European Mobile Research Articles

Measures of the Slovak Republic to improve military mobility for the needs of military Schengen

Military mobility in Europe (so-called Military Schengen) is a critical issue in collaboration with countries interested in defense. NATO and the EU decided to cooperate closely in this area and jointly proposed measures to improve military mobility. The transportation of military personnel and equipment across borders is a sensitive policy area, and, consequently, today, a range of physical, legal and regulatory barriers impede military mobility in Europe. Slovakia represents a critical transit point for military transfers, and its participation in this area is essential. The article described the strategic importance of military mobility and the context of military mobility in Slovakia. The main goal was to point out the current situation of military mobility in Europe, analyze requirements and provide an evaluation of their fulfilment in Slovakia, which led to the creation of recommendations in four points in the conclusion.

Situated researcher: a critical autoethnography on migrant researcher’s mobility, positionality, and agency

Drawing on a critical autoethnography, this essay explores the lived experiences of a Chinese migrant researcher in Belgium and the influence of Belgium as a place of knowledge production on both the researcher and the research itself. First, it highlights the challenges of academic mobility in Europe experienced by migrant researchers in the face of the multiscalar mobility regimes, and underscores how geographic mobility intersects with social class. Second, it reveals the impact of the dual, even plural, scientific socialisation across borders on the self-refashioning and self-evaluation of researchers with migrant backgrounds. Last, the essay argues that the insider/outsider positions of researchers are not static but are constantly (re)shaped by their identities, social positions, and geographic locations – Belgium, in this case, as a place of study, residence, and knowledge production. It further emphasizes the agency of researchers in negotiating complex field relations. This essay contributes to a nuanced understanding of the vulnerability and resilience of migrant researchers in the Global North and sheds light on the role of the place of knowledge production in shaping their ways of doing research and being a researcher.

Recent trends and progress in public transport innovation in the scope of European research projects

The ambitious target for reduction of emissions set by the European Green Deal, strengthen by the goals of the new EU Urban Mobility Framework place public transport in the focus of European Union's mobility policies. The public transport importance, however, makes the challenges that it faces even more important, underlining the critical role of research and innovation in that sector. The main aim of the paper is to present the extent to which these challenges are addressed by the recent research and innovation activities in Europe. The analysis uses the dataset of research and innovation European projects with a focus on public transport in order to point out their main achievements. It also presents future research needs and policy recommendations.

Deljenje mobilnosti u Evropi - pristup zasnovan na klaster analizi

As the sharing economy develops rapidly, a comprehensive overview of the situation on the European shared mobility scene is becoming increasingly necessary. This paper analyzes the state of shared mobility in European countries and observes how European countries can be segmented based on the populations' participation in the economy of shared mobility. We observed 12 indicators of shared mobility in 26 countries of the European Union, for which the data were available. We used the K-means algorithm of cluster analysis. The results show that the highest percentage of shared mobility users belongs to the group of educated and young people aged between 16 and 35. In addition, three segments of European countries were obtained using cluster analysis. Cluster analysis reveals apparent differences in the use of shared mobility websites and applications, as well as differences in education and income among segments. Additionally, the results indicate that the geographical position of the country does not affect the placement within the cluster, as the second and the third cluster contain countries from different parts of Europe. The results of our analyses can be helpful in decision-making and allocating marketing and transportation resources to specific target markets, as well as for development of market-entry strategies in specific markets.

Estimation of Emissions and Fuel Consumption from Irish HDVs using VECTO tool

Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDV) produce significant vehicular emissions, which are expected to increase in Ireland due to economic growth and the associated increase in freight transport. Ireland has adopted the European Low Emission Mobility Strategy and the national target of achieving 20% energy efficiency by 2020. From these targets comes the imminent need to address the issue of vehicle emissions from the Irish HDV fleet. The main objective of the MAP-HDV*⁎http://maphdv.ie/ project was to investigate emission-mitigating measures to reduce emissions from the Irish HDV sector. In MAP-HDV project the Vehicle Energy Consumption Calculation Tool (VECTO) tool has been effectively used and for the first time to analyse Irish HDV. This paper shows the results of investigating the impact of speed, acceleration, loading factor and alternative fuels on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions using the VECTO tool.

Structural Vulnerabilities and (Im)Mobilities Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic: People on the Move along the Balkan Route, Posted and Agricultural Workers

The global Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the vulnerable situation of people on the move and other migrant groups at a time when the usual spatial routes were disrupted and mobility was restricted for much of the world’s population. However, while mobility was halted for some groups of migrants (e.g., in reception centres), migrant workers faced somewhat contradictory treatment by different governments, reflecting the ‘need’ for migrant workers in certain sectors of the economy. The article provides an analysis of such paradoxes in European migration and mobility policies. It focuses on the situation of people on the move on the so-called ‘Balkan route’ and two categories of temporary workers in the European Union: posted workers and agricultural workers. Its main argument is that, despite hierarchies of different mobility practices, both groups remained largely marginalised and such inequalities made some populations structurally vulnerable in different ways.

Internationalization of education: motivations and benefits of academic mobility within the Erasmus+ Programme based on the example of Lisbon, Portugal

The internationalization of higher education is steadily increasing, which can be observed also in the growing number of university students benefiting from the European mobility program European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (Erasmus+). The author’s survey questionnaire was used to investigate the motivations that influence the decision to participate in the Erasmus+ programme and to choose Lisbon as a student exchange city, as well as to learn about the benefits of mobility. Furthermore, the differences between the scholarship holders from Poland and those from other countries were presented. In general, students considered a number of factors when joining Erasmus+. International mobility plays an important role in both personal and educational development. The information obtained on academic mobility may contribute to the development and popularization of the idea of academic exchange programmes among students and may facilitate the planning of promotional activities of the university’s international relations offices.

Trustworthy Automated Driving through Increased Predictability: A Field-Test for Integrating Road Infrastructure, Vehicle, and the Human Driver

Higher levels of Automated driving (AD) vehicles require new allocations of functions among drivers, vehicles, and road infrastructure. The European Horizon 2020 project HADRIAN investigates how such reallocations could be practically achieved as part of Collaborative Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) to meet the benefit expectations of drivers while increasing safety. In a field demonstration it is shown how road infrastructure can be used to expand the prediction horizon of AD vehicles and how multimodal, driver-state dependent human machine interactions (HMI) could help address European mobility needs with AD vehicles and increase operational acceptance and safety. Whereas performance results of the various innovations are reported elsewhere, in this paper the evaluation of the feasibility of the HADRIAN innovation in an open road field-demonstration is described.

Assessment of the European mobility research landscape to support policy shaping through artificial intelligence models

This paper presents an approach for assessing EU-funded mobility research initiatives that relies on natural language processing (NLP) techniques. The developed prototype acts as a digital assistant that helps to analyze the mobility research landscape and delivers a bird-eye view of its status, gaps, and bottlenecks. We present data-based models that exploit common NLP techniques used for topic modeling and information retrieval to automatize the analysis of the textual data of over 40,000 H2020 and PF7 research projects and to deliver a series of metrics that support insight discovery. Further, we present an open-access dashboard that visually inspects the model results. Based on the developed models, we provide high-level strategic recommendations for future mobility development. A particular use case focuses on digitalization in mobility.

International Students’ Social Integration Experiences During Their Higher Education in Europe

The increase in academic mobility in Europe has inspired many to contribute to the special literature regarding internationalization. This contribution is quite timely, as the need to understand the ties between higher education and internationalization is great. Considering that mobility has predominantly occurred in Western Europe, special attention must be focused on Eastern Europe’s Higher Educational endeavors. This study focuses on the Central European country of Hungary, and therein more specifically on its second largest city, Debrecen. The University of Debrecen currently hosts around 7000 international students, and every year this number increases. With such promising and ever-increasing numbers, it is a constant mission of the university to research and report on the life experiences of its international students, regarding their academic, social, and cultural aspects. In this present study the focus will be the social aspect of students whose nationality is represented by more than one hundred persons at the university. Content analysis was employed to analyze structured interviews to identify categories. The findings reveal four main categories to be relevant in their social adaptation: (1) the university, (2) networks students build, (3) language barriers, and (4) healthcare.

Decision support system for the selection of students for Erasmus+ short-term mobility

PurposeThe current student selection process for short-term mobility actions under the Erasmus + program (i.e. intensive programs and blended intensive programs) is based exclusively on the students' order of enrolment and their grades. This study offers an alternative approach using the analytic hierarchy process based on a four-layer model that collects information about the specificities of each project and the profile of the students and also promotes greater inclusion and homogenization of the project teams.Design/methodology/approachA decision support system was built by decomposing it into three stages: the predesign stage, in which the problem is characterized, and the user requirements are identified; the design stage, in which the models, the database and the interfaces are formulated; and the field stage, in which six test scenarios were built to validate the proposed solution.FindingsThe results show that this model can be applied with various selection criteria among students and consider both their hard and soft skills. It can also be applied to help build teams in which the students' knowledge is aligned with the technical skills required by the projects.Originality/valueThe proposed approach is innovative in that it responds to the emerging challenge of short-term European mobility programs that aim to involve students with multidisciplinary competencies. The solution considers both hard and soft skills in the selection of students, which allows changing the student selection paradigm and obtaining potentially more homogeneous multicultural teams with greater learning potential.

Protest in unlikely times: dynamics of collective mobilization in Europe during the COVID-19 crisis

ABSTRACT Based on an original protest event analysis (PEA) dataset covering 30 European countries, this paper provides three sets of results. Despite its unlikeliness due to lockdowns and social distancing measures, protest during COVID-19 has hardly been put to a halt even if, as a result of the restrictions imposed by the lockdown measures on the opportunities of public collective actions, protest occurred at significantly lower levels compared to pre-COVID-19 times, in terms of number of events and, above all, in terms of the number of participants. Moreover, protest was refocused on COVID-19-related issues, in particular on protest against the restrictions imposed by the government lockdowns, while non-COVID-19 issues, in particular economic issues, were crowded out. In addition, protest during the COVID-19-crisis also responded to highly contingent national context conditions which varied between the different regions of Europe.

The economics of 5G-based network slicing in smart network industries

The transition towards 5G-based smart network industries is concomitant with a fundamental change of the traditional physical infrastructures driven by digitalization which pervades all decision-relevant components of the infrastructure value chains. The goal of this paper is to develop a network economic foundation for 5G-based network slicing based on a generalization of the concept of virtual networks combining a required sequence of virtual networks in order to fulfill the necessities of smart network industries. The key concept to analyze the economic incentives of the different actors involved is the well-established concept of opportunity costs of usage of scarce network resources. The allocation problem of traffic service providers fundamentally differs from the allocation problem of virtual network providers. Whereas interoperability and interconnection between different virtual networks are not standardized significant standardization efforts via network slicing can be observed in particular from the perspective of end-to-end QoS guarantees. 5G-based big data use cases with cross-border challenges for network slicing, and the subsequent interoperability of virtual networks, enable tremendous potential for innovation in smart physical infrastructures. The 5G-based European Future Railway Mobile Communication System and cross-border oriented, 5G-based connected, cooperative, and automated mobility applications are investigated with a large and open set of heterogeneous use cases requiring cross-border standardization of QoS-differentiated network slices.

Harassment and abuse in sports: evidence-based guidelines for adherence to policy

ABSTRACT Rationale/purpose While the International Olympic Committee has issued several guidelines and recommendations on the protection of athletes from harassment and abuse in sports, there exists very little research which documents the extent to which these recommendations are actually implemented in sports organizations across Europe and most importantly, the efficacy of such measures. Findings Based on the results, a set of evidence-based guidelines for promoting compliance with the existing policies and measures of harassment and abuse are recommended, which include an Observatory of Harassment and Abuse in Sports, the ISO accreditation for all sports organizations, and a European Mobile phone application. Practical implications With these findings, this study offers a standardized method of implementation of policies, which will enable future pan-European assessments of efficacy, thus narrowing the current gap in knowledge. Research contribution This is the first study to recommend a remedy to the obstacles – identified in previous research – which hamper the implementation of Universal policies on harassment and abuse in sports.

Viabundus: Map of Premodern European Transport and Mobility

Abstract Viabundus is an open access online interactive map and database on roads and mobility in premodern northern and central Europe. The database covers the period 1350–1650. It is designed as a network model and includes digital reconstructions of long-distance land routes and inland waterways as well as a database with information about settlements, towns, toll stations, staple markets, fairs, bridges, ferries, harbours and shipping locks. This makes it possible to use the dataset for advanced analyses with methods of gis and network analysis. With the web application and downloadable dataset, the Viabundus project has created a tool for the analysis of premodern mobility for economic (transaction costs) and all other kinds of historical study involving movement of people and goods.

Transnational networks in northern European mobile trade in the late 1800s

ABSTRACT Peddlers of varying geographic, ethnic and cultural background played an important role for everyday consumption in late nineteenth century northern Europe. In the sparsely populated region, peddlers answered to a growing demand on consumer goods, spurred by industrialization and rising living standards. Many traders originated from outside the region, from Germany in the south to the multi-ethnic Russian Empire in the east. Their possibilities to succeed in the foreign environments largely depended on the networks that they established. This article examines the role that networks played for peddlers from the outside. First, we analyse the connections that traders from a certain region (Eastern Jews, Tatars, Russian Karelians, Germans) established between themselves to further their business in the Nordics. Second, we study the networks formed between peddlers from the outside and their local customers. And third, we examine the role of transnational, national and local networks for the acquisition and transport of goods over long distances. The article illuminates the various types of networks that characterized peddling in northern Europe as well as their functions. It also illustrates how the possibilities to study networks depend on the types of sources used and underlines the importance of analysing various types of sources to identify networks.

Extraterritorial slaves: late Ottoman paternalism and the international debate on slavery

The European mobilization to end the African slave trade in the nineteenth century was articulated in a language of philanthropy and sympathy. In this essay, I explore this history within the context of the Ottoman Empire. As the British pressured the Ottoman government to prohibit slavery, foreign consulates in the empire turned into places of refuge for captured and runaway domestic slaves. The extraterritorial nature of British interventions was repeatedly countered by Ottomans referring to international law and sovereign independence. Drawing on Ottoman and British diplomatic sources, I provide the debate on slavery and argue how it was about slavery as much as it was about paternalism and compassion. I propose to see international history as generative of larger questions about imperial subjectivity by focusing on connections between international law, domestic arrangements, and intimacy. To do so, I use diplomatic archives as a source of social history. My work shows how the cultivation of humanitarian sensibilities took place within an intricate network of colonial politics. Hence, it calls for attention to the converging histories of the Ottoman Empire and Europe to understand the historical development of humanitarianism and international law.

Social Sustainable Urban Air Mobility in Europe

The first step to steer passenger Urban Air Mobility (pUAM) towards the necessity of sustainability is to understand its impact on our urban transportation systems. This research emphasises the social footprint of passenger drones in scheduled operation as an early business model in European Functional Urban Areas. The literature review is guided by the corresponding Sustainable Urban Mobility Indicators (SUMI). The prospective impact which the introduction of pUAM has on the evaluation of European transportation systems regarding their affordability for the public, their inclusivity for mobility-impaired groups, their accessibility to commuters and the level of customer satisfaction is analysed. Furthermore, the impact of pUAM on the perceived quality of public urban space is examined. Results indicate the overall social footprint of passenger drones in European transport systems to be negative. Early market pUAM may lead to an unbalanced distribution of potential benefits, with services tailored to address only a limited number of citizens. Highlighting pathways for a societal benefiting technology, recommendations are provided for urban planning and city development.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: OPINIONS OF SCHOOL PRINCIPALS IN GREECE

The importance of the present research arises from the value that has been given – at the national, European, and international level – to the work of the teacher and the necessity of his or her professional development but also in the research gap that exists in this field. The aim of the research was to clarify the views of school principals on factors influencing their professional development. A questionnaire was administered through the Google form. The data were analyzed using the SPSS v.25. To reply to the research questions, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and the Pearson coefficient were used to assess the statistical significance of the data. The sample consisted of 100 primary school principals in Greece. The results of the study showed differences in attitudes towards professional development between heads of primary education institutions with different specializations. Participants with a specialization in math and computer sciences more often supported the idea that their professional development depends on their basic studies. Those who specialized in humanities, agreed on a higher level that their professional development depends on their first two years of education experience, participation in introductory training programs, participation in training programs organized by the state and on the school culture, and their transition to another school or position. The participants who followed a science field were more positive about their professional development depending on their participation in European mobility programs, the professional support they get from their colleagues, and the way the school leadership is practiced. There were differences in the understanding of the role of the educational institution in supporting the professional development of teachers depending on the professional experience of the participants: its importance was recognized by teachers who had less than five or more than thirty years of professional experience. It was found that the more positive was the attitude of the participants toward their own professional development, the wider range of needs for further training they expressed. Most often, such needs related to improving professional competence in such areas as classroom management, solving problems with complex student behavior and school discipline, counseling, and assessment of students.

European democratic values and communicative competence on mobility programmes targeting adults

EU educational mobility programmes have long been geared towards not only the promotion of intercultural communicative competence but also the uptake of European civic values. While the linguistic and socio-cultural effects of European training mobilities have been extensively studied, their effectiveness in supporting active citizenship and the emergence of shared community values remains largely unexplored. Similarly, no previous research has attempted to systematise the various conceptualisations of European civic and democratic values invoked in mobility projects addressing the topic. To bridge this lacuna, this paper reviews qualitative data from EU school-based mobility projects whose stated purpose, singularly or in conjunction with other educational goals, is the promotion of European civic awareness and democratic values among adult participants in a Spanish region. The methodological approach for the compilation of the corpus of project records, data extraction, and processing follows that of Qualitative Comparative Analyses. The results point to a broad operationalisation of European civic and democratic themes in the examined projects. The coexistence of a limited number of specific proposals for deliberate educational intervention aimed at promoting democracy and European citizenship abroad, alongside the prevailing stance, posits a spontaneous acquisition of such values through participation in transnational learning activities aimed at developing communicative, intercultural, and digital skills, is also reported.