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.     

市场资本驱动下的乡村空间生产与治理重构——对婺源县Y村的实证观察

乡村振兴不能回避资本，然而资本下乡会改变乡村内部治理结构，如何善用资本以实现乡村善治成为一个难题。文章以江西省婺源县Y村作为典型案例，基于空间生产理论视角，深度剖析资本介入后村庄治理主体的关系转换和资本运行的内在机制，并揭示资本介入后乡村善治面临的难题。文章认为，市场资本介入乡村重构了空间生产主体，并倾向于构建符合自身需求的新空间形态。新空间形态进一步形成了新社会关系网络，新社会关系网络在市场资本的助推下稳固，并逐步将村民主体排挤出村庄，导致资本下乡后空间非正义等问题凸显。未来的乡村治理模式应当发挥资本的触媒作用；维持政府公正性角色，保持乡村空间正义；明确村民主体地位，鼓励村民作为村庄营建的主体；强化集体力量，保持村集体对空间的有效控制权。     

INVADED BY WEEDS: CONTESTED LANDSCAPE STORIES

Landscapes tell stories of the lives and dwelling of those who inhabit them. They are not given, but in constant motion. In North Norwegian coastal societies cultural landscapes are rapidly transforming. One of the most visible and debated agents of landscape transformations are weeds such as cow parsley and dock. As well as threatening the biodiversity of coastal landscapes, the “invading weeds” seem to challenge the embodied landscapes of their dwellers. Focusing on the rapid spread of cow parsley, this article investigates complex and contested aspects of landscape changes. Inspired by Ingold's phenomenological perspective as well as performative theories, we search for ways of approaching hybridized relations within dwelt places. The transformative agency of cow parsley is used as a lens to approach societal dynamics and challenges. Through a study of the coastal community of Herøy in Northern Norway, we have explored people's engagement with the changing cultural landscape. The cow parsley covered landscape is perceived as a deteriorated landscape and as such seems to affect a form of alienation. We demonstrate a disruption between the emerging landscape produced by new ways of dwelling, and the landscape people wish to dwell in. What happens when the landscape tells stories which their dwellers do not want to be part of?     

A post COVID-19 future - tourism re-imagined and re-enabled

Abstract

The urgent demands of the present necessitate an interrogation – a re-exploration and a re-envisioning of the future of tourism – of what has to change (and remain constant). Despite the crippling effects of COVID-19, new forms of solidarity are emerging that challenge the prevailing competitiveness ethic. While a transactional economic revival has to remain a top priority, progress will advance, so long as tourism becomes more transformational and transcendent. Discoveries of new methodologies for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and versions of a Green New Deal, for example, are generating interest, notably ‘mass flourishing’ introduced in ‘anti-fragile’ ways. Utilizing a ‘future-back’ paradigm that demands deep-dive assessments and articulation of purpose, the gaps between ‘what is’ and ‘what could or should be’ are bound to close. Such undertakings represent a ‘coming together’ of all stakeholders, a role that academicians are urged to embrace, especially through action research, curriculum change and creation of ‘daring classrooms’.     

Reset redux: possible evolutionary pathways towards the transformation of tourism in a COVID-19 world

Abstract

With international arrivals surpassing 1.5 billion for the first time in 2019 the long-term evolution of tourism demonstrates prolific path dependence with a decade of growth since the global financial crisis. This latest period of unfettered international tourism development has come to an abrupt end as the impact of COVID-19 has brought the sector to a near standstill. As the world grapples with the realities of the global pandemic there is an opportunity to rethink exactly what tourism will look like for the decades ahead. Key concepts in evolutionary economic geography, especially path dependence/creation and institutional inertia/innovation, show variations in pathways for travel and tourism in a COVID-19 world. A path that leads to transformation in tourism can be realized if sufficient institutional innovation occurs on both the demand and supply side of tourism that can foster the emergence of new paths. COVID-19 presents a once in a generation opportunity where the institutional pump is primed for transformation. Whether that leads to a radical transformation of the tourism sector remains to be seen, but the imprint it will leave on both the demand and supply of tourism will have long-term, incremental impacts for years to come and ultimately move us closer towards the transformation of tourism.     

民国公民宣誓登记制度研究

宣誓是孙中山先生一贯坚持的正心之道,其后继者亦往往将这一制度视为整合民心的法宝。南京国民政府成立之后,为了塑造其政权的合法性、扩大其统治基础,隆重推出公民宣誓登记制度。这一制度是对宣誓制度的继承与发展,又与当时流行一时的法西斯主义思潮有着某种联系。由于诸多社会因素的限制,该措施并未收到理想的效果。这在一定程度上标志着国民政府对基层社会渗透与整合的失败,也是近代国家转型步入歧路的重要表征。     

基于行动者网络的乡村转型及其空间生产研究——以凤和空港小镇为例

本文基于“网络结构—作用因子”互补视角综合运用行动者网络理论与空间生产理论，采用半结构访谈法，以广州市凤和空港小镇为典型案例，深度分析乡村转型的具体过程与逻辑内涵，并证实了空间生产的运作机制与行动者网络构建过程的内在关联性。研究表明，凤和空港小镇通过创建文旅型美丽乡村构建了行动者网络，政府、企业、游客、村民等异质行动者互构空间，使原来的空心村、贫困村转型为现代商业社区；空港小镇的乡村转型本质上是将传统村落社群“生产”为都市消费空间的空间商品化过程，以资本、权力、消费文化为主导的空间生产过程，在多方关系交织与话语建构下表现为错综复杂的社会效应。     

How should tourism education values be transformed after 2020?

Abstract

Values and axiology are necessary components for successful and meaningful tourism education and research. They especially need to be revisited in considering the future of higher education in a COVID-19 world. If transformation means to bring about a substantial change in a positive direction, then the COVID-19 pandemic might be a blessing in disguise for tourism higher education, as a substantial change has been due for quite some time. The transformative powers that education offers are seen in the individual through the internal and external transformations of learners. Higher education holds the promise of transforming society, but it is widely criticized for being too enmeshed in neoliberal values, which weakens it ability to productively equip students with capacities to transform the society they are entering. Education, both generally and more specifically tied to tourism higher education, requires a stronger awareness of lived values and aspirational values to transform how education is carried out. These include, for example, an emphasis on wellbeing indicators over revenue and tourist arrival numbers. All humans act and plan for their futures according to their lived values, but such values are hardly ever overtly acknowledged in research or in daily parlance. The COVID-19 pandemic is stirring up a new search for these lived values in a context where past formulas are failing on a global scale.     

Embracing the future: path transformation and system reconfiguration for self-driving cars in West Sweden

ABSTRACT

The past years have witnessed a surge of academic interest into how new industrial paths are developed in regions. Transformation processes of existing regional industries have received less attention. This article focuses on radical innovation-based renewal processes of established paths and investigates how regional innovation systems are tackling challenges related to path transformation. Drawing on insights from the regional and technological innovation systems literatures, we develop an analytical framework that elucidates the relation between path transformation and system reconfiguration. The framework suggests that regional innovation system elements are created or adapted to (i) target the build-up of system functions regionally; (ii) link up to system functions in other locations, and (iii) transplant system functions from elsewhere. The analytical framework is applied to a case study of the transformation of the automotive industry in West Sweden towards self-driving cars. The empirical analysis provides support for the importance of the three types of system reconfiguration and emphasises the relevance of different types of assets. Furthermore, it highlights how actors tend to utilise previous networks and positions in global innovation systems rather than turning to the development of system functions regionally as the ‘default option’ of system reconfiguration.