Will Europe, in the coming years, end up functioning like a theme park or as an aging continent lagging behind in the trajectory of global economic development?

This and many other questions are addressed in the publication authored by Mr. Giorgos Rakkas, a researcher at the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies of the National Centre for Research and Technological Development (IPTIL-EKETA). The book is the first volume in the new series by Patakis Publications titled “Social Studies,” which is directed by Mr. Panagis Panagiotopoulos, Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

The publication thoroughly analyzes the relationship of the tourism industry to global economic development, the transformations in the urban fabric and the regional landscape, and its contribution to GDP. It examines the phenomenon of “carefree capitalism” and its connection to the global trend of population mobility.

It discusses the consequences of overtourism on housing, the depletion of resources, its relationship to climate change, and social cohesion.

Terms that will concern public debate in the coming years are developed, such as “global city,” “parallel societies,” “development trap,” “virtuous entrepreneurship,” and others.

The publication serves as a strong warning about the stagnation that will be brought about in the coming years by the monoculture of overtourism, the decline of the knowledge economy and the art of entrepreneurship, and the erosion of human relationships due to easy enrichment and the creation of the “hourglass” phenomenon in incomes.

The consequences are already visible in the most advanced and affluent parts of the world. Large urban centers, with a high economic quality of life and a parallel tendency for predominantly solitary living, lead to population aging, an inability to reproduce the population fabric, and, in the long term, withdrawal from global development—that is, from the very reproduction of their current status quo.

The series will once again raise the role of social science theory in decision-making centers, for the formulation of central policies for a quality life and a sustainable environment. We hope it will find its way to political decision-making centers of a collective nature. We support Piketty’s assertion that today the means exist for decisions leading to a qualitative transformation of society. Moreover, this is the only path to sustainability.