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This chapter aims to provide an overview of the ethical framework and decision-making in clinical dementia research, and to analyze and discuss the ethical challenges and issues that can arise when conducting clinical dementia research.

Informed consent is the most scrutinized and controversial aspect of clinical research ethics. In clinical dementia research, assessing decision-making capacity may be challenging as the nature and progress of each disease influences decision-making capacity in diverse ways. Persons with dementia represent a vulnerable population deserving special attention when developing, implementing, and evaluating the informed consent process. In this chapter, particular attention will be given to vulnerability categories and how these influence decision-making capacity. Ethical frameworks with a pragmatic contour and implication are needed to protect vulnerable patients from potential harms and ensure their optimal participation in clinical dementia research.

In addition, this chapter analyses important ethical challenges and issues in clinical dementia research. If handled thoughtfully, they would not pose insuperable barriers to research. But if they are ignored, they could slow the research process, alienate potential study subjects and cause harm to research participants. Ethical considerations in research involving persons with dementia primarily concern the representation of the interests of the participants with dementia and protection of their vulnerabilities and rights.

A core set of ethical questions and recommendations are drawn to aid researchers, institutional review boards and potential research participants in the process of participating in clinical dementia research.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

The purpose of this paper is to support the management of organizational knowledge retention through a multi-criteria decision aiding–constructivist model.

This exploratory and descriptive case study presents a decision support model guided by the constructivist approach and proactive in its operationalization.

The objectives and concerns of decision-makers regarding the retention of organizational knowledge are identified and organized into six strategic areas of concern, namely, recognition, knowledge dissemination, organizational culture, succession of professionals, management of vulnerability origins and knowledge management; a multi-criteria model is constructed and operationalized by a cluster of cardinal scales, showing and measuring the status quo of the performance profile, both in a local and global way, to support the management of the organization's knowledge retention; activities are classified into three performance levels (compromising, competitive and excellent), supported by graphical and numerical evidence; and the process to generate actions to improve the performance of critical activities and create the conditions to maximize the results of the organization is illustrated.

Based on the model, decision-makers are now aware of the essential aspects to support knowledge retention management, enabling them to monitor the current situation and proactively respond to ensure that the current knowledge potential is maintained and exploited.

Use of a constructivist approach to support the management of knowledge retention, incorporating into the model the specifics of the context and the values of its managers, and thus giving it legitimacy.

This study aims to investigate the impact of spirituality, spiritual experiences, religiosity, efficacy and job engagement among Brazilian university professors, particularly focusing on the implications for social responsibility.

Data were gathered from a nonprobability sample of academics from private and public universities in Brazil during periods of crisis using a standardized survey. The study used partial least squares structural equation modeling as the method for data analysis.

The study identified robust correlations between daily spiritual experiences (DSE), spirituality and job engagement and efficacy. Additionally, an indirect effect of religiosity on these variables was identified, mediated via DSE. Religiosity was found to impact spiritual experiences and spirituality. The results identified a direct influence of spirituality on work vigor and self-efficiency. However, the study revealed no significant indirect relationship between religiosity, job engagement and efficacy when mediated solely through spirituality.

This study is primarily limited by its sampling method and Brazil’s cultural context, potentially affecting the generalizability of the findings. Future research should include a more diverse demographic and extend beyond the Brazilian context to various cultural settings. Despite these limitations, the study provides valuable insights for managers leveraging religiosity, spiritual experiences and spirituality to create a more inclusive workplace. Emphasizing these aspects can help foster an environment that respects and accommodates employees’ diverse religious and spiritual beliefs, enhancing workplace harmony and engagement.

The findings are relevant for university administrations and policymakers. Recognizing the role of spirituality, spiritual experiences and religiosity in academic engagement can guide the development of more supportive, inclusive and socially responsible work environments.

This research underscores the social responsibility of educational institutions to consider and integrate their faculty members’ spiritual and religious dimensions, especially during times of crisis. It highlights how these aspects can significantly influence engagement and efficacy, contributing to a more holistic approach to employee well-being and organizational culture.

This study brings a novel contribution to the dialogue around social responsibility in academia by associating religiosity, spiritual experiences and spirituality with job engagement and effectiveness during a global crisis. It highlights the importance of these personal dimensions in the professional environment, particularly in times of elevated stress and uncertainty.

The social role of women in Brazil is subject to significant change in both capacity and scope. While women constitute the majority of the population in Brazil, they account for 40 per cent of the workforce, and thus, they remain comparatively invisible in public life. This is evident in political representation, as although Brazilian law stipulates that political parties must reserve at least 30 per cent of their nominations for women for legislative elections, this does not occur in reality. Furthermore, despite Afro-descendant Brazilians constituting the majority of the population, in the Chamber of Deputies, for instance, there are only 9 per cent Afro-descendant representatives. Therefore, this study focuses on understanding issues of political representation of Afro-descendant women in political spaces in Brazil – a country where politics is still predominantly white and male. Thus, despite a rhetorical position of an ‘open country’ with opportunities for all, the whiteness and masculinity of Brazilian politics illustrates the degree of mythology concerning the rhetoric of Brazil’s racial democracy. We employ a qualitative research approach in this study and we employ an oral-history-informed post-structuralist approach. We focus our empirical analysis on in-depth interviews with an Afro-descendant female accounting professor who was elected to an important political position. We argue that discussions about democracy in Brazil go beyond formal aspects of civil rights, as our study highlights the necessity of reshaping political processes to engender greater female and Afro-descendent participation, to engender both groups to seek political careers as well as to encourage political parties to include more female and more Afro-descendent candidates. The ultimate goal of such institutional reform is a reformation of ‘racial democracy’ as Afro-descendent women interact with, stand and succeed in Brazilian elections.

This paper aims to present a new master’s programme for promoting energy access and energy efficiency in Southern Africa.

A transdisciplinary approach called “participatory integrated assessment of energy systems” (PARTICIPIA) was used for the development of the curriculum. This approach is based on the two emerging fields of “multi-scale integrated assessment” and “science for governance”, which bring innovative concepts and methods.

The application of the PARTICIPIA methodology to three case studies reveals that the proposed transdisciplinary approach could support energy and development policies in the region. The implementation of the PARTICIPIA curriculum in three higher education institutions reveals its ability to respond to the needs of specific contexts and its connection with existing higher education programmes.

Considering energy issues from a transdisciplinary approach in higher education is absolutely critical because such a holistic view cannot be achieved through engineering curricula. Deliberate and greater efforts should be made to integrate methods from “multi-scale integrated assessment” and “science for governance” in higher education curricula to train a new breed of modern-day energy planners in charge of coming up with solutions that are shared by all relevant stakeholders.

This paper presents an innovative higher education curriculum in terms of the attention given to energy access and energy efficiency that affect the southern Africa region and the nature of the methodology adopted to face these issues.

Distance universities are of great importance for establishing sustainability literacy, as they operate as multipliers for thousands of students. However, despite several advantages of e-learning environments compared to traditional class-teaching, there are still challenges regarding suitable e-learning tools and didactical models. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of several e-learning tools on students’ knowledge and skills growth and to compare two learning paths, synchronous vs asynchronous, exploring how each affects the level of students’ knowledge achievement and skills acquisition.

The empirical analysis is based on an online course “Participatory processes in environmental politics”. International MSc and PhD students who enrolled in the course were from FernUniversität in Hagen (Germany) and Aberta University (Portugal). The course was designed as the flipped classroom, applying different e-learning tools and activities, some synchronous and others asynchronous. A pre- and post-evaluation questionnaire was applied to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills. Descriptive statistical analyses were carried out on this data.

Results showed that in the synchronous group, knowledge about theoretical approaches to citizen participation and sustainable environmental governance improved to a greater extent, whereas the asynchronous group showed greater improvement in nearly all skills related to intercultural communication and e-learning. Also, in the synchronous path, students enhanced their knowledge on “research application” to a greater extent.

Evaluating the effectiveness of different e-learning tools on students’ sustainability knowledge and information and communication technologies skills is a fundamental issue. The study discusses these issues, contributing to enhancing the use of adequate and grounded e-learning models on sustainable development in higher education.