Konstadina Kasabali, Persefoni Polychronidou (p)

Alena Myshko

In recent years more countries have gradually started to provide digital services to their citizens. The digitization of public services, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has become an essential necessity for many governments around the world. An improved government through digitization will not only have an increasing effect on business but will also intensify citizen participation and contribute to economic growth. The initial acceptance is apparently that the first stage for the success of e-Government services is citizen interaction which then enables governments to enhance e-Government services. The digital transformation of Greece since 2019 with the creation of the e-Gov platform has become a role model due to its dynamics with more than two billion transactions, that have been processed with speed and transparency through the digital state these past years. The empirical research of this study presents analysis of information received from Greek citizens and studies citizens' satisfaction from e-government services resulting from the usefulness of e-government services, service quality, the fulfillment of their expectations from the use, as well as the intention to interact with e-government services. The purpose of the research is to propose targeted ways that will help the use of electronic services by citizens and to capture the existing citizens’ participation and satisfaction.

Christine Liefooghe (p)

Persefoni Polychronidou

The paper deals with a preliminary study in the framework of a European research program called Horizon Europe LibrarIN (2023-2026). LibrarIN focuses on the future of libraries in the digital age. Magazines and books are increasingly accessible online. Social networks are a growing source of (fake) information and digital platforms offer a large access to TV films or TV series. Libraries in cities or in the rural areas have to adapt their offer to survive in the digital era. Is it possible for librarians to be useful for the society, citizens and marginalized people ? What types of innovations are necessary to create new services online and to attract users in the libraries in their «physical» dimension? Considering public budget restrictions, what innovations are necessary from a managerial point of view? What skills and competencies are necessary for librarians to adapt their role to the new demand such as digital training, (social) entrepreneurship, inclusive services (for poor people, migrants, elderly people, children and so on), transition to a new social and ecological economy ? The LibrarIN research program is focused on value-creation and innovation in academic or community librairies at the digital era. The paper presented at the ERSA congress addresses the emergence of social innovations (new demand of the people) linked to technological innovations (digital tools) in a geographical perspective (metropolitan or non-metropolitan area).
Methods and Data: Based on a literature review realized by colleagues of the project, the paper presents the first conclusions of a preliminary study in public libraries in two countries : France and Canada (Montreal and the Quebec province). French professional literature dedicated to librarians often cites examples of innovations experimented in Montreal (Quebec) such as Fab Labs, Living Labs, services for entrepreneurship or to disadvantaged people, in particular migrants from different countries. So we made some qualitative interviews and visits (may, september 2023) in Montreal and about 10 in France (october 2023-january 2024): in Paris, three metropoles and in medium and little cities of non-metropolitan areas. Qualitative data will be presented to compare different types of libraries considering the case studies in different geographical contexts. The aim is to analyse the tensions between some concepts: (digital or physical) proximity, networking, (traditional or innovative) public policies, innovation and value co-creation.

Emmanouil Tranos (p), Luning Li

Christine Liefooghe

While emphasis has traditionally been placed on the individual dimensions of gambling – what drives individuals to engage in harmful gambling activities and their effects on individuals and households – little attention has been paid to understand the spatial patterns of these activities. For example, are individuals living in specific neighbourhoods more likely to engage into harmful gambling activities? Which areas suffer most from gambling activities? How do environmental and individual factors interact to shape the gambling landscape?

In this strand of research, the role of geography and places has been reduced to the notion of accessibility and, specifically, the cost or easiness to access gambling facilities. Such research was mostly conducted by matching small size survey data on gambling attitudes and behaviours with physical locations of gambling outlets. The gambling landscape from a spatial perspective is complex enough when only the location and accessibility to brick-and-mortar gambling facilities is considered. However, nowadays gambling within such facilities represents only a fraction of the total gambling revenues. Hence, by neglecting online gambling opportunities only part of the gambling landscape becomes visible to researchers.

This paper overcomes these challenges by using a large anonymised survey regarding online gambling behaviours. It assesses how spatial variables including accessibility to brick-and-mortar gambling facilities can affect online gambling behaviours.

Alena Myshko (p)

Emmanouil Tranos

The lockdowns and restrictions conditioned by the pandemic, on the one hand, have deepened the separation of nodes of many supply chains and, on the other hand, accelerated their shift to digitalisation. However, digital transformations in various sectors are aggravated by their degrees of fragmentation and remaining dependency on physical supply chains. Business transactions, relations, networks and activities were enabled by and occurred on digital platforms. The “new normal” is characterised by the permanence of these new arrangements and by a mesh of traditional and novel digital supply chain setups. Digital multi-sided platforms promise to increase the efficiency of transactions, to optimise logistics, to decrease the environmental impact caused by the transit of people and goods.
Digital multi-sided platforms promise to increase the efficiency of transactions, to optimize logistics, to decrease the environmental impact caused by the transit of people and goods. Moreover, ‘smartness’ in smart cities and regions is built upon, among other technologies, digital platforms which integrate tools and technologies for data management and e-participatory planning. To put in other words, a major part of smart cities’ infrastructural capacities is based on the use of digital platforms. Although, only their use for participatory activities, which engage various groups of actors by transforming them into stakeholders, can serve the idea of participatory smart cities.
The institutional approach to platform urbanism and integration of digital platforms focuses majority on the role of institutions and institutional mechanisms to transform the existing practices. institutions play a twofold role in the technological transition towards digital planforms in particular and smart cities in general: on the one hand, they frame the implementation and effectiveness of the novel principles and innovations. On the other hand, the existing institutional environment is changing under the new conditions.
Our project focuses on the digital transformations in general and digital platforms in particular, their benefits and challenges within the idea of smart cities and general ‘smartness’ in the Italian context. The research methodology is based on systematic literature review, qualitative document analysis, and interviews. The objective is to identify and systematize the system of institutions and institutional factors, formal and informal, which frame the integration of participatory digital platforms in the context of ‘urban smartness’. The vision of the project is that an effective, accessible and fair platform is a crucial new tool for open policy-making and citizen-responsive urban planning.