Jorge Ricardo da Costa Ferreira
Jorge Ricardo Ferreira has been a university professor at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the Nova University of Lisbon (NOVA FCSH) since 1995.
PhD in Geography and Regional Planning, in the field of New Technologies in Geography, from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences. Thesis on the theme “The Geography of the Information Society in Portugal”
Coordinator of the Master in Territorial Management since 2018
Full Researcher in the Interdisciplinary Center for Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA).
- Author of numerous publications as first author, but prioritizing work in multidisciplinary teams, both in national and international publications.
- Participates and has participated in several projects funded by national institutions (Foundation for Science and Technology, Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Directorate of Transport) and international institutions (Horizon 2020 Program, ERASMUS +, European Union).
- Supervisor of more than a dozen Master's Theses (or other non-teaching components of the Master's Degree) and 2 PhD Theses in his main scientific area (Tourism).
- External arguer of several Doctoral and/or Doctoral Qualification Exams (Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, Information Management School/UNL; Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning - IGOT; Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra).
- External arguer for more than a dozen of Master's Thesis at various Universities.
- Member of the Jury in more than 50 MSc Public Defenses at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, since 2015 and 68 throughout his teaching career. He presided over the Jury in more than 50 of these Defenses.
- At NOVA University, School of Social Sciences and Humanities he currently teaches 4 curricular units of Geography of Tourism and Leisure (Bachelor's degree), Inferential and Prospective Analysis (Bachelor's degree), Geographic Information Systems and Cartography (Master's degree) and Digital Cartography and Design (Master's degree).
- Responsible for Coordinating the Assessment/Accreditation Process of the Master's in Territory Management in 2022, by A3ES, a course that has already received an accreditation for 6 years.
- Participated in 15 applications for competitive and evaluated research projects, 6 of which were awarded funding.
- Member of the Doctoral Scholarship Assessment Panel at the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the area of Economic and Social Geography in the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2022 and 2023.
He collaborates with the Faculty of Business, Economics and Tourism, at the University of Split, Croatia, where he developed projects in the area of Information Society and Tourism in Historic Centers and Local Accommodation (during his 2 Sabbatical Leaves). He is also a guest professor at this Faculty.
- Author of 1 Book published under his own name, 20 chapters in Books (national and international), more than 10 scientific articles in national and international journals with indexation and with scientific arbitration (as first author and/or in collaboration) and 30 communications at national and international conferences (only since 2015).
- Reviewer of several international indexed journals, namely, Revista Cidades, Comunidades e Território, Journal of Computer Science, Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. He was also a reviewer (referee) at more than 20 national and international conferences.
- Higher-level training and qualification, having successfully attended 4 NOVA Doctoral School Courses, namely in the areas of Teaching, Learning, Scientific Supervision, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Design Thinking.
Supervisors: Acepting MSc students and Acepting PhD students
Phone: 217908300
Address: Av. Berna 26 C
1069-061 Lisboa
PhD in Geography and Regional Planning, in the field of New Technologies in Geography, from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences. Thesis on the theme “The Geography of the Information Society in Portugal”
Coordinator of the Master in Territorial Management since 2018
Full Researcher in the Interdisciplinary Center for Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA).
- Author of numerous publications as first author, but prioritizing work in multidisciplinary teams, both in national and international publications.
- Participates and has participated in several projects funded by national institutions (Foundation for Science and Technology, Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Directorate of Transport) and international institutions (Horizon 2020 Program, ERASMUS +, European Union).
- Supervisor of more than a dozen Master's Theses (or other non-teaching components of the Master's Degree) and 2 PhD Theses in his main scientific area (Tourism).
- External arguer of several Doctoral and/or Doctoral Qualification Exams (Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, Information Management School/UNL; Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning - IGOT; Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra).
- External arguer for more than a dozen of Master's Thesis at various Universities.
- Member of the Jury in more than 50 MSc Public Defenses at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, since 2015 and 68 throughout his teaching career. He presided over the Jury in more than 50 of these Defenses.
- At NOVA University, School of Social Sciences and Humanities he currently teaches 4 curricular units of Geography of Tourism and Leisure (Bachelor's degree), Inferential and Prospective Analysis (Bachelor's degree), Geographic Information Systems and Cartography (Master's degree) and Digital Cartography and Design (Master's degree).
- Responsible for Coordinating the Assessment/Accreditation Process of the Master's in Territory Management in 2022, by A3ES, a course that has already received an accreditation for 6 years.
- Participated in 15 applications for competitive and evaluated research projects, 6 of which were awarded funding.
- Member of the Doctoral Scholarship Assessment Panel at the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the area of Economic and Social Geography in the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2022 and 2023.
He collaborates with the Faculty of Business, Economics and Tourism, at the University of Split, Croatia, where he developed projects in the area of Information Society and Tourism in Historic Centers and Local Accommodation (during his 2 Sabbatical Leaves). He is also a guest professor at this Faculty.
- Author of 1 Book published under his own name, 20 chapters in Books (national and international), more than 10 scientific articles in national and international journals with indexation and with scientific arbitration (as first author and/or in collaboration) and 30 communications at national and international conferences (only since 2015).
- Reviewer of several international indexed journals, namely, Revista Cidades, Comunidades e Território, Journal of Computer Science, Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. He was also a reviewer (referee) at more than 20 national and international conferences.
- Higher-level training and qualification, having successfully attended 4 NOVA Doctoral School Courses, namely in the areas of Teaching, Learning, Scientific Supervision, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Design Thinking.
Supervisors: Acepting MSc students and Acepting PhD students
Phone: 217908300
Address: Av. Berna 26 C
1069-061 Lisboa
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Os trabalhos mortalidade rodoviária são escassos e limitam-se a exercícios de estatística comparativa onde não se vai além da criação de tipologias dos acidentes. Ao nível da disseminação da informação e mapeamento dos respectivos acidentes pouco se tem evoluído, além da habitual divulgação dos números, quer através de anuários, quer através de páginas na Internet.
Este artigo relata o desenvolvimento de um projecto de geo-referenciação da sinistralidade rodoviária no distrito de Lisboa, envolvendo vítimas mortais e feridos graves para o ano de 2007. Na sua fase inicial foram elaborados sumários individuais com informação sobre os sinistros, recolhida pelas forças de segurança (Polícia de Segurança Pública e Guarda Nacional Republicana). A utilização da plataforma Google Earth, permitiu a referenciação geográfica da informação com o objectivo de divulgar aos cidadãos e às entidades competentes a localização dos sinistros, a caracterização do local, as suas causas e consequências.
"
The information volume disseminating trough territories is growing exponentially. The Information Society generates large amounts of data. Everything is stored and the actual size of a flash disk shames the capacity of a 5 year old personal computer’ hard disk. At the same rate the prices are decreasing and telco operators due their best efforts to deliver the most attractive bandwidth package possible. But market strategies are not enough to achieve a more fair society when it comes to a global reach of information to all the population, independently of its social and economical status.
Weaknesses in competitiveness have turned Portugal in a small player when it comes to global markets. Of course there are important sectors like cork, plastic moulds or wine, but the Information sector, mainly trough Information Technologies (IT) is probably the most recent, fast and growing sector of Portuguese exporting market. Recent developments in a relatively large number of small and medium enterprises (SME) showed very good results and became more and more important on global markets (Ydreams, Chipidea, Critical software, Ovione, Bial medicine, Criostaminal etc.). This is the outcome of high investments in research and development (R&D), University collaboration and a strategic public policy, based on the National Technological Plan and on Information Society policies.
But although good results have been achieved by this strategic alignment, there are fundamental indicators that continue to be far behind the European average.
Competitiveness is played at world wide scale and communications play a major role. The need for information corridors has become crucial. Information diffusion is a catalyser for regional development and lead to informational clusters. The polarization of places contrasts with the dispersion of spaces. And all this geographical hierarchies are important to achieve higher stages of territorial development. Knowledge networks are determinant to create critical mass and are crucial to the globalization process. Today, to be out of the networks represents a non existence status.
From this point of view, Internet is still (in its multiple platforms and technologies) one of the major variables to consider when choosing the perfect location for your business. Speed, capacity, complementary services, technology, added value, quality and price are priority aspects.
Portugal has done major efforts to compensate a late start on the Information Society issues. According to the latest benchmarks, the country has achieved very good numbers on eGovernment, e-citizenship and a consistent evolution on broadband and Internet penetration on households. In some of them even achieved the first place.
The evolution of ICT sector is quite heterogeneous. But different indicators show enormous positive variations. Public policies, technology convergence, mobile telephony, xDSL technologies, wireless and triple-play are just a few examples of how much as been invested in the country over the last few years.
The slow liberalization of public telecoms, the (false) desegregation of local loops and the separation of copper from coaxial cable inside the incumbent telecom became major problems due to a lack of competition. This situation was harmful to all the players and delayed millions of Euros in new and essential telecom infrastructures. It is also obvious that IS can not be evaluated only by ‘telcos’ evolution, not even by Internet growth. But the truth is that the development of telecoms and Internet as a social and technological phenomenon were similar during its evolutionary process.
But the problem of asymmetries, socially and economically speaking can not be erased only by the success of information policies, creation of fibre-optic’ networks or by distributing computers to all the school children population. It’s also firmly supported by the quality and strength of the usual societal pillars: justice, education, heath care, social security and transparency of political options. So, information society and information literacy also depend upon basic structural variables. For example, basic human development indicators like the ones we can find in the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI). When it comes to quality of life, we must consider a broader definition of well-being. This index provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity (ppp), income). Based also on other measures like the Human Poverty Index (HPI), Portugal reveals gaps when compared with other countries.
Information society could be considered the first step on a larger objective where knowledge means a superior stage on a truly global access for citizens. Infrastructures, networks, broadband and computers belong to information society. Knowledge society is different because it considers more structural variables. Among them, education is the most important along with an information culture and a true democratic system, based on equity and justice. One might discuss the true gain of an Information Society when sometimes families’ income, the efficiency of justice or the quality of the public heath system continues to be far from the European average. It is now time to achieve realistic approaches to deal with the information gap. Begin with data, organize it in a way to retrieve as many information as possible and apply large amounts of knowledge to come out with an output that can be used as an input on an another process.
These and other thoughts are the main ingredients of this chapter and trough the next pages I will address them based on a strong belief that Portugal still has a long way ahead to be considered an example of real technological success.
As comunicações e as Tecnologias de Informação (TI), sejam elas geográficas ou não, estão assim a tornar obsoletos alguns conceitos, tornando necessária a reformulação de outros. O resultado de tais alterações traduz-se em impactes quase on-line sobre a qualidade de vida das pessoas. A informação flui a ritmos mais elevados.
A Geografia reforça assim no contexto actual, a sua importância como ciência clássica e como ciência de inovação, não só pelo valor que a sua história confirma, mas também pela capacidade de adaptação aos conceitos emergentes, essenciais para compreender o espaço onde evoluímos.
Avaliar estes novo espaço geográfico onde as redes de computadores controlam a quantidade, a qualidade e a velocidade dos elementos disponíveis, será afinal um desafio. Analisar a geografia destes novos espaços torna-se essencial.
Será por isso estimulante o desafio de perceber, o que é a Geografia da Sociedade da Informação.
Key-words: Tourism, Cluster, Micro-Cluster, Sustainable Development, Alentejo."
In terms of sharing information and mapping accidents, little progress has been mad, aside from the normal publication of figures, either through simplistic tables or web pages. With considerable technological advances on geographical information technologies, research and development stayed rather static with only a few good examples on dynamic mapping. The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices as normal equipments on automobile industry resulted in a more dynamic mobility patterns but also with higher degrees of uncertainty on road traffic. This paper describes a road accident georeferencing project for the Lisbon District involving fatalities and serious injuries during 2007. In the initial phase, individual information summaries were compiled giving information on accidents and its majour characteristics, collected by the security forces: the Public Safety Police Force (Polícia de Segurança Pública - PSP) and the National Guard (Guarda Nacional Republicana - GNR). The Google Earth platform was used to georeference the information in order to inform the public and the authorities of the accident locations, the nature of the location, and the causes and consequences of the accidents. This paper also gives future insights about augmented reality technologies, considered crucial to advances to road safety and prevention studies.
At the end, this exercise could be considered a success because of numerous consequences, as for stakeholders who decide what to do but also for the public awareness to the problem of road mortality
"
Este artigo pretende deste modo: (i) analisar a evolução de alguns indicadores da energia eólica em Portugal por comparação com os de outros países; (ii) destacar os principais desafios, nomeadamente as metas definidas pelo Protocolo de Quioto; (iii) e suscitar alguma reflexão sobre a importância deste tipo de energia nas políticas de desenvolvimento territorial.
This paper focuses on concepts like information, knowledge and other, more geographical and tries to explain how territories change from real to virtual. Knowledge society appears on an evolutional context in which information dissemination is wider and technological potential overwrites traditional notions of Geography.
To understand the mutations over the territories, the causes and the consequences emerges the Geography of the Knowledge Society, a new discipline inside Geography with a special concern about modern society and socio-economical developing models.
The information society depends, to a large extent, on the technological capacity to disseminate information and, consequently, the knowledge throughout territory, thereby creating conditions which allow a more balanced development, from the both the social and economic points of view thus avoiding the existence of info-exclusion territories. Internet should therefore be considered more than a mere technology, given that its importance goes well beyond the frontiers of culture and society. It is already a part of daily life and of the new forms of thinking and transmitting information, thus making it a basic necessity essential, for a full socio-economic development. Its role as a platform of creation and distribution of content is regarded as an indispensable element for education in today’s society, since it makes information a much more easily acquired benefit.”…in the same way that the new technologies of generation and distribution of energy allowed factories and large companies to establish themselves as the organisational bases of industrial society, so the internet today constitutes the technological base of the organisational form that characterises the Information Era: the network” (CASTELLS, 2004:15).
The changes taking place today in regional and urban structures are increasingly more evident due to a combination of factors such as faster means of transport, more efficient telecommunications and other cheaper and more advanced technologies of information and knowledge. Although their impact on society is obvious, society itself also has a strong influence on the evolution of these technologies. And although physical distance has lost much of the responsibility it had towards explaining particular phenomena of the economy and of society, other aspects such as telecommunications, new forms of mobility, the networks of innovation, the internet, cyberspace, etc., have become more important, and are the subject of study and profound analysis. The science of geographical information, allows, in a much more rigorous way, the analysis of problems thus integrating in a much more balanced way, the concepts of place, of space and of time.
Among the traditional disciplines that have already found their place in this process of research and analysis, we can give special attention to a geography of new spaces, which, while not being a geography of ‘innovation’, nor of the ‘Internet’, nor even ‘virtual’, which can be defined as one of the ‘Information Society’, encompassing not only the technological aspects but also including a socio-economic approach.
(...)
Papers
Os trabalhos mortalidade rodoviária são escassos e limitam-se a exercícios de estatística comparativa onde não se vai além da criação de tipologias dos acidentes. Ao nível da disseminação da informação e mapeamento dos respectivos acidentes pouco se tem evoluído, além da habitual divulgação dos números, quer através de anuários, quer através de páginas na Internet.
Este artigo relata o desenvolvimento de um projecto de geo-referenciação da sinistralidade rodoviária no distrito de Lisboa, envolvendo vítimas mortais e feridos graves para o ano de 2007. Na sua fase inicial foram elaborados sumários individuais com informação sobre os sinistros, recolhida pelas forças de segurança (Polícia de Segurança Pública e Guarda Nacional Republicana). A utilização da plataforma Google Earth, permitiu a referenciação geográfica da informação com o objectivo de divulgar aos cidadãos e às entidades competentes a localização dos sinistros, a caracterização do local, as suas causas e consequências.
"
The information volume disseminating trough territories is growing exponentially. The Information Society generates large amounts of data. Everything is stored and the actual size of a flash disk shames the capacity of a 5 year old personal computer’ hard disk. At the same rate the prices are decreasing and telco operators due their best efforts to deliver the most attractive bandwidth package possible. But market strategies are not enough to achieve a more fair society when it comes to a global reach of information to all the population, independently of its social and economical status.
Weaknesses in competitiveness have turned Portugal in a small player when it comes to global markets. Of course there are important sectors like cork, plastic moulds or wine, but the Information sector, mainly trough Information Technologies (IT) is probably the most recent, fast and growing sector of Portuguese exporting market. Recent developments in a relatively large number of small and medium enterprises (SME) showed very good results and became more and more important on global markets (Ydreams, Chipidea, Critical software, Ovione, Bial medicine, Criostaminal etc.). This is the outcome of high investments in research and development (R&D), University collaboration and a strategic public policy, based on the National Technological Plan and on Information Society policies.
But although good results have been achieved by this strategic alignment, there are fundamental indicators that continue to be far behind the European average.
Competitiveness is played at world wide scale and communications play a major role. The need for information corridors has become crucial. Information diffusion is a catalyser for regional development and lead to informational clusters. The polarization of places contrasts with the dispersion of spaces. And all this geographical hierarchies are important to achieve higher stages of territorial development. Knowledge networks are determinant to create critical mass and are crucial to the globalization process. Today, to be out of the networks represents a non existence status.
From this point of view, Internet is still (in its multiple platforms and technologies) one of the major variables to consider when choosing the perfect location for your business. Speed, capacity, complementary services, technology, added value, quality and price are priority aspects.
Portugal has done major efforts to compensate a late start on the Information Society issues. According to the latest benchmarks, the country has achieved very good numbers on eGovernment, e-citizenship and a consistent evolution on broadband and Internet penetration on households. In some of them even achieved the first place.
The evolution of ICT sector is quite heterogeneous. But different indicators show enormous positive variations. Public policies, technology convergence, mobile telephony, xDSL technologies, wireless and triple-play are just a few examples of how much as been invested in the country over the last few years.
The slow liberalization of public telecoms, the (false) desegregation of local loops and the separation of copper from coaxial cable inside the incumbent telecom became major problems due to a lack of competition. This situation was harmful to all the players and delayed millions of Euros in new and essential telecom infrastructures. It is also obvious that IS can not be evaluated only by ‘telcos’ evolution, not even by Internet growth. But the truth is that the development of telecoms and Internet as a social and technological phenomenon were similar during its evolutionary process.
But the problem of asymmetries, socially and economically speaking can not be erased only by the success of information policies, creation of fibre-optic’ networks or by distributing computers to all the school children population. It’s also firmly supported by the quality and strength of the usual societal pillars: justice, education, heath care, social security and transparency of political options. So, information society and information literacy also depend upon basic structural variables. For example, basic human development indicators like the ones we can find in the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI). When it comes to quality of life, we must consider a broader definition of well-being. This index provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity (ppp), income). Based also on other measures like the Human Poverty Index (HPI), Portugal reveals gaps when compared with other countries.
Information society could be considered the first step on a larger objective where knowledge means a superior stage on a truly global access for citizens. Infrastructures, networks, broadband and computers belong to information society. Knowledge society is different because it considers more structural variables. Among them, education is the most important along with an information culture and a true democratic system, based on equity and justice. One might discuss the true gain of an Information Society when sometimes families’ income, the efficiency of justice or the quality of the public heath system continues to be far from the European average. It is now time to achieve realistic approaches to deal with the information gap. Begin with data, organize it in a way to retrieve as many information as possible and apply large amounts of knowledge to come out with an output that can be used as an input on an another process.
These and other thoughts are the main ingredients of this chapter and trough the next pages I will address them based on a strong belief that Portugal still has a long way ahead to be considered an example of real technological success.
As comunicações e as Tecnologias de Informação (TI), sejam elas geográficas ou não, estão assim a tornar obsoletos alguns conceitos, tornando necessária a reformulação de outros. O resultado de tais alterações traduz-se em impactes quase on-line sobre a qualidade de vida das pessoas. A informação flui a ritmos mais elevados.
A Geografia reforça assim no contexto actual, a sua importância como ciência clássica e como ciência de inovação, não só pelo valor que a sua história confirma, mas também pela capacidade de adaptação aos conceitos emergentes, essenciais para compreender o espaço onde evoluímos.
Avaliar estes novo espaço geográfico onde as redes de computadores controlam a quantidade, a qualidade e a velocidade dos elementos disponíveis, será afinal um desafio. Analisar a geografia destes novos espaços torna-se essencial.
Será por isso estimulante o desafio de perceber, o que é a Geografia da Sociedade da Informação.
Key-words: Tourism, Cluster, Micro-Cluster, Sustainable Development, Alentejo."
In terms of sharing information and mapping accidents, little progress has been mad, aside from the normal publication of figures, either through simplistic tables or web pages. With considerable technological advances on geographical information technologies, research and development stayed rather static with only a few good examples on dynamic mapping. The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices as normal equipments on automobile industry resulted in a more dynamic mobility patterns but also with higher degrees of uncertainty on road traffic. This paper describes a road accident georeferencing project for the Lisbon District involving fatalities and serious injuries during 2007. In the initial phase, individual information summaries were compiled giving information on accidents and its majour characteristics, collected by the security forces: the Public Safety Police Force (Polícia de Segurança Pública - PSP) and the National Guard (Guarda Nacional Republicana - GNR). The Google Earth platform was used to georeference the information in order to inform the public and the authorities of the accident locations, the nature of the location, and the causes and consequences of the accidents. This paper also gives future insights about augmented reality technologies, considered crucial to advances to road safety and prevention studies.
At the end, this exercise could be considered a success because of numerous consequences, as for stakeholders who decide what to do but also for the public awareness to the problem of road mortality
"
Este artigo pretende deste modo: (i) analisar a evolução de alguns indicadores da energia eólica em Portugal por comparação com os de outros países; (ii) destacar os principais desafios, nomeadamente as metas definidas pelo Protocolo de Quioto; (iii) e suscitar alguma reflexão sobre a importância deste tipo de energia nas políticas de desenvolvimento territorial.
This paper focuses on concepts like information, knowledge and other, more geographical and tries to explain how territories change from real to virtual. Knowledge society appears on an evolutional context in which information dissemination is wider and technological potential overwrites traditional notions of Geography.
To understand the mutations over the territories, the causes and the consequences emerges the Geography of the Knowledge Society, a new discipline inside Geography with a special concern about modern society and socio-economical developing models.
The information society depends, to a large extent, on the technological capacity to disseminate information and, consequently, the knowledge throughout territory, thereby creating conditions which allow a more balanced development, from the both the social and economic points of view thus avoiding the existence of info-exclusion territories. Internet should therefore be considered more than a mere technology, given that its importance goes well beyond the frontiers of culture and society. It is already a part of daily life and of the new forms of thinking and transmitting information, thus making it a basic necessity essential, for a full socio-economic development. Its role as a platform of creation and distribution of content is regarded as an indispensable element for education in today’s society, since it makes information a much more easily acquired benefit.”…in the same way that the new technologies of generation and distribution of energy allowed factories and large companies to establish themselves as the organisational bases of industrial society, so the internet today constitutes the technological base of the organisational form that characterises the Information Era: the network” (CASTELLS, 2004:15).
The changes taking place today in regional and urban structures are increasingly more evident due to a combination of factors such as faster means of transport, more efficient telecommunications and other cheaper and more advanced technologies of information and knowledge. Although their impact on society is obvious, society itself also has a strong influence on the evolution of these technologies. And although physical distance has lost much of the responsibility it had towards explaining particular phenomena of the economy and of society, other aspects such as telecommunications, new forms of mobility, the networks of innovation, the internet, cyberspace, etc., have become more important, and are the subject of study and profound analysis. The science of geographical information, allows, in a much more rigorous way, the analysis of problems thus integrating in a much more balanced way, the concepts of place, of space and of time.
Among the traditional disciplines that have already found their place in this process of research and analysis, we can give special attention to a geography of new spaces, which, while not being a geography of ‘innovation’, nor of the ‘Internet’, nor even ‘virtual’, which can be defined as one of the ‘Information Society’, encompassing not only the technological aspects but also including a socio-economic approach.
(...)
after the break of Yugoslavia have left the country with structural problems that will need a few years to
solve. With astonishing landscapes and a large stretch of coastline, Croatia has opened itself to tourism.
Presidential and parliamentary elections at the beginning of 2000 ushered in politicians who pledged
commitment to Croatia's integration into the European mainstream. Croatia Constitution was changed
to accommodate the shift of power away from the President to the Parliament. Croatia joined the World
Trade Organization and opened the economy.
European Union accession talks were held up because the country's most prominent war crimes
suspect, Ante Gotovina, remained at large until 2005. When finally convicted by the UN War Crimes
Tribunal in The Hague in April 2011, Croatia successfully completed its EU accession negotiations. It is
due to become the EU's 28th member state in 2013.
A dispute with Slovenia over the sea and land borders - dating back to the break-up of Yugoslavia - also
threatened to delay Croatia's membership until June 2010. The country's EU accession treaty was finally
signed in December 2011, after years of tortuous negotiations. A referendum was made on the
following month.
Croatia was badly affected by the global financial crisis from 2008 up to 2009 and its tourism-oriented
economy has suffered tremendous effects and the country has mostly been in recession since 2009.
Confronted like other countries in transition periods, with fast privatizations, inefficient legal and
administrative system, high unemployment rates, Croatia has imposed itself has one of the leading
countries in the Balkans. After the conflicts that broke Yugoslavia apart, Croatia established his
monetary and fiscal system initiating the first steps into a market economy. But the rigid mechanism
used to regulate the national Kuna introduced several problems and generated an overvalued currency.
The situation worsened the trade deficit and threatened the economic stability. The success of tourism,
foreign investment and a considerable growth domestic product (above some European countries) can
guarantee to Croatia a place among the EU like a modern democracy and a truly free market economy.
5
The European Council granted the status of “candidate country” to Croatia in 2004 and Croatia opened
EU accession negotiations on October 2005 and concluded them on June 2011. From an external
observer, that is to be considered a tremendous success. However weaknesses in competitiveness have
turned Croatia in a relatively small competitor when it comes to global markets. But although good
results have been achieved by a strategic country alignment, the business’ location remains traditional -
near big cities and large metropolitan areas, mainly Zagreb, Rijeka, Split and Dubrovnik. Like Portugal,
Croatia seems to suffer from urban macrocephaly and rural exodus.
Croatia remains a country with an historical problem concerning development asymmetries. That is also
true when it comes to knowledge dissemination. But the Information and Communication Technologies
sector (ICT) has to be considered crucial to leverage economic growth assuming at the same time an
important role in particular aspects of the so called Information Society (IS). The ICT sector is also crucial
for the decrease of territorial asymmetries. But the difference between numbers is larger when it comes
to the big cities or metropolitan areas compared with its peripheries or rural regions."