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The purpose of this paper is to introduce a critical framework to analyse how “smart” plays out in tourism places. Moving from a recognition of the strategies, expected impacts and imageries of Smart City, the authors engage with the mobilities literature to identify pitfalls in the quest of “smartening up” cities for hypermobile populations.

The study adopted a set of geoanalytical techniques to establish the potential relationship between the territorial upgrade of mobility and the socio-economic change processes the city of Barcelona is experiencing.

The paper suggests the effect of “smart” in cities could indeed be one of economic recovery; however, one triggering fundamental transformation of the social fabric of the city, whose most evident facet is the creation of globalised functional enclaves that may be forcefields of exclusion for the most vulnerable populations.

This paper contributes to a new stream of critical research on “smart” with a strong focus on the power of mobilities and mobility systems, whose digital enhancement plays out as a leveraging agent of new place connections and negotiations for short-term populations, but at the same time, may exclude disadvantaged subjects in their capacity to access and afford the system network.

The existence of the regional Kuznets curve, i.e. an inverted U-shaped relationship between regional disparity and economic development is widely debated and discussed. The bell-shaped curve of the spatial growth process where during the initial phase inequality increases and then reduces is theoretically supported by Myrdal (1957), Hirschman (1958), and Williamson (1965). It becomes important to understand regional Kuznets curve globally. Understanding the relationship between regional disparity and economic development becomes essential for public policy for balanced regional growth.

Regional Kuznets Curve which is an inverted U-shaped relationship between regional disparity and economic development is not a new phenomenon. Theoretical framework by Myrdal (1957), Hirschman (1958), and Williamson (1965) support the an inverted U-shaped relationship. To understand the relationship between regional disparity and economic development, the authors investigate the regional Kuznets curve by using data for 184 countries and 1765 subnational regions. Using parametric, semi-parametric, and non-parametric, it is found that there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between regional disparity and economic development. The presence of the regional Kuznets curve is observed. As the theoretical framework suggests, regional inequality increases with income initially and decreases after attaining a certain level of income. This study identifies two stages of divergence-convergence where in the first stage, divergence across regions in a country happens with increasing income and in the later stage, convergence across regions in a country occurs with increasing income.

Using the parametric approach (panel data analysis), semi-parametric and non-parametric approaches, it is found that there exists a regional Kuznets curve. It is found that there exists an inverted-U relationship between regional inequality and per capita GNI. This suggests that the divergence-convergence passes through two stages. In the first stage, divergence across regions in a country happens with increasing income while in the later stage convergence occurs.

This research work has done three important things which fill the research gap that exists in the literature: (1) constructing the Gini coefficient to measure the regional inequality for 184 countries using 1765 subnational regional data; (2) using a parametric approach (panel data analysis) to understand the regional Kuznets phenomenon and (3) using a semi-parametric approach and non-parametric approach to understand the regional Kuznets phenomenon.

The purpose of this study is to examine two issues, namely the degree of current account deficit (CAD) sustainability and the degree of capital mobility.

The sample for this study comprises 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries, including three regional agreements: Andean Community, MERCOSUR (Mercado Común del Sur), and SICA (Central American Integration System). This study employs the dynamic common correlated effects mean group (DCCEMG) estimator in a panel data set to investigate the long-run relationship between savings and investment along with short-run dynamics.

The findings indicate that CAD is weakly sustainable in the Latin American and Caribbean region, MERCOSUR, and SICA, while CAD is strongly unsustainable in the Andean Community. The sub-period analysis reveals that CAD has been adversely affected by the 2008 crisis. However, in the post-crisis period, CAD has been slowly decreasing in the Latin American and Caribbean region and Andean Community, whereas CAD has continued increasing in MERCOSUR and SICA. Further, the estimates of error-correction terms and short-run coefficients indicate that the Andean Community and MERCOSUR observe a higher degree of long-run and short-run capital mobility than SICA.

The results carry fundamental implications for policy-making processes aimed at maintaining sustainable CADs.

This study gives an alternative interpretation of the “Feldstein-Horioka” coefficient in terms of CAD sustainability and analyses the saving–investment relationship in light of Chudik and Pesaran (2015).

Human capital and boundaryless career theory prevail in studies that examine objective and subjective career success respectively. However, evidence indicating that each framework offers superior suitability for its respective career outcome is unclear. The purpose of this study is to contrast the predictive validity of the frameworks with respect to both career success criteria.

The sample involved 182 management faculty in the USA. The authors relied on hierarchical regression analyses to test the study hypotheses.

Results indicate that human capital outperforms mobility across career success criteria. Yet, this study found that industry segment amplifies the effect of mobility on career success.

While findings primarily speak to the superiority of human capital as a career success antecedent, the significant effect of the industry segment as moderator of mobility calls for a granular definition of the setting where careers are analyzed. Replication of findings across industries are needed before assuming the generalization of results.

Findings reveal the relevance of early career movements for professional careers in academe.

Despite the extensive use of human capital and mobility as antecedents of career success, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that directly contrasts the predictive validity of these competing antecedents.

This paper aims to explore Chinese female international students’ construction of global citizenship identity by examining their accumulation of cultural capital in different forms from transnational higher education in the UK.

Participant observations and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with Chinese female international students at a British university to explore their experiences with transnational higher education, cultural identities, the construction of global citizenship and perceived future job opportunities.

In this research, participants revealed that accessing a global elite university helps them accumulate institutionalised cultural capital. Embodied cultural cultivation acquired from transnational higher education is justified by students’ experiences in the context of transnational higher education. Rising confidence is shown by the participants’ narration and global-oriented awareness, which is their ability to understand and respect people from diverse cultural backgrounds, which was developed during their studies in the UK. However, they still realise the potentially difficult conversion of cultural capital to real job competitiveness. Recognition of global citizenship identity may be complicated if students plan to return home after studying.

This study provides further insight into the single-child generation of globally mobile Chinese female international students. Participants were aware of the positive accumulation of cultural capital in its embodied and institutionalised forms obtained from the UK higher education system and its contribution to the construction of global citizenship identity. However, the newly constructed global citizenship identity remains complex. Participants question the extent to which the new identity fits into the Chinese social context if they decide to return home.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, the originality of the paper lies in expanding the global citizenship framework with the specific application of Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital to show Chinese female international students’ study experiences in UK transnational higher education, rather than addressing the Chinese international student experience in general.

This theoretical study aims to clarify the (a priori) ambiguous effect of homeownership on unemployment. In general, in fact, homeownership discourages job mobility, but homeowners are less likely to be unemployed than tenants, since homeownership would seem to be positively related to human capital.

This study develops a modified version of the benchmark theoretic model of the labour market – the well-known “equilibrium unemployment theory” – where homeownership affects both the “Beveridge Curve” (BC, by means of job immobility) and the “Job Creation Condition” (JCC, by means of human capital).

The general result is that an increase in homeownership increases unemployment. Therefore, policymakers could encourage job mobility, before facilitating homeownership. This policy implication, however, may not apply in the case of high inflation and/or low nominal interest rate, and when the job destruction rate depends on the homeownership rate.

The model studies the steady-state equilibrium of the labour market, so the policy implications only relate to the long-run. The model, therefore, does not consider the short-run effects of homeownership on unemployment (which may differ from the long-term results).

The model suggests a public policy characterised by large investment in rail lines and subsidised commuter fares. By promoting a more efficient allocation of workers across regions (and, thus, job mobility), indeed, this policy can be a good way to increase employment, without harming homeownership.

The practical implication of this model is also a social implication, since it relates to homeownership and housing tenure.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first model that introduces the key role of homeownership in the so-called “Equilibrium unemployment theory”. Precisely, the model uses a modified version of both the BC (which includes the negative effect of homeownership on the overall job search intensity of unemployed workers) and the JCC (which includes the positive effect of homeownership on both the business start-up and the human capital of workers). By comparing these two opposite effects, this theoretical work makes clearer the net effect of homeownership on unemployment.

This paper aims to assess gender bias in Italian university student mobility controlling for the field of study. It uses data from the Italian National Student Archive (Anagrafe Nazionale degli Studenti – ANS) for the cohort of freshmen enrolled in the 2017 academic year. The macro-regional comparison unfolds across the following areas: North and Centre, Southern Italy and main Islands (Sicily and Sardinia).

The analysis is firstly carried out at the national level, and secondly, it focusses on macro-geographical areas. University mobility choices are thus investigated from a gender perspective, conditioning upon other theoretically relevant characteristics collected for the prospective first-year university student population enrolled in 2017. The authors analyse data in a regression setting (logit models) within the multilevel framework, which considers students at level 1 and the field of study at level 2. Gender differences in the propensity to be a mover – conditional upon the choice of the field of study – were captured by introducing random intercepts to account for clustering of students in fields of study and random slopes to allow the gender effect to differ among them.

Findings show that university student mobility in Italy leads evidence of gender bias. This has been detected using a multilevel random slope approach that allowed the authors to jointly estimate a slope parameter for gender within each field of study. Moreover, using a regression setting allowed the authors to control for heterogeneity in geographical, educational and socio-demographic characteristics across students. In line with previous empirical findings, the authors' data highlight the presence of a relevant mobility flow of university students from the South toward the North-Centre of Italy and lower mobility of female students compared to male students from the South and Islands.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no studies in Italy, which investigate if families' investment in higher education in terms of selection of no-local universities are affected by gender bias and if geographical differences in this behaviour between macro-areas are in place. Thus, investigating students' choices in tertiary education allows the authors to shed light on the presence of gender bias in families' education strategies addressed to increase the endowment of students' assets for future job opportunities.

The main aim of this study is to investigate the role of fathers and mothers in the intergenerational educational persistence for sons and daughters under two dimensions that characterize the clusters of countries: redistributive policy and governance.

Data from the Global Database of Intergenerational Mobility (GDIM), hierarchical cluster analysis on principal components and panel regression are used in this study to estimate intergenerational educational correlation and to investigate its determinants related to the parents’ and descendants’ education variables in 93 countries grouped in four clusters. The empirical analysis is differentiated by gender combinations of parents and descendants.

In the clusters of countries characterized by high inequalities and poor governance, our findings show that the role of the fathers is stronger than that of the mothers in educational transmission; fathers and mothers are more influential for the daughters rather than for the sons; parental educational privilege is the main driver of intergenerational educational persistence; there is an inverse U-curve in the association between educational inequality of the parents and educational correlation for the sons. Differently, in the countries characterized by high income, low redistributive conflict and better governance, the role of the mothers is stronger and education mobility for the daughters is higher than that for the sons.

The authors’ results remark on the importance of social welfare policies aimed to expand a meritocratic public education system including schooling transfers for lower social class students and narrowing the gender gap in educational mobility between daughters and sons. Social welfare policies should also be oriented to spread high quality child care systems that help to foster greater women equality in the labor market, because the strength of educational persistence depends on the position of the mother in the economic hierarchy.

The distinctiveness of the paper can be found in the fact that this study investigates the parental role differentiating by gender and coupling hierarchical cluster analysis on principal components with panel regression models. This allows us to have a sample of 93 countries aggregated in four groups defined in two dimensions: redistributive policy and governance. Amongst the determinants of educational transmission, we consider not only education’s years of the parents but also other determinants, such as educational inequality and privilege of the parents. We also identify the effects of investment in human capital and educational inequalities for the descendants on education mobility.

This chapter examines the six smart city dimensions that serve as pillars in smart city projects. These dimensions are crucial in the development and evaluation of smart city initiatives, representing key areas for consideration. This chapter offers a detailed analysis of the smart city ecosystem, focusing on the governance, environment, people, living, mobility, and economy dimensions. It challenges the prevailing media portrayal of the smart city strategy and engages in the current academic debate surrounding these dimensions. This chapter defines, discusses, and explains each dimension, incorporating case studies from cities such as Copenhagen, San Francisco, Lisbon, and Barcelona. It also includes interviews and factual data to highlight the internal implementation and objectives of the smart city within each dimension. This chapter provides a comprehensive understanding of the smart city ecosystem, its implementation, and the potential benefits and challenges associated with each dimension.

Internationalisation and academic mobility have long been integral parts, although serving different purposes in the higher education industry. Internationalisation has played a crucial role in facilitating academic exchange, knowledge sharing, research partnerships and collaborative innovation. However, the rise of neoliberalism has introduced the market forces of global capitalism that have significantly impacted higher education worldwide – invading the sector with neoliberal market values. This chapter aims to explore the impact of neoliberalism on the internationalisation of higher education in Africa, with a specific focus on trends in international student mobility. The chapter argues that the influence of neoliberalism on international mobility extends beyond market dynamics, encompassing discussions on hegemony within international knowledge systems, where African countries and institutions often find themselves marginalised. The study relies on published materials and publicly available statistical data from both governmental and non-governmental organisations. By examining the interplay between neoliberalism and the process of internationalisation in higher education, this chapter sheds light on the intricate and multifaceted aspects of both concepts, as well as their practical implications for international student mobility. Moreover, the chapter reflects on the implications of neoliberal entanglements for the prospects of internationalisation in African higher education.