Does regional development explain international youth mobility? Spatial patterns and global/local determinants of the recent emigration of young Italians

In this essay, we tackle the issue of the international mobility of young Italians in relation to regional disparities. Our intention is to determine if and to what extent a relationship exists between regional development and the international mobility of young people. We analyze the international migration of Italian citizens aged 15-34 who left the country in the period 2010-2017 using several variables that reflect the varying conditions found in different NUTS 3-level regions in terms of economic dynamism, labor-market efficiency, social fragility, educational underdevelopment and spatial peripherality. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) models show that the international mobility of young Italians is very much dependent on local conditions and affected by spatial differences. It is greatest in the most economically dynamic areas of the country, in border regions and in metropolitan areas, with factors relating to spatial proximity and peripherality, imbalances in local labor markets, and paucity of human capital proving particularly significant

Non-mean-field effects in systems with long-range forces in competition

We investigate the canonical equilibrium of systems with long-range forces in competition. These forces create a modulation in the interaction potential and modulated phases appear at the system scale. The structure of these phases differentiate this system from monotonic potentials, where only the mean-field and disordered phases exist. With increasing temperature, the system switches from one ordered phase to another through a first-order phase transition. Both mean-field and modulated phases may be stable, even at zero temperature, and the long-range nature of the interaction will lead to metastability characterized by extremely long time scales

Citizen participation and awareness raising in coastal protected areas. A case study from Italy

In this chapter, part of the research carried out within the SECOA project (www.projectsecoa.eu) is presented. Attention is devoted to methods and tools used for supporting the participatory process in a case of environmental conflict related to the definition of boundaries of a coastal protected area: the Costa Teatina National Park, in Abruzzo, central Italy. The Costa Teatina National Park was established by the National Law 93/2001. Its territory includes eight southern Abruzzo municipalities and covers a stretch of coastline of approximately 60 km. It is a coastal protected area, which incorporates land but not sea, characterized by the presence of important cultural and natural assets. The Italian Ministry of Environment (1998) defines the area as “winding and varied, with the alternation of sandy and gravel beaches, cliffs, river mouths, areas rich in indigenous vegetation and cultivated lands (mainly olives), dunes and forest trees”. The park boundaries were not defined by the law that set it up, and their determination has been postponed to a later stage of territorial negotiation that has not ended yet (Montanari and Staniscia, 2013). The definition of the park boundaries, indeed, has resulted in an intense debate between citizens and interest groups who believe that environmental protection does not conflict with economic growth and those who believe the opposite. That is why the process is still in act and a solution is far from being reached. In this chapter, the methodology and the tools used to involve the general public in active participation in decision making and to support institutional players in conflict mitigation will be presented. Those tools have also proven to be effective in the dissemination of information and transfer of knowledge. Results obtained through the use of each instrument will not be presented here since this falls outside the purpose of the present essay. The chapter is organized as follows: in the first section the importance of the theme of citizen participation in decision making will be highlighted; the focus will be on participation in the processes of ICZM, relevant to the management of coastal protected areas. In the second section a review of the most commonly used methods in social research is presented; advantages and disadvantages of each of them will be highlighted. In particular, the history and the evolution of the Delphi method and its derivatives are discussed; focus will be on the dissemination value of the logic underlying such iterative methods. In the third section the tools used in the case of the Costa Teatina National Park will be presented; strengths and weaknesses will be highlighted and proposals for their improvement will be advanced. Discussion and conclusions follow

SECOA territories and conflicts: data dilemmas

The implementation of the principles of GIScience is strongly influenced by the definition of the phenomenon and the territory to be explored, the explanatory variables, and the availability of data. This chapter will deal with those issues: how the problems were placed in SECOA and which solutions have been adopted. The themes and topics characterizing SECOA are defined, and the variables chosen for analyzing, classifying, and modelling them are described. The themes characterizing SECOA are those connected to places and to conflicts. We first discuss place and territory followed by conflict and contrast. Then, SECOA places and conflicts are defined, and SECOA variables and data are presented

Metropolitansko područje Chieti-Pescara: međunarodne migracije, izbor stanovanja i ekonomska dekoncentracija

The subject of human mobility – with reference to the migratory component – has taken on specific significance during the last decade, particularly with regard to the concept of place. This paper considers the subject in relation to residential and economic deconcentration. The specific point of reference is the metropolitan area of Chieti-Pescara, in the central part of Italy’s Adriatic coast. The research was carried out through quantitative analysis of official data from population censuses and register offices. The results highlight the links between movements of residents and those of firms, in which foreign residents show distinctive behaviour. The residential choices made by foreigners in the area are based on economic reasons and are primarily linked to housing and transport costs. Their communities tend to be concentrated in specific zones of the metropolitan area and in specific districts of the cities, as a consequence of a feeling of belonging and solidarity. Although there are no clear signs of segregation phenomena, the native population tends to avoid mingling with foreigners from marginal countries.Tema ljudske pokretljivosti – s obzirom na migracijsku komponentu – dobila je specifično značenje tijekom zadnjeg desetljeća, posebice u vezi koncepta mjesta. U članku se tema razmatra u odnosu na stambenu i ekonomsku dekoncentraciju. Specifična referentna točka je metropolitansko područje Chieti-Pescara u središnjem dijelu talijanske jadranske obale. Istraživanje je provedeno putem kvantitativne analize službenih podataka popisa stanovništva i prijavnih ureda. Rezultati naglašavaju veze između kretanja stanovnika i tvrtki, pri čemu se očituje distinktivno ponašanje stranaca. Stranci koji žive na tom području mjesto stanovanja biraju na temelju ekonomskih razloga, prvenstveno vezanih uz troškove stanovanja i prijevoza. Njihove zajednice pokazuju sklonost prema koncentraciji u specifičnim zonama tog područja i specifičnim predjelima gradova kao rezultat osjećaja pripadnosti i solidarnosti. Premda nema očitih znakova segregacije, domaće stanovništvo nastoji izbjegavati druženje sa strancima iz marginalnih zemalja

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cross-border shopping tourism: the case of Hungary

By today the smooth functioning of the global economy has been highly dependent on the uninterrupted flow of factors across borders. The free flow of tourists is also inevitable for the proper functioning of the global tourism industry. However, tourism and various forms of cross-border (tourism) activities were put under unprecedented pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, since most countries, including Hungary, introduced serious restrictions on mobility to slow down the spread of the virus. This paper focuses on a relatively under-researched topic, cross-border shopping tourism in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the outbreak of the pandemic, shopping tourism was deemed to be an increasingly important component of the tourism value chain. Several studies have demonstrated that shopping has become one of the most favourable activities among tourists and one of the major categories of tourists’ expenditure. Based on the review of the relevant literature, the paper introduces the notion and forms of shopping tourism and discusses the major research topics with special regard to the effects of the pandemic and other types of crisis events. The impact of the pandemic on shopping tourism is observed through the example of Hungary, whereby the effects of restrictions, exchange rate fluctuations, and price-level differences on the number of in- and outbound shopping trips, and the related expenditures, are evaluated. Results show that re-bordering processes due to the pandemic have not only resulted in an unprecedented decline in cross-border shopping tourism, but they also contributed to the spatial restructuring of shopping (tourism) and retailing. The pandemic not only sustained cross-border differentials vital to shopping tourism but sometimes even created new forms of them; these differences, however, could not counter the negative effects of restricted international mobility. The paper aims to contribute to the literature on cross-border tourism by reviewing the effects and consequences of COVID-19 and related restrictions on shopping tourism

Passive viscoelastic response of striated muscles

Muscle cells with sarcomeric structure exhibit highly nontrivial passive mechanical response. The difficulty of its continuum modeling is due to the presence of long-range interactions transmitted by extended protein skeleton. To build a rheological model for muscle 'material' we use a stochastic micromodel and derive a linear response theory for a half-sarcomere. Instead of the first order rheological equation, anticipated by A.V. Hill on the phenomenological grounds, we obtain a novel second order equation. We use the values of the microscopic parameters for frog muscles to show that the proposed rheological model is in excellent quantitative agreement with physiological experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Migración y movilidad de las personas calificadas : nuevos enfoques teóricos, territorios y actores

Este artículo analiza, desde una perspectiva teórica, los nuevos patrones de migración y movilidad calificadas, tanto de naturaleza temporal como permanente, laborales y no laborales, en un mundo globalizado y tecnológicamente avanzado. El artículo define una tipología de migrantes calificados: trabajadores de las trasnacionales, estudiantes y académicos y empresarios étnicos. Aborda también el papel que juegan las instituciones, los estados-nación y las organizaciones supranacionales, que favorecen o entorpecen la migración y la movilidad de estos actores. El artículo sugiere que las nuevas formas de movilidad calificada están relacionas no sólo con factores materiales, como son las oportunidades formativas o la carrera profesional y académica, sino también al deseo de experimentar, de sentirse libre, de conocerse mejor o de ser reconocidoThis paper examines theoretically new patterns of skilled migration and mobility, temporary and permanent, labour and non-labour in a globalized and technologically advanced world. The article defines a typology of skilled migrants: TNC workers, students and academics, and ethnic entrepreneurs. It also addresses the role of institutions, nation states and supranational organizations that help or hinder the migration and mobility of these actors. The article suggests that new forms of skilled mobility relate not only to material factors, such as training opportunities or professional and academic career, but also experimentation, sense of freedom, knowledge and self-knowledg

Migración y movilidad de las personas calificadas: nuevos enfoques teóricos, territorios y actores

Este artículo analiza, desde una perspectiva teórica, los nuevos patrones de migración y movilidad calificadas, tanto de naturaleza temporal como permanente, laborales y no laborales, en un mundo globalizado y tecnológicamente avanzado. El artículo define una tipología de migrantes calificados: trabajadores de las trasnacionales, estudiantes y académicos y empresarios étnicos. Aborda también el papel que juegan las instituciones, los estados-nación y las organizaciones supranacionales, que favorecen o entorpecen la migración y la movilidad de estos actores. El artículo sugiere que las nuevas formas de movilidad calificada están relacionas no sólo con factores materiales, como son las oportunidades formativas o la carrera profesional y académica, sino también al deseo de experimentar, de sentirse libre, de conocerse mejor o de ser reconocid

A quien sepa oír. Una contribución sobre las ideas del Otro, la analéctica y el compromiso filosófico en la filosofía de Enrique Dussel

La relevancia de la obra de Enrique Dussel en la historia de la filosofía contemporánea latinoamericana es innegable. Esto es tan así que, más allá de las objeciones y elogios que su obra ha despertado –y quizás por esto mismo-, intentar comprender el estado actual de la producción teórica en nuestra región al margen de los aportes del pensador argentino-mexicano, resulta inviable. En el escrito que aquí presentamos intentaremos ofrecer una aproximación al pensamiento dusseliano en algunas de sus líneas interpretativas fundamentales, especialmente concentrándonos en la idea del Otro y abriéndonos desde ahí hacia el método analéctico, la analogía y el compromiso que necesariamente un posicionamiento como este conlleva. Estimamos que las categorías apuntadas entrañan una interconexión tal que abordar cualquiera de ellas soslayando las otras, devendría en una tarea infructuosa y un tanto sesgada y es por este motivo que el lector encontrará en este texto diferentes apartados que, si bien en cada caso desarrollan centralmente alguno de los tópicos asentados, dibujan un estrecho lazo conceptual con las restantes, de modo que desde la versión dusseliana del Otro que se afronta en primer lugar se desplegará, como en un movimiento en espiral, la integridad de las demás nociones. The importance of Enrique Dussel’s work in the history of Latin-American contemporary philosophy is undeniable. This is so much the case that beyond the objections and praises that his work has aroused – perhaps due to this- any effort to understand the state-of-art of the academic literature in our region, leaving aside the contributions of the argetinian-mexican thinker, is unfeasible. In this paper we will try to offer an approximation to the dusselian thought in some of its primordal interpretive lines, focusing specially on the idea of the Other and approaching from there the analectic method, the analogy and the commitment which a positioning like this one involves. We consider that those categories entail such an interconnection that approaching any of them ignoring the others, would become a rather biased and unsuccessful attempt. Due to that, the reader will find in this work different sections which, even though in each case develop one of the topics established, they sketch a close conceptual bond with the rest. Thus, from the dusselian version of the Other presented in the first place, the integrality of the rest of the notions will unfold in a spiral approach