Concept of smart city highlights the community as an integral part of sustainable socio-economic urban development. By the example of medium-sized city Banska Bystrica in Slovakia, the paper investigates the structure, role and position of communities in the life of the future smart city. Data set contains six smart city characteristics broken down into 27 indicators and primary and secondary information reached from communities in the form of civic organizations, NGO's, foundations and community centers. The main output of the paper is a definition of different communities’ structures covering and integrating the various areas of life in the city within theoretical and conceptual framework of smart cities. Empirical research results reveal the power of communities in smart urban development. Paper outlines possible future steps in development of smart city co-created by policy and decision-makers, city authorities and all relevant stakeholders including communities

Purpose: The paper aims to analyze actual issues of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in monofunctional towns in Russia, Slovakia and Poland. The process of social investment restructuring is obviously under way in these countries. However, there can be identified a few examples where the dominant employer with the long tradition (from the soviet period, even longer) has initiated and directly influenced by the social policy the local and regional development. The paper analyzes their development during the past decades, with the special emphasis on social issues. It identifies its strengths and weaknesses and defines future research areas. Design/methodology/approach: The first part of the paper defines the CSR with focus on the social sphere and relationships between local dominant employer, local government and community. Refer to the theory, the paper adopts a case study methodology to explore the specifics of CSR with a focus on monotowns, especially the role of local dominant employer and its relationship with local government and community in three selected post-communist nations – Russia, Slovakia and Poland. The research uses also the secondary data (the strategic documents, statistical data) and own observation during the study visits to the selected cities. The authors analyze the town’s development during the past decades, with the special emphasis on the social issues. Findings: It is shown that maintenance and development of essential living conditions in many monofunctional towns depends upon the direct participation of large dominating companies. The paper argues that there is a principal difference between the current social policy conducted by these dominant local employers and the policy that was conducted in the past. What is more, most of the engagement of large in the social affairs in monotowns refers to the CSR concept. The paper summarizes the common features and differences in functioning monotowns in selected states, from the perspective of social responsible behaviors of dominant companies, suggests the practical implications and identifies future research areas. Originality/value: The paper maps the specific kind of social responsibility interconnected with the issue of local and regional development – monotowns in Russia, Poland and Slovakia – in the countries with common political and social history. It brings in the form of case studies the detailed overview of the selected examples from Russia, Ukraine and Poland dealing with the CSR. Based on the collected data, it summarizes the advantages and disadvantage of these towns and opens the new research areas.

“Participatory approaches and models in tourism are widely accepted as a criterion for sustainable tourism, as it helps decision makers maintain traditional lifestyles and respect community values.”With these opening words, the incipit of the book immediately introduces the reader to one of the main pillar of the INCULTUM project, i.e. the connection between participation and innovative tourism.The book is a real useful instruments for students, teachers and professionals who are interested to go deeper on the question of how participatory approaches can be beneficial for more harmonious governance, respectful development of territories and promotion of cultural tourism.

The EU is currently Ukraine’s largest trading partner. The European market is characterized by high solvency and capacity, which creates many opportunities for Ukrainian exporters. The article examines the transformation of trade flows between the European Union and Ukraine in the context of increased security risks caused by Russia’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine. An analysis of the main changes in the structure of Ukraine’s foreign trade was carried out, including the reorientation of export and import flows to EU markets. A significant unevenness in the concentration of Ukrainian exports to EU countries was re vealed, which makes its economy more vulnerable to external shocks and points to the available opportunities for increasing exports to other EU member states. An assessment of the economic benefits and challenges faced by both sides was carried out. On the basis of the conducted SWOT analysis, opportunities for trade cooperation between the EU and Ukraine in the conditions of transformation of trade flows were identified.