Part One: e-Governance and Cybersecurity. Part Two: Ukraine 2014: The Crisis Online. Part three: Separatism and De Facto States Online. Part Four: Democracy and Authoritarianism Online. Part Five: Digital Diplomacy

Transformations caused by increasing virtual connectivity reach all business touchpoints, but the surge towards digital technologies is not distributed evenly across European markets, with the Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) region showing the strongest diversity of digital adoption levels. This Element outlines the characteristics of CEE digital markets, along with an additional contextual layer investigating online consumer behaviors. In-depth analysis of the similarities and differences in the region will allow the pace of ongoing digitization to be traced. The authors' objective in delivering this Element is to analyze the opportunities presented by the digital economy in CEE and to provide an actionable outlook for the e-commerce potential within the region's markets. Observations are based on in-depth analysis of dependencies between globalization of consumer behaviors and ongoing barriers to digital adoption caused by both economic and geo-political limitations.

This book examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on changing labour markets and accelerating digitalisation of the workplace in Central and Eastern Europe. It provides an innovative and enriching take on the work experience from the pandemic times and discusses the challenges of ongoing changes in labour markets and workplaces in a way that is not covered by the extant literature. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and digitalisation on labour market outcomes is analysed throughout 12 chapters, by 34 labour market experts from various CEE countries. Most chapters are based on empirical methods yet are presented in an easy-to-follow way to make the book also accessible for a non-scientific audience. The volume addresses the three key goals: to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the adoption of workplace digitalisation in the selected labour markets in CEE countries and the potential trade-offs facing those who do and do not have access to this benefit to complement the labour market research by incorporating the outputs of changing demand for skills to contribute new insight into policies and regulations that govern the future of work The book argues that the recent COVID-19 pandemic was a sombre reminder of the relevance and necessity of digital technology for a variety of sectors and market activities. It concludes that to downside the risks of vanishing jobs, as well as to minimise the threats and maximise the opportunities of digitalisation in CEE countries, labour market partners need to consider an effective governance tool in terms of inclusive access to the digital environment, re-skilling, and balanced regulations of the more problematic facets of digital work. The book will be of interest to postgraduate researchers and academics in the fields of labour economics, regional economics, and macroeconomics. Additionally, due to the broader policy implications of the topic, the book will appeal to policymakers and experts interested in labour economics. The Introduction, Chapters 4 and 12 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Digital agriculture has the potential to contribute to a more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable agriculture and meet the agricultural goals of a country or a region more effectively, and both ICTs and agriculture are important enablers in achieving SDGs. Most stakeholders have long recognized the need for national e-agricultural strategies. Nevertheless, most of the countries have not yet implemented a national strategy for the agricultural sector's use of ICTs. ITU Offices for Europe and CIS regions in collaboration with FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia developed this report on state of Digital Agriculture and Strategies developed in 18 countries. The emerging role of ICTs in Europe and CIS region is clearly observed and experienced as an engine for agricultural development, especially in view of the growing demand for reliable information and its quick access at all levels of the industry. The state of the digital agriculture ecosystem differs from country to country and is also fragmented by the regions, within the individual countries. There is an overwhelming wave of innovation in this area where a digital agriculture strategy can be helpful in finding the right path.

The aim of the study is to explore and present an overview of digital entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern European countries and to examine how certain components of the DESI index affect GDP per capita in CEE countries and in what way modern information technologies affect their economies. The paper uses secondary data sources, mostly scientific and professional journals from the studied area, DESI reports, Eurostat data, and other Internet sources. The first part of the paper presents a short introduction on digitization digital entrepreneurship and digital technologies. The second part provides a descriptive analysis of digital entrepreneurship indicators and explores business demography in the ICT sector while the third part refers to the analysis of the DESI index. The panel method on data from 2015 to 2019 was used to show the influence of the different DESI index components on the observed countries,Äô GDP per capita. The hypothesis that the components of the DESI index have a positive impact on GDP per capita has been partially confirmed. DESI rank, Connectivity and Human capital did not prove to be significant, while Use of internet services, Integration of digital technology, and Digital public services proved their significant positive effect.

This edited volume discusses digital democracy at the local level in Europe. Contrasting the political discourse surrounding participatory digital democracy with actual experiences of implementation, the book provides a wholistic view of digital democracy across Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. The book is divided into three parts. Chapters in Part I analyze discourses about participatory democracy in Europe. Chapters in Part II provide case studies of digital democracy practices at the local level in the EU. Chapters in Part III discuss the risks and challenges associated with digital democracy. Written by a panel of international, interdisciplinary experts, this volume will be of interest to researchers, students, and practitioners across public administration, political science, economics, management, and sociology.