Contribution of Civil Protection to the Urban Economy: Evidence from a Small-Sized Greek City

Civil protection has attracted considerable attention due to its role in disaster management and preparedness, being essential in alerting the public about potential disasters and crisis recovery measures. However, there is limited research on civil protection and its vital role in urban economy recovery. Therefore, we sought to comprehensively investigate the impact of civil protection on economic growth and the development of the urban economy, focusing on a small-sized Greek city, Kozani, as a case study. We utilized data from 160 residents of Kozani. The study findings confirmed that the key focus areas of civil protection, namely, the national early warning system, crisis preparedness measures and economy rescue operations, significantly affect economic growth and development. Furthermore, the key strategies essential for improved civil protection, such as government support, positively affect economic growth.

ІННОВАЦІЙНА ПЛАТФОРМА ПАРАДИГМИ ЕНЕРГООЩАДНОГО ДЕВЕЛОПМЕНТУ: СУЧАСНІ ТРЕНДИ ТА ІМПЕРАТИВИ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ В УКРАЇНІ

Значний рівень енергозалежності та енергомісткості будівельного комплексу України потребує розробки ефективної інтердисциплінарної концепції енергоощадного девелопменту, що надасть змогу реалізувати інвестиційно-будівельні проекти на платформі енергозбереження. Концепцію розроблено на основі синкретизму: «Environmental Economics», «Green Lease», «Urban economy», «Surveying», «Passive House». Одним з новітніх інструментів енергоощадного девелопменту запропоновано використання Buildings Industry Transportation Electricity Scenarios (BITES), що базується на сценаріях аналізу зміни попиту та пропозиції енергоресурсів реального сектору економіки, а також оцінюванні обсягів викидів діоксиду вуглецю виробництвами. Враховуючі сучасні тренди енергозбереження в будівельному комплексі, запропоновано імплементувати в практику управління інвестиційно-будівельних проектів поняття «енергоощадний девелопмент» та визначити його як систему реалізації комплексу заходів економічного, організаційного, технічного, технологічного, правового, екологічного та соціального характеру, спрямованих на зниження рівня витрат енергоресурсів будівлею на основі впровадження енергоефективних технологій та управлінських практик, а також поліпшення організаційно-управлінської сфери, оптимізації бізнес-процесів та взаємодії ланок всередині виробничого ланцюжка. Запропоновано теоретичні засади інтердисциплінарної концепції енергоощадного девелопменту будівельного комплексу, де визначено параметричні характеристики та функціональні ознаки, що є основою для розробки стратегічного механізму її реалізації на всіх рівнях економічної системи з метою зниження енергозалежності нашої держави. Результати дослідження можуть бути впроваджені на всіх рівнях економічної системи, оскільки проблематика підвищення рівня енергоефективності є актуальною. Розроблена інтердисциплінарна концепція енергоощадного девелопменту будівельного комплексу враховує специфіку розвитку ринку будівельного сектору та світові тенденції, що відображені в новітніх концепціях: «Environmental Economics», «Green Lease», «Urban economy», «Surveying», «Passive House».

MODERN APPROACHES TO DETERMINING THE CYCLICALITY OF URBAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The cyclic nature of development is intrinsic to socio-economic systems. Despite the fact that none of the economic cycles is identical to another one, they all have the same stages. The city is a complex multifunctional system. The economy of the city can be viewed as a set of entities belonging to different areas and activities remaining in different stages of the life cycle. The life cycle of the city is a succession of stages of emergence, growth, maturity, and decline. This continuity is the result of the cyclic development of a territory’s functional specialization. The duration and depth of the fluctuations at each stage of the cycle are determined by the influence of external and internal factors as well as the effectiveness of urban management. Therefore, the cyclic development for different territories can have its own specific trajectory. If the urban economy is flexible and adapts quickly to changes in the external and internal environment, the trajectory will be characterized by intermittent cycles. The more pronounced the change of the city development stages is, the more efforts should be made by the city managers in order to diversify the city’s functional structure and create alternative areas of labor application. The paper summarizes the concept of the ‘life cycle of the city’. It also considers the features of each stage of the city life cycle. The studies of the life cycle carried out by leading scientists and practitioners are analyzed. The methodology of assessing the stages of the life cycle and the prospects of urban development is proposed and justified. In the course of the research, the developments of domestic and foreign scientists were systematized and the limit values of indicators-identifiers of the stage of the territory life cycle were offered. Determining the stage of the city life cycle is an important tool assessing the prospects for the development of the urban territory and helping to make effective management decisions and prioritize strategic programs. The methodology of determining the stage of the economic cycle involves identifying points of growth that contribute to the transition from a state of depression or crisis to the phase of development (revitalization). This involves the search for objectively existing or potentially possible factors, prerequisites, resources that will provide an impetus to the advance of the urban economy. Such points of growth can be found in the city-forming sphere (new technologies at enterprises, new competitive types of products), resource factors (natural resources, transport infrastructure, medical, tourist, and other factors), scientific, educational, cultural, and other areas.

Research on the Action Mechanism of Cultural and Creative Industries on Urban Economic Growth under the Background of Media Convergence

Cultural and creative industries interact with the urban economy. Their growth can not only change the mode of economic growth, promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, solve employment problems, directly affect the urban economy, but also indirectly drive economic growth through technological innovation, human capital and cultural values. At present, Media convergence has become the general trend, and technological innovation has weakened the boundaries and barriers of the traditional media market. The media market has been expanded not only in geographical concept but also in product categories. "The integration of technology has blurred the division of different kinds of media, communication products and markets". In this paper, the mechanism model of cultural and creative industries on urban economy is established by constructing structural equations, and then the mechanism of cultural and creative industries is more fully understood.

Precarity, Permits, and Prayers: “Working Practices” of Congolese Asylum-Seeking Women in Cape Town

This paper provides an ethnographic reading of how Congolese women, in particular aslyum seekers with temporary permits, navigate Cape Town's informal urban economy. We argue that the intersections of temporary permit status and gender, as well as the particularities of diaspora flows and settlements, compound the precarity of everyday life. We engage with how precarity shapes and is shaped by what we define as “working practices.” These practices include the everyday livelihood tactics sustained on shoestring budgets and transnational networks. We also show how, in moments of compounded crises – including the COVID-19 pandemic – marginal gains and transnational networks are rendered more fragile. In these traumatic moments, working practices extend to include the practices of hope and reliance on prayer as social ways of contending with exacerbated precarity.

The Cyberdivisions Produced by the Design of VGI under the Platform Economy: The Case of the Restaurant Sector in TripAdvisor

There is increasing concern regarding the inequalities produced by digital platforms based on volunteered geographic information (VGI). Several forms of inequalities have been observed, namely the unequal spatial coverage and the uneven levels of usage even in territories with good coverage. However, VGI platforms under the logic of platform economy have generated other forms of spatial inequality that require more attention. The cyberspace within VGI platforms is producing different cyberspatialities, especially with the platformisation processes that have made this type of inequality more evident. With this in mind, this paper aims to explore the making of cyberdivisions under the platform economy. We argue that the design of VGI within digital platforms is generating cyberdivisions in the urban economy. This research is particularly interested in exploring the restaurant sector in the TripAdvisor platform in the city of Lisbon. In this paper, we draw on a representative survey by questionnaire to restaurant firm owners. We obtained 385 responses out of a universe of 3453 restaurants. This sample provides a confidence level of 95% and a confidence interval of 5%. In addition, we webscraped data from TripAdvisor to assess its coverage in Lisbon. This study reveals that there are different forms of online presence and engagement which have generated cyberdivisions.

Territorio usado e circuito superior marginal: Equipamentos médicos em campinas, Ribeirão Preto e São José do Rio Preto (SP)

A tecnociência, a informação e as finanças são variáveis determinantes da globalização e isso se releva também para a saúde. Os avanços tecnológicos no campo da medicina e a recente sofisticação dos serviços de diagnóstico e tratamento revelam a difusão do meio técnico científico e informacional (Santos, 1994), ao mesmo tempo em que reforçam antigas concentrações da produção de bens e de serviços de saúde. No Brasil, o impacto seletivo das modernizações criou uma produtividade geográfica em algumas cidades do estado de São Paulo, como Campinas, Ribeirão Preto e São José do Rio Preto. É, portanto, no contexto da urbanização recente que podemos observar novas formas de trabalho ligadas aos equipamentos médicos que emergem dentro do processo de substituição de umadivisão do trabalho por outra mais moderna. Uma diversidade de agentes com diferentes níveis de capital, tecnologia e organização passa a dinamizar uma economia urbana complexa ligada a rede de cidades do país, dando forma aos circuitos da economia urbana (Santos, 1979). O território usado para produzir e consumir saúde mostrou como a tecnificação da medicina moderna tem beneficiado um processo acelerado de renovação técnica e normativa da produção nacional de aparelhos médicos. O circuito superior marginal desses equipamentos emergente nessas três cidades foi capaz de nos mostrar novos mecanismos de oligopolização da economia urbana e de uso do território Technoscience, information and finance are determining variables of globalization, and this is also relevant to health. Technological advances in the medical field and the recent sophistication of diagnostic and treatment services reveal the diffusion of the technical scientific and informational environment (Santos, 1994), while at the same time reinforcing old concentrations of the production of goods and health services. In Brazil, the selective impact of modernizations has created a geographical productivity in some cities of the state of São Paulo, such as Campinas, Ribeirão Preto and São José do Rio Preto. It is, therefore, in the context of recent urbanization that we can observe new forms of work linked to medical equipment emerging within the process of replacing one division of labor with a more modern one. A diversity of agents with different levels of capital, technology and organization start to dynamize a complex urban economy linked to the network of cities in the country,shaping the circuits of the urban economy (Santos, 1979). The territory used to produce and consume health showed how the technification of modern medicine has benefited an accelerated process of technical and normative renovation of the national production of medical equipment. The marginal upper circuit of these equipment emerging in these three cities was able to show us new mechanisms of oligopolization of the urban economy and of the use of territory.

Research on the Mode Transformation and Innovation of Urban Planning Management

As an important part of today’s social development, cities are also an important guarantee for the improvement of people’s living standards. As an important model of urban spatial layout, urban planning and management plays an important role in the development of urban economy, politics and culture. Based on this, this paper takes “urban planning and management” as the research theme, analyzes the existing planning model, and starts from the aspects of content and form, improves the pertinence and directivity of the existing planning system, so as to provide valuable reference for experts in the field.