Suchergebnisse

This article focuses on the use of governmentality as a technique of government and its effects, with reference to a protected landscape. Drawing on ethnographic materials from the Azores, it demonstrates that governmentality is not always practised by governments in the way it is meant to be. Although the state's conservation efforts in Sete Cidades meet the accepted criteria of a governmental programme, they do not transform local subjectivities as intended. The protected landscape of Sete Cidades is a government initiative, but also a tool used strategically by certain social groups living and working within this landscape to object to the appropriation of the space upon which their livelihood relies, and to understand, communicate and legitimise their place in the world.

Whale-watching is one of the fastest growing tourism industries worldwide, often viewed as a sustainable, non-consumptive strategy for the benefits of cetacean conservation and the coastal communities, alternative to and incompatible with whaling. Yet, there is paucity of research on how things actually work out at the community-level. Drawing on the research literature and my own ethnographic fieldwork, this article bridges a knowledge gap in this field while examining an Azorean context where tourism has brought a re-commodification of the whale for the community (observing wildlife as opposed to harpooning it) in the last 20 years. The analysis is focused on four main community-level implications: governance of common maritime resources, and tourism's contribution to economic sustainability, cultural identity and social relations. It is shown that whale-watching, as any other form of community-based ecotourism, is not a panacea that always promotes biodiversity conservation and economic and sociocultural sustainability for the host communities. Moreover, expanding on the theorisation of emerging institutional fields by Lawrence and Phillips, the political, historical, economic and sociocultural context of the community involved is a key factor for understanding local agency and the local specific features of new fields.

This article focuses on the construction of heritage in rural Portugal. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork in the village of Castelo Rodrigo, it analyses the extensive protection and exhibition of domestic architecture in the framework of a State-led local development programme. By bringing in the messiness of daily practices, the article goes beyond neat theoretical formulations in the study of heritage such as Foucault's theory of "governmentality" and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett's notion of "second life as heritage". It argues that the "conduct of conduct" is actually nowhere near as effective as its theoretical formulation might have us believe, and the second life as heritage suffocates the first life of houses as social habitats for the village population.

Recent years have seen a significant improvement in the economic performance of some African countries. The resulting increased dispersion in income levels across Africa, combined with the pertinence of detecting regional role models renders an intra-African analysis more attractive. In this paper I estimate the respective contribution of institutions, geography, and policies in determining income levels in sub-Saharan Africa. I find that income per capita in this region can be explained to a large extent with a few variables: quality of economic institutions, trade, population density in the 19th century, investment, mineral resources, and a dummy variable for small island nations. Contrary to other regions in the world, some policy variables remain significant after controlling for institutions in Africa. Measures of geography (climate, disease ecology, rainfall) have no direct effect on income levels once institutional quality is controlled for.

The interplay between factor endowments, institutional development and economic performance has received considerable attention in recent years. This paper exploits the importance of geographic factors and institutional structures for explaining patterns of settlement and examines how these influenced growth outcomes. I find evidence that prospective European migrants preferred to settle in regions with favourable natural endowments and institutional packages designed to attract them. These settlers not only benefited from a growth-inducing institutional framework but also contributed actively to its quality in a mutually reinforcing relationship. Countries that competed for migrants achieved higher income levels through institutional development and better provision of public goods. Finally, my findings show that the link between European migrants and economic development is not linear, as the positive effects of attracting European settlers on institutions and public goods are set off only when European populations grow to outnumber other ethnic groups. Countries where European migrants remained a minority were more likely to develop institutions that advantaged a small elite and eliminated opportunities for the bulk of the population.

This article presents a literature review of Transition Experiments applied to the Sustainable Urban Mobility context from a critical and operative point of view. The moment of transformation that we are living through determines concerns about the decarbonization and compliance with the 2050 Targets and imposes a paradigm shift towards sustainable urban mobility. In this regard, the necessary physical change will have to be accompanied by a socio–cultural transition, of which the challenge implies the construction of a collective ideal, shared by the population and the main stakeholders, leading to the opening of new political spaces and a change, also in terms of governance.

Shaping Rural Areas in Europe. Perceptions and Outcomes on the Present and the Future sets out to investigate the effect of urban perceptions about the rural and consequent demands on rurality on the present and future configurations of rural territories in Europe in the early twenty-first century. This volume presents and discusses a broad range of case studies and theoretical and methodological approaches from different academic fields, mainly Anthropology, Sociology and Geography

Shaping Rural Areas in Europe. Perceptions and Outcomes on the Present and the Future sets out to investigate the effect of urban perceptions about the rural and consequent demands on rurality on the present and future configurations of rural territories in Europe in the early twenty-first century. This volume presents and discusses a broad range of case studies and theoretical and methodological approaches from different academic fields, mainly Anthropology, Sociology and Geography.

UID/ANT/04038/2013 SFRH/BD/6451/2001 SFRH/BPD/34229/2006 ; This article examines the relationship between rural tourism and national identity, with reference to a southern European country. Particular attention is devoted to the meaning making work that the state, national visitors and residents do at two of the most popular Historic Villages of Portugal. Drawing on ethnographic materials, the article sheds light on the links between historic conservation and "heritagization", as defined by Poria and Ashworth, and demonstrates the force of the nation's medieval origins in the dominant discourses on Portuguese national identity. In addition, it shows that "felt history" has been target by the state to increase levels of consumption through rural tourism, but also triggers a sense of national pride among Portuguese visitors. The residents of Castelo Rodrigo and of Sortelha contest, but they also recycle the officially sanctioned interpretation of the sites as medieval to convey the fascinating distinctiveness of the local identity. ; authorsversion ; published

info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/SFRH/SFRHBD275562006/PT UID/ANT/04038/2013 SFRH/BD/6451/2001 SFRH/BPD/34229/2006 SFRH/BPD/93515/2013 SFRH/BD/27556/2006 SFRH/BPD/75978/2011 ; Whilst it is widely recognised in the scholarly literature that idyllic representations of the countryside are an integral part of its consumption through tourism in the contemporary, global world, little empirical research has been conducted on the role that social differentiation plays in shaping the corresponding tourist experience. The purpose of this article is to bridge that knowledge gap while studying the demand for two of the most well-known tourist accommodation products in the Portuguese countryside, namely, TER and the Pousadas. Drawing on a range of sources of material, it shows that the pastoral idyll sought by tourists is experienced differently through the lens of social class representations. In addition, there is evidence here that the choice of accommodation at a destination may well be regarded as a means of social differentiation through tourism. ; authorsversion ; published