City of crisis: the multiple contestation of Southern European cities

The ongoing crisis in Europe has dramatic impact on the life in many Southern European cities: Unemployment, social deprivation, poverty, political instability, severe cuts in the welfare state budgets and a wide spread feeling of despair have eroded much of the social foundation of the cities. In this book, contributors from Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy provide an insight into the complex interference between the different aspects of the crisis. They show that the recent urban crisis is not purely a result of the budgetary problems of the nation state ("austerity urbanism") but needs to be seen as multiple contestations. The Crisis of the City is therefore understood as a result of a changing nation state, cultural diversity, challenged urban planning and politics and a globalized economy

The Principles, Features and Techniques of Data Journalism

Digital and computational technology is steadily developing and continually bringing changes in the field of journalism, which faces a major crisis, as people’s trust in the media continues to decrease. This paper studies the subject of data journalism which is increasing in popularity and is considered to be at the forefront of these changes. This kind of journalism may be a way to re-establish and strengthen journalism’s value, as well as to reassure its sustainability. Datasets, tools, policies on Freedom of Information and transparency and professionals become constantly available for data journalism to flourish. However, there are still many challenges along with skepticism and confusion around its role and value in the field. In the near future, data journalism seems to gain more trust by the news organization and the public, as both start to comprehend its potentials

Social disadvantage and the role of physical education and sport-for-all in young people at Cyprus and Greece: discourse of social class, gender and race

Global austerity and prolonged recession have made social disadvantage prominent in young people’s lives, thus the call for the prevention and tackling of the phenomenon appears urgent (Dagkas, 2018). In particular, evidence suggests that Physical Education (PE) as well as Sport-for-All programmes (SfA) can have a life-changing impact on young people who experience social disadvantage (EU EDUHEALTH, 2017-2019; Dagkas and Hunter, 2015). Although investment in these two ‘sections’ of sport has been extensive, not all countries have access to them and at times, the desirable ‘life-changing’ impact does not emerge (WHO, 2013). This research study seeks to explore the views of young people living in Nicosia/Cyprus and Athens/Greece on PE and SfA programmes with the aim of addressing relevant issues linked to social disadvantage and particularly to social class, gender and ethnicity. It examines how such programmes change, shape, influence and impact upon young people’s social disadvantage. This cross-cultural, qualitative study follows a case-study research design complemented by ethnographic elements. Intersectionality is the research paradigm of the study and the theoretical framework that informs this study is rooted in the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, Judith Butler and Critical Race Theory. The qualitative data was collected from research work in two ‘disadvantaged’, secondary schools in Athens and Nicosia, by employing focus-group interviews with students, PE lesson observations, analysis of policy documents and the diary of the researcher. Thematic Analysis was the primary tool for data analysis. Findings indicate that: (a) young people interpret social disadvantage in multi-faceted ways; (b) the role of PE and SfA is positive, yet under certain circumstances; (c) effective PE and SfA programmes are suggested to be ‘for-all’, free-of-charge, complemented with modern and trendy activities delivered by appropriately-trained PE teachers

Implementation challenge of smart specialisation innovation strategies in catch-up regions: the role of institutions, governance and capacity building

This thesis examines public policy implementation in catch-up regions through the analytical lens of Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3). Smart specialisation is a regional innovation strategy, introduced in 2010 as the main European cohesion policy to promote economic convergence. Empirical research shows that catch-up regions encounter major difficulties in putting S3 theory into practice. The need to understand why S3 development cannot be taken for granted, brings into focus the implementation challenge of smart specialisation, which is currently associated with weaknesses in building responsive governance models, thick institutions and strong research capabilities for innovation-driven growth. This study investigates S3 challenges in two European catch-up regions: Crete and Central Macedonia. It builds upon a conceptual framework that brings together elements from regional innovation studies with institutional and capacity building theories, aiming to investigate public policy implementation barriers in two Greek regions which have been in fiscal crisis for over a decade. It suggests that S3 barriers derive from a much wider knowledge gap in regional studies, already existing before the introduction of smart specialisation as a development strategy. This gap rests on the lack of empirical understanding of what governance and institutional change is required in lagging regions to tackle the regional innovation paradox: how change impacts on economic growth, when change must be initiated to be feasible and realistic, and what capabilities are needed to support change for regional renewal and development. To operate the conceptual framework, a qualitative case study approach has been designed, using evidence from academic, public and private local actors with a key role in developing S3. Primary data were collected by means of fifty semstructured interviews; participant observation was also used as a complementary method. Secondary data were gathered from a detailed documentary analysis of official textual sources. The thesis demonstrates the implementation challenge of smart specialisation, extending previous studies which examine S3 development in lagging regions. In contrast to much literature, it shows that S3 barriers are not simply due to weakness of catch-up regions to build research capacities, but also to non-smart specialisation-related barriers, yet highly influential on policy implementation. Such barriers include critical mass accumulation problems, public-sector administrative burden and lack of public-private trust. They are institutional and capacity building-related, and they should not been seen, in conceptual terms, as a precondition to effective S3 implementation. Rather, they are the result of a concurrent existence of weak policy governance models, limited institutional autonomy for regional self-governance and lack of transformative capacities for structural shifts. Two contributions to knowledge are made. Firstly, the research contributes to bottom-up theoretical understanding of regional policy development by showing that S3 debate should no longer be just about improving research capacities, but about how to best understand and address opportunities and challenges emerging from bringing together institutional integration, policy governance advances and capacity building improvements. Particularly, it evidences that S3 challenge needs to be examined and understood through a concurrent analysis of the ways in which governance, institutions and capabilities embedded in the wider environment of a region are related and evolved. Secondly, it contributes to the further advancement of regional studies, by providing a practical understanding of how to best develop S3 in practice. A three-stage policy implementation model is developed to support innovation strategists to search for an S3 implementation mix that best corresponds to their own needs

Data and the city – accessibility and openness. a cybersalon paper on open data

This paper showcases examples of bottom–up open data and smart city applications and identifies lessons for future such efforts. Examples include Changify, a neighbourhood-based platform for residents, businesses, and companies; Open Sensors, which provides APIs to help businesses, startups, and individuals develop applications for the Internet of Things; and Cybersalon’s Hackney Treasures. a location-based mobile app that uses Wikipedia entries geolocated in Hackney borough to map notable local residents. Other experiments with sensors and open data by Cybersalon members include Ilze Black and Nanda Khaorapapong's The Breather, a "breathing" balloon that uses high-end, sophisticated sensors to make air quality visible; and James Moulding's AirPublic, which measures pollution levels. Based on Cybersalon's experience to date, getting data to the people is difficult, circuitous, and slow, requiring an intricate process of leadership, public relations, and perseverance. Although there are myriad tools and initiatives, there is no one solution for the actual transfer of that data

Public and Private Welfare in Modern Europe

Since the 1980s, neoliberals have openly contested the idea that the state should protect the socio-economic well-being of its citizens, making ‘privatization’ their mantra. Yet, as historians and social scientists have shown, welfare has always been a ‘mixed economy’, wherein private and public actors dynamically interacted, collaborating or competing with each other in the provision of welfare services. This book will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of welfare by developing three innovative approaches. Firstly, it　illuminates the productive nature of public/private entanglements. Far from amounting to a zero-sum game, the interactions between the two sectors have changed over time what welfare encompasses, its contents and targets, often engendering the creation of new fields of intervention. Secondly, this book departs from a well-established tradition of comparison between Western nation-states by using and mixing various scales of analysis (local, national, international and global) and by covering case studies from Spain to Poland and France to Greece in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Thirdly, this book goes beyond state centrism in welfare studies by bringing back a host of public and private actors, from municipalities to international organizations, from older charities to modern NGOs