A Hybrid Fuzzy TOPSIS Method to Analyze the Coverage of a Hypothetical EU Ecolabel for Fishery and Aquaculture Products (FAPs)

The Effects of COVID-19 on Family Climate: A Fuzzy Clustering Approach to Examine Spanish Households

Spain was one of the countries in which more severe lockdown policies were imposed during the second term of 2020 to mitigate the unprecedented health crisis. The measures restricted citizens’ mobility, obliging families to stay confined at homes for 99 days since 15 March 2020. The measures created a number of challenges that affect the family climate. This paper aims to empirically analyse how the family climate in Spain has been affected by COVID-19. The family climate assessment was based on an online questionnaire answered by 2034 citizens. A multi-criteria decision-making method rooted in fuzzy logic and TOPSIS, and a fuzzy clustering method, are applied to analyse the effects of the COVID-19 on the family climate. The fuzzy clustering method reveals that there are three different family climate profiles, namely (1) extreme positive, (2) extreme negative, and (3) intermediate. Our results show that some traits affect having a more or less positive family climate. The authors discuss the main contributions and the policy implications that could provide insights into future measures.

Two Approaches to Analyze Whether Citizens’ National Identity Is Affected by Country, Age, and Political Orientation—A Fuzzy Eco-Apostle Model

The study analyzes national identity using the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) database for the waves of 2003 and 2013. First, the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and the Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA) are used to find the dimensions of the items included in the national identity module. Second, the civic and ethnic dimensions are analyzed through both a fuzzy clustering analysis and an extended apostle model to classify citizens’ national identity as the following: (1) post nationalists; (2) ethnic oriented; (3) civic-oriented; (4) credentialists. Third, the fuzzy eco-extended apostle model is applied to analyze 16 different national identity categories, for which the four pure mentioned categories are further studied. Fourth, the effects of some social characteristics, such as country-year, political orientation-year, and age-year, on the respective pure national Identity categories are studied using two distinct approaches, namely, contingency tables and conditional probability ratios. Results show that citizens tend to be more pure-credentialist than any other category and that social characteristics play a determinant role in explaining each category of citizens’ national identity.

Achieving Sustainability of the Seafood Sector in the European Atlantic Area by Addressing Eco-Social Challenges: The NEPTUNUS Project

Fisheries and aquaculture are becoming a focus of societal concern driven by globalization and increasing environmental degradation, mainly caused by climate change and marine litter. In response to this problem, the European Atlantic Area NEPTUNUS project aims to support and inform about the sustainability of the seafood sector, boosting the transition towards a circular economy through defining eco-innovation approaches and a steady methodology for eco-labelling products. This timely trans-regional European project proposes key corrective actions for positively influencing resource efficiency by addressing a life cycle thinking and involving all stakeholders in decision-making processes, harnessing the water-energy-seafood nexus. This paper presents inter-related objectives, methodologies and cues to action that will potentially meet these challenges that are aligned with many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and European policy frameworks (e.g., Farm to Fork, European Green Deal).