scholarly journals How local communities attribute livelihood vulnerabilities to climate change and other causes: a case study in North Vanuatu

2021 ◽  
Vol 168 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danny Philipp Nef ◽  
Daniel Neneth ◽  
Patteson Dini ◽  
Carmenza Robledo Abad ◽  
Pius Kruetli
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Local Agriculture ◽  
Study Process ◽  
External Causes

AbstractUnderstanding the causal factors of livelihood challenges and associated vulnerabilities is essential for developing viable adaptation strategies. However, clarifying which livelihood challenges can be attributed to which causal factors remains a challenge. In this paper, we used a case study in Vanuatu to show how local populations attribute subsistence challenges to underlying causes. Particularly, we are interested in whether there is a tendency to view climate change as the primary cause, and if so, why. We followed a participatory approach involving local community members and experts at all stages of the study process. For this, we used complementary research methods such as resource mapping, participant observation, and in-depth interviews with local community members and local agriculture experts. The results show that local populations are indeed inclined to attribute problems to external causes, particularly climate change. However, the results also indicate that this external attribution is not definitive. Rather, we find that over the course of participatory reflection, attribution to climate change was supplemented and even replaced by internal causal factors, such as changes in garden practices. Our findings suggest that the initial emphasis on climate change may be related to prevailing narratives that may have influenced individual perceptions of the study participants and created social desirability. If such bias is not recognized, the narratives risk being reified, with potential new insights being overlooked. As a result, local attribution may overstate or understate specific causes, such as climate change.

scholarly journals Developing homestay to support community-based tourism

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 390
Author(s):  
Ilham Junaid ◽  
Nur Salam ◽  
Muh. Arfin M. Salim
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Tourism Destination ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Tour Guides

Wakatobi regency has been chosen as a ten-top priority tourism destination in Indonesia. It provides the opportunity for the local community to obtain benefits through tourism. The aims of this research are 1) to study the expectation of the community related to the management of homestay as accommodation business; 2) to analyse challenges and provide recommendations concerning how to implement community-based tourism on the perspective of community as the organiser of the homestay. Qualitative research conducted in March 2018 by visiting Wakatobi for participant observation and interviews three community members or homestay managers, two tour guides and two people from the tourism industry (accommodation). The research indicates that tourism has encouraged the local community to manage homestay, although there are members of the community require motivation and support to understand the significances of managing homestay and tourism. The management of homestay by the local community links to the implementation of community-based tourism and to optimise the management of homestay; it is necessary to provide sustainable training for the local community as well as to empower people through local tourism organisation. Key attractors such as activities and alternative attractions for the visitors are essential for the management of homestay. Limited numbers of tourists who choose homestay to become the challenge for homestay management, thus, the local community expects that the increasing number of tourists as well as a willingness by tourists to choose homestay as their accommodation. 

Case Study

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-221
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Community Intervention ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Sequential Method ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Qualitative Phase

After reviewing the relevant literature covering community intervention strategies, destination sustainability, and quality, this chapter explores local people who are involved in ecotourism and related operations in the PA-based destinations of India. The study adopted exploratory sequential method under which different sets of people are interrogated during the qualitative phase of the study through focus group discussion and expert interviews. The result of qualitative phase is used for scale development, and a questionnaire survey was administered among local community members in the descriptive stage. Pilot study and cross-destination analysis are also executed before proceeding for descriptive research.

Conflicts in adaptation: case studies from Nepal and the Maldives

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phu Doma Lama ◽  
Per Becker
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Content Type

Purpose Adaptation appears to be regarded as a panacea in policy circles to reduce the risk of impending crises resulting from contemporary changes, including but not restricted to climate change. Such conceptions can be problematic, generally assuming adaptation as an entirely positive and non-conflictual process. The purpose of this paper is to challenge such uncritical views, drawing attention to the conflictual nature of adaptation, and propose a theoretical framework facilitating the identification and analysis of conflicts in adaptation. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on case study research using first-hand narratives of adaptation in Nepal and the Maldives collected using qualitative interviews, participant observation and document analysis. Findings The findings identify conflicts between actors in, and around, communities that are adapting to changes. These conflicts can be categorized along three dimensions: qualitative differences in the type of conflict, the relative position of conflicting actors and the degree of manifestation of the conflict. Originality/value The three-dimensional Adaptation Conflict Framework facilitate analysis of conflicts in adaptation, allowing for a critical examination of subjectivities inherent in the adaptation discourses embedded in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation research and policy. Such an inquiry is crucial for interventions supporting community adaptation to reduce disaster risk.

scholarly journals Understanding Socio-Ecological Vulnerability to Climatic Change through a Trajectories of Change Approach: A Case Study from an Indigenous Community in Panama

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avital Li ◽  
James Ford
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climatic Change ◽  
Community Organization ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Trajectories Of Change ◽  
Demographic Shifts ◽  
Internal And External Factors ◽  
Community Workshops

Abstract This paper identifies and characterizes vulnerability to climatic change in the Ngöbe-Buglé Indigenous community of Playitas, Panama, using a “trajectories of change” approach. Playitas is a community composed of swidden forest farmers that is undergoing rapid rates of change as a result of demographic shifts, regional development, and climate change. Working in collaboration with a community organization, various methods were used to identify and characterize livelihoods, social-ecological dynamics, environmental change, and behavioral responses to change, with the aim of informing future planning in the community. Qualitative methods included semistructured interviews (n = 26), community workshops, and participant observation. Causal-loop diagrams based on field data and the perceptions of community members were created to model trajectories of change. The research reveals that change is driven by both internal and external factors and that the responses of community members create both reinforcing and balancing feedback loops that overall generate increased stress in agricultural systems, social structures, and environmental components. Although community members historically relied on social relationships, Indigenous knowledge, and remoteness as sources of resilience to external disturbances, climate change is acting as a “multiplier” of their existing vulnerabilities and is undermining their capacity to adapt to current and future climatic changes.

scholarly journals Contextualisation: A case study of a team within an international missional order

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasebwe T.L. Kabongo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Community ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Bias ◽  
Good News ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Incarnational Ministry ◽  
Biblical Values

Contextualisation is a process of seeking meaning and relevancy in a constantly changing world. It is a theological imperative if biblical values were to be relevant to everyone in the world. This research is a case study of InnerCHANGE South Africa (ICSA) efforts to be contextual. InnerCHANGE South Africa is part of an international missional order called InnerCHANGE, which was started in 1984 in the United States of America. International organisations face the danger of coming up with uniform principles and practices. Such uniformity is never innocent of cultural bias. It rendered their principles and practices relevant in some contexts and irrelevant in others. InnerCHANGE is an incarnational ministry that focuses on identification in communities of poverty. It described incarnational ministry as a model of Christ, a method, a message and a spiritual discipline. This study investigated how ICSA has been able to contextualise these four elements of incarnational ministry. It concluded that these contextualisation efforts are still work in progress. It pointed out the encouraging signs of seeing many local community members aligning themselves behind ICSA vision of seeing the gospel as the good news made visible. It finally pointed out the challenges of contextualisation it is still facing.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is based on the field of missiology. It engaged development studies, specifically grassroots community development, to point out one of the roles of the church in society, which is to participate in improving the quality of life of the vulnerable.

scholarly journals ‘Strengthening community from the inside out’: Transformative possibility for climate change resilience and adaptation in Te Awa Kairangi-Hutt City

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kaitlyn Simon
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Critical Geography ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Alternate Possibility ◽  
Political Act

<p>How do we organise society and adjust our human relationships with the natural environment to adapt to a changing climate? How do we decide to make these adjustments? These questions shape Aotearoa-New Zealand climate change discourse across adaptation research and central and local government policy. A resilience approach to adaptation is one conceptual response that has gained popularity over the past decade. However, some critical geographers argue that the dominant typologies of resilience have been normalised as neoliberal capitalist strategies and positioned as ‘neutral processes’, and that these strategies can perpetuate inequity and unsustainability. Critical geographers therefore suggest focusing on addressing the root causes of inequity and unsustainability through transformative resilience and adaptation.  This research builds on critical geography work by exploring how Common Unity Project Aotearoa (CUPA), a charitable trust located in Te Awa Kairangi-Hutt City, is fostering a community that understands and performs transformative possibilities for resilience and adaptation. For community members of CUPA, ethical actions of a community economy, a process of collective learning and an ability to make sustainability accessible contribute to transformative adaptation and resilience. Exploration of these themes provides a grounded example of how communities can adapt to climate change in ways that also seek to transform inequitable and unsustainable capitalist relations with one another and with the natural environment. CUPA’s transformative work poses implications for councils and decision-makers seeking to build resilience and the capacity to adapt in community, offering alternate possibility for discourse, decision-making, participation and engagement.  I approach this project as a scholar-activist in recognition that research is a performative, political act. Through a scholar-activist methodology I use participant observation and interviews to gather insight and information. I ground my critical geography lens in care in order to contribute to a knowledge-making around climate change based in possibility and multiplicity, rather than of authority and judgement.</p>

scholarly journals A Critical Review of Environmental Governance, Land Restitution, and Tourism in Protected Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10(6)) ◽  
pp. 1916-1931
Author(s):  
Takalani Ramukumba
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
And Function ◽  
Land Restitution

Natural areas, when protected, conserve the natural environment and function as social spaces in which tourism brings increased income, employment, and financial support for conservation. The inclusion of local community members in the planning and management of protected areas has been on the rise since the early 1900s. Tourism has been advocated as a strategy that can help in achieving economic development, especially in rural areas. However, governance issues and potential negative impacts of tourism development have been under inspection. Conservation efforts in Southern Africa especially in the late 1800s and early 1900s had negative impacts on the local communities since this led to many communities being displaced or having limited access to these protected areas. This has seen the need for ways and efforts to get local community members' despondency and attitudes towards protected areas change such that in the 20th century, there were efforts to use conservation models that included community members in the decision-making and benefit-sharing process to garner their support for protected areas. This paper reviews literature on environmental governance, land restitution in protected areas, tourism in protected areas, co-management, and the importance of community participation. These concepts are reviewed using Manyeleti Game Reserve as a case study.

Community Perceptions on the Impacts of Art Festivals on Overall Quality of Life, A case study of the Innibos National Arts Festival, South Africa

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathilda van Niekerk
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
Arts Festival ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
The Impact

Art festivals have witnessed a boom in the past few years; with new festivals proliferating that cater to every taste and region, in what has become a vital source of revenue and publicity for cities and artists (Eventbrite, 2014; Relaxnews, 2015). The ideal arts festival represents a carefully crafted mixture of artists, a variety in its programming, being visually spectacular, and also meeting its social objectives (The Guardian, 2015). Art festivals in general are important for many reasons, some of which are to grow the regional and local economies, to promote the specific destination, to contribute to the livelihood of the artists and the local community, displaying different forms of art and to create specific images of the destinations. An art festival should therefore not only exist or take place; it should make some form of contribution to its stakeholders (Getz and Andersson 2010). When art festivals are, therefore, hosted in a specific area the lives of the local community become affected by it either in a positive or in a negative way. Art festivals have various impacts (socio-cultural, environmental, political and economic) on stakeholders, and on one of the most important stakeholders, that is, the local community. For years festival impact studies have mainly focused on the economic, environmental and socio-cultural impact of festivals on the local community, but a limited number of researchers have conducted studies to measure the impact of art festivals on the overall quality of life of the community members and the community as a whole. In order to do this, it is important to look at which socio-demographic variables influence the quality of life of the community and its members.

Territorial Planning and Sustainable Development: A Case Study from the APA São Francisco Xavier-SP

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Henrique ◽  
Maria Angélica Toniolo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Territorial Planning ◽  
Socio Economic Development

Abstract This article is a case study from the APA São Francisco Xavier, located in the municipality of São José dos Campos-SP, and aims to evaluate the effectiveness of this UC category as an instrument of territorial planning to fulfill its role of reconciling conservation and socio-economic development, based on the sustainable use of natural resources. This study applied multi-methods - both qualitative and quantitative approaches - using fieldwork, participant observation, questionnaires, and geoprocessing to collect and analyze both primary and secondary data. The results demonstrate that APA promotes conservation, but is not free from threats and does not have effective and permanent means to guarantee the promotion of socio-economic development based on the sustainable use of its natural resources. The study suggests that territorial planning should be articulated between the levels of government, its different agencies, and the local community.

The Role of Information Communications Technology in Retrieving Local Community

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazel Ashton ◽  
David C. Thorns
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Information Communications Technology ◽  
Communications Technologies ◽  
Ict Tools ◽  
Information Communications Technologies

The article explores the decline in social connectivity and the questions of whether and how local populations can use information–communications technologies (ICTs) to help reconnect. At the center of this debate are problems in conceptualizing community in today's globalizing network society. As well as challenges to older ideas about community, these problems include the impacts of numerous contemporary societal and global pressures on communities themselves. The first step of community renewal is what Scott Lash (1994) refers to as the “retrieval” of community, which is to be a genuinely participatory process, rather than presuming community already exists or engineering a consensus about what it is or what it wants. Some governments are now suggesting that a way to reconnect local populations in order to recover lost sociability and rebuild social infrastructure is through using ICTs as a major tool. Using the New Zealand Government policy contained in the Connecting Communities programme (2002) and the Digital Strategy (2004), the article explores and provides a critique of the strategies being advocated, particularly with respect to the use of the concepts of community and connectivity. A case study of the development and use of ICT tools for community retrieval within a particular local area is used to identify some pitfalls and argue for approaches to connectivity that effectively utilize ICTs as community networking tools.

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