Giuseppe Rocco (p), Susanna Mancinelli

Eleonora Cutrini

Over the past seven decades, the private car has increasingly symbolized connectivity, social inclusion, and status, contributing to higher automobile usage. This trend has led to significant environmental, economic, and societal challenges, including increased greenhouse gas emissions, air and noise pollution, climate change, traffic fatalities, and health issues like obesity and physical inactivity. As a response, active transportation, especially walking, has gained prominence as a promising strategy to mitigate these concerns while providing community-level benefits, fostering social interactions, and building social capital. Europe’s focus on sustainable mobility and children's physical health since the late 1990s has led to initiatives like Walking School Buses.
This study explores the barriers to full adoption and the challenges encountered by the Walking School Bus service in Ferrara. Using a qualitative approach, the research utilizes semi-structured interviews to collect data from municipal managers, school managers, and parents. Through thematic analysis, five key themes were identified: "social capital," "service considerations," "environmental sustainability," "service interactions," and "willingness to participate." These themes highlight the influence of parental social structure, parents' perspectives on the service, sustainability practices, factors guiding parental decisions, and reasons for low participation or service discontinuation. The findings provide valuable insights to inform policymakers and enhance the implementation of such services.

Eleonora Cutrini (p), Alfonso Carfora, ederico Ninivaggi

Vinicius Ribeiro

The continual crises that have characterized the past twenty years have raised important concerns on differences in the regional effects of the economic shocks within the European Union. In fact, regional disparities in per capita GDP have tended to widen in the aftermath of crisis of different nature such as the 2008 financial crisis, the 2012 sovereign debt crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite it is widely acknowledged that institutions and governance are important to understand the uneven impact of broader international drivers, only few studies in the field have investigated recent evidence, after the Covid-crisis, with analysis accounting for potential spatial spillover effects.
The aim of this study is to evaluate whether and to what extent pre-crisis exposure and vulnerabilities, such as those related to economic fundamentals (i.e., physical capital, human capital, economic structures) and institutional characteristics, can explain the regional capability to recover after a shock.
The analysis is based on a spatial econometric approach applied to a panel of EU NUTS 2 regions and covers the period 2000–2021. Data for per capita GDP, human capital, physical capital economic structure are drawn from Eurostat, while institutional quality is measured by the European Quality of Government (EQI) index and its pillars (Charron et al., 2022). The estimation method is particularly suitable for the characteristics of the data employed since regional spillover effects arise in the outcome variable– i.e., the per capita GDP –.
Our preliminary results confirm previous works that established the prominence of regional economic structure. However, institutional quality provides a significant contribution to foster regional growth and resilience.

Vinicius Ribeiro (p)

Pantoleon Skayannis, Ersi (Varsami) Zafeiriou

During the last 25 years, research based on Global Value Chain (GVC) approach has experienced significant interest by academics, generating studies published in a wide range of multidisciplinary journals that initially were primarily concerned with key dimensions of governance and upgrading. However, in the last decade, research has started to discuss in a more systematic way the institutional dimension in the GVC's analysis.

In this context, this research aims to discuss the institutional environment of tilapia production in Brazil, based on the analysis of a region with high potential to lead the globalization of the domestic chain. The institutional environment indexes were estimated using fuzzy modeling from three perspectives (Economic, Social, and Local). The data was collected in a region with a high capacity to lead value chain internationalization.

The results indicate that spatial specialization may be a factor leading to a higher offer of credit to production units. However, access to this credit for units located in the production zone may be more difficult due to the requirements of the environmental and operational laws in that area. In this context, we argue that the main bottlenecks of the chain (credit and legal compliance) may create a harmful feedback effect, especially for small farmers. Additionally, we point out the necessity of more efficient communication in terms of the socioeconomic and environmental benefits of the chain. Finally, we highlight the importance of strengthening the institutional framework and social capital for small producers as crucial factors to overcome bottlenecks and ensure sustainability in the Brazilian tilapia value chain.

In this study, the firms surveyed were not integrated into global chains, despite the significant potential and interest in exports by this productive sector in Brazil. This is an important aspect of this article, considering that in general, the researches in GVC fields emphasize firms already inserted in different levels of participation in international markets. Finally, it is relevant to discuss an agenda that also integrates research that maps the conditions and processes of insertion of firms in GVCs, under different viewpoints and historical perspectives (e.g.: ex-ante and ex-post). Comparisons between these scenarios and their eventual changes after participation in global chains can be significantly relevant for research on GVC analysis, policy makers, and firms.

Pantoleon Skayannis (p), Ersi (Varsami) Zafeiriou (p)

Giuseppe Rocco

Planning of megaprojects is an inherently wicked problem not only because planning per se is ‘inherently wicked’ (Rittel & Webber, 1973) but also because their magnitude amplifies their wickedness. Equally so, they are complex. These projects tend to exhibit unpredictable behaviour, undergo qualitative transformations, face emergent issues, struggle with unclear solutions, and be entangled in an interaction of independent factors that create uncertainty and risk.
The obviously correlated social vulnerability, driven by contextual and intersectional factors (diverse identities and needs), amplifies the complexity and wickedness of megaproject planning even further. This paper elucidates the intricate dynamics of megaproject planning and social vulnerability drivers, using the new metro stations in Exarcheia and Evangelismos, Athens, as case studies.
A mixed-methods approach uses an interpretive paradigm to examine how social vulnerability drivers contribute to the complexity and wickedness of megaproject planning and decision-making processes. Quantitative data are first used to set the terrain of social vulnerability in the Athenian context. Qualitative data are collected through stakeholder interviews, narrative analysis, and field observations to capture nuances. Discourse analysis of media articles, government documents, public statements, and community publications is conducted to understand the narratives, power dynamics, and underlying assumptions shaping stakeholders’ perspectives. Thematic analysis organizes data around key themes related to wicked problem attributes and social vulnerability drivers. This methodological triangulation provides different perspectives on the planning challenges, ensuring a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the complexities involved.
The development journey of the two stations reveals how social and climatic changes, political shifts, and cultural and class differences in urban conflicts act as fundamental drivers, reinforced by existing institutional and social systems, and lead to risky decisions. Specific factors contributing to social vulnerability in the two districts include the sensitive social balance between the civil society stakeholders and administrative authorities. The ad hoc drastic solution in Exarcheia involves the eviction of traditional users of the Square. At the same time, the opponents’ narrative in Evangelismos focuses on defending the greenery in which they have invested.
This study explores the complexity and inherent wickedness of planning urban megaprojects by examining social vulnerability factors that exacerbate planning challenges. It concludes with lessons learned from case studies to inform future planning efforts and promote more resilient and equitable urban development.