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Purpose This study aims to assess higher education students’ interest in learning sustainability competencies and their pro-ecological worldviews at a large research-intensive university in Finland to provide a background information for developing a sustainability science course. Design/methodology/approach In total, 797 students participated in the study. The data were collected through an online survey that measured students’ interest in learning sustainability competencies and their pro-ecological worldviews. Participants were classified into five categories based on field of study. The data were analysed by using Pearson’s correlation, independent samples t-tests, and analysis of variance. Findings The participating students perceived learning of critical thinking and values thinking most interesting. Interest in learning sustainability competencies and pro-ecological worldview appeared to differ across fields of study. Participants studying humanities expressed lower interest in collaborative use of digital technology compared to the participating students in science and agriculture. Participating students in health and welfare scored lower on interest in learning values thinking than students in other study fields. Research limitations/implications The response rate was low. It is likely that the participants felt strongly about sustainability challenges, therefore making them more interested in sustainability competencies. The limited number of sustainability competencies studied does not allow generalisation to all sustainability competencies. Practical implications The differences in interest in learning sustainability competencies and pro-ecological worldview should be understood and considered when planning sustainability education. Originality/value These results provide new insights into the interlinkage of students’ interest in learning sustainability competencies, their pro-ecological worldviews and their field of study.

Purpose People with complex health conditions must often navigate landscapes of uncoordinated public, private and voluntary health-care providers to obtain the care they need. Complex health conditions frequently transcend the scope of typical health-care service systems. The purpose of this paper is to explore and characterize such unique assemblages of actors and services as “user-defined ecosystems”. Design/methodology/approach Building on literature on customer ecosystems, this paper introduces the concept of the user-defined ecosystem (UDE). Using an abductive approach, the authors apply the concept in an interpretive, qualitative study of ten families with special needs children. Findings This study uncovers complex UDEs, where families actively combine a broad range of services. These ecosystems are unique for each family and extend beyond the scope of designed service ecosystems. Thus, the families are forced to assume an active, coordinating role. Research limitations/implications This paper shows how to identify ecosystems from the user’s point of view, based on the selected user unit (such as a family) and the focal value-creating function of the ecosystem for the user. Social implications This paper highlights how service providers can support and adapt to UDEs and, thus, contribute to user value and well-being. This can be used to understand users’ perspectives on service and systems in health and social care. Originality/value This study develops the concept of the UDE, which represents a customer-focused perspective on actor ecosystems and contrasts it with a provider-focused and a distributed perspective on ecosystems. This study demonstrates the practical usefulness of the conceptualization and provides a foundation for further research on the user’s perspective on ecosystems.

Stakeholder views have often been presented as the source of sustainability while a lack of sustainability has been presented as a self-centered focus on the organization itself. The present paper reports a case in which a case organization, not present stakeholders, brings up sustain-ability and a concern for future stakeholders. We rely on interviews and archival data gathered in a case organization in the construction industry, and interview data from stakeholders. The study shows how the representatives of the case organization feel accountable to future (not present) stakeholders’ needs, as present stakeholders are considered to be short-term oriented. As it is organizational representatives, not stakeholders, who predominantly envision the future, the source of accountability for sustainability appears, surprisingly, to originate from the organiza-tion itself. The organization thus becomes an institutional entrepreneur in altering accountabil-ities in the industry. This is shown here particularly in the organization’s “war against the gray economy”. It is suggested that the needs of certain stakeholders whose views cannot easily be expressed in existing accountability systems, such as future stakeholders, flora and fauna, can sometimes be legitimately represented by unexpected entities. The study also sheds light on an important paradox in sustainability: it requires dialogue with stakeholders while future stake-holders, considered important, cannot directly participate in a dialogue and it is uncertain who can speak for such stakeholders. In this study, the organizational representatives represent the future stakeholders, making true dialogue with outsiders demanding. Concerns for dialogue and the future can sometimes contradict each other.

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors Current food systems face immediate and complex challenges in feeding a growing global population. It is necessary to mitigate the environmental impact of food systems while ensuring food security across the globe. Drawing on the example of recent multi-sectoral approaches which focus on the interconnections between public health and the environment, this work offers a narrative review and broader conceptual framework advancing two propositions. The first is that school meals systems have the potential to help enable sustainable food transitions. The second is that favoring well-planned plant-based meals in schools may strengthen this potential. The review and resulting framework highlight the relevance of seeking transdisciplinary dialogue and considering diverse sectors of society, such as public health, the environment, social protection, economic development, and community welfare. We review possible health benefits as well as possible economic and environmental outcomes, especially if school meals are sourced mainly from local communities and eco-friendly agricultural practices. Cross-sectoral implications related to social protection and community welfare are also identified and discussed, as well as potential pathways for materializing sustainable food transitions in schools.

The shift of society toward sustainable food culture requires collectively challenging meat and dairy-based diets and their role in current practices of eating. This study focuses on how discussions in social media can facilitate reconfiguration in eating. Three practice-theoretical perspectives - practices constituting of elements, eating as a compound practice, and communities of practice - afford us with analytical tools to investigate eating and how the constituting elements are negotiated and recrafted in social media discussions across the compound practice. As empirical data, we use altogether 14,250 social media messages on the Finnish Vegan Challenge campaign. By combining qualitative content analysis with topic modeling, we capture the various themes occurring in these discussions and their relation to changes in eating practices. The results show that within these discussions, social learning among peers covered the whole sphere of eating-related practices from production and distribution to purchasing and cooking vegan food, and to sharing stories and experiences of veganism. Our findings illustrate how these discussions can be seen as forming a reconfigurative community of practice, which can potentially support and facilitate social change of eating toward sustainability also outside the Vegan Challenge community.

Consumers’ increasing fascination with recreational eating out has contributed to numerous transformations in the upmarket restaurant practice. This paper explores such changes in regard to the “social” aspects of eating out, focusing particularly on the “cultural phenomenon” and practice of eating publicly alone (solo dining). Specifically, the paper extends previous portrayals of solo dining as a bundle of aloneness and togetherness by exploring such interplay in the context of the aestheticization of eating and/or the aesthetic food(ie) movement. Based on the interviews of Finnish food/restaurant enthusiasts and exponents of solo dining, the paper firstly depicts solo dining as a practice in which eating publicly alone is celebrated for the sake of enhanced aesthetic immersion. Secondly, the paper argues that solo dining can indeed be interpreted as a form of eating together and depicts the myriad ways, both concrete and “anonymous”, through which solo restaurant meals are shared between like-minded enthusiasts. Thus, the aesthetically oriented slice of solo dining becomes not understood as a complete departure from the ideal of shared public meals but as an alternative manifestation of commensality within an enthusiasm-based consumer group characteristic of late modern consumer culture.

This study addresses the phenomenon of interfirm control in the context of sustainability. The research question is how is it possible to develop interfirm control in the field of sustainability and with the associated stakeholder focus needed so that stakeholder views are taken as explicit goals. The study is connected to theories on interfirm control, control package and sustainability. The research uses an intensive case methodology and semi-structured interviews focusing on a case company in the building industry and its stakeholders. The major theme of control in the company studied is sustainability. The article shows how the company establishes interfirm control and even attempts to control its customers, which may be perceived as a relatively rare practice. However, it is shown that the control approach to sustainability can result in the theme being defined on the basis of the perspective of the industry, the company and control itself, not on the basis of stakeholder needs. Alternative ideas, such as wider societal and planet-related needs, contradictions within sustainability and the risk of simplification to economic concerns, are considered less. The study then presents a novel framework, ‘external control’, that considers stakeholder expectations as explicit goals. This framework of external control contributes to the interfirm control literature and ties missing perspectives to controls, thereby also contributing to the sustainability and control package literature.

Julkais on avoimesti saatavilla: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2021.108635 This study investigated consumers' self-reported past changes and future intentions to change the consumption of beef and alternative, plant- or insect-based protein products. A survey of 18-79-year-old consumers in Finland (N = 1000) was analysed with latent class analysis, and five consumer clusters were identified. The largest cluster (37%) consumed beef, but no alternative protein products; three clusters incorporated alternative protein products in their diets in different ways (in total 55%); and one cluster did not consume beef or alternative proteins (8%). In total 27% of the respondents intended to reduce the consumption of beef in the future, whereas 26% planned to increase the consumption of plant-based and 24% planned to increase the use of insect-based protein products. Multinomial logistic regression indicated that the use of alternative proteins was associated with higher health and sustainability motives, and lower food neophobia. The results suggest that demand for new, more sustainable proteins and protein innovations will grow in the future.

While climate change and biodiversity loss have exposed humanity to major systemic risks, policymakers in more than 40 countries have proposed the transition from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy as a solution to curb the risks. In the boreal region, forests have a prominent role in contributing to bioeconomy development; however, forest-based bioeconomy transition pathways towards sustainability and the required actions have not yet been identified. Participatory backcasting was employed in this study to 'negotiate' such pathways among Finnish stakeholders by 2060 in three forest-based value networks: forest biorefineries, fibre-based packaging and wooden multistorey construction. There are many alternative pathways, ranging from incremental to more radical, to a forest-based bioeconomy within a framework of ambitious climate and biodiversity targets. Path dependence can support incremental development on bioeconomy transition pathways, and this should be considered when planning transition towards sustainability. Orchestration of the more radical changes requires actions from legislators, raw material producers, consumers and researchers, because the possibilities for business development vary between different companies and value networks. The envisioned actions between the pathways in and across the networks, such as forest diversification and diverse wood utilisation, can offer cobenefits in climate change mitigation and biodiversity protection.

This qualitative study, framed by social identity theory, examines how self-identified vegans and vegetarians negotiate diet-related social norm conflicts within their social networks. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews with 18- to 58-year-old vegans and vegetarians who represented five nationalities were analysed inductively through thematic analysis. According to the results, social norm conflicts occurred in contexts where tense family relations or boundaries between in-group and out-group were salient. The results also show that in order to manage norm conflict situations, the interviewees used strategies towards the dominant social norms, such as adapting, challenging, and weakening. In particular, adapting to the dominant social norms was used in relationships that were not close, whereas challenging and weakening were used within close relationships. The interviewees had developed practical solutions to resolve social norm conflicts, such as eating what was served, actively providing information, or acting as an example to others. The results enhance understanding of the challenges entailed by practising vegan or vegetarian diet in an omnivorous society. This qualitative study, framed by social identity theory, examines how self-identified vegans and vegetarians negotiate diet-related social norm conflicts within their social networks. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews with 18- to 58-year-old vegans and vegetarians who represented five nationalities were analysed inductively through thematic analysis. According to the results, social norm conflicts occurred in contexts where tense family relations or boundaries between in-group and out-group were salient. The results also show that in order to manage norm conflict situations, the interviewees used strategies towards the dominant social norms, such as adapting, challenging, and weakening. In particular, adapting to the dominant social norms was used in relationships that were not close, whereas challenging and weakening were used within close relationships. The interviewees had developed practical solutions to resolve social norm conflicts, such as eating what was served, actively providing information, or acting as an example to others. The results enhance understanding of the challenges entailed by practising vegan or vegetarian diet in an omnivorous society.

It is uncertain how the traditional forest sector can respond to the changing political environment, evolving markets, and global environmental problems. This study focuses on the development of forest-based bioeconomy (BE) in Finland from the perspective of three forest-based value networks (wooden multistory construction, fiber-based packaging, and biorefining) and thus breaks the tendency of siloed discussions. The study of expert opinions applies a collaborative interdisciplinary research method that combines group discussions and follow-up survey data. The results indicate that transformational regulation, proper incentives, and ways of increasing interaction at the business-consumer interface are required to support the creation of new practices and the destruction of old practices in the industry renewal. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

ObjectivesTo examine changes in planning, selecting, and preparing healthy foods in relation to personal factors (time, money, stress) and social distancing policies during the COVID-19 crisis.MethodsUsing cross-sectional online surveys collected in 38 countries worldwide in April-June 2020 (N = 37,207, Mage 36.7 SD 14.43, 73.6% women), we compared changes in food literacy behaviors to changes in personal factors and social distancing policies, using hierarchical multiple regression analyses controlling for sociodemographic variables.ResultsIncreases in planning (4.7 SD 1.2, 4.9 SD 1.3), selecting (3.8 SD 1.7, 3.8 SD 1.7), and preparing (4.6 SD 1.3, 4.7 SD 1.3) healthy foods were found for women and men, and positively related to perceived time availability among women and stay-at-home policies for planning and preparing in women. Psychological distress was a barrier for women, and an enabler for men. COVID-19 induced financial stress was a barrier depending on various sociodemographic variables (all p < 0.01).ConclusionStay-at-home policies and feelings of having more time during COVID-19 seem to have improved food literacy among women. Stress and other social distancing policies relate to food literacy in more complex ways, highlighting the necessity of a health equity lens.

openaire: EC/H2020/741677/EU//InSPIRES Increasingly high-profile research is being undertaken into the socio-environmental challenges associated with the over-production and consumption of food from animals. Transforming food systems to mitigate climate change and hidden hunger, ensure food security and good health all point to reducing animal-based foods as a key lever. Moving beyond animal-based food systems is a societal grand challenge requiring coordinated international research by the social sciences and humanities. A ‘selective openness’ to this range of disciplines has been observed within multi-discipline research programmes designed to address societal grand challenges including those concerned with the sustainability of food systems, inhibiting the impact of social sciences and humanities. Further, existing research on animal-based foods within these disciplines is largely dispersed and focused on particular parts of food systems. Inspired by the ‘Sutherland Method’ this paper discusses the results of an iterative research prioritisation process carried out to enhance capacity, mutual understanding and impact amongst European social sciences and humanities researchers. The process produced 15 research questions from an initial list of 100 and classified under the following five themes: (1) debating and visioning food from animals; (2) transforming agricultural spaces; (3) framing animals as food; (4) eating practices and identities; and (5) governing transitions beyond animal-based food systems. These themes provide an important means of making connections between research questions that invite and steer research on key challenges in moving beyond animal-based food systems. The themes also propose loci for future transdisciplinary research programmes that join researchers from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities and stakeholders from beyond academia to develop cooperative research and implementation initiatives. The experiences gained from the prioritisation process draw attention to the value of spending time to discuss and collaboratively steer research enquiry into emergent and controversial matters of concern. Fundamental, ethical questions around the continuation or complete cessation of the use of animals for food was a key tension. The positioning of research towards these questions affects not only the framing of the research area but also the partners with whom the research can be carried out and for whom it may be of benefit.

The link is to the final published version of the paper, and the file is the accepted manuscript together with a corrigendum. Unfortunately the conference proceedings could not publish the corrigendum after publication.

Consumer acceptance of new bio-based products plays a key role in the envisioned transition towards a forest-based bioeconomy. Multi-storey wooden buildings (MSWB) exemplify a modern, bio-based business opportunity for enacting low-carbon urban housing. However, there is limited knowledge about the differing perceptions consumers hold regarding wood as an urban building material. To fill this gap, this study explores Finnish students’ perceptions of MSWB relative to their familiarity with wooden residential buildings, and then connects these perceptions to ‘consumption styles.’ Data were collected in the Helsinki metropolitan area via an online questionnaire (n = 531). The results indicate that the aesthetic appearance of MSWB are appreciated most by frugal and responsible consumers, whereas the comfort, environmental friendliness, and longevity of MSWB are important to consumers who identify themselves as ‘thoughtful spenders.’ The study suggests that both environmental and hedonic young consumers already familiar with the use of wood in housing contribute to a successful bioeconomy in the urban context.

Having a home is a central part of the everyday consumer experience. In our study, we focus on Finnish homeowners who have recently bought an apartment in a multi-family timber-framed building. With its merits in sustainability, the number of timber buildings in less-traditional urban applications is increasing, yet, research on living in a wooden home is scarce. To fill this gap, the study analyses how homeowners perceive the wooden material before and after living in a wooden home for one year. Thus, besides the acquisition of a home, the study examines the consumers' appropriation processes and aims to gain insight into the cultural sense-making behind the appreciation of wooden homes. The results of this qualitative study indicate that traditions and memories related to wood affect consumers' appreciations, for example, regarding the cosiness of a wooden home. The consumers discussed the weaknesses assigned to wood, such as fire and moisture susceptibility, yet, they considered them to concern all construction materials, not only wood. After habitation for one year, the usability of the home becomes particularly relevant, including the ease with which shelves can be mounted onto the walls, enjoying the echoless soundscape, and living with clicking sounds and vibrating floors. The study suggests that the meanings of consumers' daily experiences concerning the usability of wooden buildings are under negotiation and cannot be reduced simply into positive or negative but carry elements of both.

This paper analyzes the blurring boundaries between food and art in the West by examining the contemporary field of upmarket dining. The study adopts a practice theoretical view, conceptualizes artful dining as a large-scale cultural formation (?teleoaffective formation?), and explores the configurations of artful dining in the context of New Nordic Upmarket Bistros (NNUBs). Based on blog texts, chef interview and participant observation at a Finnish NNUB, the study demonstrates how the local restaurant enthusiasts adopted and adjusted artful dining in a specific, ?everyday? context of upmarket dining. The study presents dining at NNUBs as one of the many practices that have substantially expanded the art-oriented dining ideals beyond modernist cuisine. It discusses artful dining within the contemporary (gourmet) food culture and encourages further diversification of approaches in studies examining artful dining and the intersection of food and art.

Studies of nostalgia are one of the research subfields of recalled consumption experiences. In addition to the nostalgic recall, the consumers' remembered experiences situate in other temporal frames, a theme rarely touched in the extant research. The aim of this research was to examine the differences between nostalgic and other recalled consumption experiences by identifying and analysing the characteristics of the temporal frames. The data set for this task comprised 480 descriptions of consumers' experiences involving an everyday consumer object. An interpretive approach was utilized to analyse the temporal frames. The results of the study indicate that the consumers described their memories in four temporal structures. These are the strong nostalgia from childhood, light nostalgia from youth, descriptions of recent past and memories linked to consumption practices and traditions that will be fostered in the future. The article proposes a conceptual framework describing the temporal frames of consumers' remembered consumption experiences that opens further avenues for research alongside of nostalgic recall.

Lowering environmental impacts by material choices is proposed as a way to promote urban sustain ability transition, and one solution is building more wooden multi-storey constructions (WMCs). In the construction industry, however, there is a strong path dependency towards applying well-established construction materials and methods, as well as partnerships. To gain understanding of network-based collaboration, learning and end-user involvement in novel wooden construction business, the study uses qualitative methods and employs business ecosystem approach in the analysis. The studied WMC business case revealed that barriers of collaborative business ecosystem development include both the lack of clarity in the shared goals between actors and weak end-user involvement. Moreover, neither companies nor end-users fully recognize sustainability aspects around WMC. Enabling factors such as smooth communication and building trust among business actors during planning and building were recognised. The study suggests that a broader business ecosystem approach, including the living and use of the building, offers a mindset shift for developing sustainability-driven logic alongside profitable construction business and creating value for consumers. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Recent studies show that lifestyle changes can provide an essential contribution to achieving the Paris climate targets. While some efforts have been made to incorporate lifestyle changes into model-based scenarios, the attempts are currently very stylised and included exogenously. This paper discusses current efforts to represent lifestyle change in models, and analyses potential insights from relevant scientific disciplines to improve the representation of lifestyle changes in models – including modelling specific behaviour changes, identifying cross-cutting lifestyle solutions, representing the intentions behind the changes and quantifying their impacts. As such, this research attempts to bridge the gap between qualitative and quantitative theories and methodologies. Based on the results of this literature analysis, we recommend defining lifestyle changes more harmoniously, exploring an expanded range of approaches, domains and transformative solutions, adopting a whole-systems approach, and addressing the trade-offs between the use of exogenous inputs and endogenous modelling. Keywords: Integrated assessment, Sustainable lifestyles, Behaviour change, Scenarios, Mitigation

Young consumers hold an iconic position in post-industrial cultures. In spite of youth idealization in consumer culture, we know little of how youth is situated in everyday interactions in service culture. In our study, we focus on age-related power structures in service encounters. We argue that customer service interaction is built on the norm of an adult order; that is, to achieve an appreciated position as a customer, young people are required to act like ‘middle-aged’ consumers. To gain recognition, young consumers use resistance tactics: They create co-performing teams together with adults and modify their own performance towards adulthood by masking signs of youth. The findings suggest that young people may also resist the dominant adult order; laughter and smiling express a strategy that re-positions adults into a less powerful position in the service environment. The study shows that young and adult categories in service interaction are constantly under re-negotiation.

Our paper explores how consumer value is negotiated in pet-related services. We combine the discussion on value with the standpoint of service design; the approaches of consumer journey and service touchpoints. The contribution lies in discussing how consumer value is experienced in pet-related services through and by the pet, not only within dyadic interaction between consumer and service provider. We argue that applying a consumer value journey gives a comprehensive understanding of experienced value in several touchpoints with multiple service providers. Non

Today, teachers around the world face the challenges of the ecological crisis. In Home Economics, ecological as well as economical viewpoints are intertwined in teaching. In Finland, sustainability education is integrated into different subjects as well as in transversal competencies in the curricula. Our study sheds light on how Finnish Home Economics teachers view themselves as sustainability and consumer educators and how they collaborate with teachers of other school subjects. Based on quantitative (N=153) and qualitative (N=256) survey data, we argue that teachers emphasize sustainable food education and that they teach consumer and sustainability skills broadly, varying themes from clothing to housing and spending. Teachers acknowledge their key role as consumer educators and consider young people well motivated regarding sustainability and consumer themes. Teachers prefer to cooperate with social studies, mathematics, and crafts on consumer education and with biology, social studies and crafts on sustainability education. The study indicates that the education of Home Economics teachers should be developed to provide more tools for teaching future sustainability and consumer themes. Today, teachers around the world face the challenges of the ecological crisis. In Home Economics, ecological as well as economical viewpoints are intertwined in teaching. In Finland, sustainability education is integrated into different subjects as well as in transversal competencies in the curricula. Our study sheds light on how Finnish Home Economics teachers view themselves as sustainability and consumer educators and how they collaborate with teachers of other school subjects. Based on quantitative (N=153) and qualitative (N=256) survey data, we argue that teachers emphasize sustainable food education and that they teach consumer and sustainability skills broadly, varying themes from clothing to housing and spending. Teachers acknowledge their key role as consumer educators and consider young people well motivated regarding sustainability and consumer themes. Teachers prefer to cooperate with social studies, mathematics, and crafts on consumer education and with biology, social studies and crafts on sustainability education. The study indicates that the education of Home Economics teachers should be developed to provide more tools for teaching future sustainability and consumer themes