The value of community-based tourism in Banteay Chhmar,Cambodia

ABSTRACT

In the era of mass tourism, phenomena such as sustainable tourism, responsible tourism, rural tourism, eco-tourism, pro-poor tourism and community-based tourism are now increasingly under the research microscope. If established and managed correctly, these alternative forms of tourism have the potential to contribute towards sustainable community development and provide visitors with unique experiences. Few scholars have qualitatively addressed the growth of community-based tourism in South-East Asia. This study investigated the value of a community-based tourism project at Banteay Chhmar in north-west Cambodia, specifically the discourse of the project's members and the broader community. The objective of the study was to provide an ethnographic account of the community member's attitudes, opinions and beliefs concerning the perceived value and contribution of the project towards community development in their locality. The study initially relied on a literature review to conceptualise community-based tourism. Unstructured in-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 30 stakeholders of the Banteay Chhmar Community-Based Tourism Project. A narrative identifies the development of the project and provides samples of the respondents’ discourses. Findings from a thematic analysis of stakeholder responses indicated support of tourism and the overall operation of the project. Opinions were divided concerning the future growth of tourism and likely negative impacts on resident livelihoods. While some felt the project was relatively insular and lacked transparency, most identified the project's value as enhanced social capital, pride and a better sense of community. The findings show the project has positively contributed towards community development; however, before it can be considered a best practice example of community-based tourism, its financial sustainability, business practices and community support need to improve. The overall study serves as a valuable insight into themes promoting the merits and complications of community-based tourism, specifically in South-East Asia.     

Community,state and power-relations in community-based tourism on Lekhubu Island,Botswana

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of a study investigating power relations between the local community and the state in the rural tourism development process in Botswana. The study was carried out in Mmatshumu and Letlhakane villages of the Boteti sub-district in Botswana. These villages act as the administrative centres of a community-based culture and heritage tourism project at Lekhubu Island. The Island is, itself, located about 45 kilometres to the north east of these villages. A qualitative research approach, utilising seven focus group discussions with members of the community and 17 individual interviews with key informants was adopted. To understand the power relations between the state (through the TAC) and the local community, the study focused on; the extent to which members of the local community feel they control tourism development process in Lekhubu Island; perceived level of power yielded by the state in the tourism development process at Lekhubu Island as well as; the implications of power differentials between the state and community for tourism development at Lekhubu Island. The results show that, contrary to the popular narrative about devolution of power in community-based tourism, the state remains a very powerful player in the overall decision-making process. Furthermore, the formation of local management structures (i.e. Trust) appears to simply create new power nodes which in turn continues the same legacy of community disempowerment.     

Is there any interest in Nehemiah 5?

Abstract

It is generally held that the issue addressed by Nehemiah in Neh 5, 6–11 was that the wealthy of the restored community were charging interest or usury from their poorer fellow Jews. This article contends that a better sense is gained by understanding the Hebrew roots na?a and nasah as meaning “to have (or “press") a claim on” instead of “to lend”. It can then be seen that the situation facing Nehemiah was one of the wealthy making inappropriate demands for repayment of loans in a time of financial stringency, demands which were causing severe hardship to the less fortunate members of the community.     

Living a Long Way from Home: Communicating Land-related Knowledge in Dispersed Indigenous Communities,an Alternative Approach

Many indigenous communities are at a crossroads as regards lived experience of traditional livelihoods and members with intimate knowledge of their traditional landscapes. Using case studies from two indigenous communities, this article explores the application of both GIS tools and other geographic multimedia in community-based research projects that document landscape-related knowledge. The study involves a First Nation community in British Columbia, Canada and a Sámi community in Finnmark County, Norway. We discuss how land-use traditions and related knowledge constitute a peoples' identity and explore digital means of transferring this knowledge to support the ongoing transfer of indigenous knowledge between geographically dispersed community members, as well as future generations.     

Linked (im)mobilities and the relational politics of movement in post-earthquake Nepal

ABSTRACT

This article highlights the importance of various (im)mobilities that were induced by the massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on 25 April 2015. It analyzes over 120 news articles published in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, arranging these into a mobility-centric narrative that highlights the politics of movement in the disaster’s wake. Drawing on the theoretical and methodological “mobilities turn”, I introduce the concept of linked (im)mobilities to demonstrate the complex dialectics structuring (im)mobilities after the disaster. More specifically, Nepal’s post-earthquake (im)mobilities intersected with one another and with a variety of geographic and political factors to produce a mutually constitutive web of contingent movements. Attending to these not only underscores the centrality of (im)mobilities themselves. By raising questions of scale, inequality, bordering, and “islanding”, the approach advanced here widens our analytical frame. It offers a conceptual architecture capable of encompassing more factors (beyond mobility), thereby facilitating a broader understanding of the disaster event and its various outcomes.     

Covid-19 is an unnatural disaster: Hope in revelatory moments of crisis

Abstract

The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has closed borders, grounded planes, quarantined more than half of the world’s population, triggered anxiety en masse, and shaken global capitalism to its core. Scholars of the political ecology of disasters have sought to denaturalize so-called “natural” disasters by demonstrating their uneven consequences. Work in the political ecology of health similarly accounts for how risk of illness and disease are socio-economically mediated. While this scholarship has demonstrated the need to contextualize the unequal fallout from ecological and health disasters in ways that reveal the festering wounds of structural inequality, we know much less about how hope is cultivated in moments of crisis. The current revelatory moment of the COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to find hope in the rubble through the deconstruction of framings of crisis as “error” and by homing in on the current and potential role of tourism to contribute to a more socially and environmentally just society. This reframing the pandemic as an "unnatural" disaster opens new debates at the intersection of tourism geographies and political ecologies of hope in revelatory moments of crisis.     

Communities and archaeology under the Soufrière Hills Volcano on Montserrat,West Indies

Abstract

The volcanically devastated landscape of Montserrat and its social fabric comprise what Maria calls a “traumascape”—a site of tragedy and catastrophe that is also a place of coping and resilience. How Montserratians engage with trauma is evident in how they remember their recent and historical pasts, and in how they are reinventing aspects of their heritage in order to sustain a distinctly Montserratian identity for the future. Such a process of coping presents challenges for conducting archaeology in collaboration with the community. In this article, we describe the experiences of a recently established project on the island (Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat) and discuss the potential for, and the obstacles involved in, developing longer-term, sustainable forms of collaboration between archaeologists and local Montserratian communities when facing the unusual circumstances of volcanic disaster and hazard.     

Evaluation of Seismic Risk on UNESCO Cultural Heritage sites in Europe

ABSTRACT

Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments throughout human history. Due to their size, conservation state, and lack of seismic provisions, monuments are particularly vulnerable to the effects of geological hazards. The first step toward the mitigation of the earthquake threat consists of understanding the existing seismic risk and evaluating possible strategies to reduce it. This study presents a simplified assessment to evaluate the probability of damage due to ground shaking on UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites throughout Europe. The seismic hazard model (SHARE) has been employed to derive hazard curves, which were combined with a fragility model to calculate the annual probability of damage or collapse. These calculations were performed assuming different soil conditions, and the resulting risk metrics can be used for risk awareness, to inform the prioritization of the sites in need of structural interventions, and to support additional risk analysis.     

Becoming ‘enchanted’ in agro-food spaces: engaging relational frameworks and photo elicitation with farm tour experiences

Abstract

Ecofeminists maintain that seemingly diverse and naturalized socio-ecological issues are in fact rooted within a particular cultural framework that perpetuates inequality and severs relationships among human and more-than-human communities. This important yet perhaps abstract understanding can be made tangible via examination of the ‘conventional’ food system, in which human and more-than-human communities are simultaneously otherized, marginalized, and exploited, realities largely hidden in a global industrial food system that disconnects production from consumption and obscures embedded relationships. Yet as consumer awareness rises, more people wish to know and move closer to the sources of their food, fueling community-based agro-food alternatives. When endowed with an ethic of care, such alternatives can be transformative for individuals and communities across scales.

This article situates conventional and alternative agro-food systems within relational frameworks of ecofeminism and care ethics and uses participant-driven photo elicitation (PDPE) to engage with experiences of consumers participating in a community farm tour. Findings suggest that such ‘enchanting’ experiences can begin to (re)embed food ‘products’ within contexts of place, people, and process, contributing to a relational consciousness that is central to an ethic of care. Findings also illustrate that PDPE can serve as a valuable window into experiences of reconnection, particularly useful for feminist researchers interested in learning more about enchantment and the transformational potential it holds.     

Seismic Risk Assessment and Mitigation at Emergency Limit Condition of Historical Buildings along Strategic Urban Roadways. Application to the “Antiga Esquerra de L’Eixample” Neighborhood of Barcelona

ABSTRACT

This article presents a management tool for the large-scale assessment and mitigation of the seismic risk of urban systems. The research introduces a new perspective for a scientifically tackled holistic approach. The proposed methodology considers multiple objectives, from the identification of the most vulnerable buildings whose collapse may hinder the operationality of strategic urban roadways after the occurrence of an earthquake, up to the proposal of proper interventions to improve their functionality. The approach uses a performance-based approach founded on the concept of urban Emergency Limit Condition. Plotting maps of geo-referenced scenarios by means of GIS software have revealed to be extremely useful to detect the weak points of the urban network and to plan suitable strategies of seismic risk mitigation and appropriate enhancement of reliability. The proposed methodology is applied to the “Antiga Esquerra de l’Eixample” neighborhood of Barcelona that hosts the strategic route to the hospital and is characterized by high levels of seismic vulnerability of existing buildings and exposition of its high-density population.     

Revising the Burra Charter: Australia ICOMOS updates its guidelines for conservation practice

Abstract

This paper outlines the revisions made in 1999 to the Burra Charter, the core doctrine for heritage conservation in Australia that was first adopted by Australia ICOMOS in 1979. It examines the reasons why changes were needed, including broadened perceptions of heritage, new understandings of heritage significance, and recognition of the need for community input into conservation decisions about its heritage.

The review process, which took five years, changed its procedures halfway through after members of Australia ICOMOS roundly rejected a draft, while agreeing that a revision should still take place. Following a thorough consultative process with members, the text of the 1999 revision of the Charter was resoundingly endorsed (the text is included here as an Appendix).

The paper describes how the revised Charter differs from the previous text. The changes lie primarily in the recognition that heritage value, or significance, may be embodied in the uses, associations and meanings of a place, in addition to its physical fabric. Other key changes include incorporation of a flowchart explaining the conservation planning process; the seeking of community input; and the recognition that interpretation is an integral part of good heritage management practice.     

The disciplining of scientific communities

Abstract

Amidst ongoing concern with training students in the skills and knowledge necessary to contribute towards a knowledge-intensive economy, we explore how particular ‘epistemic subjects’ are produced within specific epistemic communities. We examine how social studies of science have probed the ‘disciplining’ practices that constitute scientific knowledge production, but have tended to overlook how students participate in, and become members of, epistemic communities. We propose that training contexts provide a window onto the disciplining processes through which scientific fields and their practitioners are co-produced. We offer an empirical example of an emerging scientific field that is working to establish community boundaries through the recruitment and training of university students. We explore how newcomers’ practices, values and identities are disciplined through participation in this nascent community whilst remaining open to negotiation and resistance. The conclusion calls for more scholarly attention to educational trajectories as processes through which disciplines and their disciples are produced.     

EDITORIAL

Abstract

The article relates to the adult treatment of working-class children in the 19th century. Although inquest reports have not survived for Staffordshire, constabulary reports on ‘sudden, violent or suspicious death’ for the county in 1851 and 1860 are used to examine the response of involved members of the community to the sudden deaths of children in the home. The local community is represented by neighbours, public opinion and juries; local professional bodies by coroners, police and medical attendants. Response can be seen to vary according to class and types of occurrence.     

Comparing expeditious procedures for the seismic vulnerability assessment on the European territorial context: reliability,feasibility, cost,and time consumption

ABSTRACT

The definition of strategies for the preservation and protection of cultural heritage is a topical issue, especially in view of the increasing relevance of the theme of seismic risk mitigation and reduction.

The prediction of the impact an earthquake could have on existing buildings requires the knowledge of their dynamic behaviour. The procedure to be adopted for this purpose is quite complex and onerous in terms of costs, time, and implementation, especially when the study concerns territorial areas rather than single buildings. The definition of methodologies aimed at respecting the principles of economic sustainability and preserving human life and architectural heritage is of paramount importance to assess seismic vulnerability using available resources. Rapid methods for the seismic vulnerability assessment, aimed at defining buildings vulnerability and intervention priority lists, must be implemented to guarantee the preservation of historical centers.

This article describes the application to some case studies of different methods aimed at creating fragility curves for the vulnerability assessment on the European territorial context. The comparison between a deterministic approach and a new probabilistic one is performed for all case studies, to define the most suitable methodology in terms of reliability and savings in cost and time.     

Reconstructing Kilmainham: the topography and architecture of the chief priory of the Knights Hospitaller in Ireland,c.1170–1349

ABSTRACT

For almost 400 years the Knights of St John of Jerusalem – the Knights Hospitaller – maintained a priory in Kilmainham, Co. Dublin, as their principal residence in Ireland. Nothing survives of it above ground. The priory's early history and topography are mainly shrouded in mystery, but a fourteenth-century registrum illuminates the workings of its community and the character of its members, and provides valuable evidence relating to the appearance of its architecture and layout when it was at the peak of its prosperity. Yet the registrum has never been subjected to detailed scrutiny. Recent research on the Hospitallers in Ireland on the one hand, and on the organisation of domestic space in medieval contexts in Ireland on the other, has prompted this comprehensive appraisal of the evidence in Kilmainham's registrum.     

‘Marineness’, the Underwater Seascape and Variability in Maritime Adaptations in the Late Ceramic Age Northern Lesser Antilles

ABSTRACT

To investigate potential variation between the fishing practices of contemporaneous Late Ceramic Age villages in the northern Lesser Antilles, we model expectations for each site based on local marine habitat and bathymetry and compare them to observed differences in zooarchaeological assemblages. The predictive model approximates which taxa were the most likely to have been targeted by fishers from each site, assuming that the majority of fishing likely occurred within short distances from each settlement. A comparison of expectations and archaeological observations is used to expose potential differences between sites in preferred fishing areas and techniques, preferred foods, or social distinctions. This variability is argued to reflect a fishing community’s ‘marineness’, or the interrelationship members have with the unique composition of marine resources and underwater seascape adjacent to their villages.     

The Accounts of the Medieval Paternoster Gild of York

Abstract

The 1399 account roll of the Paternoster Gild of York, missing since the 1880s, has recently been discovered amongst papers donated to the Borthwick Institute, University of York. These accounts, edited at the end of this paper, reveal the names of over 150 gild members from all over the city of York and beyond and allow them to be placed within their social context, showing members and their families receiving bequests in each other's wills, and revealing several of them as members of the later Corpus Christi gild at York. The accounts also demonstrate the extent of the gild's property ownership and give details of preparations and purchases for the elaborate gild feast. The gild was responsible for performances of the Paternoster play, and examination of the accounts allows revision of confused, earlier reports of their contents relating to the plays. It is now clear that two pageants from the play are mentioned in the accounts, supporting Johnstone's suggestion that the play was based on seven pageants, each one reflecting one of the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer, matched against one of the seven deadly sins.     

Conservation,community archaeology,and archaeological mediation at Songo Mnara,Tanzania

Abstract

During archaeological fieldwork at Songo Mnara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the southern Tanzanian coast, a storm caused the collapse of a graveyard’s retaining wall. The process initiated by the rebuilding of that wall serves as a case study in addressing the dialogue among researchers, community members, and national and international organizations concerning heritage. During the process of rebuilding the wall, the Village Ruins Committee was called up by the Songo Mnara villagers as a community voice to speak with external stakeholders and to access perceived opportunities to work with UNESCO for financial reward. The committee led the rescue operation at the graveyard, yet was not always recognized as part of the process of conserving the site. In describing the tensions among the hierarchy of stakeholders at Songo Mnara, we explore the benefits and contradictions of international involvement with marginalized communities who might have multiple competing interests. Our study also speaks to good archaeological practice and the ways that we must seek to do community archaeology through recognizing the efforts of local groups who need to forge their own paths to collaboration. The case of Songo Mnara is an interesting example of how international heritage agendas, local historical memory and archaeological research can intersect to strengthen community ties to, and investment in, the monuments of the past.     

Managing the Discourse of Resource Management: the Case of Sasi from ‘Southeast’ Maluku,Indonesia

Co-management of protected areas and renewable resources, with its focus upon local community involvement, is often proposed as some form of ‘magic cure’ for environmental ailments and social injustices. Notwithstanding the inherent romanticism of some of the proponents of management from ‘the bottom up’, there is a strong tendency to view this approach in overly utilitarian, ahistorical and often essentialist terms. In the process, the cultural, historical and political specificities and effects of this discourse are either neutralised or totally disregarded. While a number of authors have identified some of the limitations and problems associated with the implementation of community-based, co-management programmes, there is still a general reluctance to question the logic which informs and is constitutive of this discourse. In this paper, I explore the discourse of resource management in relation to the varied practices and perceptions associated with and identified as sasi. This discussion of sasi focuses upon the island of Luang, and the 1800 or so people who inhabit this island located in the southern waters of the Banda sea. The environmental and economic circumstances of Luang make it an ideal context for the investigation of ‘community-based, marine resource management’ strategies. However, while this context seems to comply with some of the truths produced by the discourse of resource management, in this paper I argue that the very canons of this discourse are placed at risk through people's enactment of their own projects and the expression of their own representations.