Suchergebnisse

This chapter examines the tourism development path of Peterborough, a former single-industry railway town in rural South Australia. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from evolutionary, institutional and relational economic geography, the aim of the chapter is to identify how issues around path dependence influence the abilities of peripheral single-industry towns to operate as part of interactive and collaborative regional tourism innovation systems. The case study documents the difficult transition of Peterborough from a relatively independent major railway hub to a minor tourist transit stopover requiring stronger partnerships within a broader regional tourism destination. The findings identify a range of challenges for local tourism that point to issues around single-industry path dependence and 'lock-in', including: an entrenched dependence on government leadership and investment; a lack of home-grown entrepreneurship willing to address gaps in the homogeneous product portfolio; limited local acceptance and understanding of tourism; resistance to outsiders as new knowledge brokers; and truncated network capabilities within the local system. The chapter also shows how the unique spatial and socio-economic contexts of peripheral 'low-amenity' areas may reinforce path dependence by limiting opportunities to diversify incoming (tourist and migrant) mobilities. Some of the weaknesses within the local tourism system may be bridged by proactive local government and public sector leadership, yet we question the long-term sustainability of such approaches.

"Many sparsely populated resource peripheries in developed countries are perceived to suffer from periods of demographic decline due to loss of employment opportunities and services, youth out-migration and population ageing. While these trends tend to apply at broad regional scales and for particular time periods, diverse patterns of demographic change may be apparent if different spatial, temporal and social scales of analysis are taken into consideration. Comparing the experiences of two case study regions in northern Sweden and inland South Australia, this paper proposes an alternative conceptual framework to the 'discourse of decline', which could be used to examine the nuances of demographic change within resource peripheries. The framework includes spatial scale considerations that contrast broader regional demographic patterns with the experiences of sub-regions and individual settlements. It also includes temporal scale aspects, examining demographic change over different time periods to understand the pace, duration and frequency of population growth and decline. The framework finally includes social unit considerations, emphasising that demographic change affects different social groups in different ways. The results of the case studies suggest that considering demographic change as adaptation or transformation rather than decline may be more useful for identifying new - and qualitatively different - demographic pathways that emerge over time." (author's abstract)