Economic Development,Social Identity and Community Empowerment in the Central and Western Amazon

A multi-dimensional and multi-scalar perspective is used to contrast different experiences with community development involving new settlers, the historic riverine peasantry and Amerindians on and beyond the advancing frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. Local development is shown to occur only when a compromise is reached between the economic development of individual farmers, common social background and community political empowerment. However, the local development of communities does not necessarily result in regional development because contradictions present between political actors can cancel out gains in one dimension or scale vis-à-vis others and so frustrate wider processes.     

Out of the dark but not out of the cage: women's empowerment and gender relations in the Dangme West district of Ghana

In Ghana, strategies to address poverty among rural women have often been linked to women's empowerment programmes with credit as a core component of these. Yet, many programmes focus on the economic benefit to women without necessarily looking at the impact on gender relations at the household level and its implications on women. Using quantitative and qualitative data from the Dangme West district of Ghana, this article shows how poverty reduction programmes with credit components can reduce women's vulnerability to poverty and empower them. But much more needs to be done to complement these efforts. The study shows that women beneficiaries as against women non-beneficiaries have significantly improved their socio-economic status through access to financial and non-financial resources. This has in certain instances improved gender relations at the household level, with women being recognized as earners of income and contributors to household budget. However, some women still regard their spouses as ‘heads’ and require their consent in decisions even in issues that have to do with their own personal lives. Moreover, the improved economic status of women has resulted in a ‘power conflict’, creating confrontation between spouses. The article recommends that, as part of their programmes, assisting organizations and institutions must address ‘power relations’, the basis of gender subordination at the household level, otherwise socio-cultural norms and practices, underpinned by patriarchal structures, will remain ‘cages’ for rural women.     

Tourism development,rights consciousness and the empowerment of Chinese historical village communities

In recent years, China's tourism researchers have started to pay attention to the empowerment of rural communities. Current theoretical research and social practices reflect that tourism needs to seek localized empowerment with respect to different types of tourism destinations. This paper, taking Furong Historical Village in Zhejiang Province as a case study, examines a special kind of Chinese historical village community in which the villagers’ consciousness of their rights is weak and tourism development is only in its initial stages. Based on the field surveys, this paper points out four roots of such a community's disempowerment: (1) the failure of political institutions to ensure the community's public interest; (2) accusations of historical villages ‘damaging protection’; (3) information asymmetry in the relationship between rural leaders and villagers; and (4) a sense of powerlessness in the daily lives of rural residents. Based on these findings, this paper suggests several empowerment paths: (1) placing the enhancement of psychological power as the core of community empowerment; (2) addressing villager empowerment needs according to different types, rather than generalizing a community as a whole; and (3) including a diversity of subjects in the process of empowerment. These empowerment paths would be a moderate extension toward increasing community empowerment, based on this empirical study.     

Book Reviews

Heritage is important for the social and cultural health of communities, whilst local stewardship of cultural heritage has the capacity to empower and recover cultural identity. This paper describes a recent project in Lakhnu – a small rural village in Uttar Pradesh, India – to restore a nineteenth century villa formerly used as the village school as an educational facility. In this discussion, we draw attention to the right of groups to manage their culture. The loss of cultural heritage is linked to a loss of identity. We argue that heritage projects have the capacity to empower communities to sustain their heritage and identity and provide useful places for social and material advancement through the concept of a shared ‘symbolic estate’. At Lakhnu, we plan to evoke grass-root conservation where local communities become the rightful stakeholders and decision-makers who are encouraged and facilitated in the realisation of their right to cultural heritage and to stimulate growth and build capacity for the community.     

旅游企业授权管理措施与员工心理受权关系实证研究

作者采用实证研究法对广东省7家宾馆、32家旅行社进行问卷调查,着重探讨企业授权管理措施对员工心理受权的影响,这些措施包括信息分享、组织支持、员工参与管理决策以及组织公平性、管理人员信任和尊重员工等。数据分析结果表明：员工感知的工作意义、工作能力、影响力和自主决策权是同一个二阶因子“心理受权”的4个子因子。心理受权的4个组成成分存在相互影响。信息分享、员工参与管理决策、组织公平性、管理人员信任和尊重员工是影响员工心理受权的重要因素;心理受权的4个组成成分对员工工作满意感、员工工作积极性和员工对管理人员的信任感有不同的影响。     

Key variables for developing integrated rural tourism

Considering how important tourism development is as an element of economic recovery in rural areas, one of its objectives should be sustainability. The starting point must therefore be the existence of partnerships and cooperation between stakeholders. Such cooperation would enable the integration of tourism development through the endogeneity, complementarity, and embeddedness of the resources and the empowerment of the residents. The objective of this research is to determine the basic types of relationships to be developed in order to achieve integrated rural tourism. Initially, we verify the variables involved in integrated rural tourism by determining the measurement models, and subsequently we propose a model that reflects the relationships between the variables under study. Our research shows that there must be two types of collaboration between stakeholders. First, there must be collaboration to develop a tourism product, and second, there must be collaboration to provide adequate information about the existing tourism activities. Due the nature of tourism, various types of businesses must work together, but if information is not subsequently provided about the product, then tourism cannot develop as desired. Collaboration as a whole also favours the development of rural tourism in which tourism activities complement the traditional activities of an area, consequently increases the embeddedness of the product and the endogeneity of the resources. Furthermore, the opinions of the various stakeholders in tourism development must be taken into account, especially the residents, which takes place through empowerment. Finally, collaboration means that residents and tourists must coexist and come into contact, therefore sharing public services and entertainment and leisure locations. All the aforementioned factors consequently provide the basis for integrating the rural tourism that is developed in an area, which will favour the economic, sociocultural, and environmental sustainability of that area.     

社区参与旅游的制度性增权研究

西方研究者认为社区参与旅游迫切需要解决的是信息、心理、教育和社会增权,而中国现阶段由于产权界定模糊导致的制度性的缺权才是阻碍旅游地社区通过参与旅游获得公平发展的主要障碍,西方国家清晰的产权制度使得其旅游增权理论欠缺了对制度性缺权状态的研究。本文在对制度和增权等基本概念进行辨析的基础上,划分了4种制度性增权类型,分别讨论了制度缺失和制度失灵两种社区参与旅游的缺权状态,探索了中国的政治体制和社会现实下可行的制度性增权途径,为进一步开展旅游社区增权的实践研究夯实了理论基础。     

Tourism development and the disempowerment of host residents: types and formative mechanisms

In-depth interviews, text analysis of official documents, and a representative case study are explored to investigate the disempowerment of residents in Tiantangzhai, an emerging yet isolated alpine tourism area in Anhui Province, China. Qualitative research was conducted within the specific political and economic context of China and concludes that (1) residents suffered disempowerment in five areas, including access to productive living space, access to natural resources, access to information, travel benefits, and travel participation; and (2) the mechanisms of disempowerment included government development strategy and system design, elite community relationship networks, individual socio-economic conditions, and social support measures. The research implications suggest that smooth and successful tourism development depends on improving the performance assessment of officials, consolidating administrative supervision, the timely dissemination of information relevant to tourism development, and enhancing opportunities for local residents to participate in tourism development.     

Intergenerational comparison of education attainment and implications for empowerment of women in rural Kenya

An intergenerational comparison of education attainment and empowerment across two generations of Kenyan rural women population was undertaken. The study employed a longitudinal analysis of quantitative data derived from the Demographic and Health Survey databases. The survey captures relevant demographic background on the two generations of women. The study undertakes to compare the education attainment and empowerment outcome measures of socioeconomic status, household size, and fertility rates between the two cohorts of women. It also contrasts the experience of the women who accessed education in the era characterized by the welfare state (1989 cohort) with those who came of age in the austerity years of neoliberalism (2008/2009 cohort). The research established that the majority of women in both cohorts had limited access to education. However, women who accessed more education were more likely to show characteristics of empowered individuals – they had smaller households, fewer children, and were relatively wealthier. The results demonstrate that meaningful empowerment through education can only be realized if more women access levels of education beyond the basic education focus that is dominant in international development discourse.