Bridging the Knowledge-gap Between the Old and the New: Regional Marine Experience Production in Orust,Västra Götaland,Sweden

Abstract

Today many regions in the industrialized world have to deal with a transformation from traditional industry such as agriculture or manufacturing to service-oriented production such as tourism. Nevertheless, few studies highlight the possibilities and limitations of inter-sectoral knowledge sharing among stakeholders representing these sectors and hence there seem to be missed opportunities for mutual collaboration in the era of experience production. Using an evolutionary perspective, this article aims to analyse how the leisure boat manufacturing and the tourism sectors in the municipality of Orust on the Swedish west coast, combine knowledge from these two sectors as a way to spur innovation in experience production. The article shows how there are a number of limitations to sectoral knowledge interaction. Some of them can be linked to the conservative nature of the traditional industry, and to the immature nature of the tourism sector, others to the role of policy. However, at the same time as there being a number of obstacles for collaboration, the article reveals some interesting possibilities to form inter-sectoral knowledge sharing.     

Ceramics, Ethnohistory, and Ethnography: Locating Meaning in Southern African Iron Age Ceramic Assemblages

For ceramics to be relevant in the Southern African Iron Age, archaeologists must broaden their theoretical base to include social and other contexts when interpreting material culture items such as pottery. Pottery remains critical in understanding cultural dynamics in the region for the past two millennia, but current usage is narrow in scope. Using ethnohistorical data and archaeological examples from South Africa and Zimbabwe, we argue that pottery provides valuable information on the region's Iron Age, if archaeologists address the social meaning of ceramic assemblages. Ceramic production among rural communities provides the basis on which a wide range of social issues are discussed and used to critique pottery recovered from archaeology. Ethnography suggests that ceramic assemblages are context specific, and archaeologists are cautioned against making generic statements on the basis of similarities of vessel shape and decoration motif.     

Doctoral dissertations in human geography from Swedish universities 1884–2015: demographics,formats and productivity

The doctoral dissertation is a key component of postgraduate education that plays an important role for knowledge production and hence the development of a discipline. Swedish human geography currently lacks an overview of dissertations. This article fills this knowledge gap by reporting findings from a unique database covering all doctoral dissertations between 1884 and 2015. The paper focuses on the demographics of the authors (age, gender), the format of the dissertation and explores productivity variations for authors of compilation dissertations. The findings show a notable increase in the number of doctoral dissertations since the late 1960s but a decreasing share of doctoral dissertations in the social sciences since the 1970s. In terms of demographics, we show that while the age of the authors remains relatively stable, the gender-balance has improved considerably. In terms of format, the monograph has rapidly given way to compilation dissertations, which now account for half the number of dissertations. More than 70% of all dissertations are now published in English. Statistical results suggest that the likelihood of completing a compilation dissertation is greater if the doctoral candidate is young and if attending Umeå University. But individual author productivity for compilation dissertations is mainly influenced by unobservables.     

A church at Lyckselet and a sacrificial site on Altarberget ‐ the two worlds of the Saami

In 1606–07 a church was built in Umbyn in Ume lappmark, more precisely beside Lyckselet in Umeälven. Twenty kilometres away and likewise in the territory of Umbyn, the author has discovered an important sacrificial site located on Altarberget beside Vindelälven. In this article, the sacrificial site is compared with other known examples. Principally, however, an attempt is made to throw light on the shift in religion among the Saami in this part of Ume lappmark. It appears that the sacrificial site was still in use in the middle of the 18^tn century. At that time the Saami lived in two worlds, one official and the other hidden in the Saami environment.     

Liminality at work in Norwegian hotels

ABSTRACT

Hotels are spaces of temporary accommodation, but they are also important temporary spaces for an increasingly mobile and segmented workforce with different backgrounds and motives. In this paper we wish to address the temporary and transitional nature of hotel work by employing the term ‘liminality’. More specifically, we analyse the hotel as a liminal space for transient workers that view this work as a temporary endeavour. By drawing upon data from a study of hotel workers in Norway, we discuss how the liminality of hotel work may be understood. Here, we turn to an important debate within tourism studies on the blurring relationships between consumer and producer identities in resorts, often referred to in terms such as ‘working tourist’ or ‘migrant tourist-worker’. For a relatively privileged group of workers, the hotel becomes a space of liminal lifestyle pursuits as well as a space of work. We also contrast this privileged group with a different and less privileged liminal group of ‘expatriate workers’. Transient lifestyles and consumption of recreation among workers can have problematic effects in terms of reducing solidarity, and we wish to develop this further by investigating how worker representation and solidarity develops in liminal spaces of work. While strategies of liminality may have a transformative impact on the individual, their aggregate effects might simultaneously alter the way in which hospitality work is negotiated – from the collective to the individual level. As such, hotels as employers of working tourists pose a great challenge to collective representation, and may undermine effective worker action for less privileged groups of workers. The final section of this paper addresses this challenge, asking what bearings the individualism that dominates liminal work spaces has for trade unionism in the hospitality industry.     

MICRODENTICULATES OF THE FUNNEL BEAKER CULTURE: LITHIC ATTRIBUTE ANALYSIS,USE‐WEAR ANALYSIS,AND CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

In a study published in 1994, Helle Juel Jensen observed that microdenticulates are tools whose function is difficult to assess. She calls the use of the tools “an unresolved functional puzzle”. This study proceeds from that conclusion. Based on attribute and use‐wear analyses together with contextual studies the results show that microdenticulates are complex tools, in which other parts of the flake besides the denticulated edge were used. The result also show that other flint objects from the flint asemblage were used for the same operations as the microdenticulates. The work comprised a conceptual action in which the production, use, and deposition of the material were all parts of the same process. The task was given in advance. The work probably consisted of preparing or treating plant fibres in some way in order to make thread, rope, bast, or the like. The result shows that seemingly simple tools like microdenticulates were a part of the materiality of the south Scandinavian Funnel Beaker complex. The work conducted using the microdenticultates and the tool box associated with them was associated with concepts shared by people over large areas (present day south Sweden and Denmark) over hundreds of years (from Early Neolithic to Middle Neolithic AI).     

Creative Copenhagen: Globalization,Urban Governance and Social Change

The introduction of 'creativity' and the 'creative city' in imagineering Copenhagen and in strategies for developing its urban competitiveness is analysed from a perspective on relations between processes of globalization, developments in urban government/governance and social geographic change. This perspective problematizes what on the surface seems to be an unequivocally positive quality ('creative') and goal ('creativity'). We argue there is a need to recognize the social costs of developments that are glossed over by the creative city rhetoric, including diminished representative democracy, social and geographic polarization and considerable displacement of the marginalized.     

How the ideology of low fat conquered america

This article examines how faith in science led physicians and patients to embrace the low-fat diet for heart disease prevention and weight loss. Scientific studies dating from the late 1940s showed a correlation between high-fat diets and high-cholesterol levels, suggesting that a low-fat diet might prevent heart disease in high-risk patients. By the 1960s, the low-fat diet began to be touted not just for high-risk heart patients, but as good for the whole nation. After 1980, the low-fat approach became an overarching ideology, promoted by physicians, the federal government, the food industry, and the popular health media. Many Americans subscribed to the ideology of low fat, even though there was no clear evidence that it prevented heart disease or promoted weight loss. Ironically, in the same decades that the low-fat approach assumed ideological status, Americans in the aggregate were getting fatter, leading to what many called an obesity epidemic. Nevertheless, the low-fat ideology had such a hold on Americans that skeptics were dismissed. Only recently has evidence of a paradigm shift begun to surface, first with the challenge of the low-carbohydrate diet and then, with a more moderate approach, reflecting recent scientific knowledge about fats.     

Fact Sheet: The Islands of Sweden

Not many think of Sweden as an island nation, but in fact Sweden has lots of islands. The actual number could be as high as 221 800, or as low as twenty‐four. Which is correct? It all depends on how one defines an ‘island’ and which ‘pieces of land surrounded by water’ are counted and why (or why not). This fact sheet presents a brief overview of the islands of Sweden, including a short discussion of problems met with trying to count and sort them. After trying either to visit, or contact, all possible Swedish islands with a permanent population but without a permanent mainland connection, the author has concluded that Sweden has 401 such islands. Their distribution according to geographical position and number of inhabitants is presented, and differences between Swedish islands and island regions are also briefly discussed.