Development Discourses and Peasant–Forest Relations: Natural Resource Utilization as Social Process

This article analyses the changing role of forests and the practices of peasants toward them in a Costa Rican rural community, drawing on an analytical perspective of political ecology, combined with cultural interpretations. The study underlines the complex articulation of local processes and global forces in tropical forest struggles. Deforestation is seen as a process of development and power involving multiple social actors, from politicians and development experts to a heterogeneous group of local peasants. The local people are not passive victims of global challenges, but are instead directly involved in the changes concerning their production systems and livelihood strategies. In the light of historical changes in natural resource utilization, the article underlines the multiplicity of the causes of tropical deforestation, and the intricate links between global discourses on environment and development and local forest relations.     

Untangling Social,Ritual and Cosmological Aspects of Fishhook Manufacture in the Middle Mesolithic Coastal Communities of NE Skagerrak

This article investigates the entanglement of environment, materiality, technology and cosmology in the Middle Mesolithic Stone Age (8300–6300 cal. BC), of the NE Skagerrak area of Eastern Norway and Western Sweden, by focusing on the manufacture of bone fishhooks. The argument made is that fishhooks are key objects for exploring the world‐views of Middle Mesolithic coastal groups. Fishhooks were linked with daily subsistence, invested with much labour, and their manufacture was entwined with the hunting of ungulates that provided their raw material. This process involved the transformation of living bodies into artefacts. Thus, it is argued that these mundane objects were considered active agents in mediating the dangers and insecurities of an unpredictable maritime life.     

Destinationsmanagement—Herausforderungen für die Planung

Zu Beginn des Reisens war allein die Attraktivität der Landschaft Initiator für die Entwicklung von Fremdenverkehrsgebieten. Dabei schafft der Fremdenverkehr einen Sondertyp der Kulturlandschaft: Fremdenverkehrsgebiete sind kulturgeographische Raumeinheiten mit einem bestimmten siedlungs-, wirtschafts- und verkehrsgeographischen Gepräge, einem eigenen Lebensrhythmus sowie einem typischen raum-zeitlichen Wandel (vgl. KREISEL 1997, S. 8). Die traditionellen Reiseziele kamen mit einer relativ einfachen touristischen Infrastruktur aus; der Verkäufermarkt bestimmte die Wahl der Reiseziele von Touristen.Im Zuge des technischen Fortschritts und des damit einhergehenden Wertewandels hat sich das Reiseverhalten allerdings sichtlich verändert. Die Nachfrager sind anspruchsvoller, preissensibler, erlebnisorientierter und zugleich unberechenbarer als je zuvor. Herkömmliche Tourismusregionen in Deutschland verlieren zusehends Marktanteile. Schuld daran sind insbesondere technische Neuerungen, die in zunehmendem Maße ermöglichen, ungewöhnliche, vorher noch nie dagewesene Orte für Freizeit- und Tourismuszwecke zu errichten. Nicht selten entstehen diese unabhängig von der Attraktivität einer Landschaft; sie versprechen oftmals einen höheren Erlebniswert, als ihn der Realraum bzw. der natürliche Raum bieten kann. Zudem schafft die steigende Mobilität des Menschen neben der zunehmenden Erschließung von Fernreisezielen den Touristen auch die Möglichkeit, sich am Zielgebiet selbst in einem immer größer werdenden Radius zu bewegen. Der Verkäufermarkt ist zu einem Käufermarkt geworden; die traditionellen Feriengebiete scheinen sukzessiv von neuen Tourismusdestinationen verdrängt, abgelöst und auch überformt zu werden. Folglich stellt der Tourismusmarkt sowohl die öffentlichen als auch die privaten touristischen Akteure, Leistungsträger, Manager und Planer vor große Herausforderungen. Was aber verbirgt sich hinter einer Destination und was bedeutet Destinationsmanagement? Welche Lösungsansätze gibt es?     

Simulating changes in tourism demand: a case study of two German regions

Travel behaviour is shaped by the complex interaction of a variety of societal, economic, ecological and political drivers that undergo rapid changes. This poses continually new challenges on destinations which need to adapt to altering conditions. Significant changes of influencing factors might lead to shifts in tourism flows in temporal and/or spatial dimensions. This study investigates how German tourists’ destination choices develop under changing framework conditions. It furthermore rates the impact of influencing factors such as socio-demographic and socio-economic aspects on changes in tourism demand using an agent-based model. The interactions among 15 million tourists and 109 European destinations are simulated under three different scenarios. Destinations included in the model develop in different ways in regard to tourist arrivals until 2030. The results indicate that the number of tourist arrivals will develop divergently in the investigated regions until 2030 and that some market segments will undergo changes in seasonality: the model shows a growth in arrivals for many city destinations, cultural as well as sports and active tourism destinations. It indicates a trend towards equalisation in the segments sun and sea tourism, city and cultural tourism with a shift from summer months to spring and autumn towards 2030. They furthermore imply that demographic change dominates altering tourism demand in the source market and that related changes in travel preferences are the most urgent challenge for destinations.     

Gender perspective on the social networks of household heads and community leaders after involuntary resettlement

The study of social network analysis in Indonesia and the Philippines reveals that after a certain period in a new community and living among involuntarily resettled strangers, household heads and community leaders will eventually replace their disrupted previous networks with new network ties. The paper likewise demonstrates how gender moulds social network features at the levels of the Indonesian household heads and Philippine community organization after involuntary resettlement. Existing gendered context in two settings like the Indonesian woman’s role as primary caretaker of the household and the absence of a consolidated patriarchal system in the Philippines is shown to have reinforced gender (dis)advantages. As reflected in the two settings, those who have the biggest networks are also the brokers or the influential actors who can control and have an advantage in accessing social capital. Further, basing on the two cases, we identify the gender norm of the centrality of women’s role as homemaker and caregiver in addition to other roles as a similar explanation for the bigger proportions of friends in the networks of women as compared to men. Unless outside interventions reconfigure the natural trajectory of the social networks, gender equality in terms of leadership, decision-making and access to suitable programs and projects as well as to the relevant authorities, remains problematic.     

Tackling human capital loss in shrinking cities: urban development and secondary school improvement in Eastern Germany

Selective migration, and the loss of highly qualified employees that it implies, is frequently mentioned as a major problem related to urban shrinkage [Fol, S. (2012). Urban shrinkage and socio-spatial disparities: Are the remedies worse than the disease? Built Environment, 38(2), 259–275.] However, despite the fact that research conducted on the issue of shrinking cities has increased, urban development strategies targeting human capital loss are rarely discussed in the literature on urban decline. This paper addresses this research gap. It focuses on the investment in secondary school infrastructure in Eastern Germany and presents the findings of an empirical study that observed how the issue of secondary education improvement was integrated into the urban development strategies of shrinking cities. Two case studies will be discussed in order to highlight initiatives for educational advancement, which directly targeted the problem of human capital loss. On the basis of this ‘reality check', the paper argues that an investment in secondary education is part of a potentially rewarding strategy in dealing with urban shrinkage that may be linked to the concept of social innovation.     

A Process of Civilisation? Legitimisation of Violent Policing in Prussian and French Police Manuals and Instructions, 1880–1914

This article examines Prussian and French police instructions, manuals and training material, 1880–1914. Police in both countries were reputedly violent, yet successive French and German governments consistently justified incidents of heavy-handed law enforcement. Yet the context was different as Prussian instructions actively encouraged forceful law enforcement, while French instructions placed strict legal and disciplinary boundaries on the police. This had dissimilar consequences for how the police were identified with the regime. In Prussia the regime became identified with brutality, for which the police were seen by critics as merely a symptom. The republican regime was criticised as hypocritical rather than violent in its defence of violent policing. The commitment to respect citizens' rights and seek to limit police brutality was no guarantee of more civilised policing, but constituted a hope for changes in police practices that did not require a change of regime.     

Transdisciplinary Enrichment of a Linear Research Process: Experiences Gathered from a Research Project Supporting the European Biodiversity Strategy to 2020

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of a research project conducted by a network of environmental research institutes called Partnership for European Environmental Research (PEER). Our analysis constitutes a reflection on this research project based on a proposed ideal-typical transdisciplinary research process developed by . The aim of the PRESS project (PEER Research on EcoSystem Services) was to provide support for the development and implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, with a special emphasis on the ecosystem services concept. Our analysis of the research phases of the PRESS project shows that not all of the project elements accord with the notion of a full-scale transdisciplinary process. Despite this, a number of lessons can be learned regarding the use of different boundary objects for knowledge integration and the various roles played by researchers. We also identify some constraints with regard to synchronizing policy and project cycles and consider the advantages and disadvantages of research network structures in facilitating long-term cooperation.     

Lessons from COVID-19 can prepare global tourism for the economic transformation needed to combat climate change

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cessation of almost all international travel in the first half of 2020. A return to pre-pandemic growth patterns will take time and depend on the depth and extent of the recession sparked by COVID-19. The recovery phase will overlap with global efforts to deal with the evolving climate crisis. For the tourism industry to thrive in a future world it must look beyond the temptation of adopting strategies based on a return to the pre-COVID-19 normal of the past and instead seek to understand how it should respond to the emerging transformation of the global economy to carbon neutrality. Many of the lessons that emerged from the pandemic can be applied to strategies to deal with climate change. Of most interest is the success of strategies such as “flattening the curve”. Application of similar strategies plus adoption of the circular economy model to wind back Green House Gas emissions will help avert the global environmental disaster that will occur if global temperatures continue to increase. These strategies point to what a future carbon-neutral economic production system might look like, the path to which could offer the tourism industry numerous opportunities to transform from the current model that favours a high resource consumption model to one that is environmentally friendly and resource neutral.