Green Tourism and the Ambiguities of Sustainability Discourse

Author(s):  
Kevin Fox Gotham ◽  
Joshua A. Lewis

This paper uses a case study of the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood in New Orleans to examine the relationships between green tourism and sustainability discourse in shaping the post-Katrina rebuilding process. Specially, we draw on long-term ethnographic field observations to highlight the tensions between abstract and idealized conceptions of sustainability and the complicated realities of uneven rebuilding and neighborhood disinvestment. We focus on changes in the tourism sector since Hurricane Katrina, the promotion of green tourism through actor Brad Pitt's Make It Right (MIR) Foundation, and the ambiguities and paradoxes of sustainability discourse. Overall, our goal is to develop a critical understanding of niche tourism in a disaster-devastated neighborhood and highlight the ways in which unspoken norms about sustainability create political-economic blind-spots to the ways in which socio-spatial inequalities, disinvestment, and entrenched social problems structure life in the city and the Lower Ninth Ward.

2019 ◽  
pp. 1572-1590
Author(s):  
Kevin Fox Gotham ◽  
Joshua A. Lewis

This paper uses a case study of the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood in New Orleans to examine the relationships between green tourism and sustainability discourse in shaping the post-Katrina rebuilding process. Specially, we draw on long-term ethnographic field observations to highlight the tensions between abstract and idealized conceptions of sustainability and the complicated realities of uneven rebuilding and neighborhood disinvestment. We focus on changes in the tourism sector since Hurricane Katrina, the promotion of green tourism through actor Brad Pitt's Make It Right (MIR) Foundation, and the ambiguities and paradoxes of sustainability discourse. Overall, our goal is to develop a critical understanding of niche tourism in a disaster-devastated neighborhood and highlight the ways in which unspoken norms about sustainability create political-economic blind-spots to the ways in which socio-spatial inequalities, disinvestment, and entrenched social problems structure life in the city and the Lower Ninth Ward.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 949
Author(s):  
Salman Qureshi ◽  
Saman Nadizadeh Shorabeh ◽  
Najmeh Neysani Samany ◽  
Foad Minaei ◽  
Mehdi Homaee ◽  
...  

Due to irregular and uncontrolled expansion of cities in developing countries, currently operational landfill sites cannot be used in the long-term, as people will be living in proximity to these sites and be exposed to unhygienic circumstances. Hence, this study aims at proposing an integrated approach for determining suitable locations for landfills while considering their physical expansion. The proposed approach utilizes the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) to weigh the sets of identified landfill location criteria. Furthermore, the weighted linear combination (WLC) approach was applied for the elicitation of the proper primary locations. Finally, the support vector machine (SVM) and cellular automation-based Markov chain method were used to predict urban growth. To demonstrate the applicability of the developed approach, it was applied to a case study, namely the city of Mashhad in Iran, where suitable sites for landfills were identified considering the urban growth in different geographical directions for this city by 2048. The proposed approach could be of use for policymakers, urban planners, and other decision-makers to minimize uncertainty arising from long-term resource allocation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7906
Author(s):  
Nikola Medová ◽  
Lucie Macková ◽  
Jaromir Harmacek

This paper focuses on the dynamic of the recent upheaval in the tourism and hospitality sector due to the COVID-19 epidemic in Greece and Santorini island. It uses the case study of a country one-fourth of whose GDP consists of tourism. We compare the available statistical data showing the change in variables in the previous years with 2020 and look into the new challenges and opportunities posed by the drop in the numbers of visitors and flights. We focus mainly on the economic and social impact on the destination and possible future scenarios for further development in the area. Data show a significant effect of the pandemic on multiple variables, such as the long-term trend of the importance of tourism sector in GDP in Greece, the number of flights and visitors to Greece and Santorini island, and the contribution of tourism and travel to GDP. Based on the available data, we also construct three foresight scenarios that describe the possible futures for Santorini island in terms of the pandemic evolution. These scenarios may help various stakeholders and policymakers to be better prepared for different developments that may appear.


2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (6) ◽  
pp. 206-214
Author(s):  
David Montes-González ◽  
Juan Miguel Barrigón-Morillas ◽  
Ana Cristina Bejarano-Quintas ◽  
Manuel Parejo-Pizarro ◽  
Guillermo Rey-Gozalo ◽  
...  

The pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) led to the need for drastic control measures around the world to reduce the impact on the health of the population. The confinement of people in their homes resulted in a significant reduction in human activity at every level (economic, social, industrial, etc.), which was reflected in a decrease in environmental pollution levels. Studying the evolution of parameters, such as the level of environmental noise caused by vehicle traffic in urban environments, makes it possible to assess the impact of this type of measure. This paper presents a case study of the acoustic situation in Cáceres (Spain) during the restriction period by means of long-term acoustic measurements at various points of the city.


Author(s):  
Julia Evangelista ◽  
William A. Fulford

AbstractThis chapter shows how carnival has been used to counter the impact of Brazil’s colonial history on its asylums and perceptions of madness. Colonisation of Brazil by Portugal in the nineteenth century led to a process of Europeanisation that was associated with dismissal of non-European customs and values as “mad” and sequestration of the poor from the streets into asylums. Bringing together the work of the two authors, the chapter describes through a case study how a carnival project, Loucura Suburbana (Suburban Madness), in which patients in both long- and short-term asylum care play leading roles, has enabled them to “reclaim the streets,” and re-establish their right to the city as valid producers of culture on their own terms. In the process, entrenched stigmas associated with having a history of mental illness in a local community are challenged, and sense of identity and self-confidence can be rebuilt, thus contributing to long-term improvements in mental well-being. Further illustrative materials are available including photographs and video clips.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 3860
Author(s):  
José María Agudo-Valiente ◽  
Pilar Gargallo-Valero ◽  
Manuel Salvador-Figueras

Using the 2008 Zaragoza International Exhibition “Water and sustainable development” as a case study, this paper aims to respond to the increasing demand for measurements of the effects and the implications of the performance of cross-sector partnerships from the perspective of their intended final beneficiaries. A contingency framework for measuring the short-, medium- and long-term effects of the 2008 Zaragoza International Exhibition is developed based on a “results chain” or “logic model”. Our results highlight that there are positive long-term synergies between the two main purposes of the 2008 Zaragoza International Exhibition; first, to increase public awareness of and commitment to the problems of water and sustainable development and, second, to make the city of Zaragoza better known internationally and to modernize its infrastructures. Although respondents to our survey consider that the long-term effects on the city are greater, the main short- and medium-term effects are related to awareness of water problems, sustainable development and non-governmental organizations. These results are in tune with what has happened around the city in the last 10 years providing indirect validity both to our study and to the proposed methodology.


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-103
Author(s):  
Jill Wade

Contrary to other accounts of the 1919 national housing program, this article examines the plan's long-term history using Vancouver as a case study. It argues that a basic structural flaw in the local Better Housing Scheme created financial hardship for the City of Vancouver as well as for mortgagors during the depression. The burden of mortgage repayment that fell to the city discouraged it from participating in other housing initiatives in the 1930s and 1940s. Still, the labour, women's, and veterans' organizations that supported the scheme represented the beginnings of Vancouver's social housing movement that matured in the late 1930s and achieved significant improvements in residential conditions in the 1940s.


2019 ◽  
pp. 009614421987785
Author(s):  
Christoph Strupp

The resilience of cities is usually tested by acute catastrophes such as physical destruction by natural disasters or wars or long-term processes of economic decline. This article discusses another type of catastrophe and the response of the political and economic elite of the city to it in the form of a case study on Germany’s biggest seaport city Hamburg in the aftermath of World War II. Although the air war of 1943-1945 had seriously damaged large parts of the port of Hamburg, the physical reconstruction began soon after the end of the war and made steady progress. This aspect of the disaster of war was to be overcome within a few years. But the war and its aftermath of political confrontation between East and West had changed the geopolitical position of Hamburg and moved it from the center of Europe to the periphery of the West. The hinterland of the port in Eastern Europe was cut off. The founding of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957 with its focus on the Rhine-Ruhr area further seemed to marginalize Hamburg. These developments were quickly perceived as a greater disaster than the physical destruction. This article examines the strategies developed by the political and economic leaders in Hamburg in the late 1940s and 1950s for dealing with processes they had no control over and could not directly influence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surya Afnarius ◽  
Fajril Akbar ◽  
Fitri Yuliani

Indonesia is an archipelago country in which the tourism sector plays a role as an economic locomotive. In 2016, Indonesia joined the World Halal Tourism Award (WHTA) and won 12 awards, three of which were won by West Sumatra. Bukittinggi is the principal city of tourism in West Sumatra. There are many halal hotels and restaurants and 190 mosques available in the city. Unfortunately, the information regarding the mosque locations is still inadequate. For this reason, this research was conducted in order to develop a web-based and mobile-based geographic information system (GIS) for places of worship information (GPWI) to make it easier for Muslim tourists to find mosques, and other tourism objects and facilities. This paper reports on the development of the GPWI. The development of the GPWI employed the waterfall method. The GPWI allowed tourists to find mosques based on specific criteria, whose output showed them the location, information, route, and local transportation available to get to the mosques as well as other tourism objects and facilities around the mosque. The GPWI was developed using Free Open Source Software (FOSS) PostgreSQL/PostGIS, PHP, JavaScript, and Basic4Android. The spatial-based database and programs that were used to develop this GPWI are the main contributions of this study. Based on the product evaluation, the GPWI successfully met the needs of Muslim tourists in finding mosques during their visits to Bukittinggi.


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