Romeo Asiminei

In recent years, education for sustainable development has assumed an increasingly important role in shaping the key competences needed to understand and adopt responsible consumption behaviors. In such a context, this article proposes an analysis of the way in which an elective course on Sustainable Consumption Behaviors, introduced recently into a university educational program at a higher education institution in Romania, can create opportunities for engaging students with knowledge and values related to sustainability. The article is built around a case study on the curricular design of the course, examined in relation to the conceptual framework of education for sustainable development and to the UNESCO competences. The analysis maps the teaching assessment activities onto the framework of key sustainability competencies proposed by UNESCO. It presents both the content and architecture of the course, as well as the thematic distribution of the choices made by students for the assessment tasks. The results indicate that students’ assessment choices were predominantly oriented toward applied topics closer to their everyday experiences: food waste, recycling, reuse, organizational practices for promoting sustainable consumption, and others. Overall, these results suggest that pedagogical approaches centered on practical relevance, critical reflection, and creativity may create favorable conditions for engaging with values associated with sustainability. Therefore, through this article, we highlight the real potential that such thematic elective courses could have in strengthening education for sustainable development and sustainable consumption in higher education.

De-influencing is an emerging trend that appeared in 2023 on the TikTok platform as a reaction to overconsumption. De-influencers are content creators who, through their videos, seek to discourage consumers from purchasing products or services widely promoted by major brands. They position themselves in opposition to traditional social media influencers, who are oriented toward paid brand promotion and driven by the commercial logic of the influencer marketing. Through their content, de-influencers advocate for the mindful use of the planet’s resources and for the consumption of goods and services in a way that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. Thus, the de-influencing movement has been grounded in the growing awareness of the multiple dangers posed by excessive consumption of goods, products, and services—overconsumption having negative effects on natural resources, which are diminishing exponentially and ultimately generating major imbalances in both the environment and society.

In this entry paper, we propose a brief analysis of the use of the notion of “paradigm” in sciences in general and in social sciences and sociology in particular. A “paradigm” expresses a worldview and/or a unified perspective—at the level of the scientific community—on a given situation. Paradigms represent a collection of beliefs shared by the scientific community or a set of agreements through which social issues should be understood and interpreted.

The aim of this paper is to emphasize the role played by the social, economic and political variables in shaping models of sustainable healthcare systems and strategies able to support and improve the quality of life during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The context of our research is represented by the medical and socioeconomic crises generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current pandemic negatively affects healthcare systems, quality of life and the global economy. In this respect, this paper aims to thoroughly scrutinize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social and healthcare systems of EU countries, to analyze the impact of human development in the field of the Global Health Security Index and to estimate the relation between resilience and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research design is quantitative, resorting to the use of both descriptive and inferential statistics, against the background of a long-term comparative approach to the respective situations in the EU-27 countries. Empirical findings are relevant for emphasizing the fact that human development and social progress are predictors for the dynamics of health security measures. Moreover, the quality of the political regime, particularly in the case of full and flawed democracies, is strongly related to a high level of resilience and could influence the perception of quality of life. All of these empirical results could prove valuable for scholars interested in understanding the relationships between democracy, healthcare systems and quality of life, and for political decision makers involved in the effort of reducing the negative effects of COVID-19 in EU-27 countries.