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Urban transport plays a key role in reducing climate gas emissions. However, public policies are developed and implemented in an increasingly complex, fragmented, and multilevelled society. This chapter focuses on how interactive political leadership can address challenges related to spatial justice, network cooperation, and communication to increase legitimate and robust policies. Through in-depth case studies of the Norwegian urban regions of Trondheim and Nord-Jaeren, the importance of ensuring broad political alliances, handling spatial complexity, strong political leadership, as well as engaging in dialogue and communication with the public is shown. This may be more challenging to achieve in a complex institutional structure. We argue that governance structures reflect dynamics of the urban regions in which they are implemented. Related to our two empirical cases, the urban structure of Nord-Jaeren is more complex, compared to that of Trondheim, and likewise is their governance network. Linking the conditions of interactive political leadership to the three interconnected urban governance challenges, we see that contextual characteristics are important to explain differences in political leadership and public engagement.

This qualitative study explores how multinational enterprises (MNEs) approach sustainable innovation through the lens of innovation theory and doughnut economics. The study proposes a conceptual framework to evaluate the practices of businesses and the findings illustrate how sustainable innovation occurs within two MNEs. Based on interviews with professionals of two Swedish MNEs, responsible for sustainability, the study examines how sustainable innovations lead to the redesign of core business pillars and transforms the operating market for the MNE. Overall, this study makes a theoretical contribution by formulating an application of Raworth’s (2017) doughnut model to business strategy. It also provides practical insight into the dynamics of sustainable innovation, which aims to inform and inspire further progress in sustainable development by businesses and academia.

Coopetition (simultaneous cooperation and competition of actors) is still a relatively new concept in business, management, and tourism. However, several coopetition studies have focused on tourism and tourism destinations. Also, compilation literature reviews of tourism and tourism destinations have been published (Rusko, 2018). This chapter focuses on underlying coopetition networks of tourism and specifically of tourism destinations. Because of the typical features of tourism destinations, multifaceted connections in competition and cooperation – and coopetition – are present in everyday business and activities among actors of the destination. These coopetitive relationships cover several levels, they are present in micro, meso, macro, and meta level interplay of tourism destination. Furthermore, the analysis shows that several studies about coopetitive networks in tourism destinations do not use terms “macro” or “meta” though these seem to be the main levels of the studies. This only reveals the fertile dimensions of coopetitive networks in tourism. These various relationships form coopetitive networks that represent several dimensions and levels of actors, competition, cooperation, and coopetition. This chapter introduces these multifaceted perspectives of coopetition networks, which have been described in the contemporary literature about tourism and tourism destination.

The goals of the contemporary environment in this new era of the Internet of Things (IoT), digital technologies (DTs) and smartisation are to enhance economic, social and environmental sustainability while also concentrating on the citizens' quality of life. As these initiatives advance, more determination is required to offer effective approaches to the problem posed by the accomplishment of the Sustainable City Project in Nigeria as a developing nation. To address these problems and facilitate the process for Nigeria's major cities to become ‘smart cities’, universities, research institutions and other stakeholders must collaborate alongside. This chapter aims to establish a model or framework that addresses urban intelligence, social inclusion, resilience and technological innovation, mobility, urbanisation and residents' quality of life. The reviews of the characteristics and management of smart cities in developed countries were documented to serve as a comparison study of the cities in African sub-Saharan regions. This will assist in building models that can produce predictions about possible smart solutions in the areas of mobility, urban infrastructure and ecological problems brought on by climate change in African cities. This chapter brings attention to the body of knowledge by envisioning the benefits to the government and citizens in making appropriate decisions to enhance sustainable development, a better resilience environment, improved infrastructure, smart city environments and residents' quality of life. The study's implications centre on how the government could prioritise urban features and services as indicated in the smart cities framework.

The predominant neoliberal structure of capitalism and tourism as the fuel of capitalism exposes growing problems of injustice, unfairness and inequality. Places and communities around the world are currently expressing the need for radical changes in placemaking to be able to think, plan and act differently. This theoretical contribution adopts a humanistic management (HM) perspective of placemaking to promote places where people enjoy living, working, interacting and having meaningful experiences. Tourist destinations are relevant places to discuss the application of HM principles in practice and promote humanistic destinations and the humanisation of placemaking. This chapter concludes by arguing for an interface with eco-centric and posthumanist transformative approaches to promote holistic value-based placemaking and regeneration of places.

The call for a new paradigm in politics and governance has become a planetary imperative. Humanity is at a critical juncture; unless we mature as a species and become net-positive to nature the human experiment may (soon) end. We have become our own biggest threat. This chapter explores the foundations, as well as systemic barriers, for the shift to a new and life-centred paradigm in politics and governance. Offering a systemic exploration of the root causes of our sustainability crises and how to address this, based on the cosmology and evolutionary principles of complex living systems. Applying Living Systems Protocols from the EARTHwise Constitution for a Planetary Civilization, and its framework of five Future Archetypes, for developing our transformative capacities to address the systemic thrivability barriers of mechanistic systems and worldviews. With case-study examples of new paradigm tools, systems and technologies that enable a decentralization of governance and democratization of ownership. As such empowering the systemic conditions and maturation pathways for a thriving planetary civilization. The chapter completes with a brief practice for developing our future human capacities and inner consciousness shifts for a new paradigm in politics and governance.

This chapter explores the significance of blockchain technology in protecting data for intelligent applications across various industries. Blockchain is a distributed ledger that ensures the immutability and security of transactions. Given the increasing need for security measures in industries, understanding blockchain technology is crucial for preparing for its future applications.

This chapter aims to examine the use of blockchain technology across industries and presents a compilation of existing and upcoming blockchain technologies for intelligent applications. The methodology involves reviewing research to understand the security needs of different industries and providing an overview of methods used to enhance multi-institutional and multidisciplinary research in areas like the financial system, smart grid, and transportation system.

The findings highlight the benefits of blockchain networks in providing transparency, trust, and security for industries. The Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN) is an example that utilizes blockchain's decentralized ledger to track sustainable sourcing from mine to final product. This information can be shared with auditors, corporate governance organizations, and customers.

The practical implications of this chapter are significant, serving as a valuable resource for industries concerned with identity privacy, traceability, immutability, transparency, auditability, and security. Understanding and implementing blockchain technology can address the growing need for secure and intelligent applications, ensuring data protection and enhancing trust in various sectors.