Designers provide creative solutions for user problems and identify the needs of users in a given environment. However, it is often difficult to understand the social design of a product or service. Practice and Progress in Social Design and Sustainability is a critical scholarly resource that provides groundbreaking research on social contributions to design. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as rural sustainability, ecological farmhouse designs, and community public spaces, this book is geared towards architects, designers, program planners, entrepreneurs, and engineers seeking information about design for resolving social issues.

Vocational skill development (VSD) has the capacity to contribute to poverty reduction because it serves as the key to job creation and inclusive growth. As developed nations have been faced with high youth and graduate unemployment rates, basic education and vocational skill development have become a priority of development cooperation activities. However, there is a realization that measures to improve skill training can only be successful if they are in harmony with employment and economic policies. Socio-Economic Perspectives on Vocational Skill Development: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of equipping individuals with relevant work skills and implementing effective skills systems that can lead to economic growth and high levels of productivity. While highlighting topics including human capital, professional development, and skill gaps, this book is ideally designed for managers, business professionals, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and management students seeking the current understanding of the strategic role of skill development at different levels of the socio-economic system.

The technological advancements of today not only affect individual’s personal lives. They also affect the way urban communities regard the improvement of their resident’s lives. Research involving these autonomic reactions to the growing needs of the people is desperately needed to transform the cities of today into the cities of the future. Driving the Development, Management, and Sustainability of Cognitive Cities is a pivotal reference source that explores and improves the understanding of the strategic role of sustainable cognitive cities in residents’ routine life styles. Such benefits to residents and businesses include having access to world-class training while sitting at home, having their wellbeing observed consistently, and having their medical issues identified before occurrence. This book is ideally designed for administrators, policymakers, industrialists, and researchers seeking current research on developing and managing cognitive cities.

Spatial development is a discipline aimed at the protection of specific values and rational development by stimulating economic processes. Modern practices challenge developers to minimize the negative impact of urban development on the environment. In order to adhere to this policy, bioeconomical solutions and investments can be utilized. Bioeconomical Solutions and Investments in Sustainable City Development is an essential source that explores the development of sustainable city models based on investments in eco-oriented solutions by protecting and making publicly available green areas and by innovative investments with the use of bioeconomical solutions. Featuring research on topics such as bioeconomy vision, environmental education, and rural planning, this book is ideally designed for architects, urban planners, city authorities, experts, officers, business representatives, economists, politicians, academicians, and researchers.

The application of theory to practice in addressing social transformation still has a lot of room for growth and improvement. This is also true of theory being informed by practice. Too often, there are gaps between what is studied in the academy and what is needed in the field. The academy develops theories in isolation from the everyday lives of people, especially in post-conflict environments. Communities seeking innovative ways to address their social needs can benefit from the learning of theories and research conducted within academia. At the same time, these methods need to be relevant to the local contexts within which they are being used. While there are certain norms of communication in the academy of how research is conducted and disseminated, there needs to be a translation into practical terms to be used in the field. Redefining Theory and Practice to Guide Social Transformation: Emerging Research and Opportunities addresses the need practitioners and social change agents have in finding processes and practices to use in the field to engage with and transform communities. This critical reference book provides an innovative fieldwork method that leads to social transformation and suggests ways to further develop the relationship between academic theories and practices around social conflicts with the existing local knowledge. The chapters include mini case studies that have been developed over the years from the authors’ work with youth and community leaders with the objective of providing a methodology that allows practitioners to approach the field by engaging with local actors in ways that are generative and trustworthy, yet rigorous. While highlighting the practices, notions, and technologies that are at work in conflict, post-conflict, or transitioning out of conflict settings by local community leaders, this book is ideally for practitioners in the field of conflict, peacebuilding, and social and conflict transformation; community leaders and social organizers; as well as practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in social transformation.

Over the last few decades, the new discipline of sustainability science (SS) has evolved with a phenomenal rise in knowledge production, research, and publications, as well as the development of new academic programs and creation of centers and scientific communities, networks, and organizations. With pressing global environmental issues in the 21st century, SS has become an influential discipline and important subject of intellectual inquiry that deserves support from the academy and scientific communities worldwide to find solutions to global problems such as climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss. Intellectual, Scientific, and Educational Influences on Sustainability Research is a concise and authoritative book that fills the crucial and unmet need for educational materials that integrates theoretical foundations, methodological basis, and practice in the science of sustainability. The goal of the book is to increase accessibility and use of educational and scientific knowledge among academic and non-academic audiences as it assembles the wisdom and insights from up-to-date scholarship and advances in this new discipline. Highlighting various topics such as biodiversity, public transportation, and human development, it is ideal for environmentalists, ecologists, technology developers, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and students.

Given the compelling need to understand how entrepreneurship can support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and be appropriately guided, this book explores how entrepreneurial thinking and action can support social change, and investigates alternative entrepreneurship approaches by drawing together different studies.

This book gathers high-quality papers presented at the First International Conference on Sustainable Technologies for Computational Intelligence (ICTSCI 2019), which was organized by Sri Balaji College of Engineering and Technology, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, on March 29–30, 2019. It covers emerging topics in computational intelligence and effective strategies for its implementation in engineering applications.

In today’s rapidly evolving society, there has been an increase in technologies and systems available to support the elderly throughout various aspects of life. We have come a long way in the quality of life we can offer our aging populations in recent years due to these technological innovations, medical advancements, and research initiatives. However, further study of these developments is crucial to ensure they are utilized to their utmost potential in securing a healthier elderly population. The Research Anthology on Supporting Healthy Aging in a Digital Society discusses the current challenges of aging in the modern world as well as recent developments in medicine and technology that can be used to improve the quality of life of elderly citizens. Covering a wide range of topics such as smart homes, remote healthcare, and aging in place, this reference work is ideal for healthcare professionals, gerontologists, therapists, government officials, policymakers, researchers, academicians, practitioners, scholars, instructors, and students.

Traditional farming systems have dominated the agricultural sector for the past few centuries. However, the past few years have proven that new, non-traditional farming methods, such as passive and non-passive solar drying, are essential in the wake of diminishing food production globally. Optimizing the Use of Farm Waste and Non-Farm Waste to Increase Productivity and Food Security: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a crucial reference source that provides vital research on the application of enhanced productivity, flexibility, competitiveness, and sustainability within an individual farming enterprise to promote food security. While highlighting topics such as biogas production, food distribution network, and aquaculture diversification, this publication explores utilizing farm waste in a circular approach to optimize material utilization in a farming system to realize a zero-waste scenario and the methods individual farms can practice to operate sufficiently to become successful and contribute to the attainment of national food security. This book is ideally designed for policymakers, farmers, researchers, agriculture engineers, environmental engineers, and development specialists seeking current research on non-farm waste contributions as sources of raw materials.