In this study the focus is on the innovative aspiration evident in some of the latest generation of projects, to create a mixed-use economic and urban area.

Smart phones and social media sites may be contemporary fixations, but using technology to replace face-to-face interactions is not a new cultural phenomenon. Throughout our history, intimacy with machines has often supplanted mutual human connection. This book reveals how consumer technologies changed from analgesic devices that soothed the loneliness of a newly urban generation to prosthetic interfaces that act as substitutes for companionship in modern America. The history of this transformation helps explain why we use technology to mediate our connections with other human beings instead of seeking out face-to-face contact. Do electronic interfaces receive most of our attention to the detriment of real interpersonal communication? Why do sixty million Americans report that isolation and loneliness are major sources of unhappiness? The author provides many insights into our increasingly artificial relationships and a vision for how we can rediscover genuine community and human empathy.

Innovations Through Information Technology aims to provide a collection of unique perspectives on the issues surrounding the management of information technology in organizations around the world and the ways in which these issues are addressed. This valuable book is a compilation of features including the latest research in the area of IT utilization and management, in addition to being a valuable source in support of teaching and research agendas.

With the increased digitisation of society comes an increased concern about who is left behind. From societal causes to the impact of everyday actions, The Digital Disconnect explores the relationship between digital and social inequalities, and the lived consequences of digitisation. Ellen Helsper goes beyond questions of digital divides and who is connected. She asks why and how social and digital inequalities are linked and shows the tangible outcomes of socio-digital inequalities in everyday lives. The book: Introduces the key theories and concepts needed to understand both ‘traditional’ and digital inequalities research. Investigates a range of socio-digital inequalities, from digital access and skills, to civic participation, social engagement, and everyday content creation and consumption. Brings research to life with a range of qualitative vignettes, drawing out the personal experiences that lay at the heart of global socio-digital inequalities. The Digital Disconnect is an expert exploration of contemporary theory, research and practice in socio-digital inequalities. It is also an urgent and impassioned call to broaden horizons, expand theoretical and methodological toolkits, and work collectively to help achieve a fairer digital future for all. Ellen J. Helsper is Professor of Digital Inequalities at the Department of Media and Communications at London School of Economics and Political Science.

In the last four decades the developed economies have developed into veritable knowledge economies at the same time as more and more economies have entered the road to economic development. Typical for the developments during this time has been substantially increased investments in research and development (R&D) to generate new knowledge and new technologies and increased investments in diffusing existing knowledge by means of education and thereby raising the volume of human capital. However, many member states and regions within the EU are struggling with their economic development. This book explores the uneven patterns of development within the EU, discusses the relative effect of investments on innovation and productivity growth and looks at the mechanisms involved in economic development and policy.

Despite its excesses and contradictions, globalization has lifted billions of people out of poverty, enabled scientific progress, and reduced conflict. Nevertheless, globalization is going through a deep crisis. Marco Magnani identifies four forces that are fueling the «great disconnect»: economic and technological trends are reshaping global value chains; do-mestic political dynamics are fostering closures in an attempt to protect national interests; external shocks (pandemics, wars, financial crises) are exposing the vulnerability of the global system; geopolitical objectives are encouraging to restrict relations to countries perceived as friends. In such a scenario, politics prevails over economics, regionalization increases, and the instability of international alliances soars, partly due to the proliferation of «free agent» countries seeking strategic autonomy. Fragmentation has high economic costs and it increases the risk of conflict. But it may also trigger a new globalization trend. The Arctic, the Under-water, Space and the Digital Revolution can be fronts of competition and dispute, or they can represent the new frontiers of cooperation. The world to come will largely depend on the ability of liberal democracies to defend and promote their values, abroad and at home. The hope is that the revival in the circulation of goods, services, capital, people and knowledge will consolidate rights and spread freedoms.

Thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Innovative Internet Community Systems, IICS 2005, held in Paris, France, in June 2005. The 17 revised full papers presented have been carefully reviewed and selected from 27 submissions. They mainly address system-oriented problems, content and text processing, and theoretical foundations of quality-of-service problems of Internet protocols, aspects of cooperation and collaboration in Internet systems, as well as agent and text-processing-based methods.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the second international workshop on Innovative Internet Computing Systems, IICS 2002, held in Kühlungsborn, Germany, in June 2002. The 19 revised full papers presented together with an invited paper were carefully reviewed and selected from over 30 submissions. Among the topics addressed are large-scale distributed computing infrastructures presenting new challenges to information and Web technology, the management and retrieval of web-based information, content classification, web-based communities management, structure and retrieval of information from large distributed data bases, and the representation of the distributed nature of information by means of graph-theoretical models.

This seminal edited collection examines the impact of austerity and economic crisis on European cities. Whilst on the one hand the struggle for competitiveness has induced many European cities to invest in economic performance and attractiveness, on the other, national expenditure cuts and dominant neo-liberal paradigms have led many to retrench public intervention aimed at preserving social protection and inclusion. The impact of these transformations on social and spatial inequalities – whether occupational structures, housing solutions or working conditions – as well as on urban policy addressing these issues is traced in this exemplary piece of comparative analysis grounded in original research. Unequal Cities links existing theories and debates with newer discussions on the crisis to develop a typology of possible orientations of local government towards economic development and social cohesion. In the process, it describes the challenges and tensions facing six large European cities, representative of a variety of welfare regimes in Western Europe: Barcelona, Copenhagen, Lyon, Manchester, Milan, and Munich. It seeks to answer such key questions as: What social groups are most affected by recent urban transformations and what are the social and spatial impacts? What are the main institutional factors influencing how cities have dealt with the challenges facing them? How have local political agendas articulated the issues and what influence is still exerted by national policy? Grounded in an original urban policy analysis of the post-industrial city in Europe, the book will appeal to a wide range of social science researchers, Ph.D. and graduate students in urban studies, social policy, sociology, human geography, European studies and business studies, both in Europe and internationally.

While innovation is widely recognised as being critical to organisational success and the well-being of societies, it requires careful management to ensure that innovation processes have the best possible impact. This volume provides a wide range of perspectives on the nature of innovation management and its influences.