This paper represents a research response to the current vision on transformations regarding the capacity building of smart cities focused towards sustainability, by addressing the knowledge based urban development and collaborative tools that support the development, dissemination, and use of knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to develop a collaborative pattern of knowledge networking, focusing on sustainability goals within a smart city concept, using the logic of the Complex Adaptive System (CAS). The study was carried out in an innovation cluster in Romania; the Social Network Analysis (SNA) was used as a tool to perform the study. The results of this analysis, due to the suggested networking, have led to delimitation of the roles that Groups of Competences play to enhance the sustainability of smart cities in areas where the use of knowledge has the greatest impact. Results show that the success of the smart solutions’ implementation depends on how the social and competence structures of the network are shaped and whether it permanently adapts to fit the sustainability objectives in the considered areas.

K ALANTARIDIS C., S LAVA S. and S OCHKA K. (2003) Globalization processes in the clothing industry of Transcarpathia, Western Ukraine, Reg. Studies 37 , 173-186. This paper sets out to examine the integration of a region undergoing a process of post-socialist transformation in the global marketplace. In doing so it draws upon the experience of the clothing industry in Transcarpathia, Western Ukraine. The findings of extensive fieldwork investigation suggest that, during the mid 1990s, sub-contracting linkages were established through intermediaries located in economies, which achieved significant advances in the process of transformation (such as Hungary and Slovakia), between local manufacturers and parent enterprises abroad. The role of the mediators was subsequently diminished, partly due to the adoption of greater commitment strategies by some parent enterprises and the emergence of local mediators and a handful of entrepreneurial manufacturers. This led to the formation of complex networks of production and role differentiation among local and global economic agents. The resulting recovery in the employment provided by the industry to some 60% of the pre-1991 levels constitutes a rare success story in the regional context. However, there are serious concerns about the long-term viability of this pattern of growth.

This paper sets out to examine the integration of a region (Transcarpathia), undergoing a process of postsocialist transformation, in the global marketplace. In doing so, it deploys a microlevel approach in deciphering the findings of extensive fieldwork investigation. The argument advanced here is that the phenomenon reported does not fit well within the confines of the global commodity chain literature. The pursuit of patterns and regularities, as well as the overwhelming economic development focus of this approach tend to obscure differences, and restrict our understanding of globalisation and industrial dynamics, especially in the case of areas undergoing a process of postsocialist transformation.

Despite a significant pool of sustainable development literature that appeared during the last decade, the term remains unclear. This study involved a theoretical analysis of definitions of sustainable development to identify the weights of different components, to assess what meanings are included in the term by different authors and communities, and to understand the role of managerial issues in sustainable development. A principle managerial model of sustainable development is presented in which common purposes and joint management serve to unify economic, environmental, and social components. Using a basic management approach, field investigation of sustainable development processes were conducted in Athens, Georgia, USA and Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Survey results were utilised to develop managerial sustainable development models for each city, to conduct an internal analysis of the components and connections between components in each model, and to compare the respective components for each city. The comparative results of the study are both theoretically and practically useful in the development of relevant policy approaches.