How to govern the city? Polish debates about urban policy during the First World War

The subject of the article are Polish debates on urban policy during the First World War. This four-year period of time was, on the one hand, a huge economic and humanitarian crisis in the cities of the Kingdom of Poland. On the other hand, society achieved the possibility of self-organization through the organization of civic committees, but later also by taking part in municipal elections to councils established in the areas occupied by Central Powers and political campaigns in Warsaw or Łódź – two biggest and the most important cities in the Kingdom of Poland. Author analyzes the most representative aspects of an urban discourse from that period (including press and specialist literature published in Warsaw and Łódź), with particular emphasis on the issue of the dispute about the optimal shape of urban policy, scope of the self-government and the proper direction of urban development on the eve of Poland’s regaining independence and other Central and Eastern European countries. although the issue of municipal self-government appeared in almost every newspaper at that time, the new framework for city politics in Poland emerged in discussions between specialists and authors with the biggest knowledge and longtime experience in writing about this subject.

A Media Repertoires Approach to Selective Exposure: News Consumption and Political Polarization in Eastern Europe

In recent years, links between selective news exposure and political polarisation have attracted considerable attention among communication scholars. However, while the existence of selective exposure has been documented in both offline and online environments, the evidence of its extent and its impact on political polarisation is far from unanimous. To address these questions, and also to bridge methodological and geographical gaps in existing research, this paper adopts a media repertoires approach to investigate selective news exposure and polarisation in four Eastern European countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Serbia. Using a combination of population surveys, expert surveys and qualitative interviews, the data for the study were collected between November 2019 and May 2020. We identify five types of news repertoires based on their relative openness to counter-attitudinal sources, and show that selective news repertoires are present in 29% of the entire sample. Our findings also reveal significant cross-country differences, with the more selective news repertoires more prominent in countries characterised by higher levels of polarisation. Furthermore, while the selection of news sources is in line with people's electoral (and to a lesser extent ideological) preferences, our findings show that exposure to counter-attitudinal sources can also be strongly correlated with political and ideological leanings. Our qualitative data suggest that this is because exposure to counter-attitudinal sources can reinforce attitudes, and potentially contribute to polarisation. Qualitative data also highlight the influence of environmental factors (e.g., family), and suggest that selective news consumption is associated with normatively different conceptions of media trust.

Susceptibility to tobacco use and associated factors among youth in five central and eastern European countries

Background Tobacco use among young people still remains a major public health problem. Thus, the aim of this study was to perform a cross-country comparison for the factors associated with susceptibility to tobacco use among youth from five central and eastern European countries. Methods The data used in the current analysis, focusing on youth (aged 11–17 years), who have never tried or experimented with cigarette smoking, was available from the recent Global Youth Tobacco Survey (Czech Republic (2016), n = 1997; Slovakia (2016), n = 1998; Slovenia (2017), n = 1765; Romania (2017), n = 3718; Lithuania (2018), n = 1305). Simple, multiple logistic regression analyses and random-effect meta-analysis were conducted to identify factors associated with tobacco use susceptibility as the lack of a firm commitment not to smoke. Results Nearly a quarter of the students were susceptible to tobacco use in 4 of 5 countries. The following factors were identified, consistently across countries, as correlates of tobacco use susceptibility: exposure to passive smoking in public places (AOR from 1.3; p = 0.05 in Slovakia to 1.6; p < 0.01 in Czech Republic and Romania), peers smoking status (AOR from 1.8 p < 0.01 in Slovakia to 2.5; p < 0.01 Lithuania), opinion that smoking helped people feel more comfortable at celebrations (AOR from 1.3; p = 0.01 in Czech Republic to 1.9; p < 0.01 in Lithuania), noticing people using tobacco in mass media (AOR 1.5; p < 0.01 in Slovenia and 1.6; p < 0.01 in Lithuania), lack of knowledge on harmful effects of passive smoking (AOR 1.8; p < 0.01 in Slovakia and 2.4; p < 0.01 in Slovenia), lack of antismoking education provided by school (AOR 1.3; p < 0.05 in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia; 1.9; p < 0.01 in Lithuania), and family (AOR 1.5; p < 0.01 in Slovenia and Romania). Moreover those who believed that smoking makes young people look less attractive (AOR from 0.5; p < 0.01 in Romania to 0.7; p = 0.05 in Lithuania) and that people who smoke have less friends (AOR 0.7; p ≤ 0.06) turned out to be less susceptible to tobacco use initiation. In Czech Republic and Slovenia significantly higher susceptibility to tobacco use was observed among females as compared to males (AOR 1.4; p < 0.01), whereas in Romania opposite pattern, although not significant, was observed (p = 0.3). Having more money available for own expenses, positively correlated with smoking suitability in all countries (AOR > 1.5; p < 0.01) except Lithuania where youth with more money available tend to be less susceptible to tobacco use (p > 0.05). Youth who share the opinion that people who smoke have more friends were more susceptible to smoking in Romania (AOR 1.4; p = 0.04) but tend to be less susceptible in other countries. Exposure to advertisements at points of sale was significant correlate of tobacco use susceptibility in Slovakia and Slovenia (AOR 1.4 and 1.5 respectively; p < 0.05), with moderate heterogeneity between the countries. Conclusions A high proportion of youth from central and eastern European countries was susceptible to tobacco use. Social factors, and those related to educational and policy issues as well as to attitudes regarding tobacco use were strongly, and consistently across countries, correlated with tobacco use susceptibility. Slight differences in susceptibility to tobacco use between the countries were related to: sex, money available for own expenses, exposure to advertisements at points of sale and opinion that people who smoke have more friends. These factors should be considered when designing and implementing anti-tobacco activities among young people.

Position in global value chains and wages in Central and Eastern European countries

This paper examines the relationship between the relative position of industries in Global Value Chains (GVC) and wages in 10 Central and Eastern European countries. We combine GVC measures of global import intensity of production, upstreamness and the length of the value chain with micro-data on workers. We find that the wages of Central and Eastern European countries workers are higher when their industry is at the beginning of the chain or at the end than in the middle. Secondly, wage changes depend on the interplay between upstreamness and GVC intensity. In sectors close to final demand, greater production fragmentation is associated with lower wages.

The ICT Sector in Economic Development of the Countries of Eastern Europe: a Comparative Analysis

The purpose of the article is to study the impact of the ICT sector on economic development of countries based on the comparative analysis of this sector development in some Eastern European countries. Within the article, economic development of the outlined countries in 2010-2019 was studied and analyzed. The analysis of the impact of the ICT sector on the GDP formation allowed to single out certain groups of countries under this indicator and to identify the characteristics that are inherent to them. Using the correlation-regression analysis made it possible to analyze the ICT impact on economies development of Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Authors paid a special attention to the study of the influence of various factors on the ICT sector development. Accordingly, an analytical study of the dependence of the ICT sector weight in the GDP of the countries on the following parameters: enterprises that employ ICT specialists; enterprises that provided training to develop/upgrade ICT skills of their personnel; percentage of the ICT personnel in total employment; using Internet for Internet banking, % of individuals; enterprises who have ERP software package to share information between different functional areas; enterprises selling online (at least 1% of turnover), % of enterprises; online purchase in the last 12 months, % of individuals; enterprises having received orders via computer mediated networks, % of enterprises. Within the article, the features of the ICT sector development in the COVID-19 context are examined, and it is analyzed how the pandemic has affected the development of this sector in long and short terms. The study showed that the ICT sector today already plays a key role in the development of the national economies. Countries where the sector is developing faster show better performance and economic development.

Study on Behavior of Some Perennial Flowering Species Used in Vertical Systems for Green Facades in Eastern European Climate

The negative effects of urbanization such as urban overheating, pollution, high population density and so on are being experienced by city inhabitants more than ever, thus motivating a high number of researchers to find viable solutions to mitigate these effects. The present paper aims to identify an assortment of ornamental plants appropriate to be successfully used in various facade covering systems for buildings located in Eastern European countries. For this purpose, throughout a vegetation season, the project’s team thoroughly monitored the percentage of survival, the coverage degree, and the behavior (biometric aspects and visual quality) of ten flowering species planted vertically and being oriented towards all four cardinal points. At the same time, the team conducted a thorough monitoring of some parameters of the soil (pH, humidity, and temperature) and of the outside environment (light intensity and temperature). Two experimental structures were built, insulated on the inside and covered at the top with thermal insulating panels, to simulate the same conditions of an insulated and unheated construction. The monitoring results showed that Heuchera x hybrida ‘Fire Alarm’, Heuchera x hybrida ‘Marmalade’ and Festuca galuca had a healthy appearance throughout the year, regardless of the cardinal orientation while providing a good coverage of the vertical surface.