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The purpose of this paper was to study the feasibility and expectations of use and quality of service robots in the hotel industry. For this purpose, the authors have relied on a research tool, also used in the pilot research conducted in 2020, regarding the intention to the use and expectations of service robots. The research was based on a sample of 413 hotel employees in hotels in Greece. An important outcome of this research is that overall the intention and expectations from the use of robots affect quality of service of robots in the hotel industry. Also, it appears that demographics can be a mediator in the examined relationships. This research presents a significant originality and importance for two reasons; it examines the perceptions of hotel personnel to use robots – since most of the existing empirical evidence derives mostly from consumers – and secondly it creates the necessary research framework and tools for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studied the phenomenon of energy poverty in the Municipality of Agrafa, a mountainous region of Greece, aiming to enhance knowledge on the phenomenon within mountainous areas. For this purpose, a primary survey was undertaken, and various objective and subjective indicators were monitored. It was found that 62.4% of households in Agrafa are classified as energy poor according to the 10% index based on actual energy costs, while the percentage escalates to 91.3% based on required costs. Also, the compression of energy needs emerges as a significant side of the problem. The subjective indicators highlight supplementary behavioural aspects of the phenomenon. A set of statistical tests was applied, i.e. cluster analysis, Chi-square tests of independence and regression analysis, enriching the outcomes of the research. Finally, the directions of energy policy are evaluated, highlighting the need for targeted research and policy measures adapted to mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates persistent elements of protracted phonological development (PPD) at ages 5;10 and 6;3 in a monolingual Greek girl's speech following earlier articulation intervention (3;6) and post-intervention assessment (4;3). The re-assessment data examined here, five months apart, were elicited using the Phonological Assessment for Greek (PAel). Results reveal interesting idiosyncratic patterns in the production of segmental sequences (VV, CC) in complex syllables and longer words, with a striking imbalance between singletons and sequences, which holds especially true for inconsistency in the acquisition of /ɾ/ across CV, CC, and C.C contexts. Phonological delay surfaces as chronological mismatches, idiosyncratic forms and, most notably, disparity between segmental and structural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to describe and interpret the main objectives of the educational policy of the central elites of the Liberals in the region of Greek Macedonia during the period 1915–1924 concerning the process of assimilation and especially the cultural assimilation, the structural integration and the psychological identification of the so-called xenophone or allophone population. We investigate the Glinos Foundation Archive using CDA techniques in combination with the historical interpretative method. Αn assimilation process with mild practices took place, while the achievement of national homogenization through literacy via the demotic Greek language teaching was considered as the main goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the strategies Albanian migrant parents in Greece employ to reconcile their work and childcare responsibilities. The institutional context, the informal work setting, and the agency of the migrants all play crucial roles in their childcare arrangements. This research draws on 36 biographical interviews conducted during 2014–2016 with parents in Greece. Our findings suggest that migrants use different coping strategies to manage their work and care responsibilities. These strategies include mother-centred strategies or mothers making career sacrifices to meet their care responsibilities, shared parenting, relying on extended family and friends, delegating care to older children, leaving children to care for themselves, taking children to work, and transnational care practices. This study shows how care arrangement options were constrained and continuously shaped by migration, care, gender, and labour regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the impact of the European Structural Funds on the performance of employment policy in Greece. The employment policy in Greece, is a policy funded by EU and characterized by centralization, increased red tape, administrative overlaps and fragmentation pitfalls, factors' contributing to policy's ineffectiveness. Based on the comparative analysis of the implementation and performance of ESIF Operational Programs in Greece and by focusing on the case of the Greek Public Employment Service (OAED), this article evaluates European Union Policies actual impact on employment policy effectiveness and new jobs creation in Greece during the 2012–2020 period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an experimental study aiming to explore primary school students' response to Mobile Seamless Learning activities. The educational intervention and the consequent investigation were conducted in a suburban primary school in Greece, with second grade pupils, in the context of a learning subject entitled "Studying our Living Environment". The participant students (n = 14) engaged in both face-to-face (in-class, outdoor) and online (home) collaborative and individualistic activities supported by a variety of digital applications. Primary research data were gathered upon completion of the intervention via 5 group interviews and 12 individual interviews. The findings have shown that Mobile Seamless Learning can facilitate pupils' active engagement and improve their attitudes toward collaboration. Moreover, this approach can lead to the development of a learning community that promotes learners' motivation, enables them to construct new knowledge, and develop essential skills. [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]

Financialization and neoliberal globalization have increased the dependency of peripheral countries on core economies. This paper tracks the neoliberalization processes of Greece and Turkey, two neighbouring countries on the periphery of Europe. By using a comparative political economy method and borrowing from the variegated capitalism literature, it critically investigates how these two Mediterranean countries were affected by the 2008 global financial crisis, their variant responses, and the impacts of those responses within their historical specificities. The development trajectories of these two countries were similar until the 1980s, but diverged thereafter. Before the 2008 financial crisis erupted, both Greece and Turkey had neoliberal trajectories; the process they experienced through the crisis (how they were impacted by the crisis, as well as how they responded) varied; yet, capitalist restructuring deepened in both countries after the crisis. This was achieved through rising authoritarian populism in Turkey and the pressure of international institutions (both the International Monetary Fund [IMF] and the European Union [EU]) in Greece. Given that Greece is a member of the EU and Turkey is a longstanding candidate, the variances between Greece and Turkey's neoliberalization processes and the differing impacts the 2008 global financial crisis had on them make studying the contrasts between these countries important and timely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reflects on the authors' observations regarding the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic within the context of child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Greece. The specific conditions in Greece during the first general lockdown are described, and the necessary modifications to the therapeutic framework with latency children and adolescents are discussed. During the lockdown, the authors continued to meet with their patients online, a framework that had both advantages and limitations. The authors share their thoughts about the ways they tried to keep the connection with their patients alive, in the face of the first wave of the coronavirus crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melittio-Quercion frainetto and Melittio-Quercion confertae are two alliances, which were proposed about simultaneously 40 years ago through two different papers regarding southern Italy and southern Greece, respectively. The aims of this paper are to establish valid name, nomenclatural type and distribution range of these two alliances and to verify whether they display a sufficient degree of syntaxonomic autonomy when compared to the ecologically and geographically neighbouring alliances. A data matrix composed of 43 frequency columns summing 1242 phytosociological relevés x 625 taxa was prepared and statistically analysed. The results suggested that the thermophilous Quercus cerris and Q. frainetto oak woods of the southern Apennines and the southern Balkans deserve to be classified in two separated alliances. The application of the principle IV of the ICPN established that the correct name of the alliance is Melittio albidae-Quercion frainetto Barbéro, Bonin, Gamisans et Quézel in Bonin et Gamisans 1976 and that it was typified in southern Italy. Accordingly, the new name Geranio asphodeloidis-Quercion frainetto is here proposed for southern Greece in substitution of Melittio-Quercion confertae (nom. illeg.). The syntaxonomic proposal advanced in this paper brings significant modifications in the current version of the checklist of the European syntaxa (Eurovegchecklist). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a methodological synthesis in order to study multimodal media discourse and argumentation in the context of the so-called 'refugee crisis' in Greece. It follows the framework of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, integrating this with argumentation studies, with a particular emphasis on the analysis of inference. Our data come from the Greek newspapers Kathimerini and Ta Nea. We contend that the proposed methodological synergy enables scrutiny of (a) racist conceptualizations cultivated by the representation of migrants and refugees in headlines and photographs in newspaper articles along with (b) the argumentative potential that is implicitly sustained in these multimodal representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This is the second paper in a two-paper series in which we present how the ongoing crisis in Greece has been used to accelerate the neoliberal restructuring of Greece with serious implications for the appropriation of nature. In this paper we focus specifically on particular aspects of the austerity programs that relate to natural resources and natural conditions. We examine changes to the business environment and ongoing privatization schemes to show how the Greek austerity programs benefited private capital with significant concessions of natural resources. By discussing relevant specific cases, we concretely show how austerity programs have had far-reaching adverse consequences for the living conditions of working people and their access to natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a perspective on fabric and its use in religious settings, working from a comparative survey of critical literature arising, primarily, from anthropological writings on cloth and clothing in conjunction with insights gained from ethnographic research among Eastern Orthodox Christians. While the character of Orthodox Christianity and the broad nature of comparative religion shape how the argument is presented, the primary focus of the paper is not on the religious contexts, but rather the particular items of fabric in use, and, more generally, the exact qualities of fabric that allow for its use in such diverse contexts. Rather than taking an argument of historical specificity, the paper is grounded in a material culture approach to fabric, suggesting that a cross-cultural appraisal of fabric that spans different historical periods allows critical insight into the modes of operation within human experience. The central argument of the paper is that, because of the material qualities inherent in fabric, it can be used in such a manner as to make present the sacred. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on a qualitative study conducted in austerity-stricken Greece, the paper provides a micro-level exploration of the mechanics of intergenerational transmission of (dis)advantage. Utilising the Bourdieusian toolbox, the paper enquires into familial practices through the lens of young people’s perceptions, focusing on the mobilisation of capitals, the inculcation and transformation of habitus taking place in the Greek educational field. In-depth interview material unpacks the pedagogic efforts young people and their families make, indicating that these are contingent on the varied volume and composition of capitals and the distinct distances from necessity that in turn constrain or afford the exercise of agency and the investments in the academic market. Further, the analysis sheds light on young people’s accounts of educational and occupational expectations illustrating how these are tightly interweaved with familial legacies and parental wishes, and underpinned by the projects of distinction, mobility and respectability through education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to estimate excise tax revenue elasticity and buoyancy for tobacco products and alcoholic beverages in Greece, for the period 2000–2020. To this end, we employ core and more extended error correction models. Overall, our empirical results do not confirm the appropriateness of the unity assumption. Policy measures seem to affect excise tax revenues in the long run mostly through the tax-to-base relation. In most cases, excise tax revenues seem to have a larger reaction to changes in the tax base in the short run, which could be associated with different asymmetric effects, in particular the crisis/adjustment and the COVID-19 lockdown effects. Our findings indicate several differences in excise tax revenue elasticity and buoyancy between the two product categories, suggesting that individual product categories should be examined separately for a more precise estimate of tax revenue sensitivity. This implication may assist policy makers to effectively design the related tax policies, especially during abnormal periods like the COVID-19 pandemic, and derive more accurate tax revenue forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questioning the prevailing discourse of multiple benefits surrounding tourism development, this paper examines the Itanos Gaia investment on Cavo Sidero peninsula, north-eastern Crete as a hegemonic project of dispossession. Drawing on David Harvey's theorisation of accumulation by dispossession and Gramsci's original work on hegemony, we describe and analyse the specificities and antinomies of the Itanos Gaia project, first to chart the modalities of dispossession in four interrelated strands operative in this case: nature, land, financial speculation and the institutionalisation of dispossession, and second, to analyse the interplay between hegemony and the imposition of dispossession, including its internalisation in the realm of (local) civil society as 'common sense', underpinned by the local and broader dynamics of a particular power bloc. Empirically, this inquiry is informed by a survey conducted among local residents to identify local perceptions/views about the investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Τhe paper analyses an insular community, Astypalaia in the Aegean Sea, which hosts a distinct commons institution that has acted as a governance catalyst. It has so far safeguarded the delicate balance between the development of supplementary subsistence activities (agricultural, pastoral, fisheries, and food processing-supply), community building, fair distribution, and management of landed resources, and overall landscape justice. This article unfolds the critical factors that have fostered or restrained the longevity of this Landed Commons (LCs) and reveals the emerging risks from both exogenous (international and nationwide dynamics) and endogenous (organisational structures and governance capacity) agents. The case of Astypalaia is placed within the broader debate on the role of commons in local communities, leading to significant insights into how this LCs can be revalorised by the host community establishing renewed stewardship within current socio-economic trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local planning conflicts can stem from perceived inherent landscape injustice. This article explores how conflicting community perceptions of such injustice can be analysed through local collaborative decision-making processes. A theoretical framework to analyse landscape injustice is proposed and applied to the Sitia UNESCO Geopark (East Crete, Greece). This paper thus examines whether, as part of the knowledge formation processes for the holistic treatment of landscape, landscape planning should explicitly analyse landscape visions, values, threats and injustice at a local community scale, and explores how their explicit consideration can contribute to planning processes in polarised communities. The case study results indicated that polarised (pro-environment vs pro-development) community stakeholders shared visions and values of their ideal landscape, including common root causes of perceived injustice. The analysis of landscape injustice revealed state and external interventions leading to local people's loss of land ownership and procedural marginalisation from decision-making processes regarding the landscape and its future use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on updating and integrating two reformed curricula designed in an era of national crises in Greece. In particular, the curriculum design activity of the Leading Coordinators (LCs) is studied under the lenses of Activity Theory and Positioning Theory. Sixteen transcribed videotaped meetings over a period of ten months are analysed to examine LCs' positionings enacted within the design activity as well as the interaction of the latter with other activity systems in situ. LCs' discourse brought to the fore convergent and divergent positionings mainly related to their research identity, occasionally revealing tensions. Research was the dominant activity system that interacted with that of the curriculum design activity, giving rise to contradictions. These were intensified by socio-political implications of the crises and were mainly related to the formation of a shared object for the design activity, its course of development and the activity of other stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that son preference resulted in gender-based discriminatory practices that unduly increased mortality rates for females at birth and throughout infancy and childhood in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Greece. The relative numbers of boys and girls at birth was extremely high and under-registration of females cannot on its own explain this result. The infanticide and/or mortal neglect of infant girls was therefore more common than previously acknowledged. Likewise, sex ratios increased as children grew older, thus suggesting that parents continued to treat boys and girls differently throughout childhood. A large body of qualitative evidence (contemporary accounts, folklore traditions, feminist newspapers, and anthropological studies) further supports the conclusion that girls were neglected due to their inferior status in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper probes into the many facets of Europe, through the course book 'English for General High School 2' and attempts to answer to questions such as, which is Europe's identity today? How do the texts deal with the influx of illegal immigrants from the east, human rights, and the phenomenon of xenophobia? What cultural aspects of Europe are depicted in the books? How is the 'post-crisis Europe' depicted in the coursebook? We focus on the coursebook which is used in the third class of Greek senior high school, as this grade level is considered to be a very important language level, especially in English as a foreign language. At this language level and grade students are on the verge of graduating from senior high school and are moving on to either further their studies in tertiary education or are preparing to find a job. The study of the aforementioned coursebook yields two basic semiotic conclusions. The first is that a selection of signs have been made which obey the principles of binary opposition. The second is that students in Greece will learn aspects of the American culture, a lot better, if exposed to them through a coursebook - even if that is an English as a foreign language coursebook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the construct of parenting wisdom and describes the development and preliminary validation of the Parenting Wisdom Scale (PWS), a new instrument designed to measure the construct. In a first study, a preliminary version of the PWS was developed and administered to a sample of 137 parents in Greece. The final version of the scale demonstrated the predicted four-factor solution and good internal consistency for the total and subscale scores. PWS correlated in expected ways with the convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity measures. In a second replication study, the above findings were cross-validated with an independent sample of 312 parents. In total, results are encouraging and seem to support the usefulness of the PWS to assess parenting wisdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces the often neglected concept of ‘claimed co-ethnics’ in the analysis of citizenship policies. It argues that this is an interstitial category that further complicates the triadic nexus between national minorities, nationalising states and kin-states. The ‘claimed co-ethnics’ are defined as people who are recognised by the citizenship (or ethnizenship) conferring state as belonging to its main ethnic group, although they themselves do not embrace that definition. In addition to bringing the issue of claimed co-ethnics into focus, the paper elucidates how citizenship policies can affect groups that challenge the exact fit between ethnicity and nation, showing how national governments through particular citizenship policies and categorisation practices engage in the construction of these groups. The paper shows that the triadic nexus framework, which has had a strong influence on citizenship and minorities scholarship, needs to be revised to include unidirectional relations between the elements of the triadic nexus. The paper is based on the comparison between the cases of ethnic Vlachs (in the context of Albania and Greece) and Bunjevci (in the context of Serbia and Croatia). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines how changes to the institutional environment in a crisis-hit economy impact on entrepreneurial activity. Through a case study of Greece, the paper demonstrates how the institutional environment has changed in light of the crisis and the resultant response of entrepreneurs to these changes. Drawing on in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs, the findings suggest that changes to institutions have served to limit entrepreneurial activity rather than enhance it, and that this has worsened in the midst of the crisis. We argue that this will detrimentally impact Greece's ability to navigate out of the crisis and regain competitiveness in the longer term. The paper concludes by offering a number of theoretical and policy implications which are focused on improving institutional environments so that entrepreneurship can play an appropriate role in recovering from economic crises. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduces a series of articles on the economics of military affairs in Turkey and Greece.

A central issue in the academic discussion related to immigrant groups and their integration in 'their new home' is national identity. This paper focuses on the methodological choices during a case study of the students' subjectivity in an Intercultural School in Thessaloniki in Greece and on how immigrant students form their identities. Most students as second-generation immigrants constantly negotiate multiple identities. This negotiation leads to the construction of ambivalence and conflicting identities that are represented with uncertainty and equivocation in their discourse. In this paper, I will present briefly a conceptual placement in social constructionism and the distinction between primitive and modern nationalism and will continue focusing on how the ambiguous and conflicting identities of immigrant students are shaped based on conception of national identity, the role of nostalgia and memory and finally on the polycemy of the construction of national identity of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest cooperatives are essentially a form of entrepreneurship. However, they are confronted by various problems and they cannot pay enough attention to value creation. The aim of this paper is twofold: (a) the identification of the structural factors supporting the function of Greek forest cooperatives and the exploration of the possibilities of applying business model innovation to them; (b) the investigation of how the development of an integrated business model can help cooperatives stay ahead in the innovation game, while securing sustainability. By applying business modeling procedures to the forest cooperatives of the Region of Thessaly (Greece) this paper presents, the implementation of innovative development strategy, within the current legislative framework. Results show that the business model approach gives them the ability to develop a shared vision for value creation and delivering through the establishment of a framework related to sustainable forest management based on creation of bonds for achieving a win-win strategy, satisfying the increasing needs for innovative forest-based products, which constitutes a challenge for the sustainable management of forests. We argue that this is the first time this approach has been made regarding forest cooperatives in Greece in relation to the emerging parameters of the general business environment. [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]

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]

Sociologists and social scientists' low professional status looms large when looking at the rapidly changing professional hierarchy based on the prominent role of technology and of scientific applications for peoples' lives. The paper seeks to unveil the inadequate professionalization of sociology in Greece and to relate this situation to the increase in the employment precariousness of sociologists over the years of the economic crisis. Moreover, the dominant economy-centric ideological/ governance model which promotes the 'utilitarianism' of the social sciences has played a significant role in sociology's residual position. The paper is structured along three axes: First of all, the low professional status of sociologists is related to the delayed academic institutionalization of sociology. Secondly, there is brief discussion of the relevant literature on graduate supply and demand in the labour market and the expansion of higher education. Thirdly, a more focused discussion is developed which portrays the opportunities and challenges faced by sociologists and other social scientists in the labour market, giving particular emphasis to the current situation in the wake of the financial crisis. Finally, it is concluded that the vicious circle of low professionalization and high precariousness facing sociologists demands institutional action aimed at reformulating the public agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop an automatic valuation model for property valuation using a large database of historical prices from Greece. The Greek property market is an inefficient, non-homogeneous market, still at its infancy and governed by lack of information. As a result modelling the Greek real estate market is a very interesting and challenging problem. The available data cover a wide range of properties across time and include the financial crisis period in Greece which led to tremendous changes in the dynamics of the real estate market. We formulate and compare linear and non-linear models based on regression, hedonic equations and artificial neural networks. The forecasting ability of each method is evaluated out-of-sample. Special care is given on measuring the success of the forecasts but also on identifying the property characteristics that lead to large forecasting errors. Finally, by examining the strengths and the performance of each method we apply a combined forecasting rule to improve forecasting accuracy. Our results indicate that the proposed methodology constitutes an accurate tool for property valuation in a non-homogeneous, newly developed market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the market-oriented behaviour and performance consequences for firms operating in a market characterised by national heterogeneity. Through a case-study design, a posteriori propositions based on interview data from six multinational firms operating in a polyethnic market are developed. Findings indicate a positive relationship between the need for responsiveness and a market's polyethnicity with firms customising elements of their product strategy to ethnic segments or European consumers at large. Moreover, findings indicate that market-oriented firms that customise their product strategies to the cultural idiosyncrasies of the Greek market enjoy the highest market share among foreign consumers. As a result, the paper opens up a discussion on the performance implications of adopting a market-oriented approach in polyethnic markets, which are, increasingly, a feature of our globalised world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Teacher hiring is often a dysfunctional time-consuming bureaucratic procedure, which is not always completed on time due to organisational impediments, budget cuts and slow-moving political processes. Specifically, late hiring has been reported to affect negatively teachers' as well as students' performance. This study examined the extent of late hiring in parallel support, which is a Greek institution aiming to support students with disabilities and special education needs within the mainstream classroom. Actually, this paper examined the number of parallel support teachers in Greek primary and secondary education who were hired on time as well as the percentage of recruitment per hiring phase during the school years 2018--2019 and 2019--2020. Results indicated high percentages of late hiring in this institution for both educational levels lead to the suggestion that the Greek State virtually divided the students into two categories; the 'privileged' who were supported from the start and the 'non-privileged' who were belatedly supported. The researchers conclude that policies in Greece concerning hiring of parallel support teachers need fundamental changes in organisation and funding, in order to serve the students' needs and signalise a strike against ableism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A century of archaeology has identified hundreds of potential sites north of the Corinthian Isthmus on the Greek mainland and in the northeast Aegean contemporary with the Middle Helladic-Late Helladic I Period (MH-LH I, ca. 2100-1550 BC). This paper presents an exploratory nearest neighbor network model to examine connectivity in a scenario where maritime movement included widespread access to the sail (known from the wider Aegean). Analysis of clustering and centrality in the modeled network shows that nodes along the Euboean Gulf were the most important for overall connectivity, and that seemingly geographically isolated sites in the Sporades archipelago and Chalkidiki were crucial for integrating the northern Aegean with central Greece. The later Late Bronze Age palatial centers of Thebes, Orchomenos, and Dimini/Volos on the other hand do not score highly on any centrality measure in this scenario, suggesting that their inherent position on the modeled network did not greatly contribute to their eventual success. This observation is in line with recent scholarship, increasingly pointing to an important endogenous aspect to emerging complexity in central Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents Greek primary education stakeholders' views regarding their quality of life and EU-related issues before and during the euro crisis. The study took place in 2016, and the population was primary education teachers and parents of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region. Respondents answered sets of questions for two different years: 2009, before austerity measures were applied, and 2016, during the crisis. Responses denote dissatisfaction with their quality of life and the EU in 2016. The findings show significant shifts of views between 2009 and 2016 regarding the institution of the EU, the euro, the relationship of Greece with the EU and European citizenship. 2016 statements reveal increased euroscepticism in teachers and parents' views and a large proportion of undecided respondents. However, it seems that more respondents adopt a pro-European attitude regarding the common future of Greece and the EU in 2016. All in all, findings show that, in 2016, respondents are divided into pro-European and eurosceptic, which denotes diffuse attitudes towards the European construct and weak identification with European citizenship. Change during crisis can serve as an opportunity for social innovations and education initiatives that will restore trust on the institution of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an educational program for children with disabilities implemented in conjunction with a temporary exhibition of visual artists with disabilities in a museum in Greece. Through the description of the exhibition, the design and implementation of the educational program, and the creative activities offered, the authors identify benefits for the children and stress the importance of developing more collaborations between museums, artists with disabilities, and schools to move towards a more inclusive society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With China's continuous rise and growing external commercial, strategic, and political endeavours, questions have arisen about the motivation, timing, and locale of China's outreaching strategies. This research analyzes China's overseas port investments through a comparative study of Greece and Pakistan, two important partners of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Adopting the neoclassical realist framework and drawing on expert interviews, official statistics, and policy documents, this paper reveals how China's economic security objectives in combination with changing geopolitical structures led to its external port investments. This research contributes to the studies on rising powers and geopolitics by showing how China as a rising power capitalizes on geopolitical opportunities created by the changing interests of dominant powers to expand its presence in strategically important regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design, implementation, and operation of a novel distributed fault-tolerant middleware. It uses interconnected WSNs that implement the Map-Reduce paradigm, consisting of several low-cost and low-power mini-computers (Raspberry Pi). Specifically, we explain the steps for the development of a novice, fault-tolerant Map-Reduce algorithm which achieves high system availability, focusing on network connectivity. Finally, we showcase the use of the proposed system based on simulated data for crowd monitoring in a real case scenario, i.e. a historical building in Greece (M. Hatzidakis' residence). The technical novelty of this article lies in presenting a viable low-cost and low-power solution for crowd sensing without using complex and resource-intensive AI structures or image/video recognition techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a contribution to the understanding of migration beyond its spatial dimension to include the multiple temporalities that are entailed. We rely on empirical material collected among young Afghan men in Greece to explore how they conceptualize and make sense of waiting in their own terms by proposing an ethnographic depiction of card and online games. We argue that card and online games are a way for our interlocutors to express some level of agency. With their play, they create and reinforce social ties, respectively, creating and reinforcing a support network that persists over time and beyond geographical dispersion. Therefore, they transform waiting into an experience through which they may assert their personal autonomy and group belonging and reinvest meaning into their everyday life. They eventually develop some ability to manage the uncertainty that dominates their lives, present and future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to give an overview of teachers' library use in northwestern Greece. A questionnaire was distributed and filled in by 221 teachers (117 of upper elementary education and 104 of secondary) and was reinforced by interviews with 35 teachers. Teachers of elementary and secondary education supported that a school library with a plethora of appealing books and other resources can contribute greatly to the promotion of a culture of reading in contemporary school. A significant difference was observed between high-school teachers and upper elementary teachers with respect to the function of their school library. Further, elementary school libraries in one prefecture of Greece (Kastoria), compared to another (Ioannina), were found to be more functional, indicating that teachers' interest for enriching their school library, as well as their enthusiasm, effort, and commitment in the school library can help children make more use of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to examine fitness club members' willingness to start exercising in the clubs with the end of the lockdown. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was used in order to explore which of its components can predict club members' intention; furthermore, the degree to which leisure constraints can predict the formation of the elements of the TPB was tested. Three hundred and twenty three (N = 323) questionnaires were used; they were collected with an on-line survey, during the second lockdown in Greece. The results indicated that almost one out of three of the club members do not intend to return to the clubs when they are allowed to open. All the three elements of the TPB were contributed to the prediction of Intentions, with the Attitudes having the highest contribution. The Covid19, Hygienic and Financial constraint dimensions were the most influential on the formation of the elements of the TPB. The theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mati (Greece) wildfire of 23 July 2018 received extensive news coverage. It dominated the Greek public discourse for several years to the extent that it was ascribed to being used as a tool for electoral power. In spite of its significance, no research has focused on investigating the news coverage of this event. This research paper examines the news discourse of the Mati Wildfire by studying 1,573 news articles, using ideological discourse analysis (IDA). It analyzes the dominant narratives and constructions of the nine most prominent news websites in Greece and reveals if there is a systemic undermining of human impact on the environment. The findings showed that the news outlets did not cover the wildfire as an environmental event, but rather a political issue. The disseminated constructions were of a populistic discourse that supported a polarized logic of a positive image for a particular group (i.e., the main opposition party) and a negative one for the outgroup (i.e., the then-government). As a result, the study emphasizes how crucial it is for journalists to critically explain the role and effects of human activity on the environment (Anthropocene), instead of simply focusing on political or otherwise discussion of events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the literature on absenteeism suggest that absence from work is a complex issue influenced by multiple causes, both of personal and of organizational nature. Job satisfaction has also been identified as one of the factors affecting an employee's motivation to work attendance. There is no universal agreement concerning the relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction. Some research have found no correlation between these two variables, whereas other studies indicate a weak relationship between these two variables. It has also been suggested that absence and job satisfaction might be more strongly related under some conditions, for instance in the case of blue-collar workers. There is a lack of attention in the literature, however, to injury-related absenteeism, which is a particular type of absenteeism. This paper attempts to fill this gap and examines the effect of job satisfaction on injury-related absenteeism by using Greek and UK data. The empirical results suggest that there is a negative relationship between injury-related absenteeism and job satisfaction. The paper also discusses possible policy measures towards reducing injury-related absenteeism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greece lately, as a result of the crisis, has been transformed from a migrant receiving (host) country to a simultaneously migrant sending and receiving one. At the same time, processes of migrant de-integration from the economy and society have been manifesting too. This paper attempts to draw light on Greek migrant integration policy, which through the years has been characterized by a contradiction between policy narratives and concrete actions on the ground. More specifically, this paper brings to the fore a policy change that occurred during the period 2012–2015 and possibly continues up to now. According to this policy shift, special emphasis was put on the acquisition of the European long-term resident status from the part of already settled migrants as a passport to their intra-European mobility. Politically speaking, such developments were heralded as a win–win situation for both migrants, but also, Greece as a host country. Nevertheless, this rise of a hesitant EU host, who turned its integration policy into a managing migration endeavour, might be indicative of broader tendencies and trends within an expanded EU migratory landscape that includes both migration, but lately most importantly, asylum too. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using a new set of data from Greek Army sources, US military archives, and Communist Party documents, the paper provides a quantitative analysis of the armed confrontation that took place in Greece during 1946–1949. A dynamic Lotka–Volterra model is estimated, pointing to the existence of a conflict trap that explains the prolongation of the civil war and its dire consequences for the country. A regional analysis finds that the mobilization of guerrilla forces was crucially affected by morphology and the local persecutions of political rivals. Using neoclassical growth-accounting, the economic cost of the conflict is estimated to surpass an annual GDP, in line with similar findings in contemporary civil wars. The same framework is employed to assess the outcome in counterfactual situations discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores various dimensions of ‘gender’ and ‘mobility’ among immigrant youth from a transnational perspective in an era of economic crisis. The extent and parameters of continuity, contestation and change in migrant youth identities are analysed and we suggest that neither gender nor identity are stable categories but are embedded in sociocultural particularities both in the country of residence (Greece) but also in the country of origin (Albania). Through in-depth interviews with 52 participants, all second-generation Albanian immigrants in Greece born to two Albanian parents, the paper addresses youth identification in relation to gendered representations of belonging. The narrative accounts that we have selected and analysed reflect the emotional challenges, constraints and creativity of Albanian youth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Children from Roma communities are consistently among the lowest academic achievers in many European countries and this holds true in Greece. In Greek schools, Roma students experience high dropout rates and low performance compared to their non-Roma peers. Moreover, in Greece, as elsewhere, Roma experience wide-spread discrimination. Drawing on a set of in-depth interviews with 20 Greek Roma who have entered higher education, this paper examines how these participants account for their educational success. In particular, this article analyses the influence of 'community factors' on the participants' academic progression. This article highlights aspects of the Greek case of Roma's educational success that may contribute towards addressing aspects related to Roma's educational exclusion and promoting educational progression in the European context more widely. [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]