Prof. Amnon Frenkel (p), Dr. Ravid Luria, Prof. Yoram Shiftan

Cities increasingly seek to enhance municipal services and mobility through digitization, based on the assumption that “smart” technologies foster progress, efficiency, and sustainability. Yet, such advancements can unintentionally exclude populations with limited digital skills, deepening digital divides.
While most research on the digital divide focuses on socio-demographic factors, only a few have linked digital gaps to habitus—a set of cultural, social, and perceptual dispositions shaping individual actions. No prior study has systematically examined the relationship between habitus, the digital divide in urban mobility, and its effects on access to opportunities and social-spatial integration.
This study addresses this gap through a conceptual framework based on three hypotheses: (1) The digital divide in urban mobility stems from a “habitual mechanism” involving socio-demographic variables, attitudes, perceptions, and travel habits; (2) The digital mobility divide restricts access to opportunities (e.g., employment, education) for disadvantaged groups; (3) There is a positive relationship between accessibility and social-spatial integration.
A mixed-methods empirical study was conducted in Tel Aviv. The quantitative phase included a survey of 733 respondents from diverse socio-demographic backgrounds. The questionnaire, informed by two initial focus groups (low vs. high income and digital skills), measured access to digital mobility tools (smartphone ownership, proximity to shared mobility, perceived affordability), socio-demographics, attitudes and perceptions toward digital mobility, digital skills, and perceived improvements in accessibility and integration. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze relationships between observed socio-demographic variables, latent perceptions and attitudes, and actual use of digital mobility means.
Results revealed two latent factors and one manifest factor related to perceptions of digital mobility: self-assessed digital competence, attitudes toward use, and privacy concerns. These factors were positively related to socio-demographic variables and access to mobility tools. Perceptions were also positively associated with actual digital mobility usage (e.g., public transport apps, shared mobility). Two additional latent factors emerged—accessibility and social-spatial integration. Digital mobility usage was found to enhance both perceived accessibility and integration. Importantly, a positive link was observed between accessibility and equity-related outcomes, including improvements in employment and education, and reduced travel costs.
In the qualitative phase, three focus groups were held with municipal mobility planners to interpret and validate the quantitative findings. These discussions both confirmed and enriched the analysis.
This research offers new insights into the mechanisms driving digital divides in urban mobility and highlights the importance of increasing digital accessibility to empower disadvantaged groups, foster social-spatial integration, and promote urban equality.

Dr. Bogdan-Constantin Ibanescu (p), Dr. Alexandra GHEORGHIU, Ioana-Maria Ursache, Dr. Gabriela Carmen Pascariu

Digitalisation has increasingly been embraced by policymakers as a universal solution to a wide range of socio-economic challenges, including inequality, access to services, and economic competitiveness. However, the assumption that digitalisation inherently delivers inclusive benefits remains insufficiently tested through empirical evidence. Our research examines whether digitalisation in Romania has succeeded in reducing societal inequalities or, conversely, exacerbated them. The study is based on data from a nationally representative survey conducted across Romania which explored issues such as disparities in digital access, intensity of usage, and the digital competencies of different population segments.
The findings indicate that, while digital infrastructure has advanced uniformly at a technical level, significant inequalities persist in terms of digital access and use, which in turn create wider socio-economic rifts. For example, an extremely visible digital divide between urban and rural areas is questioning the “equaliser effect”, with rural regions lagging behind in the frequency and quality of digital tool usage. Moreover, the territorial rural–urban split tends to widen at each level of the digital divide, amplifying, for example, outcomes of digital use. Education-based inequalities are also evident, sometimes alongside age-related differences. By contrast, gender disparities are minimal and, in some cases, almost non-existent.
While our results do not deny the positive impacts that digitalisation can and could have (including effects such as social inclusion and economic development), they challenge the optimistic narrative that digitalisation alone is a panacea for inequality. Instead, they reveal that without careful planning and equitable implementation, digitalisation may reinforce existing social and territorial disparities. In particular, the analysis reveal that the benefits of digitalisation are dependent upon a balanced territorial distribution of digital education.

Dr. Dawid Majcherek (p)

Digital transformation, demographic ageing and rising mental‑health needs are reshaping labour markets across the European Union (EU), accentuating long‑standing disparities in workforce well‑being and territorial competitiveness. While previous research has separately examined health, productivity and innovation capacity, evidence linking these domains in a coordinated, cross‑country EU framework remains limited. This study addresses this gap by integrating indicators of population health and physical activity, labour productivity and sickness absence, and competitiveness and digital readiness. Using harmonised EU‑27 data and an unsupervised k‑means clustering approach, four distinct country configurations were identified.
Cluster 1 combines high healthy life expectancy, the highest levels of physical activity, strong labour productivity and leading performance in the Global Competitiveness Index and DESI, illustrating how mature digital ecosystems and preventive health systems facilitate the effective conversion of health capital into economic performance. Cluster 2 also exhibits excellent health outcomes but only moderate activity levels and digital readiness, suggesting unrealised productivity potential. Cluster 3-largely Central and Eastern Europe-shows the lowest health indicators and weak digital foundations, yet records the highest measured productivity and lowest sickness absence, raising concerns about sustainability and measurement differences. Cluster 4 lags across nearly all dimensions, reflecting deep structural constraints.
The results demonstrate that similar health levels do not translate into comparable productivity or competitiveness across the EU. Digital readiness, institutional design and workplace environments significantly mediate the health–productivity link. The study highlights the need for cluster‑tailored policies integrating digitalisation, prevention and occupational health to reduce territorial inequalities and strengthen the EU’s long‑term resilience and competitiveness.

Dr. Alejandro Sanchez-Zarate (p), Dr. Salomon Gonzalez Arellano

The ongoing digital transition is reshaping economic structures, labor markets, and territorial dynamics, positioning digital skills as a critical dimension of social and regional development. Within this broader transformation, computational literacy constitutes a specific and measurable component of digital literacy, reflecting individuals’ capacity to perform tasks such as information processing, file management, and programming. This study analyzes the evolution of computational literacy in Mexico between 2018 and 2024, with particular attention to its territorial and socioeconomic distribution.

Using data from the National Survey on the Availability and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households (ENDUTIH), which is statistically representative at the national, state, and urban–rural levels, we construct a Computational Literacy Index (CLI) through Principal Component Analysis (PCA). To ensure temporal comparability, factor loadings are estimated using 2018 as the baseline year and subsequently projected onto later waves (2020, 2022, and 2024). The index is standardized on a 0–100 scale to facilitate interpretation and spatial comparison.

The results reveal three main findings. First, despite a decline in the use of computers, laptops, and tablets, the CLI shows an overall increase during the period, with a significant rise in 2020 followed by relative stagnation. Second, substantial territorial disparities persist, particularly along the urban–rural divide, with rural areas consistently lagging behind. Third, improvements in computational literacy are spatially concentrated in regions with preexisting higher levels of socioeconomic and metropolitan development, suggesting a process of territorial reinforcement rather than convergence.

These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between device access and advanced computational skills in the analysis of digital transformation. More broadly, the study contributes to the literature by providing a spatiotemporally comparable indicator of computational literacy and by demonstrating how the digital transition may reproduce or even intensify existing territorial inequalities in developing contexts.