Simona Cafieri (p)

Andrea Salustri

The Covid 19 has changed the world of work and beyond. The distances have been bridged by Teams, Zoom, Meet. Meetings were postponed, then cancelled, then rescheduled in different forms. The emergency caused by the pandemic has led to reflections on organisational forms whose main driver is flexibility. Remote working is now an innovative and smart way of working, an advantage for employees, professionals and employers, a concrete and green possibility for a better work-life balance.In the last two years, many smart workers have moved their domicile or residence from the big cities to other municipalities in the inland areas or Islands, attracted by a simpler and more sustainable social dimension as it is linked to the cycles of nature and slower, or at least less stressful, timescales, even at the cost of a penalty in pay, a sign that a hypothetical improvement in the quality of life has an economic value that can be immediately discounted. An 'extreme' form of flexible working is digital nomadism: under the influence of digitalisation and globalisation, entrepreneurs, freelancers and employees have started to leave behind regular '9-to-5' working structures and to change their expectations of work, particularly in terms of work-life balance, thus extending the concept to work-leisure balance. These 'location-independent' workers often choose a rural, suburban or island area as their destination and embrace a new philosophy of life. This paper aims to shed light on these emerging types of work in the Islands from official statistical data by cross-referencing administrative data, survey data and experimental statistics.

Andrea Salustri (p), Angelo Castaldo, Marco Forti

Simona Cafieri

The research aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the challenges and opportunities of the digital transformation accelerated by the COVID-19 outbreak. Specifically, in contexts that are less exposed to global dynamics, disruptive innovations may overlook idiosyncratic forms of cultural, social, economic, and environmental unsustainability, putting social cohesion and people’s quality of life at risk.
Based on these considerations, the research examines the case of the Italian small islands. The latter can be seen as a “mosaic” with many qualifying dimensions having a conventional nature that is difficult to quantify in absolute terms. However, some degree of standardization is needed to measure the impacts of the ongoing digitalization process.
Lying on these premises, the research presents a composite index that can be used to evaluate the impact of the effectiveness of the digital transition in addressing socioeconomic insularity. The research also investigates whether, alongside forms of geographical proximity, the development of the Italian small islands may relate to the identification of social, territorial, and economic similarities, along research lines which are not immediately evident. The latter may facilitate the spread of good (not best) practices between different insular contexts. The statistical evidence collected is discussed within a theoretical framework based on center-periphery relations and based on the results achieved a set of policy recommendations is elaborated.

Simona Cafieri (p)

Andrea Salustri

We know from research at various scales that digital technologies may lead to economic growth and potentially disruptive innovations with strong spatial footprints and potential benefits for whole regions, even peripheral or rural areas.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdowns increased our dependency on digital technologies and drastically accelerated digitalisation in various domains, from selling products online to working from home and from creatively designing online services and products to building new business models and digital infrastructure.
The digital transition is a cornerstone of the NextGenerationEU, a recovery instrument to help repair the economic and social damage brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
But what implications does digitisation have for sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda?
What implications does digitisation have for rural , peripheral areas and Islands?
The paper will analyse the factors that influence the ability of the Islands to react, and pro-act, to digitalisation in the path toward the sustainable development goals.
The focus will be on the ability of (local) entrepreneurship to reconcile spiritual traditions and the impact of technological innovations according to creative resilient models of sustainable development that allow them to reap the great benefits of a structural transformation of the territories without losing their distinctive and qualifying features. The focus will be also on innovative and sustainable solutions that can make innovation an engine of development that can enhance their traditions, making them a driving force for the development of their economic systems.
For this reason, it is now more crucial than ever, especially for Islands and peripheral or rural areas, monitoring sustainable development through indicators that keep track of the degree of achievement of different goals and to steer political and public debate towards a long-term vision in which digitalisation is a key factor.