Visitors’ place-based evaluations of unacceptable tourism impacts in Oulanka National Park,Finland

Visitors’ assessments of the negative impact of tourism, on physical and social environment, vary based on the location where the evaluation occurs. Research that focuses on identifying visitors’ norms within outdoor recreation settings has not been able to link the geographical location with the corresponding evaluation of unacceptable levels of impact. This study combines a traditional on-site visitor survey with a Public Participation Geographic Information Systems survey to produce spatially explicit information on visitors’ acceptance of tourism impacts. Using a web-based participatory survey, visitors were asked to indicate specific locations where they felt the effects of tourism disturbed the quality of their experience in Oulanka National Park. These evaluations were analyzed at multiple scales – destination, specific zones, and sites – to promote more efficient park management. Based on visitor evaluations, we found a collection of hotspots in the park where tourism has already caused unacceptable impacts. Visitors noted that crowding and erosion disturbed their experiences, especially along highly visited trail sections, while littering was considered problematic near wilderness huts. However, participant satisfaction at these sites was not lower than elsewhere in the park. This indicates that the association between negative impacts of tourism and visitor satisfaction is not straightforward, but complex. This study encourages the collection of spatially accurate data on visitors’ assessments of the effects of tourism because it has the potential to more efficiently direct park management policies. In addition, spatial techniques provide a new means to monitor the impacts of tourism, acknowledging that visitors’ perceptions of acceptability of tourism impacts also vary within tourism destinations, such as parks.     

Tourism global production networks and uneven social upgrading in Kenya and Uganda

This paper addresses how the growth of tourism global production networks (GPNs) based in Kenya and Uganda created uneven social upgrading outcomes for workers and communities. A tourism GPN and social upgrading framework follows a global political economy approach to analyzing tourism development and labor in diverse tourism geographies. Two tourism GPNs are investigated: Mombasa, Kenya, and Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. Four main findings emerge: (1) governance relationships between tour operator and accommodation firms directly impacted social upgrading outcomes for hotel workers and indirectly for excursion workers; (2) excursion workers and community members had precarious connections to tourism GPNs; (3) public governance and collective power were key components to social upgrading while supporting its unevenness; and (4) societal embeddedness constructions around gender and regional space influenced worker and community social upgrading potential. Social upgrading is shaped by a confluence of firm, institution, geography, and labor conditions that differentially materializes in specific tourism GPN arrangements.     

Economic values for recreational planning at Horton Plains National Park,Sri Lanka

Although recreational planning in national parks has long taken visitor characteristics and perceptions into consideration, economic valuation to date has not been part of such planning. Our study applies economic valuation for recreational planning in the Horton Plains National Park (HPNP) in Sri Lanka. The study, using a pretested questionnaire, interviewed 188 respondents in order to identify existing visitor satisfaction levels as well as visitor perceptions on available facilities. The existing visitor satisfaction at HPNP was 54%. Two alternative recreational scenarios were, therefore, developed based on visitor perceptions on how to enhance visitor satisfaction at the park. A hypothetical travel cost method and contingent valuation method (CVM) were used to estimate (1) the welfare benefits in terms of consumer surplus and (2) the demand in terms of willingness to pay (WTP) for the proposed recreational scenarios. The sample size for the economic study was 352 respondents. The per-visitor welfare benefits were financially valued at Sri Lanka Rupees (SLR) 3794 (USD 1 = SLR 130) and SLR 7045 for scenarios 1 and 2, respectively. These values show a 15 to 30 times increase from the existing value of the welfare benefits. The net present value of benefits also increased from SLR 516.8 million to SLR 5296.92 million and SLR 9835.73 million under scenarios 1 and 2, respectively. Under CVM, the estimated mean WTP values were SLR 132.00 and SLR 190.32 under scenarios 1 and 2, respectively. These values can be used as a tool for revising pricing policies at HPNP. Visitors' response to the proposed recreational scenarios suggests the need for planners to institute proper recreational schemes to enhance the welfare benefits of visitors. The study underscores the role economic valuation can play in policy decisions relating to recreational planning in national parks.     

God,not Caesar: Revisiting National Socialism as ‘political religion’

This article argues that use of the concept of ‘political religion’ to describe the radicalized political movements of the twentieth century has again gained currency in recent years as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as the global upsurge of religiously inspired violence and that research with respect to religion proper – what religion is, its role in public life, its evolving reception by ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ – can advance the discussion. The article subsequently offers the author's own research as evidence of the concept's applicability to the case of National Socialism. Analysis focuses, specifically, on a movement in nineteenth century Germany to develop a secular system of ethics, a project that eventually led, ironically and tragically, to the emergence of a new faith in a absolutized ‘collective will’ as the transcendent source of all moral values. The National Socialist movement subsequently co-opted this article of faith, the article argues, by transforming Hitler into a holy medium for the salvific dictates of what became, by the early 1930s, an unimpeachable ‘Volkswille.’     

美国国家经济研究局关于当代中国经济问题研究的最新进展——以中国经济研究项目组2009～2010年的工作手稿为基础

美国国家经济研究局自2003年成立了中国经济研究项目组,在2009～2010年,该项目组共发布了24篇与当代中国经济有关的工作手稿,分别涉及当代中国的经济、人力资本、对外贸易等问题。通过这些手稿,可以了解到国外机构对于当代中国经济问题研究的一些新特点以及最新的发展趋势;可以在相关问题的研究中,得到比较全面的见解和看法,从多角度审视这些重要理论,在面对国内现实问题时提出更为有效的解决办法。     

Professionalising Teaching: enhancing the status of teaching,improving the experience of learning and supporting innovation in higher education

Extant literature on professions suggests that there is a readily recognisable set of characteristics of a profession, but this is a contested issue, particularly in the area of recognising the professionalism of those who teach and support learning in higher education. In the UK, the Institute for Learning and Teaching was set up as a result of the Dearing report to recognise the experience and expertise of those working in these areas. The ILT offers a model for professionalising teaching, to which continuous professional development (CPD) is key. Geographers and those who teach related subjects are already in the vanguard of this activity.     

The failure of the Patarine movement

Although the authors of recent literature on the Patarine movement in Milan (1057-75) have very different intellectual backgrounds, they all try to study and interpret the movement in its complete historical context, and they point to the circumstances or special combination of circumstances which caused the movement to fail. Its failure was due in part to its relationship to the social structure. In this article we first show why this relationship needs to be re-examined and then go on to investigate how the place of the movement in the social structure contributed to its failure and dramatic collapse.     

Jasbir K. Puar,Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times

The importance of studying human–animal relationships and animal subjectivity is increasingly recognised by social and cultural geographers, particularly in agricultural pursuits. Little research, however, has been undertaken on animals in sport, resulting in a limited understanding of the perceptions and treatment of animals in society. To address this concern, we interrogate print media coverage of the construction and positioning of horses and humans in the controversial activity of jumps racing (National Hunt) in Australia between February 2008 and December 2009. We highlight the importance of seemingly contradictory human–animal relationships involving close frequent contact of some jumps racing advocates in contrast to the distanced, mediated relationships of jumps racing opponents. This paper highlights how the particular activity of jumps racing generates specific human–animal relationships and emphasises the need to reflect on the attitudes that shape and constrain human–animal relationships in varying contexts, including how these attitudes are mediated and the potential consequences for humans and other animals. These findings form the basis for a suggested research agenda that recognises the importance and articulation of proximity and mediation in human–animal relationships, particularly those focused on activities labelled ‘sport’.     

Reinventing the British film industry: the Group Production Plan and the National Lottery Franchise Scheme

This article is a comparative analysis of two analogous attempts to restructure the British film industry: the Group Production Plan of the early 1950s and the National Lottery Franchises of the late 1990s. The Group Production Plan brought together key industry figures such as Michael Balcon and John Grierson, who endured a fraught working relationship. The Plan failed, largely due to indifference from the major combines, Rank and the Associated British Picture Company (ABPC). Forty‐five years later, the Lottery Franchises were criticised for failing to produce enough films, although the example of Pathé Pictures suggests that expectations were too high and resources too low. The economic theory of path dependence problematises the policy drive to create vertically integrated companies. This article concludes that historical precedent plays an insufficient role in British film policy discourse and that academic research in cultural policy should aim to improve the dialogue between the past and the present.     

国保单位公布背景与演变

每一批国保单位受当时的社会背景、文物保护理念等的影响,都有其鲜明的特点和时代烙印,都在不断地借鉴和融入新的文物保护理念。本文对第一至六批国保单位公布的历史背景进行回顾与综述,以期探讨国保单位的发展脉络,以及国保单位在社会历史影响下所形成的特点。