European Capital Research Articles

University of Genoa best practices in managing Energy and Climate Change

Since 2011, the University of Genoa (UniGe), Italy, focused on sustainable management of its campuses. In one of them, the Savona Campus, research and projects are specifically focused on Sustainable Energy and Smart City topics. Great efforts were made to reduce the carbon footprint by the creation of two large Research Infrastructures (a Smart Microgrid and an energy self-sufficient building) integrating different renewable energy sources and system automation. These infrastructures allowed to improve the energy performance of the Campus. Several actions have been then carried out also in the Genova Campus, including the implementation of a system for the real-time monitoring of the consumption of electricity for the most energy-intensive buildings. Results permitted to reduce energy consumption and provided significative and practical guidelines for energy saving. In 2015, the UniGe Commission on Environmental Sustainability was created and since then UniGe joined several international sustainability networks, such as ISCN (International Sustainable Campus Network) and UNICA GREEN (Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe), sharing its best practices with other universities. UniGe is also active member of the Italian Universities’ Network for Sustainable Development (RUS). In 2022 UniGe made a strong and explicit pledge against climate change, defining its Climate Neutrality Strategy 2022-2030. The strategy, starting from its latest UniGe greenhouse gases (GHG) inventory, outlines a path that the university must follow to reduce both direct and indirect emissions and defines the actions to do for the offsetting of residual emissions. This is the last step of the strong and continuous commitment towards the spreading of the sustainability culture in all the Campus activities.

루마니아의 통합전환과 유럽문화수도 시비우의 상징성

The ‘European Capital of Culture’ program, which was operated mainly in Western Europe, expanded its scope after 2004 when Eastern European countries joined as member countries. The ‘expansion’ of the European Union, which has been maintained in terms of politics and economy, will turn into a ‘internalization’ that confirms Europe’s civilization and identity through this cultural initiative. The European Union has begun to overcome the tiredness of integration and the sense of distance of identity with the keyword of culture. Exchanges between East and West Europe, which began on the basis of economic and political cooperation, expanded in various fields. In addition to the symbolism of ‘Eastward advance of Western Europe’ and ‘Westward advance of Eastern Europe’, this suggests the restoration of ‘one Europe’.
 The ‘European Capital of Culture’, which seeks to imply the universal human value of the pursuit of civilization and culture by unifying the diversified European society with one code called ‘city’, has positively impacted Sibiu's economic effect, and it also created an opportunity to promote not only the city, but also Romania's cultural identity and historical heritage to the world. ‘Culturenomics’, which combines culture and economy, and the sharing of urban culture based on history and civilization, gave Romania an opportunity for ‘cultural integration’ to take a step closer to Europe, beyond ‘political integration’ symbolized by NATO membership in 2004 and ‘economic integration’ through EU membership in 2007.

Spatial and sector-specific contributions of emissions to ambient air pollution and mortality in European cities: a health impact assessment

Ambient air pollution is a major risk to health and wellbeing in European cities. We aimed to estimate spatial and sector-specific contributions of emissions to ambient air pollution and evaluate the effects of source-specific reductions in pollutants on mortality in European cities to support targeted source-specific actions to address air pollution and promote population health. We conducted a health impact assessment of data from 2015 for 857 European cities to estimate source contributions to annual PM2·5 and NO2 concentrations using the Screening for High Emission Reduction Potentials for Air quality tool. We evaluated contributions from transport, industry, energy, residential, agriculture, shipping, and aviation, other, natural, and external sources. For each city and sector, three spatial levels were considered: contributions from the same city, the rest of the country, and transboundary. Mortality effects were estimated for adult populations (ie, ≥20 years) following standard comparative risk assessment methods to calculate the annual mortality preventable on spatial and sector-specific reductions in PM2·5 and NO2. We observed strong variability in spatial and sectoral contributions among European cities. For PM2·5, the main contributors to mortality were the residential (mean contribution of 22·7% [SD 10·2]) and agricultural (18·0% [7·7]) sectors, followed by industry (13·8% [6·0]), transport (13·5% [5·8]), energy (10·0% [6·4]), and shipping (5·5% [5·7]). For NO2, the main contributor to mortality was transport (48·5% [SD 15·2]), with additional contributions from industry (15·0% [10·8]), energy (14·7% [12·9]), residential (10·3% [5·0]), and shipping (9·7% [12·7]). The mean city contribution to its own air pollution mortality was 13·5% (SD 9·9) for PM2·5 and 34·4% (19·6) for NO2, and contribution increased among cities of largest area (22·3% [12·2] for PM2·5 and 52·2% [19·4] for NO2) and among European capitals (29·9% [12·5] for PM2·5 and 62·7% [14·7] for NO2). We estimated source-specific air pollution health effects at the city level. Our results show strong variability, emphasising the need for local policies and coordinated actions that consider city-level specificities in source contributions. Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, State Research Agency, Generalitat de Catalunya, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en red Epidemiología y Salud Pública, and Urban Burden of Disease Estimation for Policy Making 2023-2026 Horizon Europe project.

Beyond the 90 minutes: football, tourism and hospitality

ABSTRACT This study is the first in a series looking at professional sports franchises and their forays into the realms of hospitality, leisure and tourism. It focuses on the city of Leeuwarden in the north of The Netherlands and its professional football club, SC Cambuur, competing in the elite tier of Dutch football, the Eredivisie, during the 2022/23 season. Leeuwarden is becoming an increasingly recognised tourism destination, particularly since 2018 when it was the European Capital of Culture. Its football club operates on the fringes of the visitor economy, but in relocating to a newly built state-of-the-art stadium, it is keen to establish its tourism and hospitality credentials alongside the more traditional actors in the sector. Using content analysis, the article examines the current state of play across the Eredivisie and its professional clubs by providing an inventory of the leisure and hospitality operations offered. It also assesses whether the clubs and their stadia are considered for their tourism potential by destination-marketing organisations. It captures a moment in time that acts as a benchmark for SC Cambuur going forward and reveals an organisation that follows a tried-and-trusted template, replicated throughout professional football in The Netherlands, in exploiting its somewhat limited facilities for the purposes of hospitality and leisure. The Leeuwarden club’s operations are still relatively modest compared to many of its competitors, and it barely registers as a noteworthy partner for the tourism authorities. Despite significant challenges in recent times, the relocation to the new stadium, confirmed for 2024, leaves it well placed to expand its activities in the areas of hospitality and leisure.

Questions and Explanations in Sociology

This is a study of an action research project conducted in one of the biggest university departments for sociology in a Central Eastern European capital during the first half of the 2000s. The paper shows that researchers’ images of society have a strong impact on social scientific methodology, scientific explanations and narratives. I offer an example of how realist approaches to science and technology studies can be used in a field study and discuss the benefits and limitations of such an endeavor, which I define as an interpretive and explanatory social scientific work. The analysis shows ways in which latent knowledge structures influenced the wording of a questionnaire used in the research, the types of data that were gathered, and how the data were interpreted. These knowledge structures include notions concerning local policy discussions, different social policy traditions, and images of a Roma minority struggling with the effects of structural poverty and prejudices.

Hardening the EU core-periphery lines, 2009–2019: Dependency, neoliberalism, welfare reformation and poverty in Greece

The paper holds a critical view on EU austerity policies, with particular emphasis given to Greece. It is maintained that the main causes for the implementation of neoliberal reforms should be examined in the manner with which the Greek economy has developed in relation with the European capitalist division of labor as a peripheral economy. Greece is approached as intimately conditioned by a multifaceted institutional structure of dependencies that outstrips the country's ability to exercise economic policy for its own social interests. Essentially built upon the premises of a core-periphery dependency paradigm, the periodic post-war reconfigurations of the EU architectural design offered enough room to the formation of a stricter policy framework along these lines. By developing a set of differentiated indices on European poverty, the devastating consequences of the belated neoliberal reformation of the country's welfare state are highlighted. All calculations are based on microdata sets of EUSILC surveys.

Buskers in Galway: Not in the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2020 neither on the streets

Buskers in Galway: Not in the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2020 neither on the streets

Shrinking Cities as European Capitals of Culture: Has this Status enabled their Reurbanisation?

More than 50 cities across Europe have been designed as the European capitals of culture for one year since the launch of this programme in 1985. Through organisation of different cultural events, this programme gives selected cities accessibility to generate significant cultural and socio-economic advantages, addressing their long-term regeneration and revitalisation and better competitiveness thereof. Several selected cities had gained this status during long-term urban shrinkage, the process where a population loss is caused by local socio-economic difficulties. Therefore, the supreme goal of such cities is certainly the reurbanisation based on better economic performance. The goal of the programme of European capital of culture –culture-led regeneration and revitalisation – perfectly fits with solutions for the economic problems of shrinking cities. The aim of this paper is to analyse has the status of European capital of culture has had an impact on population trends in the selected shrinking cities. Before the analysis, theoretical link between the concept of shrinking cities and urban regeneration and revitalisation is made. The selected cases are the shrinking cities with this status from 1985-2017, to preserve a 5-year threshold, adequate for the most recent demographic trends. The obtained results from the analysis show that the majority of the selected cities have entered reurbanisation after their year of the European capital of culture. Nevertheless, some of them have continued to shrink. The obtained results of the reurbanisation or prolonged shrinkage of the cities are further combined with the other characteristics of the selected cities, to fully understand their context. Comparing this, the paper conclusions target to indicate if and how the status of European capital of culture impacts on the local economy of a selected city though culture-led urban regeneration and revitalisation.

The Green Attitude of Four European Capitals of Culture’s Youth

This study investigated the attitude of young people (individuals aged 14–25 years old) towards environmental protection using the NEP scale. The research aims to understand how demographic characteristics may influence young people’s attitudes toward green issues. The study focuses on answering the following two research questions: Q1. How can the environmental attitudes of young individuals be systematically characterized and summarized? Q2. To what extent do demographic factors influence the environmental attitudes of young individuals? A computer-assisted data collection (CAPI) method was carried out in four European Capital of Culture cities from different countries (Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania) from April to June 2022. On the basis of this primary questionnaire survey, descriptive statistics and relationship analyses (Cramer’s V and Kendall’s tau) were used to analyze the collected data (n = 712). The results revealed that in most cases, demographic characteristics had little or no impact at all on green attitudes. Thus, most youth attitudes showed the concept that humanity must adapt to the limits of nature. Furthermore, there were three green attitude statements where moderate differences could be detected by the countries. The findings can provide guidance for decision-makers in the field of environmental education and marketing, and they can also serve as a benchmark for other countries. Additionally, it opens up new opportunities for further research on the role of formal and informal education, as well as to measure the impact of social media on youth environmental behavior and their proactivity towards green issues.

Rebuilding the fortress? Europe in a changing world economy

Two rival visions of Europe’s place in the world economy competed for primacy throughout the post-war era. The idea of an ‘Atlantic Europe’ promoted close economic ties to the United States and integration into the liberal international order. An alternative ‘Fortress Europe’ vision aimed to carve out a sphere of relative European autonomy backed by trade barriers and industrial protectionism. While many argued that the ‘Fortress Europe’ vision was defeated during the globalization of the 1990s and 2000s, concepts such as economic sovereignty, industrial strategy and ‘strategic autonomy’ have returned to EU circles. Is a rebuilding of ‘Fortress Europe’ taking place in this context? This paper argues that the old tension between ‘Atlantic’ and ‘Fortress’ Europe is re-emerging but in a new form and under a new set of international conditions. A ‘selective fortification’ of European industrial strategy and trade policy is taking shape, as EU policymakers develop targeted instruments and institutional capacities that aim to insulate European firms from new patterns of international competition. The selective refortification of European capitalism has implications for debates within international political economy (IPE) on the future of liberal international order, new patterns of competitive regionalization, and the restructuring of the relation between the state and global capitalism.

France’s Grand Design for Europe and the Elusive Quest for European Sovereignty

In the context of the Liberal International Order crisis amplified bythe Trump Administration’s America First doctrine and a retreat ofmultilateralism, President Macron was emboldened to carry further hisvision for a Sovereign Europe (Europe-Puissance) capable of ensuringits own strategic autonomy and acting as an independent actor onthe international stage. However, President Macron faces the task ofarticulating a coherent way of achieving this goal, especially givingGermany’s reluctance to accept any changes in the postwar defensestatus quo, and East-Central European anxieties regarding a possibleRussian rapprochement pursued by the French president. Early inhis presidency, Macron proposed his Grand Design for a concentricand multi-speed Europe with different stages of integration, anddifferent levels of functioning, a plan which was met with a degree ofunwillingness from East-Central European capitals.

The Myth of Peace and Statehood in European Integration Theory: The Imperial Legal Order of the Rome Treaty

This article challenges the ontological assumptions of European Union (EU) theory that rest on the primacy of ‘states’. It also refutes the narrative of peace which is celebrated in scholarship and EU self-representation. It looks at early EU integration through the postcolonial lens and argues that both EU self-image and EU theory do not consider colonialism and empire and have silenced the violence committed outside Europe. Hence, they have produced a historically inaccurate and conceptually misleading account of early European integration. The post-colonial reading of the EU brings history back to the story of Europe to advance a revisionist account of theories of early European integration. The examination of arrangements laid out in Europe’s capitals – from Berlin in 1885 to Paris in 1919 to Rome in 1957 – reveals continuity of goals, motivations, and technologies of domination, rather than Europe’s ‘new beginnings’. The article demonstrates that the legal order established by the Treaty of Rome institutionalized the colonialism of EU members at the new supra-national level. It subordinated foreign people and economies to the interests of European capital, legitimized control of resources, camouflaged the old civilizing mission under a new guise of development, and reproduced and maintained the colonial racialized relationship of inequality and dependence. Ultimately, Rome infused the new European project with imperial, violent, hierarchical, and racial characteristics that remain unacknowledged by the EU theory. European integration, Imperial order, Statehood, Peace, Colonialism

Putting Russia's Ban in Historical Perspective: A Curated Interview

Putting Russia's Ban in Historical Perspective: A Curated Interview

한국 기업의 ESG 심화를 위한 NGO의 과제

This paper examines the role NGOs play for strenthening ESG in Korean business enterprises. In a global polycrisis, ESG is imperative for companies to adhere to carbon neutrality for future survival. I compare shareholder capitalism and stakeholder capitalism within the analytic framework of political representation system and interest intermediation system. Shareholder capitalism is grounded on free market economy where the state incorporates different group interests based on social pluralism. It is, by and large, characterized by local constituencies within the presidential system. In contrast, stakeholder capitalism runs on coordinated market economy where the relationship between the state and society can be seen as social corporatism. It is usually marked by proportional representation under the parliamentary system. This is one of the reasons why Anglo-Saxon shareholder capitalism needs ESG unlike the European stakeholder capitalism with ESG already embedded. There is a limit to ESG propelled by Korean companies. The most important reason is the fact that business enterprises are not ready to adopt stakeholder capitalism. Although Korean NGOs fall behind business enterprises in many capacities including resources and organization, the latters need to be monitored by the former that enlightens civil society for the understanding of the advantages of stakeholder capitalism. In conclusion, I propose a “critical cooperation” between NGOs and business enterprises for consolidating ESG.

Comparative capitalism in central and Eastern Europe – A test of similarity to Western Europe

AbstractWe aimed to enrich the empirical picture and to better understand the nature of post-communist capitalism in the new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE11). Our main research goal is to assess the degree of similarity of the institutional architectures in these countries toward each of the four models of capitalism in Western Europe distinguished by Bruno Amable (2003), represented in our research by one Western European country being the most typical empirical approximation of a particular ‘ideal-typical’ model. The study is based on the application of a new method designed for the purpose of our research, the coefficients of similarity. Our empirical exercise shows that the CEE11 countries exhibited on average the greatest relative similarity to the Mediterranean model of capitalism, represented by Spain and Italy. At the same time, they also displayed a considerable institutional proximity to the Continental model of capitalism, represented by Germany, and – to a lesser extent – to two remaining benchmarks. These findings may be generalized as the prevalence of a polycentric pattern of institutional similarity of the CEE11 economies to the established models of Western European capitalism which makes the emerging post-communist capitalism a distinct research category and adds to its patchwork nature.

OSMANLI DEVLETİ’NİN SİYASAL VE TOPLUMSAL ANLAYIŞI İÇİNDE EKONOMİK YAPININ DİNAMİKLERİNİN İNCELENMESİ: AHİLİK VE LONCA TEŞKİLATI ÖRNEĞİ

The Ottoman political tradition is a system composed of Islam, old Turkish, Byzantinian and Iranian traditions. At the center of the political arena is the sultan, who is to ensure social justice. The Ottoman society consisted of four elements that were expected to complement each other; military group, men of science and the pen, traders, manufacturers. The tax system is the basis of Ottoman social classification. The tax payer is called the flock (reaya). Ahilik (Brotherhood) and guilds are located at the intersection of the social and economic system. Ahilik was established with the principles and understandings of futuwwa. The first ahi in Anatolia was Ahi Evran. Ahilik gradually lost its influence due to the conditions of the age and left its place to guilds. The guilds, operating within the framework of the Ottoman's economic and political understanding, succumbed to European capitalism with industrialization. The aim of this study is to determine the emergence of the Ahilik and guilds, which used to be one of the important dynamics of the socio-economic structure of the Ottoman Empire, and reveal for what socio-economic and political reasons they lost their function.

Usability Evaluation with Eye Tracking: The Case of a Mobile Augmented Reality Application with Historical Images for Urban Cultural Heritage

Eye-tracking technologies have matured significantly in recent years and have become more affordable and easier to use. We investigated how eye-tracking technology can be applied to evaluate the usability of mobile augmented reality applications with historical images for urban cultural heritage. The experiment involved a series of complex user evaluation sessions, combining semi-structured interviews, observations, think-aloud protocol, SUS questionnaire, and product reaction cards, complemented by eye tracking, to gather insights on the Spotlight Timisoara AR mobile application, part of a digital storytelling multiplatform for the city of Timisoara (Romania), soon to be European Capital of Culture in 2023. The results indicate strong and weak aspects of the application, both as expressed by the participants and as derived from analyzing the eye-tracking data. The paper also lists the main challenges we identified in using eye-tracking equipment to evaluate the usability of such mobile augmented reality applications for urban outdoor heritage.

Rome vehicle accidents analysis and city riskiness prediction by Artificial Intelligence

Rome municipality publishes geo-referenced vehicle accidents reports and detailed road traffic counters that, in conjunction with Open Street Map roads details, enable deep analyses of the tragic phenomenon. This study focuses on the full year 2021, during which a total of 62,081 vehicles casualties were registered by Rome traffic authorities. The broad Rome territory, overcoming a bunch of Italian chief towns, the wide and capillary set of arteries and the municipality roads extension greater with respect to many European capitals, enhance the statistical relevance of the analyzed data. Artificial intelligence method takes into account three potential accidents predictors as the level of road traffic, the event timing, and the driving complexity of the different zones. The proposed method has the capability of linking time/traffic/complexity indexes of a specific zone of a city with the accident riskiness, moreover, is applicable to whatever urban complex scenario and takes care of the result format in order to facilitate road safety decision makers in smoothing the tragic sequence of accidents. Further possible improvements directions are discussed.

Red cherries (Italy, 1943), and: A taste of heaven, and: Ready

Red cherries (Italy, 1943), and: A taste of heaven, and: Ready Laura Zucca-Scott (bio) Red cherries (Italy, 1943) Women and childrenran toward the railroad tracksclimbing the ditchesAprons and small hands fullof red cherriesthey had pickedfor the prisonerstrapped in the cattle cars No one spokeOnly a few sobsand distant laughter werecarried by the south wind The cherry treeswatched solemnlyYou could diefor a simple actof kindnessThe children's handswere stained in redas they walked backto their homes on the hillTheir mothers holdingback silent tears At the concentration campthe violins were playinga haunted salutationThe red cherries becamea distant memoryof summertime [End Page 171] A taste of heaven (inspired by a gentleman's story, Grand Forks, ND, 2007) During World War II,I was still just a boyAt eighteen, light whiskersworn on my proud faceI knew of war and deathWe were in Sicily, ItalyThe locals needed helpto farm the fieldsSo, we helpedWe tied the plowsto the military trucksand worked for hoursunder the scorching sunWe did not talk muchThe land was calling us At sunset, we ateat a long tablein the shadenext to the fieldsI saw children runningNo more enemiesBrothers and sistersMothers and fatherscelebrating the landWe shared the breadThe food tastedof heaven On Christmas EveI flew back hometo North DakotaI hugged my baby brotherI had never met [End Page 172] We farmed togetherWe plowed the fieldsThe land was calling usWe shared the breadThe food tastedof heaven once more [End Page 173] Ready (inspired by my father's memories, Livorno, July 2020) You're ready nowHis piano player fingersslightly yellowed from nicotineremoved the training wheelsfrom my green and silver bike A faint smell of cigarette smokelingered on his light brown hairHe smiled at meMy five-year-old framewas leaning into himI was looking perplexedat my newfound freedom The backyard near the soccer fieldwas quiet in the early summer afternoonOnly a couple of cicadas were singingMy feet on the pedalsmy hands shaking on the handlebarI steadied myselfI felt my father's grip,Don't worry I will not let goUntil he didYou are ready nowBlue eyes and green eyesmet in quiet triumph I kept goingI did not fallI laughedand he laughedwith me [End Page 174] Our adventureswere cut shortby the warBut I rememberedYou are ready nowI did not fall [End Page 175] Laura Zucca-Scott laura zucca-scott, PhD, is a bilingual writer and educator. Her works have been published, in English and Italian, in several journals and anthologies. In December 2022, she was the recipient of the First Prize of the ACSI International Literary Prize, "Florence, Capital of Europe," Section D, Italy. Copyright © 2023 University of North Dakota

Rouge nu par Benjamin De Laforcade

Reviewed by: Rouge nu par Benjamin De Laforcade Eilene Hoft-March De Laforcade, Benjamin. Rouge nu. Gallimard, 2022. ISBN 978-2-07-296112-0. Pp. 273. The setting is Berlin in the early 2000s when new political and social freedoms of a consolidated Germany nourish creativity and transform the city into a European capital of artistic, cultural innovation. In that spirit, renowned painter Andreas Mauser makes several bold moves: he renovates a dilapidated factory of East German vintage into an art studio and school and caps the structure with an enormous concrete cube to house his ultimate masterpiece. Throughout the novel, no one has access to the painting (shades of Balzac's "Chef d'oeuvre inconnu") except the faithful Hausmeister. As plans for a retrospective of Mauser's work take shape, the artist selects a young acolyte from among his students to be his studio assistant. Ezra Zimmerman, a seemingly unlikely candidate for this honor, is of modest origins, with little formal art training but an uncanny ability to reproduce Mauser's techniques and even whole artworks by the painter. This privileged understanding of the master's art gives Ezra growing insights into the complex dynamics of Mauser's art-making enterprise. Laforcade develops Ezra's character convincingly, making him slightly unusual in appearance and demeanor, gay, and unapologetically his own man. Ezra indulges in Berlin's urban, youth-oriented pleasures, mostly with his companions Judith and Luke, both infatuated with him. He also embarks on a caring relationship with a woman and her infant in a neighboring apartment, a relationship initiated by his emergency aid to her during childbirth. The author alternates these narrative threads in finely crafted and evenly paced chapters that build subtle suspense. In addition, Laforcade gives richly evocative descriptions such as the paired processes of seeing and painting or the human blossoming of baby Heiko. Above all, the arc of Laforcade's narrative traces an indicting portrait of the cult of the master. The "great man," Andreas Mauser, speaks very little but his will is known and executed without question by trusted minions. Fame gives him permission to withhold common courtesies much less respectful behaviors toward his closest collaborators. Greatness appears to exonerate his serial oppressions of others. Ezra, the ever observant, witnesses it all and must make a decision accordingly. Rouge nu is an impressive first novel that this reader hopes will have equally impressive successors. [End Page 227] Eilene Hoft-March Lawrence University (WI) Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French