The main objective of the ASMeC research project is to deepen knowledge about the attitudes, expectations and actions of students in the Mediterranean basin with regard to the challenges related to climate and environmental change.
In particular, the project explores three research dimensions:
- The first pillar of the ASMeC project aims to understand the degree of knowledge and awareness of students in the three Mediterranean countries involved (Italy, Morocco and Lebanon) regarding climate change scenarios (and their respective impacts) in their country. The hypotheses proposed or chosen by the students will then be compared with the most recent scenarios developed by scientific institutions dealing with climate to assess the main knowledge gaps and distortions in perceptions regarding the severity of the phenomenon. Particular attention will be paid to understanding which individual characteristics of students are related to greater (or lesser) knowledge about climate change.
- The second pillar of the ASMeC project wants to consider the actual willingness to contribute individually and personally to climate change adaptation and mitigation actions. In particular, students’ attitudes towards individual actions and towards contributions to collective actions will be separately assessed. The theoretical context of reference is that of identifying an ‘intention-behaviour gap’.
- The third pillar of the ASMeC project focuses on the issue of migration, both in terms of ‘inbound migration’ (in response, also, to climate change) and in terms of propensity to evaluate migration as a possible strategy for adaptation to climate change in the Mediterranean basin. We will therefore consider first the determinants of students’ attitudes towards ‘outbound migration’, with particular attention to the motivations linked to expectations in terms of climate change, and secondly the position of students towards inbound migratory flows.
The academic partners of the project (UNIURB, UAE, USEK) will explore the existing scientific literature to build the state of the art and to organize a series of thematic focus groups dedicated to the elaboration of a survey to be distributed among the university students in the Mediterranean basin, through the UNIMED, EMN and ESNI networks.
After the data collection phase, the researchers involved in the project will deal with the analytical part. The results will be discussed with the students during internal, regional and international events involving external experts. A final publication will be produced and disseminated through an international conference at the end of the project.
