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The purpose is to show the results of research on sociocultural impact – as one of the pillars of sustainable local development which can be stimulated among others by immovable cultural heritage. The research concerned two groups of respondents: the local community, which does not directly use heritage re-adopted to commercial functions and the community using the heritage in a direct way.

Surveys and in-depth interviews were used for the study. Two groups of respondents were surveyed: direct users of immovable re-adopted heritage who have the possibility to use it directly by buying services offered in the studied heritage and the local community representatives for which access to the re-adopted heritage is limited.

In the case of heritage re-adopted to commercial functions, there are differences in sociocultural impact. The very presence of heritage and only awareness of its existence in a given area is not enough for creating a sociocultural function by it in some aspects. Such heritage does not use its potential fully.

Results of the study may be taken into account by some stakeholders in the case of giving heritage resources contemporary functions especially commercial ones (owners of re-used cultural heritage resources, representatives of local authorities as well as entities responsible for the protection, appropriate use of cultural heritage resources and decision-making processes) to eliminate negative or insufficient effects in creating the sociocultural function of heritage in sustainable local development.

Suggested actions undertaken on the basis of this research can increase the impact of immovable cultural heritage adapted for commercial purposes on a larger range of beneficiaries especially the local community. Hence, the extent of such heritage's impact on the sociocultural pillar of sustainable development would increase.

So far, studies on the differences in the sociocultural impact of immovable cultural heritage adapted to commercial, contemporary functions on direct users and no-direct users have not been conducted. Results obtained by this study supplement a certain gap regarding the sociocultural impact of heritage resources on this two groups of stakeholders: groups that have direct access to the heritage resource and groups that have no access to them or this access is limited.

The USA’s higher education leaders and professional organizations have called for increased professional development programming at graduate colleges to better prepare US graduate students for their future careers. This study aims to investigate the demographic characteristics of graduate students participating in co-curricular professional development (PD) and sociocultural development (SD) programming at a graduate college at a large, selective and research-intensive public university in the Midwestern USA.

Using institutional data from six semesters, the authors examined the characteristics of students that attended the graduate college’s programs at one university. The authors analyzed which students were most likely to attend PD and SD programs using multinomial logistic regression models.

Female students, students from US historically marginalized racial groups, and US Pell Grant recipients (low-income students) were found to have a higher likelihood of attending both PD and SD programs at the centralized graduate college.

The findings will be of interest to graduate deans and educators who support graduate students. Further evaluative research on the usefulness of such programs at other institutions would help graduate colleges better understand the role they play in meeting graduate students’ needs.

The findings contribute to the understanding of the important role of the US graduate college in the development of graduate students. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study to evaluate the backgrounds of graduate students who pursue co-curricular PD and SD opportunities.

Cultural tourism comprises several heterogeneous activities. According to tourists’ interest in culture and their level of involvement with the local population during the trip, segments of cultural tourism can be identified. Regarding their characteristics and the place of the visit, this chapter explores how cultural tourism can contribute to a country like Iran. Based on the literature, the discussion begins by describing tourists’ profile while highlighting some features related to their traveling behavior. In line with past studies on host–guest relations and the current stage of development of the country as an international destination, potential impacts of opening the country to international cultural tourists are analyzed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ understandings of ocean sustainability and the pedagogical influence of higher education on those conceptions.

The conceptions of ocean sustainability of 54 university students of various academic disciplines enrolled in the 2014/2015 semester course “Sustainable Oceans” were assessed through use of auto-photography. Data were collected at the beginning and end of the course. Inter-rater reliability was measured by percentage of identical coding outcomes by two coders.

Auto-photography is effective in assessing notions of sustainability. Social and economic dimensions were captured less frequently than environmental aspects in the students’ photographs. Overall, students demonstrated vague perceptual awareness about who should take responsibility concerning lifeworld-related issues. Also, their perceptions were affected by their choice of academic discipline. Engaging students in inter-/transdisciplinary learning, integrating the arts, science and community, helped develop a more balanced, action-motivated conception of sustainability. Post-test patterns of change in students’ vision and action were observed.

Implementing sustainability education in a university’s coordinating bodies is effective in constructing a campus-based learning network, and participation in local community empowerment promotes a substantial and multidimensional concept of sustainability, and teaching material that includes content from the fine arts, literature or music stimulates students’ awareness of, and sensitivity to, lifeworld issues.

This paper provides an innovative, auto-photography-based methodology, including an operational procedure, coding book and method of analysis, for assessing students’ conceptions of sustainability. It also develops an interdisciplinary course that serves a “threshold” intervention role in ocean sustainability education.

The geopolitical relevance of the region with regard to clandestine and market interests exerting ecological pressures over mangroves and artisanal fishing thus raises awareness with regard to the local disaster's potentially global dimension. Delinking thus suggests divergent visibilization strategies regarding the narratives and framings of the region.

Reflecting on previous ethnographic and quantitative research on the impacted livelihoods in the Canton of Muisne (Ecuador) in the aftermath of the earthquake of April 2016, this article explores some disruptive dimensions of the permanent disaster in the predominantly black Ecuadorian–Colombian border region.

By drawing on decolonial theory, as well as by shifting between a mainstream narrative of the disaster, on the one hand, and a “delinked narrative,” on the other, this article is in line with more recent publications arguing that neither local and time bound accounts of vulnerability, ethnicity and (in)visibility, nor mainstream depictions of a “lack of development” are able to generate the required knowledge to disrupt from this permanently neglected disaster.

In order to understand the disaster beyond its ostensibly local dimension, economic, environmental, as well as the geopolitical considerations are suggested, resulting in a different framing of the disaster.

Until recently, motivation has been considered to be an individual phenomenon. Motivational theorists have accordingly conceptualised key constructs in individualistic terms and emphasised the individual origins and nature of motivation, although they have also long recognised that contextual or social factors have a significant influence on these individual processes. Recently this conceptualisation has been questioned as theorists have suggested, after Vygotsky, that motivation, like learning and thinking, might be social in nature. This idea was first suggested by Sivan (1986) more than twenty years ago but it received a major impetus with the publication of an article by Hickey (1997) eleven years later. Since that time interest in the social nature of motivation has grown as a small number of book chapters and journal articles have been published and conference papers have been presented on the topic. Although some motivational theorists remain sceptical (e.g. Winne, 2004) of this theoretical development, the inclusion of a section on sociocultural approaches to motivation in Perry, Turner, and Meyer's (2006) chapter on classrooms as contexts for motivating learning in the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Educational Psychology suggests that this perspective is being seriously considered by motivational researchers. Similarly, the inclusion of a chapter (Walker, in press-b) on the sociocultural approach to motivation in the 3rd edition of the International Encyclopedia of Education indicates that this approach has achieved some recognition.

This paper aims to describe how the multidisciplinary studies in the special issue expand and enrich the framework of authentic talent development in sociocultural context.

The study presents a framework of authentic talent development in sociocultural context and identifies key themes from the seven interdisciplinary studies of the special issue to enrich and expand our understanding of sociocultural barriers to authentic talent development for individuals from low-income and minoritized communities, including women.

The studies included in the special issue illustrate several ways in which social identity ascription truncates the talent trajectory of individuals from low-income and minoritized groups. They also show how ascription processes can be mitigated through policy, reformed organizational structure and practice and growth fostering relationships.

The findings of this paper have implications for developing strategies to mitigate social identity ascription in talent development in the domains of public policy, schooling and the workplace.

The special issue brings together contributions from multiple disciplines to holistically understand the nature of social identity ascription in talent development across the life course. Collectively, the contributions identify a number of complimentary tools at several levels that might allow effective mitigation of social identity ascription processes, facilitating authentic talent development for individuals from low-income and minoritized communities.