The role of Greek shipowners in the revival of northern European shipyards in the 1950s

This chapter examines how Greek shipowners combined their entrepreneurial skills with American finance and European maritime expertise to become the world’s leading shipowners in the post-war period. Led by Aristotle Onassis, they were able to exploit opportunities in the United States in the 1940s and led the way in tanker shipping in post-WWII Europe. Greek shipowners created and consolidated the new institution of the global shipping company, paving the way for today’s ‘stateless’ maritime industry. The chapter analyzes the growth of the oil market and tanker shipbuilding by following the activities of one of the leaders of Greek and world tanker shipping, Aristotle Onassis, during the period 1948–1954. In the second part, we examine tanker shipbuilding by the Greeks, in particular by Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos, in German shipyards. Today, Greece is the leading country in terms of ownership of the world fleet, and this chapter shows how this became possible

Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Behavioural Implications of Bidirectional Activity-Based Ambient Displays in Ambient Assisted Living Environments

In this chapter, we investigate the extent to which the real-time bidirectional exchange of activity information can influence context-awareness, social presence, social connectedness, and importantly interpersonal activity synchrony in mediated ambient assisted living (AAL) environments. Additionally, we describe the design, development, and assessment of a bidirectional ambient display platform to support real-time activity awareness and social connectedness in mediated AAL contexts. In a semi-controlled study, we evaluate a conglomerate of activity-based lighting displays, to determine the effects of real-time bidirectional deployment on behaviour and social connectedness. Exploiting everyday objects, human activity levels are projected with a Philips Hue lamp, LED wallet, and LED walking cane, which render this information based on predefined patterns of light. Results from the current study show tendencies toward (1) an increase in implicit social interactions (e.g., the sense of experienced social presence and connectedness), (2) more positive social behaviours between the elderly and their caregivers in mediated AAL contexts, and (3) sporadic moments of interpersonal activity synchrony however, further investigation is necessary to determine the extent of this variable in mediated AAL contexts