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Even though water-related forest ecosystem services are important for forestry and water management sectors, they have different definitions and are regulated differently in each sector, which makes them poorly recognized. How stakeholders from two main sectors (forestry and water management) perceive the importance of water-related forest ecosystem services, the trade-offs between ecosystem services and the effectiveness and implementation of payments schemes related to forest water ecosystem services were our areas of interest. We have conduct surveys with different groups of stakeholders from both sectors in four selected countries (the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia) with a lot of similarities and the potential to learn from each other. The results show that in spite of the spotted differences among analyzed countries, there is a high level of agreement among respondents on all investigated aspects. In addition, even though different payment schemes exist in three of four countries, stakeholders are rarely aware of their existence, or it is better to say that they do not recognize them as payment schemes for ecosystem services because of their names and definitions, which do not clearly define ecosystem services. Mostly, they use bundled services and non-voluntary payments and are designed and implemented by the states. Due to the strong role of states and the low transparency in the existing schemes, we looked at possible conditions reflected through stakeholders’ opinions for overcoming that obstacle for the development of new payment schemes. We found that there is a high level of acceptance of payments schemes as more effective than “command and control” schemes and of the involvement of other stakeholders in decision-making processes as those conditions that can positively influence development of new payment schemes in all four countries. These results give us hope that in spite of the strong role of the state in selected countries, the role of stakeholders will be more acknowledged and, by that, the future schemes will be more harmonized among the sectors and their goals and needs, contributing to its effectiveness as well.

Research on a specific topic requires the individualized cartographic methods of work that may be defined as the Realm of Maps. The double dimensionality in the Realm of Maps is understood here as a physical place—a studio workroom—and as a research method. In this study, we focused on the way of presenting a research method designed to study the topic of historico-geographical space in the form of a short film story. The second purpose is to indicate the legitimacy of combining two dimensions of working with maps, the real one and the virtual one, to be able to collect cartographic and descriptive sources in one scientific center. Our research on the Story from the Realm of Maps in Regensburg: ‘People Movement in Southeast Europe’ included a concept adopted by cartographical, historical, and geographical sources, the construction of a studio workroom, a script draft, individual sequences of the story in different types of media, editing the video, along with publishing it on an online video-sharing platform. We used as many different types of geomedia as possible, which, on the one hand, boosts the attractiveness of the film and, on the other, may hamper the proper perception of the main film plot. Finally, we recommend principles of map design for the film, with analog maps and maps created specifically for the short film, published using online video-sharing platforms.

Combining experimental studies on grain yield variability with crop model simulations in maize could assist in choosing the optimum maturity group for a certain location, counteracting the effect of climate change. However, studies considering specificities in Southeast Europe are lacking. The objectives were to put various environmental covariates including stress degree days (SDD) into FAO maturity settings to determine the impact of climate change on maize growing in Southeast Europe and to compare trends for grain yields over twenty years of maize experimental and simulation data grouped in five FAO maturity groups (FAO 200–FAO 600). Pre-registration yield trials of maize planted in one location in Croatia grown from 1996 to 2015 were used to determine “potential yield”. Correlation coefficients between 12 climate covariates and grain yield (GY) across the maturity groups revealed the tightest negative associations between SDD and GY that were weakened by later-maturity groups. Similar trends in GY were obtained by both experimental and simulation data, highlighting FAO 600 as a nearly no yield-reducing FAO group over the two decades. Our results indicate that choosing early maize hybrids in Southeast Europe does not seem to be an optimum option in the future, since these hybrids are more sensitive to omnipresent heat stress than late hybrids.

Under the EU Water Framework Directive, ecological assessment and management are based on type-specific reference conditions. In the EU it may be difficult to find sites in large rivers with at least near-natural conditions, though this is not the case in southeast Europe, where stretches of large rivers still exist with at least near-natural conditions, meaning that there is little or no disturbance from hydromorphological alteration, water quality, land use in the catchment and alien species. We examined benthic invertebrate assemblages in 45 samples collected from near-natural sites of several large rivers: Sava, Drava, Mura, Kupa and Una. The near-natural benthic invertebrate assemblages of large rivers contained several rare or remarkable species, especially among stoneflies, e.g., Marthamea vitripennis, Xanthoperla apicalis. We compared benthic invertebrate communities in river sections with fine and coarse substrates and in three eco-hydromorphological (ECO-HM) types of large rivers, reflecting habitat heterogeneity: lowland-deep, lowland-braided and intermountain. Multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) was used to statistically evaluate similarities among assemblages. It was found that the composition of benthic invertebrate assemblages varied by both ECO-HM types and substrate category. Similarity percentage (SIMPER) analysis showed that the average dissimilarity of benthic invertebrate assemblages was high between all ECO-HM type pairs and between fine and coarse substrate. We found that habitat heterogeneity and substrate independently influenced benthic invertebrate assemblages. To achieve ecological goals in the management of large rivers, in addition to functionality, a holistic view with at least near-natural assemblages, including the names of the taxa present, should also be considered.

In this short video contribution, I share and explore an insight emerging from ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in Southeast Europe. This fieldwork is part of a broader anthropological research project alongside combat veterans from a number of nationalities (and ethnicities) in Former Yugoslavia, including Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Kosovo. The brief video accompanying this abstract opens with a series of portraits of women war veterans from Croatia (who served in the Croatian War of Independence between 1991–1995 and beyond) in order to center the voices that inform this contribution. This format also foregrounds a discussion that questions the seemingly default or generalized usage of the “invisibility” trope within academic narratives that seek to reflect and represent women veterans and their socio-political realities; transnationally and cross-culturally. It is demonstrated that the invisibility trope is not universally embraced or acknowledged by women veterans and as such, the trope must be more carefully developed and deployed within the field of veterans studies. Recognition of this need to disrupt and adjust tropes that emerge from North Atlantic-centric research facilitates present-day reflexivity as well as future efforts toward a decolonized/decentered field of study. ispartof: Journal of Veterans Studies vol:8 issue:1 pages:74-75 status: Published online

An agreement of cooperation and transmission of knowledge regarding the nomination for the European Green Capital Award (EGCA) was signed between the mayors of Belgrade and Ljubljana (EGCA 2016 winner) in September 2018. The candidacy of Belgrade was finally realized in October 2019. Great hope was placed in this endeavour because internationally recognized awards, such as the EGCA, represent enormous capital for both the city and the state. The EGCA requires serious preparation and significant fulfilment of preconditions. Many economically strong and environmentally responsible cities competed for the award, but did not win. On the other hand, the capital of Serbia does not appear to be an obvious winning candidate, especially as it is differentiated from the previous winners by being a non-EU city and by the fact that it is still undergoing an intense urban transformation, characteristic of transitional countries. Therefore, the main aim of this article is to present a review of the current state of Belgrade’s environmental qualities and its comparison with the EGCA criteria and with Grenoble as one of the winning competitors. The article gives a full overview of the EGCA requirements with certain details on required indicators, gives relevant insight into the procedure, which could be of use for any future candidacy, and discusses potential benefits for winners, losers and repeat candidacies.

Cilj ovog istraživanja je utvrditi koliko međusobno ulažu zemlje jugoistočne Europe. Naime, postojeća istraživanja nisu usmjerena na analizu otkuda potječu inozemna izravna ulaganja u zemljama jugoistočne Europe - iz drugih zemalja jugoistočne Europe ili iz ostalih zemalja? Zbog toga je u ovom radu fokus stavljen na zemlje jugoistočne Europe kako bi se istražila struktura inozemnih izravnih ulaganja, kao i njihova međusobna povezanost u pogledu inozemnih izravnih ulaganja. Osim toga, cilj rada je konstruirati indeks inozemnih izravnih ulaganja kako bi ustanovili kako se njihova suradnja u ovom području kretala kroz vrijeme. Rezultati pokazuju da inozemna izravna ulaganja u zemlje regije većinom dolaze iz članica EU, dok su međuregionalna izravna ulaganja još uvijek relativno slabo zastupljena. Ipak, indeks inozemnih izravnih ulaganja temeljen na stanju inozemnih izravnih ulaganja ukazuje na kontinuirano povećanje regionalne suradnje. Suradnja između zemalja jugoistočne Europe, iako nominalno niska, ostvaruje značajno više stope rasta od suradnje ove regije s ostatkom svijeta, što ukazuje na interes regije za produbljivanjem zajedničke suradnje., The aim of this research is to determine how much the countries in Southeast Europe invest in each other. Namely, the existing research is not focused on the analysis of where foreign direct investments (FDI) in the countries of Southeast Europe come from – from other countries of Southeast Europe or from other countries? Consequently, this paper focuses on the countries in Southeast Europe in order to explore the structure of FDI, as well as their interrelationship. In addition, the aim of the paper is to construct a FDI index to establish how their cooperation in this area has changed over time. The results indicate that FDI in the countries of the region mostly come from EU member states, while interregional direct investment is still relatively underrepresented. Nevertheless, the FDI index based on the foreign direct investments stock indicates a continuous increase in regional cooperation. Cooperation between the countries in Southeast Europe, although nominally low, achieves significantly higher growth rates than the cooperation of this region with the rest of the world, which indicates the region's interest in deepening mutual cooperation.

Smart city (SC) research is an engaging research area as evidenced by a rising number of publications indexed in the most relevant global citation databases. However, research advances are not equally discussed and distributed within Europe. This study puts a focus on the specific geographic location of Southeast Europe (SEE), intending to fill the gap in understanding the research advances in this part of Europe. The aim of this descriptive review was to systematically investigate peer-reviewed publications focused on SC research in SEE in order to present the findings and the state-of-art in this research domain. Seventy-four papers were thoroughly studied, analysed and classified based on their focus on SC themes and common sub-themes. While smart governance had been studied extensively in the SEE region, topics related to the smart economy and smart people received low attention from researchers. Mapping the selected papers to the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle showed that SC research in SEE is still in the conceptualising and planning stages, with very little evidence from the real implementation and follow-up activities. From the stakeholders’ perspective, the focus is on the institutional point of view as most of the papers present their findings in relation to (national or local) government bodies or policies, without balancing with corresponding businesses’ or individuals’ (users’) point of view. In general, user involvement was found to be very low in regards to current SC research in the SEE region.

The paper presents the results of research conducted among students at two Croatians universities, the Catholic University of Croatia, and the University of Zagreb. By defining Croatia’s affiliation with the region through presenting and explaining the term, it will be clarified that the Balkans is not exclusively geographical but becomes a political and cultural epithet that goes beyond its basic meaning. Also, it is important to define media influences which can create certain public opinion and lead to stereotyped attitudes. The media, together with various socio-economic, cultural, political, and contextual factors, in various ways, contribute to different aspects of individual and aggregate behaviors. Social experiences are partially or completely mediated with “socio-cultural habitus”. The students agreed that the Balkans were portrayed negatively in the Croatian media and that the perception of the term itself was conditioned by a number of different factors.

The paper aims to cover the claims-making process and the repertoires of action in two recent anti-governmental social movements: the citizens’ mobilization in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) from the beginning of 2014 and the “Citizens for Macedonia” (CfM) movement in Macedonia from mid-2015. Lasse Lindekilde reflects on movement claims describing them as “the conscious articulation of political demands in the public sphere, thus leaving aside more private or hidden forms of political claims-making such as voting and lobbyism.” On the other hand, Della Porta highlights that “a repertoire of contention comprises what people know they can do when they want to oppose a public decision they consider unjust or threatening.” The goal of this analysis is to shed light on the main reasons lying behind the two mobilizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, as well as to unveil the main mechanisms through which the central grievances of the government challengers were channeled towards the targeted governments. Regarding the methodological approach, I apply a political claim analysis (PCA), focusing dominantly on the claims coming from the side of the social movement actors. The PCA is defined as a quantitative method which treats political claims as units of analysis, taking newspapers as sources for the publically visible part of the claims-making process. In accordance with the methodological approach, the primary data collection tool envisages daily newspapers from the two countries: Dnevni Avaz, from B&H, and Sloboden Pechat and Dnevnik, from Macedonia.

Two new records for the still quite underexplored Croatian bryophyte flora are presented. The ephemeral colonist Bryum klinggraeffii was recorded in pioneer dwarf-cyperaceous vegetation along sandy banks of two lowland watercourses of Central and Eastern Croatia (Continental Biogeographical Region), while turfs of Philonotis marchica were found on submerged and exposed carbonate rocks in a fast-flowing karstic river in the mountainous region of Gorski Kotar (Alpine Biogeographical Region). Here we provide a detailed description of ecological conditions and a vegetation account for all sites of occurrence of these species in Croatia. These findings of quite rare species, especially P. marchica, which is listed as endangered on European level, also represent a valuable contribution to the bryoflora of Southeast Europe, the European region with the greatest deficit in knowledge of bryophytes.

This edited volume consisting of ten papers including the introduction seeks to examine the current state of the digital/data-driven research in history and neighboring disciplines dealing with Southeast Europe as well as with the Ottoman Empire and to give an interdisciplinary impetus by bringing together international scholars working with various digital approaches. The included papers give a broad introduction into the field and follow various methods of digital analysis and visualization incorporating approaches like corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis, GIS (Geographic Information Systems), agent-based modelling, computationalstatistics

This paper explores the link between strategic networking and divergent institutional environments of Southeast Europe. CEOs and owners of 963 SMEs from six former SFR Yugoslavian countries responded to a questionnaire survey conducted in 2019-2020. Two countries are members of the European union (Croatia and Slovenia), while the remaining four are not (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia). SME size is used to explore whether differences exist in the strategic networking and institutional environment relationship. Additionally, empirical study questions whether division between European union and Western Balkan countries can explain these differences. Results show that strategic networking is greater in Western Balkans than in European union member states. Moreover, strategic networking influences competitiveness and ease of financing, while SMEs’ size decreases the effect strategic networking has on competitiveness and ease of financing, but only for the European union member states. Policy implication and limitation of the study are discussed.

Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 2021; Aachen 1 Online-Ressource : Illustrationen (2021). = Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 2021, Loess is a windblown dust deposit, which covers approximately 10% of the Earth’s surface. Especially the Eurasian mid-latitudes are mantled by a belt of loess deposits spanning from southern England towards the steppes of Central Asia. Despite its terminal atmospheric deposition, the formation of loess is a complex chain including several geomorphological and sedimentological processes. Aeolian processes cannot solely produce dust particles in sufficient amounts. During the Pleistocene, grinding of Alpine glaciers and continental ice sheets – as well as physical weathering phenomena such as frost shattering in periglacially influenced high-latitudes and -altitudes were among the essential formation processes of silt production. Rivers are another important factor, since they erode and transport unconsolidated sediments and increase dust formation due to abrasion during riverine transport. After the deposition of fluvial and alluvial de-posits, fine particles, mostly in the silt fraction, can be deflated and transported by wind. Topographic barriers or biotic components, such as vegetation or biocrusts, trap the particles. The aeolian dust undergoes post-depositional alterations, so-called loessification processes, which help to preserve the deposit. Despite these processes, loess is prone to erosion, especially to reworking by water. In Europe, the distribution of loess and other aeolian sediments is strongly related to (palaeo-)geographic conditions and the (palaeo-)climate influencing the process chain of loess formation. The catchment of the Danube River, especially in its middle and lower course, is one of the most important loess regions in Europe since loess covers vast areas of the basin and the records reach back to the Early Pleistocene. Due to thicknesses, which in some instances exceed 50 m, the loess deposits of the Danube Basin are a crucial archive for palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes in Central and Southeast Europe. The interplay of the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and continental climate regimes influences this region. The present dissertation casts light on the sedimentary history of loess deposits of the Danube Basin to highlight its applicability as an archive of palaeoenvironmental changes. The sedimentary history includes the process chain of loess formation and possible post-depositional alteration such as reworking by water. Especially dust deflation, transport, and deposition via sedimentary pathways, the vegetation patterns trapping aeolian mineral dust and related ecosystem qualities, and the post-depositional reworking of aeolian sediments due to landscape instability are investigated to understand palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes. This dissertation examines the physical and chemical properties of seven loess-palaeosol sequences and one archaeological excavation from various geomorphological settings to unravel regional environmental patterns for the Middle and Lower Danube Basin. To reconstruct the deflation and aeolian transport of dust, sedimentary pathways for Pleniglacial loess deposits from the Lower Danube Basin are reconstructed based on geochemical compositions of five loess-palaeosol sequences, distributed along a cross-section from the plateau of the Dobrogea in the south towards the northern Wallachian Plain. The comparison with loess depos-its of reference regions revealed that the alluvial deposits of the Danube and its tributaries draining the Carpathians and Balkan Mountains are the primary source for the loess deposits of the southern Lower Danube Basin indicating westerly palaeowind directions. Northwards, a consider-able amount of dust derived from the rivers draining the flysch zones of the Eastern Carpathians, such as Siret, Prut, or Dniester, pointing to stronger north-westerly winds. Based on stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of two loess-palaeosol sequences from the Middle Danube Basin, Irig and Semlac, the vegetation of the basin during the Middle to Late Pleistocene was dominated by C3 plants, most likely grasses, which acted as an efficient dust trap. The isotopic composition of the two sequences also reveals a palaeoclimatic gradient in the basin, as the South of the basin seems to have been experiencing drier conditions compared to the north. The geochemical evidence highlights the importance of aridity as a palaeoecological factor that influenced vegetation patterns and ecosystem qualities during interglacial and interstadial periods. The Upper Palaeolithic findspot of Temereşti Dealu Vinii was investigated to reconstruct site-formation processes of a reworked archaeological open-air site. Temereşti shows no evident stratification, and lithic artefacts from the Aurignacian and (Epi-)Gravettian cultural units permeate the sequence with (typological) age inversions and no horizontal concentrations. The primarily aeolian sediments were (sub-)continuously translocated by fluvial processes. Based on geomorphological evidence and the lack of wear on the found artefacts, the range of transport is constrained to the width of the river terrace on which the site is located. Reworking took place during known phases of landscape instability during the Holocene in the area. This dissertation illuminates the steps of the sedimentary history of loess as palaeoenvironmental indicators for the Pleistocene in the Danube Basin. It highlights the importance of multi-proxy approaches by the application of three different courses on loess deposits from different milieus. These approaches are combined to unravel regional palaeoenvironmental patterns of Southeast Europe in the context of the dispersal of anatomically modern humans into the subcontinent during the Pleniglacial., Published by Aachen

Studies on the effect of the firm size and commitment on small firm performance indicators are inconclusive, especially in the geographic area of Southeast Europe. This study examines the role of firm size in the relationship between commitment and firm sales growth, operating profit and market share. Alterations in firm size and commitment are attributed to differences in market structures, namely, non-European union and European union member states. Results of the empirical research state that firm size and commitment have a positive and significant effect on performance indicators (sales growth rate, operating profit, and market share). Separating firms that originate from the European union member states from those that do not, suggested that firms that are not part of the European union rely on commitment more firmly than those that from the European union member states. Moreover, firm size moderates the relationship between commitment and firm performance indicators only in the non-European union countries. Larger firm size indicates a smaller effect of the commitment on firm performance for firms from the non-European union countries. The study concludes with limitations and practical implications of the empirical research.

This article follows the life history of a Croatian-Greek family of four, whose members have spent their lifetime across multiple nation states. Through data collected during a four-month ethnographic fieldwork period in the city of Zagreb, issues of mobility, national identification, and a sense of belonging within the transnational social field are examined. Having been influenced by more than one nation state, the narrations of each of the interlocutors encompass diverse national discourses, reflecting their hybrid national identities. The findings mentioned in this paper underline, first and foremost, the persistent power of the nation state and raise considerable questions about the significance of boundaries and processes of othering in contemporary societies., Članak prati životne priče četveročlane hrvatsko-grčke obitelji čiji su članovi svoj život proveli u nekoliko nacionalnih država. Kroz podatke prikupljene tijekom četveromjesečnoga etnografskoga terenskoga istraživanja u Zagrebu razmatraju se pitanja mobilnosti, nacionalne identifikacije i osjećaja pripadnosti unutar transnacionalnoga društvenoga prostora. Naracije svakoga od sugovornika, pod utjecajem više od jedne nacionalne države, obuhvaćaju različite nacionalne diskurse odražavajući njihove hibridne nacionalne identitete. Rezultati ovoga istraživanja naglašavaju, prije svega, moć nacionalnih država te postavljaju značajna pitanja o važnosti granica i procesa proizvodnje drugosti u suvremenim društvima.

This article belongs to a forthcoming special cluster, "Contention Politics and International Statebuilding in Southeast Europe" guest-edited by Nemanja Dzuverovic, Julia Rone and Tom Junes.

The high outward mobility that has characterised the countries in the Western Balkan (WB) region over the past three decades is often seen as tightly linked to severe labour market imbalances and persistently low utilisation of human capital over time. To shed light on these issues, we estimate a system of equations that accounts for the effects of labour market determinants and human capital on migration and vice versa. The period under analysis is 2005-2019 and considers mobility from five of the WB countries to the EU15. The empirical results confirm the importance of wage gaps and their changes as an important pull factor for driving outward mobility from the WB region that can be persistent over time. Also, gaps in human capital emerge as a powerful determinant for explaining mobility into countries where returns on human capital are higher.

This paper investigates the average gross per capita income convergence of eight Southeast European economies towards the EU average. Our goal is to analyse which factors have driven that convergence in the SEE region and describe convergence paths in the 2000-2018 period, concerning two sub-periods, before and after the economic crisis. We use a combination of parametric and nonparametric methods and a fixed effects linear panel regression with robust standard errors. Results suggest that the EU integration process drove convergence, education level, investment (FDI, private domestic and public investments), and private sector lending, as well as by government expenditures. Economic crisis, unemployment, and inflation were the main factors which have influenced the divergence process. We also concluded that the post-transition growth model dominant in the SEE region, based on an FDI inflow, has not sufficient for income convergence in this region. Private domestic investments are a critical missing factor for faster income convergence.