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Civic engagement plays a prominent role in sustaining a strong civil society and a vibrant democracy. However, it is a complex multidimensional concept, taking multiple forms and encompassing a variety of behaviours and actions related to both political and social aspects. Drawing on the relevant literature the paper attempts to clarify and pinpoint the notion, specifying its dimensions and mapping out its determinants. Then, focusing on university students, it moves to examine youth civic engagement in Greece, examining the extent of their civic participation and its determinants. After controlling for sociodemographic factors it finds that interpersonal trust, religiosity and political ideology affect students’ likelihood to be civically engaged.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate convergence or divergence trends at global scale. Design/methodology/approach -The paper questions the methodology and findings of the conventional convergence literature using linear OLS models. It introduces polynomial (quadratic) weighted least square (WLS) regression analysis to explore whether a number of economic performance indicators follow a non-linear pattern of change.Findings -The results indicate the formation of two groups in the world: a convergence one, including countries with low to medium-high development levels, and a divergence one including countries with medium-high to very high development levels.Research limitations/implications -Data availability after 1990 (for the composite indicators). Practical implications -The findings shed light on important issues, such as the decrease of economic disparities between countries, the prospects for global economic convergence, and the development of a more equal world. Apart from obvious policy implication such findings are also of theoretical significance, providing a basis to check (indirectly) the validity of alternative growth theories. Originality/value -This is the first paper (to the authors' knowledge) that explores world convergence/divergence employing quadratic WLS regression analysis with a number of economic indicators. WLS regressions enable the removal of the impact of country size on results, whereas non-linear modelling allows the possibility of multiple equilibria and different development trajectories to be taken into account. Finally, the employment of various economic-performance indicators (simple and composite) works as a cross-check of validity for the results provided.

The present paper examines whether Airbnb listing prices differ significantly between 'casual' hosts and hosts with multiple listings, regarded as professionals. To this effect the Airbnb apartment market in Athens (Greece) is used as a case study. Drawing on a sample of about 3.500 Airbnb apartments listed in May 2017, the study employs, first, typical hedonic price modelling to assess the determinants of listings' price of both groups, and then it uses the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition methodology to examine whether there is a price gap between casual and professional hosts, the characteristics that cause this price gap and their relative contribution to it. The research finds a statistically significant difference in the Airbnb pricing between casual and professional hosts, where about a half of the price gap is attributed to the 'better' listings that professionals manage (in terms of size, availability of amenities and locational attributes), and a half to the different reaction hosts have towards specific Airbnb characteristics. In particular, professionals value higher (i.e. place more trust on) the Superhost badge issued by Airbnb as an institution, whereas casual hosts place trust on (and price accordingly) the evaluations provided by the guests.

CyberParks aims at advancing knowledge on the relationship between information and communication technologies and the socially sustainable production and usage of public open spaces. Such research necessitates a solid methodological base. Urban ethnography brings together a number of perspectives and approaches to deal with cultural and social aspects of urban life, and as such it is able to provide an integrated methodological framework for the study of technology-public space relationship. The ethnographic approach means, by definition, an in-depth, micro-scale look at the phenomena under concern. However, the technological dimension makes the relationship between people and space more complex. This is not simply because an additional layer of analysis is added; it comes as a result of the emergence of multiple connections between the real and the virtual. From an ethnographic perspective, this requires the researcher to capture, explore and understand the cyber-social phenomena and dynamics in a multifaceted, hybrid, triangulated and crossreferenced way. This makes ethnographic research much more complicated but more interesting as well. The current chapter attempts to outline such an analytical framework to guide empirical research on the issues. This framework draws on the public space literature and adds the technological dimension brought in by the CyberParks project. We argue that this enriches the ethnographic approach providing a more integrated framework for the analysis of the relationship between people, space and technology.

This paper examines whether or not there is convergence in defence burdens across the world. To this effect, σ-convergence and β-convergence methodologies are employed. The sample consists of 128 countries and covers the period 1988–2008. Initial findings reported herein point to a process of convergence in defence burdens possibly reflecting the emergence of defence policies that share similar characteristics at least in terms of the allocation of resources.