the ATL framework towards the implementation and the resilience of the Vision 2030.

Policy is key for effective displacement governance in times of crises and in response and recovery. Therefore, this study assessed if Australian climate, disaster and emergency management policies provide effective mechanisms for governing displacement crises and areas where current approaches could be improved.

This study assessed 18 national and state-level disaster, emergency and climate change management frameworks to determine if best practice displacement governance themes were reflected in policy documents. Deductive thematic analysis was undertaken using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase method.

Issues of displacement are reflected in policies analysed in this study. However, current policy frameworks need to be equipped to comprehensively address the housing requirements of displaced people or provide long-term initiatives. Approaches are focused on crisis management rather than pre-emptively planning for displacement response and recovery. Therefore, Australia has not exercised national responsibility for displaced people appropriately.

Disaster displacement is an under-researched area of Australian scholarship and disaster management policy and practice. Therefore, this paper has practical implications in so far as it draws attention to the issue of displacement in Australia. A limitation of this paper is that it only analysed policy frameworks specific to disasters. While broader engagement was outside the scope of this study, this limitation provides opportunities for further research from disciplinary perspectives of public housing and homelessness to examine displacement policy challenges in these fields. Furthermore, this study is limited to a theoretical inquiry into this topic through a desktop review of policy documents. While this is a necessary first step, empirical studies are required to determine accurate displacement rates, drivers and people’s experience of being displaced.

This research aims to inform policy by presenting recommendations for policy interventions for disaster displacement governance. Therefore, this research has practical implications as policy and disaster risk reduction (DRR) professionals can draw from the findings of this research when planning and initiating disaster response for displaced persons.

This research draws attention to an area of disaster management practice and policy that has not been adequately accounted for. Highlighting gaps in current policy can assist in developing targeted strategies and solutions for internally displaced people, which protect their rights and meet their needs.

Displacement is a growing climate change issue. This research aims to help address this problem by drawing attention to areas where Australian disaster management approaches fail to account for displaced populations. Therefore, this research has practical implications for addressing future issues of disaster injustice that may arise if displacement continues, unacknowledged in disaster management.

From the 1990s to the present, decision-makers around the world have sought to identify the most appropriate legal framework to support the energy transition. This research aims to analyze the institutional dynamics of renewable energy promotion, focusing on regulatory aspects at the European and national level and emphasizing the case of Romania through several comparative approaches. In the context of the conflict in Ukraine, we focused on the issue of coal, which was reconsidered given the dependence of some European countries on this resource. The main research methods used in this study are comparative analysis and analysis of chronological information in a historical context, with correlations being made. The study was structured in three stages, the first from the 1990s until the European Energy Union formation, the second during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the third from the emergence of the conflict in Ukraine, which determined the recalibration of previously adopted measures. Starting from the hypotheses formulated and considering the regulatory scenario conducive to the transfer of public funds to achieve climate neutrality, the results of the study show the fact that, at this stage of the research, the states of the European continent are determined to fight for zero carbon by 2050. One result we found interesting is that almost a year after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, less than a quarter of European states have moved past their assumed deadline for phasing out coal in the national mix.

Of critical concern to the world is the need to reduce consumption and waste of natural resources. This study provides a multi-level exploration of the ways situational and transformational links between levels and challenges are related to the adoption and utilization of material flow cost accounting in Vietnam, to encourage green productivity.

Based on triangulation of public documents at different institutional levels and a set of semi-structured interviews, situational and transformational links and challenges for material flow cost accounting in Vietnam are examined using purposive and snowball sampling of key actors.

Using a multi-level framework the research identifies six situational and transformational barriers to implementation of material flow cost accounting and suggests opportunities to overcome these. The weakest links identified involve macro-to meso-situational and micro-to macro-transformational links. The paper highlights the dominance of meso-level institutions and lack of focus on micro transformation to cut waste and enable improvements in green productivity.

The paper identifies ways for companies in Vietnam to reduce unsustainability and enable transformation towards sustainable management and waste reduction.

The paper is the first to develop and use a multi-level/multi-time period framework to examine the take-up of material flow cost accounting to encourage transformation towards green productivity. Consideration of the Vietnamese case builds understanding of the challenges for achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 12, to help enable sustainable production and consumption patterns.

This chapter provides an overview of entrepreneurship in Montenegro, through various aspects of the analysis. The chapter begins with an analysis of the role and importance of the development of entrepreneurship in Montenegro, followed by an analysis of the institutional and strategic framework for supporting the development of entrepreneurship. In this sense, a significant segment of the chapter is the analysis of various strategic documents, with a special focus placed on the role of the entrepreneurship development strategy, as well as the institutions responsible for the creation and implementation of entrepreneurship policies in Montenegro. The study also includes state measures, that is, support programs for the development of entrepreneurship, and thus the overall Montenegrin economy, which belongs to the group of less developed countries. In addition, the chapter indicates the importance of entrepreneurial learning in the development of entrepreneurial activity. The analysis shows that entrepreneurship is a concept that is increasingly used in Montenegrin economic theory, but also that it is increasingly present in everyday life, which is confirmed by numerous examples from practice. Therefore, through a multi-context analysis, the study depicts the environment for entrepreneurship development in Montenegro, including an overview of the state support, the influence of various factors, as well as certain forms of entrepreneurship that are current, and those that may be promising. The chapter ends with recommendations and guidelines for the further development of entrepreneurship in this country. With this regard, the key elements for increasing entrepreneurial activity are recognized in multiple support for a greater number of people to get involved in business, as well as in the improvement of a favorable business environment through the strengthening of institutional and infrastructural support.