Household economic resilience to catastrophic rainstorms and flooding in a Chinese megacity

Megacities situated on flood plains face escalating risks of waterlogging and inundation. Tianjin is one of these megacities in China where residents are exposed to these risks and not well prepared for their consequences. Government policies should support the most vulnerable and less resilient groups. This study can inform policy‐making by identifying the socio‐economic characteristics of those who are financially better prepared for the consequences of catastrophic rainstorms and flooding. A structured questionnaire survey was administered to 332 Tianjin residents. Results confirm that financial conditions crucially determine household resilience to these natural hazards. Lower‐income and less educated urban residents have lower resilient capacity. Weak engagement in the community, including residential committees and other organisations, is related to lower capacity to cope with the economic consequences of extreme weather events. Less resilient groups are therefore those who are subject to urban poverty and have limited social capital. Tianjin and other cities in the developing world require resilience strategies that attend to this segment of urban population.     

Protest or Error? Informal Voting and Compulsory Voting

Some opponents of compulsory voting claim that rising rates of informal voting point to growing antipathy towards the institution. In order to test this claim we examine recent trends in informal voting, focusing upon some recent figures, particularly those of the 2004 Federal election when there was a sharp rise in informal votes. We suggest that it is not compulsion that is leading to informal voting but rather complexity and its interactions with sociological factors that are brought into play by near-universal turnout.     

Community sustainability and resilience: similarities,differences and indicators

Sustainability has been a core conceptual framework for community development since the approach was popularized in 1987, although in its essence it reflects a long history of environmental conservation reactions to industrialization. Resilience, as a framework for understanding and approaching community development, emerged more gradually out of ecological studies in the 1980s, but has only recently, since the mid-2000s, emerged as a focus of public interest as a way of responding and adapting to the planet's growing anthropogenic changes. For many, sustainability and resilience are slightly nuanced perspectives on the same phenomenon. For others, however, there are distinct differences between them, with sustainability's conservation goals being in opposition to the adaptation goals of resilience. Two major reasons for these confusions are (1) both concepts are defined and used in many different ways to achieve a variety of political goals that may not reflect their core definitions, and (2) both concepts share similar goals and some common approaches, such as a focus on climate change and seeking a balance between humans and nature. Returning to the core definitions of conservation and adaptation helps to clarify their similarities and differences, as well as to articulate indicators for understanding how each applies to community tourism development. Indicators from research in rural Taiwan tourism communities were therefore based on responses to the questions: What does the community want to conserve and how do they want to do it (sustainability)? What do they want to change and how do they want to do it (resilience)? Preliminary results suggest that the new ideal community is the one that is both sustainable and resilient.     

Resource Accessibility and Vulnerability in Andhra Pradesh: Caste and Non‐Caste Influences

Coastal Andhra Pradesh in southern India is prone to tropical cyclones. Access to key resources can reduce the vulnerability of the local population to both large‐scale disasters, such as cyclones, and to the sort of small‐scale crises that affect their everyday lives. This article uses primary fieldwork to present a resource accessibility vulnerability index for over 300 respondents. The index indicates that caste is the key factor in determining who has assets, who can access public facilities, who has political connections and who has supportive social networks. The ‘lower’ castes (which tend to be the poorest) are marginalized to the extent that they lack access to assets, public facilities and opportunities to improve their plight. However, the research also indicates that the poor and powerless lower castes are able to utilize informal social networks to bolster their resilience, typically by women's participation with CBOs and NGOs. Nevertheless it is doubtful whether this extra social capital counterbalances the overall results which show that — despite decades of counteractions by government — caste remains a dominant variable affecting the vulnerability of the people of coastal Andhra Pradesh to the hazards that they face.     

Empowering Pyromaniacs in Madagascar: Ideology and Legitimacy in Community‐Based Natural Resource Management

Development practitioners frequently rely on community‐based natural resource management (CBNRM) as an approach to encourage equitable and sustainable environmental resource use. Based on an analysis of the case of grassland and woodland burning in highland Madagascar, this article argues that the success of CBNRM depends upon the real empowerment of local resource users and attention to legitimacy in local institutions. Two key factors — obstructive environmental ideologies (‘received wisdoms’) and the complex political and social arena of ‘community’ governance — challenge empowerment and legitimacy and can transform outcomes. In Madagascar, persistent hesitancy among leaders over the legitimate role of fire has sidetracked a new CBNRM policy called GELOSE away from one of its original purposes — community fire management — towards other applications, such as community management of forest exploitation. In addition, complications with local governance frustrate implementation efforts. As a result, a century‐long political stalemate over fire continues.     

Stumbling towards Empire: The Shanghai Local Post Office,the Transnational British Community and Informal Empire in China, 1863–97

In the second half of nineteenth century, a small transnational British and foreign community grew up in the treaty ports scattered along China’s coast, a community literally caught between the great inner Asian empire of the Manchu Qing and British-dominated informal empire in Asia. Although scholars often contend that few major developments occurred in the foreign sector of the treaty port world until the very end of the nineteenth century, this article joins recent revisionist scholarship seeking to better understand the growth of this transnational treaty port community through a study of the Shanghai Municipal Council’s local post office in the context of informal empire prior to the rise of muscular Chinese nationalism in the early twentieth century.

As an institutional history of the virtually unknown local post office, this article is a study of the decades-long process by which the foreign settler community of Shanghai slowly built up the administrative capacity, trading networks and communications infrastructure of informal empire and semi-colonial order in the nineteenth-century treaty ports. The history of the local post office is largely unknown not because of its insignificance, but because we have not paid enough attention to the institutions that facilitated the emergence of transnational expatriate and settler communities throughout the world of British informal empire and the global and local influences that shaped them.     

Sectoral Resilience: Conceptualizing Industry-Specific Spatial Patterns of Interactive Crisis Adjustment

While the regional resilience approach stresses major place-specific factors of adaptability to economic crises, industry-sector-specific mechanisms of shock response, which often cross-regional boundaries, still require conceptualization relating to aspects of resilience. This paper proposes the concept of sectoral resilience, which acknowledges that the actors who constitute the value chains and production systems of an industry sector, when struck by a major global crisis, collectively and interactively form a sector-specific pattern of response and adaptation. As these actors often strategically use assets at different locations, industry-specific spatial patterns of adaptation emerge that affect various regions in differing ways. After defining the suggested concept and related terminology, its geographical logics are outlined. Then major conceptual pillars of sectoral resilience are depicted, relating to six major, partly interdependent process fields. For each of them, mechanisms of shock adaptation of an industry sector and major factors of inter-sectoral distinctions of resilience patterns are pointed out, briefly illustrated by the examples of the automotive and mechanical engineering sectors. The approach helps us better understand industry-specific features of crisis adaptation and intersections of regional and corporate logics of resilience.     

Community Archaeology in Proto-Historical Tel Bareqet,Israel: School Children and Agency for Active Public Engagement in Cultural Heritage Projects

Abstract

Community archaeology has become very popular over the past decade, and community archaeology projects are yielding interesting results in many regions around the globe (Merriman, 2004). These projects seem to be gaining academic importance as well, and are considered by some people to be vital to the survival of archaeology as a whole (Marshall, 2002: 218).

Still, community archaeology projects often stir debate regarding their importance, role, and existence. A major theme of these discussions is the role played by the community. In particular, the question is often raised of what role, if any, should be given to non-professional local populations in a project's scientific decision-making.

The current article aims to present the controversy between two types of archaeological practices, 'archaeology from above' and 'archaeology from below' (Faulkner, 2000) through the examination of a community archaeological project in which schoolchildren constitute the community participants. The site of the excavation is Tel Bareqet, a 5000-year-old (Early Bronze Age II, c. 3050–2700 BCE) urban settlement located in central Israel. On the one hand, the excavation strives to maintain the highest scientific standard; on the other hand, it depends upon the participation of unskilled young people in the excavation process.

This article presents obstacles that have been encountered in this excavation, and describes the methodological framework that has been developed in order to overcome these obstacles and continue carrying out a successful community archaeology project.     

Border-regional resilience in EU internal and external border areas in Finland

European border regions have witnessed a long history of remarkable mobility shocks stemming from complex ecological and economic changes and geopolitical events. The experience of near-continuous regional and global crisis has increased interest towards the idea of resilience, that is, the ability of communities and regions to adapt and cope with disturbances and transitions. Inspired by the literature of regional resilience and the evolutionary approach, this paper will examine the difference that borders and geopolitical conditions make from the perspective of regional resilience and especially ‘border-regional resilience’. Particular focus will be on irregular cross-border mobilities and consequent transitions in EU external and internal border towns, here the Finnish towns of Lappeenranta and Tornio. The study points out that the geopolitical environment and the openness of the border partly determine the regional development trajectories and the ways of coping with cross-border mobility-related changes. Although the border location entails some vulnerability, formal and informal cross-border institutions and relations of trust are of crucial importance from the perspective of border-regional resilience. The paper proposes a research agenda for studying border-regional resilience in the context of environmental, economic and social changes and geopolitical events.     

扎根理论视角下旅游非正式部门成长路径——以安徽西递古村为例

以安徽西递古村的旅游非正式部门为研究对象,运用扎根理论研究方法,通过聚焦编码、轴心编码、理论编码三步骤,分析案例地旅游非正式部门的成长路径。研究发现:1旅游非正式部门发展在符合生命周期基本理论基础上,具有新特色。随着阶段推进,主导影响因素由单一向多元转变,外部影响因素的作用力愈渐加强。2精英带动在旅游非正式部门发展起步阶段起主导作用并以粗放开发为特色;利益驱动下旅游非正式部门过度扩张使得同质竞争激烈化,经营边际收益减少;家庭结构与社区影响造成经营固化与惯性,社会政策带来经营萎缩,经营者试图通过寻租及名望身份赋加的形式改变困境,增强对经济之外的其他诉求(如名望、人际),促进了旅游非正式部门对自我身份重新审视与再定位。3社区力量在市场饱和后以隐性道德伦理手段维持既有市场结构平衡状态,成为市场竞争调控手段新补充。     

The Second Ash Wednesday: 16 February 1983

A brief factual account of the events associated with bushfires in Australia on 16 February 1983 is provided. General information on the setting for the fires and their immediate impacts on South Australia and Victoria is followed by brief accounts of the major fire areas in South Australia. Finally some questions are raised on the vulnerability of the Australian community to bushfire disasters.     

Community gardens as third places

As the world population becomes increasingly urbanised and mobile, “third places” take on greater importance for incorporating new residents into their neighbourhood and reducing social isolation. The third place concept has been applied to a range of public space research and embraces informal public meeting places outside of home (first place) and work (second place). This article critically investigates the connection between community gardens and third place, applying a framework based on the characteristics of third places to qualitative case studies of three Australian community gardens. The article highlights the role community gardens can play as third places in alleviating some of the challenges associated with population mobility. The findings show that two of the case study community gardens exhibit all characteristics of third places facilitating informal interactions between people of the neighbourhood while one does not for reasons considered. Findings also suggest that third place community gardens act as dynamic sites of placemaking, helping to connect people to the place. Community gardens can function as third places with a communal purpose inclusive across socially diverse neighbourhoods, within and beyond the garden boundaries. The article suggests appropriate design and location features for community gardens that best facilitate third place interactions.     

游地社区恢复力认知测度与影响因子分析——以千岛湖为例

人是社会-生态系统的主要决定性因素,旅游地社区恢复力提高是旅游地可持续治理的关键。运用通径分析方法,从治理、社会、经济及生态系统4个维度建立社区恢复力认知测度模型,定量测度千岛湖社区认知恢复力,识别脆弱性及应对能力认知对社区恢复力的复杂影响。结果表明：①社区恢复力认知可提取8个因子,政府治理在社区恢复力中的作用最为显著,是社区恢复力提高的主导力量。②千岛湖恢复力认知综合平均值为2.42,处于中等偏下水平。社会子系统恢复力认知值最高,生态和经济子系统恢复力认知值最低,系统发展应关注生态资本的积累与保护以及经济发展的多样性与稳定性。③社区脆弱性、个体和政府应对能力的各变量对社区总恢复力及各维度认知呈现出错综复杂的关系,政府应对能力对总恢复力及各维度认知的影响相对最强,个体应对能力对多数恢复力认知维度未产生明显影响。需进一步发挥个体作用,促进个体和政府的共同参与,提高社区恢复力。     

No need to hear your voice,when I can talk about you better than you can speak about yourself…’ Discourses on Knowledge and Power in the !Khuiseb Delta on the Namib Coast, 1780–2016 CE

Indigenous pastoralists at Walvis Bay on the Namib Desert coast were drawn into global commerce at the end of the eighteenth century. A hundred years later, they were impoverished and peripheral to colonial settlement, but their resilience and traditional reliance on the endemic !nara melon gave them a unique cultural identity and a way into the informal domestic market. Subaltern and subservient in the past, the Topnaar today are creating a niche in the modern Namibian economy. I present a background historical archaeology and some of the challenges facing the Topnaar through the subjective voices of a number of historical and current stakeholders. There may be parallels between the story of the Topnaar in the Namib and the archaeology of indigenous communities in Australia, the Americas and elsewhere in the world.     

Environmental response to land use at Lake Curlip,East Gippsland,Victoria

A palaeoecological approach was undertaken to investigate the last 400 years of change in vegetation, fire, nutrient mobility, lake productivity and erosion associated with Aboriginal and European land-use practices in a forested environment in eastern Victoria. Melaleuca ericifolia scrub, although present prior to European settlement, has expanded around Lake Curlip in the last 200 years, primarily due to the action of fire on a forest already weakened by drought. A fern understorey has declined in extent and a more open aspect has developed in the forest. Fire has been a major component of vegetation dynamics in the historical period. Erosion rates were comparatively low and associated with fire during prehistoric times, but after European settlement its increase is more closely related to land clearance and flooding than fire. The response of vegetation to both anthropogenic and natural influences changed during the historical period. Although fire is an integral part of vegetation change, it is not an over-riding effect at Lake Curlip. Drain construction in the swamp has reduced the impact that any accumulation of pasture improvement chemicals may have had on eutrophication of the lake.     

Industrial district or subordinated production: A case study of small-scale carpentry industries in Accra, Ghana

This article aims at gaining greater insight into the functioning of small-scale industries in an African context. The findings are based on predominately qualitative fieldwork conducted on small-scale carpentry industries in Accra, Ghana. A special concern is whether the small-scale carpenters are capable of acquiring the technological capabilities conducive to a positive industrial development. Two opposing frameworks, one neo-Marxist and one centred on the conceptualisation of industrial districts, are used to discern the nature of locally embedded production and supply linkages, and whether these are conducive to the technological capabilities needed for innovative growth. Despite facing similar structural constraints there are a few small-scale enterprises that remove themselves from the characteristics of informal production by making the greatest use of the services entailed in the carpentry production network. These linkages, however, are still not extensive enough, nor advanced enough, to bring about the technological innovations associated with a true industrial district. The benefits gained through interlinked production are thus better understood as a means of securing domestic resilience, rather than international competitiveness. Furthermore, an explanation for the limitations of these linkages must be sought beyond the meso-level analysis typical of an industrial district approach.     

Perceptions of tourism impacts and community resilience to natural disasters

Evidence since at least the 1990s suggests that global climate patterns have undergone dramatic changes, often resulting in weather-induced natural disasters that have caused widespread environmental damage. Such conditions raise serious threats to communities that are dependent on natural resources and ecosystem services for tourism development. Communities located in high-risk disaster regions face greater challenges in developing a tourism economy that is both resilient and sustainable. Residents in these communities live with a constant awareness of external threats and try to build a degree of resilience that includes traditional disaster prevention measures and a long history of post-disaster reconstruction. It is necessary to understanding the relationships between tourism and community resilience to address planning and development goals in an era of increasing climate uncertainty.

Three communities are examined that are regularly exposed to the threats of typhoons and flooding and are located within National Scenic Areas in Taiwan. In-depth interviews with community leaders and surveys of residents were undertaken. Residents with high potential to experience natural disasters generally have high degrees of awareness of various forms of tourism impacts. Their perceptions of tourism impacts are positively correlated with community resilience. The strongest relationships are between a perception of the positive economic impacts from tourism and the local capacity for undertaking adaptive responses; and between an awareness of the environmental impacts of tourism and the perceived fragility of their environment. Empowering community resilience usually requires long-term capacity building and is correlated with all three types of perceived tourism impacts. Deconstruction of the special experiences of disaster-prone tourism destinations provides a more nuanced insight into the relationships between community knowledge and awareness of resilience needs and the role and impacts of tourism. This, in turn, facilitates understanding of community tourism development in the face of contemporary changes in weather and climate.     

‘Are we wasting our time?’: bushfire practitioners and flammable futures in northern Australia

Humans are ‘fire creatures’ that have used fire for millennia to shape local environments to diverse purposes. Our capacity for combustion has also forced global climatic changes and rendered the planet increasingly flammable, creating the conditions for progressively higher impact bushfires now and into the future. Meanwhile, governments in fire-prone countries such as Australia have continued to allow settlements to be established (and re-established) in wildland–urban interfaces. Like other ‘natural hazards’, bushfire is thereby a social phenomenon bound up with human values, practices and decisions. But, while studies of the social dimensions of ‘natural hazards’ are steadily rising, this scholarship has rarely addressed natural hazard management practitioners directly, precisely those authorised and entrusted to intervene in the distribution of hazard probabilities and consequences. This paper seeks to help remediate this research gap, illustrating how cultural, ecological, economic and political factors thoroughly condition hazard management and modes of intervention. Drawing on a case study in the Northern Territory’s Greater Darwin region, this paper suggests not only that examining such sociocultural realities provides new insights into hazards and their distribution, but also that attention to such issues is crucial to understanding our flammable future in the Anthropocene.     

关于社区地标景观感知和认同的研究

一个城市或地区通常有其标志性人工建筑物,它体现着这个城市或地区的魅力和特征。这样的人工建筑物被称为"地标"。本研究选择北京崇文区天坛街道的金鱼池小区的老舍作品群雕作为该小区的地标,从环境感知(如颜色、造型、体积、位置等)和心理认同的角度(功能、意义和情感等的认同)考察了居民对之的接受程度。调查统计显示,年龄、性别、职业、受教育程度、居住时间等因素影响个体对小区地标的环境感知和心理认同程度。社会心理学的理论和概念可以解释调查组间的差异是符合逻辑的,即年长者、在本地居住时间较长者、工人对地标的接受程度高于对比组;受教育水平低的是工人,他们对地标的接受度比对比组高;性别对地标的感知和认同差别不大。本论文的结论是老舍作品群雕是金鱼池小区的地标,这一文化景观是该小区地方性的表征要素,由于它反映了小区的历史文化,所以被人们接受。地方文化建设的基本单位是小区,加强和谐社区建设,需要社区认同。本研究的结论的应用意义是,社区认同需要有一个文化景观作为认同物,这个认同物可以是建筑,也可以是雕塑等不可移动的地上艺术作品。地标的明确可以促进社区的内在文化凝聚力。     

Indigenous Tourism and Processes of Resilience – About Communicative Strategies among Tourism Workers in Québec

ABSTRACT

Tourism is a well-known way of life for an increasing portion of the world's indigenous communities, and it has taken tortuous paths and undergone changes in approach and meaning.

Indigenous tourism is examined here within the theoretical framework of resilience, focusing on development, communication and justification. Men and women and their perspectives on space, time and spatial relations are the crucial agents in these processes. Based on an empirical study in Québec, Canada, we show that the impact of indigenous tourism includes networks within the local community at the regional and national levels, as well as translocal networks and relationships. Communicative processes are essential for achieving resilience, communicating identity within families and the community, and giving a voice to a political project. We argue that indigenous tourism works on several geographical levels and that these levels intersect and have the potential to increase resilience if they interact. Our study supplements resilience development theory by highlighting the need to consider communities as parts of networks. It also contributes to the field of tourism research by emphasising communication on several levels.