COVID-19 has stressed the condition of radical uncertainty that increasingly characterises our times and compels cities to learn new ways to cope with unexpected global urban challenges. The volume proposes preparedness as a key concept in urban geography, planning, and policy, inviting international scholars to discuss its pros and cons. Firstly, it builds a critical theoretical framework around the concept of preparedness in relation to the COVID-19 effects and other interconnected crises. Then, the authors put at work and redefine preparedness, starting from worldwide surveys, research experiences, public discourses and spatial strategies analysis in Europe and, more extensively, in Italy. Finally, the closing section goes beyond the view of preparedness as an emergency tool, proposing to interpret it more broadly as a technology supporting a sustainable urban transition. The book mainly targets academics in urban planning, policy, and geography. However, the prominence of the topic of preparedness makes the volume an essential reading not only within social sciences but further in engineering, basic sciences, and life science. In addition, the book provides directions to practitioners and civic leaders in supporting cities and regions to prepare themselves in the face of pandemics and unpredictable socio-environmental shocks.

The topic of urban life and the ambient in smart cities, learning cities, and future cities is a timely one, fitting as it does in the world today by responding in an interdisciplinary way across many areas of research and practice. It is essential for researchers to think about and engage with the notion of flourishing in increasingly challenging environments in smarter ways. Urban Life and the Ambient in Smart Cities, Learning Cities, and Future Cities expands upon explorations of urban life to the ambient. As such, perspectives are offered in this work on urban life in the context of smart cities, learning cities, and future cities, enriched by understandings of the ambient, infusing the interactions of people and technologies in 21st-century environments with increased awareness, at the moment. Covering topics such as ambient learning, smart homes, and extended realities, this premier reference work is an essential resource for students and educators of higher education, architects, urban planners, instructional designers, sociologists, city officials, community leaders, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

This work is the result of the European INTALL Project, International and Comparative Studies for Students and Practitioners in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning (2018-2021). From early September 2018 to the end of August 2021, this project allowed us to build knowhow about some specific issues of adult education. The latest meeting of the INTALL project partners led to a conference about the role of Adult Education Research, during and after Covid-19, and the importance of re-thinking Lifelong and Lifewide Learning for the future. Based on four sections, Innovation and Future Competences in Adult Education Research, Professionalisation in Adult Education, Sustainability, Inclusion and Wellbeing: Topics for Adult Society and Smart Cities and Learning and Teaching in Higher Education in Post-Pandemic Time: A Digital Transformation, the volume represents an opportunity to foster a debate on key issues in the field of Adult Learning and Education across Europe.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Offering a novel and interdisciplinary approach, this thought-provoking book critically analyses the notions of fragility and antifragility and addresses their connections and applications in planning theory, urban studies and architecture. It goes beyond the risk and resilience paradigm and proposes methodological and pragmatic strategies to cope with severe forms of uncertainty and socio-spatial inequalities.

This open access book presents contemporary perspectives on the role of a learning society from the lens of leading practitioners, experts from universities, governments, and industry leaders. The think pieces argue for a learning society as a major driver of change with far-reaching influence on learning to serve the needs of economies and societies. The book is a testimonial to the importance of ‘learning communities.’ It highlights the pivotal role that can be played by non-traditional actors such as city and urban planners, citizens, transport professionals, and technology companies. This collection seeks to contribute to the discourse on strengthening the fabric of a learning society crucial for future economic and social development, particularly in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease.

The cultural sector plays an important role in sustainable economic development and creates economic activities, opportunities for entrepreneurship and jobs, adding to the attractiveness of cities and contributing to the development of tourism. The Cultural Sector and Sustainable Economic Development: Innovation and the Creative Economy in European Cities offers both a theoretical and practical analysis of the contemporary approach to culture and innovation, with special emphasis on the relationships among culture, innovation and the economy. Sustainable development, itself, balances environmental protection, culture, social progress, the economy and stability today and for the future. The book’s key theme is the role and possibility of culture as a laboratory, with a strong supporting subtext on innovative practice. The text provides an eclectic mix of possibilities that reinforce and underscore the full innovative and complex potentials of culture. It is a cross-disciplinary volume presenting case studies that cover the main theme of cultural ecosystem in a very broad sense, highlighting the relationships that could lead to a sustainable system where economy and culture are the main players. It proposes and maps the European perspective of urban cultural development and suggests that the successes and challenges of European cities under consideration may offer guidance on best practices for urban development in other distant cultural contexts. This book is written in such a way that it can be used as a summary for a cultural professional, a reference text for an academic or for actors in local development and cultural policy at European, national and local levels.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Business and Technology (ICBT2021) organized by EuroMid Academy of Business & Technology (EMABT), held in Istanbul, between 06–07 November 2021. In response to the call for papers for ICBT2021, 485 papers were submitted for presentation and ‎inclusion in the proceedings of the conference. After a careful blind refereeing process, 292 papers ‎were selected for inclusion in the conference proceedings from forty countries. Each of these ‎chapters was evaluated through an editorial board, and each chapter was passed through a double-blind peer-review process.‎ The book highlights a range of topics in the fields of technology, ‎entrepreneurship, business administration, ‎accounting, and economics that can contribute to business ‎development in countries, such as ‎learning machines, artificial intelligence, big data, ‎deep ‎‎learning, game-based learning, management ‎information system, ‎accounting information ‎system, knowledge management, entrepreneurship, and ‎social enterprise, corporate social responsibility and sustainability, business policy and strategic ‎management, international management and organizations, organizational behavior and HRM, ‎operations management and logistics research, controversial issues in management and organizations, ‎turnaround, corporate entrepreneurship, innovation, legal issues, business ethics, and firm ‎governance, managerial accounting and firm financial affairs, non-traditional research, and creative ‎methodologies. These proceedings are reflecting quality research contributing theoretical and practical implications, for those who are wise to apply the technology within any business sector. It is our hope that the contribution of this book proceedings will be of the academic level which even decision-makers in the various economic and executive-level will get to appreciate.

The changes that Central European cities have undergone since 1989 deserve a complex, interdisciplinary analysis that offers deep insight into the specific nature of the transformation taking place in the region. This book presents a multidimensional and cross-disciplinary case study of Kraków, focusing on the changes taking place in Central Europe over the last three decades. This book answers the question of how the once neglected city of Kraków has transformed into a thriving global tourist destination, an attractive investment market, and a European leader of shared services. It examines political, socio-economic, cultural, and architectural development of the city against the ongoing processes of post-1989 political and economic transition, European integration, and globalisation. The authors offer a portrait of the evolution in thinking about the developmental resources of the city, accounting for what is broadly construed as culture and heritage. Whereas previous studies have offered only one-dimensional insights into these phenomena, this book highlights the specific characteristics of the transition and identifies the challenges typical of many cities in Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary, after the fall of communism. This book will be valuable reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate and PhD students of economic geography, urban studies, public management, political studies, sociology, culture and heritage management, and modern history, as well as those with an interest in Central European and transformation issues.