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This paper aims to explore the perceptions of domestic and foreign entrepreneurs (businesspeople and/or managers) operating in Greece towards the spatial diffusion of FDI effects caused by the privatization programme implemented by the Greek government after an economic crisis. In particular, it investigates whether attracting foreign direct investors through the ongoing privatization programme could be a policy tool for the country's recovery from the prolonged 2008 global economic crisis. To that end, it presents the results of a multinomial logistic regression model based on survey data from a significant sample of domestic and foreign investors in Greece. The key finding of this study suggests that the positive effects of FDI on the recovery of Greece from the economic crisis are more likely to benefit the country's economy as a whole than only the local economy in which the FDI is located. This finding is stronger for entrepreneurs who are (moderately) optimistic about the role of the privatization programme in attracting the interest of foreign investors than others. Overall, there is evidence that FDI attraction policies can help all Greek regions to recover from an economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the challenges posed by the early discourse of the creative city in the case of Patras, a regional city of Greece and European Capital of Culture in 2006 before the prolonged economic crisis in Greece. We focus on the relevance and the forms of cultural creation and artistic networking for the creative city rather than on innovation hubs and technological creativity. We develop a qualitative study of culture creatives in the city to examine the potential of local cultural and artistic agents, social groups and institutions to enhance networking and clustering in the urban milieu, which is also influenced or distorted by city planning capacities and politics. The culture management study identifies several constraints and frictions related to the potential transformation of cultural networks to clusters and analyzes the relevance of cultural lag in the literature of creative cities and urban regeneration. The constraints are discussed within a framework of cultural and institutional lag, which characterize city stakeholders. The study identifies practices that enable organizational facilitation and capacity for proactive culture creation, creative networking and potential clustering. Those activities support culture-led socio-economic urban regeneration planning and inspire the potential making of a creative city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the policy context of spatial injustice in Greece. Given the polarized nature of the economy and the centralized structure of the public sector, the paper examines whether place-based policies that attempt to strengthen the local level and mobilize local assets would be better opt to deliver a fair and equitable distribution of socially valued resources and opportunities in space. In this context, the paper presents and discusses the findings of four case studies and four policy-driven actions related to the design and implementation of a post-lignite local strategy, the establishment of a credible innovation strategy in a metropolitan area, the development of social economy in a lagging region and the upscaling of local government in a medium-sized city. The case studies investigate the conditioning factors that encourage or obstruct the local level to implement effective place-based policies that can contribute to spatial justice. On this basis, the paper evaluates the capability of the current policy and institutional setting to generate spatial justice and provides policy recommendations that will empower the local level in confronting socio-economic challenges and unbalanced spatial growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to reveal the opportunities that could arise from the revival of abandoned settlements rich in architecturally interesting buildings in the rural renaissance context. Concepts such as settlement abandonment, land abandonment, back to land movement, and rural renaissance are behind the need for the rural settlements' renaissance and are analyzed briefly herein. The paper focuses on the municipality of Prespes in Greece, a natural habitat with plenty of abandoned or declining settlements. The outstanding landscape, the deserted buildings that still have architectural interest and the area's rurality provide an interdisciplinary frame for looking into the renaissance of abandoned rural settlements from a new perspective. Area censuses reveal abandoned, sparsely populated or declining settlements, which could follow specially designed action plans for their revitalization; the land cover also indicates development opportunities for each settlement. Finally, the paper outlines proposals for the revitalization and sustainable development of the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seaplanes as a transport mode provide the flexibility of using land and water infrastructure for their operations. This functionality presents an opportunity for regions with water surfaces, especially when the sea and air connectivity are the only options. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of seaplanes' potential as a mode of transport in Greece. After reviewing the topics of air connectivity, remote regions and the coexistence of modes of transport, a survey is designed to collect information on the perspectives of potential users in the Greek region. In total 200 replies of residents and non-residents of the country are collected and reflect a social perspective of seaplane operations. It is found that the main aspects that would motivate passengers to choose seaplanes would be the offered trip duration, the ticket price and the trip convenience. The collected information is used for the elaboration of SWOT analyses that assess seaplane operations at a strategic decision-making level in transport planning and technology management. The analysis concludes that the potential of seaplanes as a transport mode lies on the enhancement of sustainable transport, the connectivity of isolated regions and their economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed essentially in the context of American cities, the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) model has also occupied the literature regarding European cities, especially those with long developed urban rail systems. This paper provides a critical overview of the TOD model regarding three main topics: key features and typologies; benefits, drawbacks and implementation challenges; and readiness criteria. It then proceeds to an investigation of the potential for implementing the TOD model in the context of Southern European cities, traditionally considered to fall into typical compact forms of development, many of which also lack integrated urban and transport planning. Based on the case of Thessaloniki, Greece, which introduces urban rail by constructing a metro system, a typology is proposed, adapted to the case of a dense and mixed-use city, and two pilot TOD plans are presented. The paper highlights that an integrated urban and transport planning based on a modification of the TOD model could be implemented in Southern European cities, taking advantage of their compact and mixed-use features but also constraining the relatively recent phenomenon of suburban dispersion. Nevertheless, overcoming the multiple institutional and financing barriers is necessary to guarantee a successful transfer and adaptation of the TOD model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper maps the visual impact of mining activities on terrestrial and marine landscapes of the Cyclades islands, Greece, an island complex in the Aegean Sea of particular natural and cultural heritage. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mining activities developed on the islands, many of which are abandoned today. Some of the remaining inactive mines and accompanying structures have been registered as monuments and part of the national industrial heritage. The remaining active mining units conflict for land with the main economic activity today, tourism. The visual impact of the mining units is calculated and mapped, resulting in viewshed analysis which quantifies the impact of mining units on terrestrial and marine landscapes, with emphasis on nominated traditional settlements and mention of non-traditional ones. The quantitative results have shown that the landscape study needs to be incorporated in terrestrial and marine spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds light on the debate on regional resilience to crisis in Greece, a country long suffering from insufficient planning mechanisms and recently hit by a severe economic crisis. In the paper, we discuss the spatialities of employment flexibilization vis-à-vis the devaluation of regional productive structures between 2005 and 2016. The paper critically builds on previous accounts of regional resilience, but also seeks to develop the concept through engaging in: (i) how different employment patterns, namely part-time work, present a powerful adaptive mechanism that is related to path-dependent regional production profiles; and (ii) why regions with less favourable pre-crisis production structures and anaemic growth seem to have been less affected by recession and may witness a faster recovery in its aftermath. The paper adopts a multi-layered methodology, using a variety of measures, offering an empirically grounded theorization of contemporary labour market changes within the Southern EU. The results indicate some key reasons for radically reformulating established regulatory and planning practices in order to promote a pattern of resilience that is more friendly to good and well-paid jobs. A prerequisite for the latter is the promotion of territorially cohesive strategies that reduce regional disparities and harness 'unregulated flexibilization'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unregulated built-up area expansion is a typical practice in Greece mostly on the islands, it is driven by the mass tourism development and the demand for second houses. Significant social, economic and environmental issues are linked to this practice. Santorini, a Greek island – which is characterized by important natural and cultural heritage properties and intense tourist development – is chosen here for the empirical part of the study. This paper attempts to study and quantify both the unregulated built-up area expansion and its impact on the natural and cultural environment. The intense ex-urban built-up area expansion that takes place on Santorini is interpreted on the basis of the Greek spatial planning framework so that its weaknesses that emerge will address the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues the changing nature of spatial planning in the recent decades, under the light of the relevant progressions that have been taking place at the EU level. It is suggested that the EU territorial cohesion discourse and its relevant -although less developed- policy tools are in line with and promote a new orientation of spatial planning that is characterized of an integrated approach which is spatially aware and aims to guide development in order to avoid or minimize spatial imbalances and to increase the effectiveness of policies according to the territorial characteristics. This is an attempt to bring into light the new dimensions of spatial planning through the analysis of the relevant European concepts. In the first part, the developments at the EU level and their contribution to this new approach of planning are analysed. Following that, what is examined is how these developments and the EU territorial cohesion perspective influenced the Greek planning system and, more specifically, how the new traits of planning have been integrated and the degree to which the new approach is reflected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the water supply conditions in the major Greek cities have been investigated and a comprehensive description is provided. It has occurred that the choice of the catchment area as the administrative unit for water management purposes is rather more adapted to urban water management in Western Europe, than in Greece. In fact, while the major cities in France, Spain and the UK can be mainly supplied by water issued from the catchment area in which they are located, interbasin water transfer is necessary in Greece. The reasons are both hydrological, with the typical catchment area size in Greece being rather small, and because the economic activities of the Greek cities are not linked to rivers; so only a few of them are built on large watersheds. The reduction of water losses due to network leakage is suggested as a method for the decrease of interbasin transfer volumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, economic resilience has become a popular term in both theory and policy practice. This interest was triggered by the fact that some regional economies were extremely vulnerable, while others have managed to overcome, more or less effectively, the worse consequences of the current economic crisis. Within this context, questions arise regarding the role that policies at both the national and subnational levels can play in shaping regional economic resilience. Although high in the academic and political agenda, understanding the policy and governance aspects of resilience still remains a relatively underdeveloped area. The paper contributes to this debate focusing on an area which has been most severely hit by crises, the Region of West Macedonia, in Greece. The case study builds on the historical trajectory of the region in order to explain how different types of policies have influenced the ability of West Macedonia to respond to economic slumps and crises of the last 30 years. Evidence suggests that national protectionist policies largely explain not only resilience of the region against previous crises, but also its vulnerability towards the still ongoing economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the policy implemented when it comes to establishing regional universities in a developed, yet semi-peripheral, EU country (i.e. Greece) and focuses on two central issues: whether regional universities contribute to local development and whether their location in the periphery harnessed their academic performance. The establishment of regional universities has become a widely used practice for facilitating regional development throughout the developed world, and the university's third role is quite widely accepted. The paper does not intend to question the policy of establishing regional universities itself, but rather the way these universities were established in Greece (as a case of a semi-peripheral regime) and possibly in other countries that are not in the forefront of international research. Regional universities in Greece were often established for clientelistic reasons; however, they do contribute in advancing local economic growth. These positive effects on the locality are often accompanied by a high cost for the Greek university and society itself, in the sense that regional universities have often been forced to operate under difficult conditions, thus undermining their fundamental mission (educational but primarily research). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the socio-economic implications of the imposition of 'zone under surveillance' status upon an area along the northern borders of Greece, throughout most of the twentieth century. This zone was enclosed to the north by a border separating Greece from other countries and to the south by a frontier separating the Greeks in the zone from the rest of their country. This state of affairs has created many problems within the surveillance zone (such as a feeling among the population that their area is under threat, less developed than and only partially assimilated to the rest of Greece). The paper focuses on the function of the surveillance zone as an 'internal frontier', and not on its earlier function as a defence mechanism, and on one particular part of the zone, in the prefecture of Xanthi, which is inhabited by Pomaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to shed light on the dynamic aspects of the Community Support Framework for Greece and to further explore its contributions to regional convergence. Given that, the majority of the Greek regions have been classed among the poorest regions of the European Union (EU) with a major inter and intra regional divergence gap, the issue of catching up the convergence factors acquires paramount importance in view of the new trends of European Community (EC) Regional Policies. Unquestionably, the convergence of the Greek regions requires a series of macroeconomic management devices and the encouragement of a series of soft and hard infrastructure projects which wilt restructure, upgrade and adjust their regional economy. The analysis of this paper will focus on the assistance stemming from the Regional and Structural Funds of the EU, plus the Cohesion Fund with the aim to uncover the factors which determine the extension and intensity of the convergence and divergence procedure. Using the data from the Community Support Framework (CSF I) (1989-1993), which has already been completed, attention will be paid to some of the basic problems which derisively impedes the real convergence of the Greek regions. The author will also examine in depth the criteria used by the competent authorities in allocating the funds to the regional bodies in relation with the existing regional imbalances and then he will propose a new synthetic method considering more factors which influence the final allocation approach. The conclusions of the paper might systematically unravel a series of problems facing the regions both socio-economic and administrative which if they are not effectively confronted may possibly enlarge the existing divergence gap of the Greek regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the degree of business cycle synchronicity among Greek regions and investigates the determinants of the business cycle co-movements of output associated with specific functional and spatial aspects of the integration process among the Greek regions. We analyse nearly 30 years (1980–2008) of data at the NUTSIII level (prefectures). We conclude that the business cycles of prefectures are more synchronized with the NUTSII regional cycle than with the national business cycle revealing a regional (NUTSII) border effect. Moreover, the intensification of the integration process seems to diachronically affect the structural characteristics of the Greek regions and the geography of cyclical synchronization. Our study reveals a two-stage integration process where in the first stage we detect the existence of urbanization economies, while in the second one the existence of localization economies. Furthermore, our study reveals that the metropolitan regions have a low level of business cycle synchronicity with the other regions, stressing Greece's pattern of economic and structural dualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the response of the Greek statutory spatial planning system to the concept and principles of sustainability. The query to be answered is the following: Have the structure, institutions, processes and instruments of the planning system been affected by sustainability principles and in what way? Furthermore, are there any public policy results contributing to sustainable development and attributable to spatial planning? Methodological approach is based on cross-examination of a group of assumed sustainability criteria on the one side and recent changes/transformations in the key-factors of the spatial planning system (institutions, processes, instruments) on the otherside. The approach is complemented by reverse direction considerations: in cases of operational processes leading evidently up to sustainability the responsible policy sector is acknowledged and any factual connection to spatial planning is addressed. The main conclusion is that for the time being sustainability objectives in strategic and top-down spatial planning in Greece rather perform the function of a political manifesto and 'legalize' traditional weaknesses than drive real development towards a sustainable course. The chances for operational success are expected slim in the near future and originate mostly from the European Union (EU) political and economic pressures, producing however fragmented, single-dimension (mainly environment conservation) results for which commitment of the involved societies has never been accomplished and confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The community of Sotiras on the Greek island of Thasos has experienced two distinctive periods of economic boom during the twentieth century separated by a long period of decline and abandonment. Early in this century, a mining economy flourished, while today the community functions as a haven for seasonal visitors. This paper compares the socio-economic and spatial impacts of both periods via personal interviews and examination of letters of long-time inhabitants of the village. These sources seem to imply that the current growth period is less welcome by the native Sotirans . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although regional variation in rates of capital accumulation is considered a major component of spatially uneven industrial development, it remains largely an understudied area. The theoretical and methodological problems that surround the measurement of capital, generally, alongside the lack of necessary information about a wide range of specific aspects, pose serious obstacles in any attempt to construct regional capital stock series. In such a context, the main aim of this paper is to make the best possible effort to construct a regional manufacturing fixed capital stock series for Greece. The limited availability of information (not unusual in regional as opposed to national contexts) and the necessity of making some arbitrary, but specified, assumptions mean that the estimation steps have to be presented in detail to assess reliability. Four regional fixed capital stock series for total manufacturing activity are generated. The results are then assessed in the context of uneven spatial development in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]