Endogenous Population Dynamics and Metropolitan Cycles: Long-Term Evidence from Athens, an Eternally Mediterranean City

Natural population growth is an intrinsic property of demographic systems that depends on (spatially) non-stationary processes of fertility and mortality. Assuming distinctive demographic dynamics as a characteristic attribute of urban, suburban and rural systems, analysis of spatial variability in natural population growth delineates nonlinear stages of metropolitan expansion, possibly reflecting divergent responses to socioeconomic stimuli. The present study investigates endogenous population growth (1956–2019) and the relationship with demographic density as basic attributes of individual stages of the city life cycle in Athens (Greece), a mono-centric metropolitan region in Southern Europe. A spatially explicit analysis of natural balance rates at local scale identified two stages of growth, namely compact urbanization (mid-1950s to late 1970s)—with agglomeration strengthening the polarization in demographically dynamic and shrinking districts—and spatially decentralized suburbanization (early 1980s to late 2010s)—with a less defined role of agglomeration economies and more heterogeneous demographic processes. However, the impact of population density on endogenous growth was stronger in recent decades, suggesting how demographic dynamics may still respond to agglomeration stimuli, at least during recessions. At the same time, the spatial structure of natural balance rates became more mixed, likely reflecting the importance of heterogeneous demographic behaviors at the individual level

Population Structure and Economic Cycles in Greece. A Multidimensional Regional Analysis (1988-2016)

Demographic structures have undergone important transformations driven by economic cycles because of population movements and spatially-variable patterns of fertility and mortality. Understanding the latent relationship between changes over time in population structure and sequential waves of expansion and recession is a relevant issue in economic demography. In this regard, the recent history of southern European countries, and especially of Greece, is representative of consecutive economic expansions and recessions. The present study aims at investigating relevant modifications in population structure across Greek regions between 1988 and 2016 using a multi-temporal factor analysis. Being characterized by a relatively young population with traditional family structures, out-migration and moderate immigration up to the late 1980s, Greek demography shifted towards ageing, mononuclear families and a rising immigration rate during the early 2000s economic expansion, with an overall increase of resident population. The subsequent 2007 recession has represented a turning point in Greek demography, consolidating changes in traditional family structures, while stimulating outmigration to northern and western European countries and reducing immigration from developing countries. A diachronic analysis of population structures at sub-national scale indicates a substantial heterogeneity of demographic processes across Greek regions. Metropolitan areas and highly accessible coastal and flat districts including islands experienced rapid population dynamics, while peripheral rural regions underwent a moderate population ageing. Taken together, these processes had a short-term, synergic impact on Greek demographic structure determining a rapid increase in the median population age with possibly negative consequences for the ability of the country's economy to recover from crisis

Land-use structure, urban growth, and periurban landscape: a multivariate classification of the European cities

Assessment of urbanization and suburbanization patterns and processes in the European Union is becoming increasingly urgent for the formulation of common territorial policies. We hypothesize that the intrinsic characteristics of landscape at the city scale reflect both the local socioeconomic context and the regional trends towards urbanization, possibly representing the contrasting attitude towards suburbanization found in European countries. Using comprehensive information provided by Urban Atlas maps, we propose an exploratory multivariate analysis of eighty-five variables describing land-use composition, landscape structure, and urban form in 283 cities with the aim being to classify the urbanization patterns observed in five European macroregions. Landscape metrics seem to be more powerful in discriminating cities among regions than indicators of land-use composition. The most relevant metrics discriminating among cities are (i) those describing fragmentation processes along the urban gradient and (ii) those evaluating form and patchiness of discontinuous settlements. Landscape and class average patch size and edge density correctly classified cities in more than 80% of cases. In particular, cities in Southern, Eastern, and Northern Europe were identified as three homogeneous groups as far as landscape structure is concerned, confirming the converging urbanization trends in the Mediterranean countries and the peculiar morphological characteristics of post-socialist urban areas

Demographic dynamics, economic expansion and settlement dispersion in Southern Europe. Contrasting patterns of growth and change in three metropolitan region

Settlement densification and scattering are two processes through which cities evolved. Becoming a multidisciplinary research issue, urban sprawl is among the major concerns in developed and emerging countries for its negative impacts on socio-environmental complex systems. Sprawl varies at the regional scale, following different characteristics, dynamics, effects and consequences. Consequently, converging on a unique definition for sprawl is made even more difficult when patterns and processes of urbanization in various countries and regions are considered together. Our study aims at deriving a comprehensive interpretation of urban scattering based on a narrative analysis of recent expansion paths in three metropolitan cities of southern Europe (Barcelona, Istanbul, Naples) in terms of density traits, spatial forms, socioeconomic and environmental impacts. Compared to past urban trajectories, recent processes of urban expansion produced inherent changes in the density gradient, requiring specific actions of urban containment

The expression of certainty and uncertainty in social communication campaigns

This study represents the final step in a wide research intended to compare\ud the print, television and radio advertising campaigns on issues of racism and\ud immigration, launched in Italy since 1990s. Verifying whether the\ud communicative process, the linguistic and extra-linguistic features\ud expressing the status of the foreigners, the kind of relationship between\ud natives and non natives and the social roles assigned to immigrants in the\ud social communication campaigns vary in accordance to the kind of the\ud advertising agency (governmental/ non governmental/ private bodies), and\ud to the Italian political context (left wing/ right wing) we determine the way the advertising agencies express the degree of certainty and uncertainty towards the message they are conveying to Italian hearers and readers

Official Statistics, Building Censuses, and OpenStreetMap Completeness in Italy

The present study provides a simplified framework verifying the degree of coverage and completeness of settlement maps derived from the OpenStreetMap (OSM) database at the national scale, with a possible use in official statistics. Measuring the completeness of the objects (i.e., buildings) derived from OpenStreetMap database supports its potential use in building/population censuses and other diachronic surveys, as well as administrative sources such as the register of building permits and land-use cadasters. A series of measurements at different scales are proposed and tested for Italy, in line with earlier studies. While recognizing the potential of the OpenStreetMap database for official statistics, the present work underlines the urgent need of an additional (spatially explicit) analysis overcoming the data heterogeneity and sub-optimal coverage of the OSM information source

From Manufacturing to Advanced Services. The (Uneven) Rise and Decline of Mediterranean City-Regions

Uneven changes in the global urban hierarchy have given way to new forms of relationships between urban and rural areas based on complementarities, cooperative and specialized exchange of services and goods, abandoning the additive processes of growth guided by industrialization and urbanization. Representing a distant notion from traditional concepts in regional studies such as 'compact cities' or 'suburbs', 'gravitation' or 'hierarchy', the 'city-region' paradigm has stimulated different visions to be recomposed within the 'sustainability' framework. With global changes, the 'mega-city region' model has starting to take the lead in the development of contemporary urban agglomeration. In this study, considerations over the emergence of this urban model in the Mediterranean region will be presented to investigate the relationship between dispersed urbanization and consolidating southern European city-regions. While Mediterranean cities have been considered for long time as ‘ordinary’ cities, rather distant from the 'globalized' northern urban models, most of these cities are characterized by distinctive socioeconomic traits possibly open to competition and globalization. The present contribution describes the emergence of a Mediterranean urban area, Athens, as a new 'city-region' in the context of urbanization processes in Greece and in the Mediterranean basin as a whole. One of the clearest indications of urban competitiveness amongst emerging and established large city-regions is the fight for hosting mega-events. The final objective of the study is to understand how the efforts for increasing urban competitiveness are impacting new forms of cityregions, mainly based on low-density settlements reflecting discontinuous urbanization

Corruption and development. A comparative approach to socioeconomic and political dimensions worldwide

The present study investigates relevant economic, social and political dimensions of development worldwide, focusing on (apparent and latent) links between perceived corruption, economic and human development, government effectiveness and the quality of the political system taken as representative variables of countries\u2019 social systems. These variables were selected as the basic determinants of the level of overall development in a country, since combinations of these factors determine clusters of countries with different development patterns. The results of this study indicate that effective development policies require integrated strategies that incorporate efforts to reduce corruption and increase human development and government effectiveness. These strategies are sustainable in the long run when associated with institutional transformations. More specifically, if democracy is not consolidated and the political system is not grounded on the basis of freedom, socioeconomic development cannot be achieved and maintained in the long term, even with a high level of per-capita income