In recent years, environmental problems have become a serious issue worldwide due to the increasing damage caused by climate change. People’s environmental awareness has grown, and public opinion is now demanding effective action from governments. Young people around the world are playing an important role in this, with the Fridays For Future movement, calling on policymakers to make environmental protection one of their political priorities. Through a survey of 1,975 high school students, this paper aims to contribute to the study of young people’s sustainable behaviors and their awareness to take effective action against environmental degradation, to explore their concerns and opinions about environmental issues, and to find out what ecological practices they are willing to adopt in their daily lives. Data analysis is conducted using tree-based methods to examine the sustainable behaviors and define the key practices that constitute them. The results of classification tree show that sustainable behaviors impact lifestyles, whether through less demanding actions such as turning off the faucet or appliances, or willingness to work as a volunteer, among others. The Random Forest provides us with a ranked list of sustainable behaviors that young people engage in to reduce and stop environmental degradation. The results of this study may be of interest to policy makers who need to plan educational pathways for students from elementary school to university, as environmental culture must be a cornerstone of our society.

The aim of the research here presented is to describe and compare the social representations of entomophagy co-constructed and circulating among different groups of consumers. Social representations theory (SRT) allows us to understand a social reality that the individual builds based on his own experience in everyday life symbolic exchanges, whose primary function is to adapt concepts and abstract ideas using objectification and anchoring processes. We carried out this research within the structural approach methodological framework. We explored the structure (central core and peripheral schemes) and the content (information, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs) of the social representations of entomophagy by using mixed methodological strategies (hierarchized evocations, validated scales, check-list, projective tool, open-ended questions). Data were processed employing different R packages. The main results show an essential role played by generative processes (objectification and anchoring) as well as cognitive polyphasia and thémata in the co-construction of the social representations of entomophagy. Data could help in understanding the sensory characteristics of “insects as food” that should be used or avoided, for example, in communication aimed to promote entomophagy.

In recent years, the increasing number of natural disasters has raised concerns about the sustainability of our planet’s future. As young people comprise the generation that will suffer from the negative effects of climate change, they have become involved in a new climate activism that is also gaining interest in the public debate thanks to the Fridays for Future (FFF) movement. This paper analyses the results of a survey of 1,138 young people in a southern Italian region to explore their perceptions of the extent of environmental problems and their participation in protests of green movements such as the FFF. The statistical analyses perform an ordinal classification tree using an original impurity measure considering both the ordinal nature of the response variable and the heterogeneity of its ordered categories. The results show that respondents are concerned about the threat of climate change and participate in the FFF to claim their right to a healthier planet and encourage people to adopt environmentally friendly practices in their lifestyles. Young people feel they are global citizens, connected through the Internet and social media, and show greater sensitivity to the planet’s environmental problems, so they are willing to take effective action to demand sustainable policies from decision-makers. When planning public policies that will affect future generations, it is important for policymakers to know the demands and opinions of key stakeholders, especially young people, in order to plan the most appropriate measures, such as climate change mitigation.

In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in comparative studies about migrant integration, assimilation and the evaluation of policies implemented for these purposes. Over the years, the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) has become a reference on these topics. This index measures and evaluates the policies of migrants’ integration in 52 countries over time. However, the comparison of very different countries can be difficult and, if not well conducted, can lead to misleading interpretations and evaluations of the results. The aim of this paper is to improve this comparison and facilitate the reading of the considered phenomenon, by applying a Mixture of Matrix-Normals classification model for longitudinal data. Focusing on data for 7 MIPEX dimensions from 2014 to 2019, our analysis identify 5 clusters of countries, facilitating the evaluation and the comparison of the countries within each cluster and between different clusters.

In recent years, many studies have examined “novel foods” from various perspectives; however, the theoretical framework of social representations has been underutilized in this research. This paper denotes an initial attempt to study the socio-symbolic impact of synthetic foods using this framework. Specifically, the study aims to explore how different audiences—such as carnivores versus vegetarians—interpret unfamiliar foods, focusing on a new food technology: synthetic meat. The research seeks to describe and compare the social representations of cultured meat that are co-constructed and shared among these social groups (n = 350). The study adopts the structural approach, analyzing both the structure and content of the social representations in question. This was achieved through a mixed-methods strategy, which included hierarchical evocation, a food neophobia scale, checklists, open-ended questions, and a projective sensory analysis technique. Data analysis employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. The main findings indicate the significant roles of generative processes, cognitive polyphasia, and sensory anchors in the co-construction of social representations of cultured meat. The use of chemical-genetic objectification, metaphors, and clichés reflects ongoing debates about the possible implications of synthetic meat consumption for the environment and society. Our findings encourage consideration of social knowledge and cultural variables in food studies.