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Energy transitions are at the top of global agendas in response to the growing challenges of climate change and international conflict, with the EU positioning itself as playing a pivotal role in addressing climate risks and sustainability imperatives. European energy transition policies identify ‘smart consumption’ as a key element of these efforts, which have previously been explored from a predominantly technical perspective thus often failing to identify or address fundamental interlinkages with social systems and consequences. This paper aims to contribute to interdisciplinary energy research by analysing a forward looking ‘Horizon Scan’ research agenda for smart consumption, driven by the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). Reflecting on an extensive systematic Delphi Method exercise surveying over 70 SSH scholars from various institutional settings across Europe, we highlight what SSH scholars see as future directions for smart consumption research. Building from seven thematic areas (under which are grouped 100 SSH research questions), the study identifies three key ‘shifts’ this new smart research agenda represents, when compared to previous agendas: (1) From technological inevitability to political choice, highlighting the need for a wider political critique, with the potential to open up discussions of the instrumentalisation of smart research; (2) From narrow representation to diverse inclusion, moving beyond the shortcomings of current discourses for engaging marginalised communities; and (3) From individual consumers to interconnected citizens, reframing smart consumption to offer a broader model of social change and governance. Social Sciences and Humanities scholarship is essential to address these shifts in meaningful (rather than tokenistic) ways. This agenda and the shifts it embodies represent key tools to enable better interdisciplinary working between SSH and teams from the technical and natural sciences.

SFRH/BPD/93515/2013; UID/ANT/04038/2013; Policies and strategies to develop renewable energy and the rates of successful deployment vary from country to country. Academic literature is rife with examples of recurring problems and malpractice in the implementation of renewable energy projects. We could see each national and sectoral effort as an ‘experiment’ in the early phase of our attempted transition to a low carbon energy system. What lessons can we learn from a comparative analysis of these experiments? This paper seeks to draw generic lessons not from what has gone wrong but from national case studies that stand out in a best way. Through a European academic network, we have selected and analysed 51 'smart practice’ case studies of renewable energy development from 20 countries. We present the outcomes of both qualitative and quantitative analysis of these case studies (smart practice criteria) and discuss a set of generic findings concerning specific types of smart practices and problems of potential transferability of projects to other regions. With regards to policy relevance, the findings can be used for evaluating portfolios of renewable energy projects developed to date and for setting guiding principles for project design, spatial planning and consent by means of cross-national learning and fertilization. authorsversion published

Český maloobchod prochází obdobím největších změn v celé své historii. Na kapacitní i kvalitativní nedostatečnost odvětví z konce 80. let minulého století navázala v první polovině let devadesátých etapa atomizace, podpořená malou privatizací, kdy se počet maloobchodních jednotek za deset let zvýšil dvojnásobně na téměř 100 tisíc. Od 2. poloviny 90. let začaly ve větší míře pronikat na tuzemský trh zahraniční řetězce a český maloobchod se velmi rychle internacionalizoval. Vstup zahraničního kapitálu byl dominantní, domácí subjekty nebyly reálně konkurenceschopné. Pokračovala transformace maloobchodu, jehož sítová struktura se opírala o stále větší počet velkoplošných maloobchodních jednotek (super a hypermarkety, diskonty), objevila se první nákupní centra. Předložená publikace nabízí čtenářům hlavní výsledky projektu „Časoprostorová organizace denních urbánních systémů: analýza a hodnocení vybraných procesů“. Denní rytmus obyvatel zde není primárně vázán na pohyb za prací, ale je modifikován dojížďkou za službami a specificky za maloobchodem, resp. je dotvářen novými formami nákupního chování. V první části textu je představen teoretický základ nákupního chování jako sociálně-prostorového fenoménu, dále navazuje transformace českého maloobchodu a fenomén nákupních center. Druhá část práce je založena na výsledcích rozsáhlých šetření v modelových aglomeracích Brna a Olomouce. Czech retail trade has been undergoing a period of greatest changes in all of its history. The capacity and quality insufficiency of the sector at the end of the 1980s was followed in the early 1990s by a stage of atomization incited by small-business privatization; the number of retailing units grew twofold to almost 100,000 within this period. Foreign retail chains started to penetrate the domestic market in the second half of the 1990s and the Czech retail trade has rapidly become internationalized. Foreign capital entry was dominant; domestic companies and businesses were not actually able to compete. The retailing network transformation continued – its network structure was based on increasingly larger numbers of large-scale retailing units (super and hypermarkets, discount shops); the first shopping centers appeared.

Economic and social changes since the year 1990 in the Czech Republic have been refl ected in the shopping habits of the population. Not only is the ‘standard’ form of everyday shopping for basic provisions at corner shops now typical, but so is daily visits to specialised retail chain stores or shopping centres. Such daily shopping trips are often combined with commuting to work and school or travelling for other services and have become an important factor in the daily lives of residents. This phenomenon has led to the formation of stronger links between inhabitants within a daily urban system. The primary intensity is observed not in the core–periphery link but rather between the periphery of the agglomeration and suburban zones where most of the big shopping malls and hypermarkets are located. Frequently this is not a daily but rather an irregular or weekend activity. These places are thus becoming special centres (secondary cores) of retail business, services, and leisure time activities competing with the city centre itself. This article presents an analysis of the infl uence of spatial, socio-demographic and psychographic factors on the intensity and variability of the commute for foodstuffs and other shopping in shopping centres. The retail gravity model, shopping habits and shopping behaviour are analysed on the basis of fi eld surveys of the inhabitants from communities located in the hinterlands of Brno.

The article deals with the issue of spatio-temporal human behaviour in the scope of the social sciences with increased attention to human geography. It endeavours to present possible approaches to the study of human behaviour in the geographical and social environment and the limits and constraints that affect behaviour. The article is inspired by the works of Swedish geographers, who were the first to introduce the time-dimension into geographical research, thus creating a four-dimensional framework for the research of behavioural geographical phenomena. The /authors’ line of argument starts with the fundamental theoretical concepts and methodological tools of time-geography. Following the presentation of the theoretical basis, the authors document and develop a critical discussion of its defi ciencies and how the discipline has tackled them. The struggle to rehabilitate time-geographyby its proponents emerged with the renaissance of the discipline and the development of new applications within different areas of social scientific research and spatial planning. The authors put forward some examples of research on new socially stimulating issues and refl ect on the cyberspace expansion that has introduced new forms of interactions and time-space constraints. Finally, the authors discuss the current potential of the spatio-temporal approachin human behaviour research within the social sciences.

The paper evaluates interregional differences among Czech regions in the period 2000-2008 by three statistical measures of variability applied to selected indicators. Specifically, the analysis uses regular statistical measures of regional differentiation as the coefficient of variation, Gini coefficient of concentration as well as Theil index. Regional disparities were studied for selected socioeconomic indicators such as GDP per capita, registered unemployment rate, average monthly gross wage and entrepreneurial activity. The results of this paper show that interregional differences at the level of NUTS 3 regions are very small in the selected years and exhibit no significant change over the period 2000-2008. © INSTITUTE OF GEONICS ASCR, v.v.i. 2010.

Suitability of an area for tourism and recreational needs belongs among traditional issues of the Czech geography. Generally this problem is divided into assessment of natural potential and assessment of cultural-historical potential of an area for tourism and recreation. This contribution is aimed at possibilities of quantitative expression of cultural-historical potential using spatial interaction models in the area of the South Moravia region.