The political, economic, and moral implications of the international industry of voluntourism in Sub-Saharan Africa must be investigated as the sector continues to grow exponentially in Western popularity. This research critically investigates the extent to which the operationalisation of voluntourism is complicit as a form of normalised neo-colonialism and has been disguised as Western aid, then resultantly forced upon African communities. The essay uses a historical overview of the progression from colonialism and missionaries to the expansion of voluntourism to scrutinise the design of voluntourism. Intertwined through this overview is a post-colonial assessment of this instance of gatekeeping African development as a form othering alongside a Wallersteinian world systems investigation of the profit-making industry. The research argues that rather than being a sustainable form of international development in Africa, voluntourism allows the West to believe that they are helping and making reparations to Africa. In actuality, it is an industry that has become integral to Western self-development as a stepping-stone in Western adolescence as this normalisation of tourism in African poverty is seen as a pure and good deed. This essay evaluates the impact of the rhetoric that voluntourism transcends internationally and domestically in both regions, from continuing an international inequal relationship between the two regions as the West profits from Africa’s poverty, whilst domestically in the West it continues symbolic and structural racism and domestically within Africa, the White Saviour and domination of Eurocentric epistemology restricts African youths’ right to their own development pathways.

In this essay, the smartphone as a new technology and medium is analysed with regards to its effects on individuals and society. McLuhan’s tetrad serves as a framework for analysis, consisting of a set of four effects to examine media in their historical context and present environment as well as the characteristics and attributes of the medium itself. These effects include: enhancement, obsolescence, retrieval, and reversal. The smartphone enhances the accessibility and convenience of the medium internet, which also accelerates the speed of real-time communication. Concerning obsolescence, the smartphone pushes feature mobile phones aside as well as decreasing the use of personal computers and home printers. The smartphone retrieves the use of cameras and (e-)books, reviving the linear focus on the medium. When pushed to its extremes, the smartphone transforms into a new form reversing its original characteristics, with imaginable evolvements being devices of Augmented Reality, (e.g. GoogleGlass), that might render its users oblivious to their surrounding environment and thus actually restricting human interaction instead of facilitating communication.  To sum up, the smartphone facilitates many aspects of daily life and can be a very useful and entertaining tool. Nevertheless, possible negative implications and social effects should be considered, like the extreme cases of “smartphone addiction” or less human interaction.

This essay provides a debate about Lasswell’s policy scientist of democracy (PSOD, 1948) in comparison to the model of liquid democracy (21st century) based on the question if the digital age requires new models of democracy. The PSOD of Lasswell, a disciplinary persona, is in favour of an elitist approach to democracy including elite decision-making, as well as the values of wealth and power. Liquid democracy, on the other hand, emerged from the notion that the Internet provides a vast amount of possibilities for a mix between direct and representative democratic aspects. The term liquid democracy describes a more “fluid and responsive participation of citizens in the democratic process through the use of both online and offline networks” (david, 2013). In general, one can say that both models have their drawbacks and benefits. Since there are new technologies available in the digital age, we should make use of them for the public good, but in order to not exclude anyone, there should be a mix between traditional and technology-based methods with regard to democracy.

The present research investigates how the IPCC’s Working Groups safeguard their scientific character while communicating with policymakers. Due to the different nature of Working Groups’ assessments, all Working Groups make different boundary arrangements of how science is defined; what is considered as relevant knowledge; and what the division of labor is amongst Working Groups. The results show that science is a context-specific activity in a constantly changing landscape, which in turn affects the IPCC’s credibility if they keep advocating that their science is policy-neutral and never policy-prescriptive.

This essay claims that the declared war on drugs has failed, it has caused more harm than good, and that a new approach is necessary. The focus of analysis lays especially on the implemented drug policies of Mexico and the United States. The goal is to point out the flaws of the current policy based on prohibition and persecution by analyzing its origins and comparing the current approach with the failures of the alcohol prohibition in the 1920s in the United States. One of the main points therefore discussed is that suppression and prosecution by state authorities create a black market that is too profitable to abandon and as a consequence cause the devastating dynamics of the drug war, leading to destabilization of the region, an undermined state and human losses. In conclusion, any escalation will only lead to a new circle of violence with the local population in the crossfire. The essay further explains in greater detail the effects of the drug war on the population and how recent economic policies, such as the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, have involuntarily created a new pool of recruits for the cartels and the narcoeconomy, where the income of regular people depends on the cartel’s fortune. Furthermore, the cultural effects on the population are described and analyzed. The conclusion is made that the legalization of narcotic drugs could offer a solutions to problems such as violence and corruption by eliminating the black market.

The number of companies publicly reporting in line with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), a framework introduced in 2015 aiming to improve and increase the reporting regarding climate-related financial information, is still relatively low. In 2019, 42% of corporations with a market capitalization greater than $10 billion disclosed information in line with the TCFD to some extend (TCFD, 2020c). Previous research has shown that economic, political, and institutional factors impact the disclosure of climate-related information. This paper explores the determinants influencing the level of disclosure in line with the TCFD recommendations, across different sectors with a major focus on publicly listed companies in the global North. The study contributes to a better understanding of the approach needed to increase the number of companies reporting in line with TCFD. The research was executed in both quantitative and qualitative methods. The empirical research methods are based on a throughout literature review on climate-related risk disclosure, which is based on scientific literature, reports, and websites of official institutions. An online survey was published to be filled in by professionals with insights into environmental, social, and corporate governance-related topics within their company. Also, eight interviews were conducted with sustainability experts from companies, consultants, policy makers, and investors with a background in climate-related risk disclosure. The interviewees were chosen based on their work experience regarding TCFD disclosure. The research aim was to answer the following question: What are substantial factors that influence whether a company is disclosing information in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures? Overall, ten determinants have been identified, as they have occurred repeatedly throughout the empirical data collection. They can be divided into factors that derive out of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The others emerge from the given characteristics of corporations. Policy and legal reforms, the aim for strategy adaption, the availability of data, and the alignment of other sustainability initiatives with the recommendations of TCFD, were mentioned the most as determinants on the level of disclosure in both the survey and the interviews. Further research might investigate how the identified factors differ in importance across diverse industries.

This paper explains the effective use of guiding principles to foster transformative online collaboration (TOC). TOC describes the ability of an online network to collaborate with a vision of creating and mapping planetary well-being, ecological sustainability, and social equity, in an emergent and open-hearted way. The network research is conducted in the Transformation Systems Mapping and Analysis Working Group (TSM&A WG). The study triangulation includes focus group discussions, interviews, and a social system map analysis of the network. The evaluation is done with the GUIDE framework regarding the principle’s guidance, usability, inspiration, development, and evaluation. The behavior approach for TOC roots in concepts like Theory-U and Spiral Dynamics. The results show the critical importance of shared principles and their enactment for safe and open collaboration. They facilitate deeper online collaboration in the field of Transformation-Systems (T-Systems). Findings further include the future development of the members’ value framework and ways to enact and integrate the principles in the network. Supported by literature, the principles are evaluated for change and modification. The paper offers a complete set of guiding principles for TOC, created after adopting new overarching and operational values. Further, the study proposes and discusses new implementation practices to enhance the members’ principle embodiment for TOC.

Food is an integral part of everyone’s life, but the food sector also hugely contributes to harming the environment. Education is the best tool to bring the topic closer to the youngest generations by integrating sustainable food and nutrition into their educational institutions. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address this challenge through multiple SDGs, for example, through SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production. This research was conducted for the KMGNE, a Berlin-based research educational institute. This research explores criteria that can be used to incorporate the topic of sustainable food and nutrition in German secondary schools. Through a mix of qualitative methods, the concept of shaping competences, outcome-based learning was explored, and based on the research results, a set of criteria were determined. The research shows that transformative learning changes behaviour, as it allows internal change about assumptions and beliefs in students. This is why transformative learning works best to bring a change in behaviour. It is essential that schools not only teach about sustainable food and nutrition but also teach by example through the food they offer. Practitioners need to receive training to integrate sustainable food and nutrition-related topics into their lessons. External partners and learning environments should be included in education for sustainable food and nutrition to add authenticity as they can tell personal stories or show food production. The research was conducted in Germany; however, it is possible to use the determined criteria in different educational settings and countries.

With only one in five secondary-school aged children attending secondary school, a quarter of teenaged girls being pregnant or already having a child (Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2012), and one out of every five people living below the poverty line in Uganda (CIA, 2013) statistics show the ever prevalent need for sexuality education. As an organisation working in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights, Reproductive Health Uganda wants to standardise and integrate sexuality education in all their projects through developing and rolling out a sexuality education intervention. The challenges faced in this are the concept of ‘comprehensive sexuality education’ being questioned by the government, and the implementer being the main determinant of what information is provided because they have no handbook to follow. To address these challenges, Reproductive Health Uganda needed to redefine and scope sexuality education. Based on the field and desk research sexuality education was defined as follows: ‘providing age-appropriate information on the aspects of sexuality in order to increase knowledge and build (life) skills which enables the individual to understand oneself and make informed decisions’. Based on the outcomes of this research, eleven recommendations for the future sexuality education intervention were made which can be related to either the preparation or sustainability of the intervention.