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No description available.

This thesis attempts to 'map' the dimensions of selected sensory-spatial leisure consumption varieties in support of humanistic drives, or will, towards inner self-development and societal well-being. The investigative focus is primarily upon leisure domains of a liminal or transitional nature, between cultural and commercial consumption; these being of presumed importance in the promotion of increased leisure activities of a cultural and artistic nature as a social 'good' or utopian ideal. Such an orientation, prevalent in post-industrial cultures, confers worth to understanding the dimensions of cultural diversity required, and benefits being sought from variously extant leisure realms. The contribution of the work is reviewed in a 'synthesis' that forms the full 'thesis' in conjunction with the published works themselves. Within the synthesis a poetics methodology is proposed to have emerged towards enhancing meaningful exploration across four broad varieties of culturalcommercial leisure consumption spaces - tourist domains, museum/gallery visits, indulgent/leisure food 'dreamscapes' and music/mobile consumption zones. The findings can be encapsulated within three broad headings, namely that:- (i) Leisure spaces create heightened, personally and/or socially selfenhancing forms of dreamscape consumption than more everyday spaces - as exemplified by differential consumption processes within 'limited risk' environments, artistic-subjective consumer orientations and co-creative consumption spaces that are further related to the concept of 'flow' in human experience; (ii) The attributes of physical varieties of leisure spaces feature qualitatively 'sensed' differences, relative to supporting an effective immersion process within them - having variable mixes of specific, defined contributory characteristics in 'active' or out-in-the-world realms, associated with models derived primarily from the field of environmental geography; and, (iii) There is a threat of a reduced variety of potentially beneficial outin- the-world leisure spaces due to technological substitution by virtual ('passive') alternatives - raising questions of consumer consent over a reduced diversity of cultural ecology in terms of losses in retail and social capital, particularly within localised environments.

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Tourism in many developing countries has experienced rapid growth over the past three decades. This exponential growth fostered a plethora of methods and lessons learned from others' experiences that have gone through similar paths of tourism development. The identification of obstacles that relate to socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts has been challenged, and have been challenging. It seems from these case debates that tourism education is an essential tool in rural development, especially when it is intended to introduce tourism to rural areas and simultaneously to ensure sustainable rural tourism as an essential component of the national economy. The significance of this study is that it provides a case study of identification, evaluation and potential implementation of the relationships between development theory and educational responses. The context is provided from research carried out into rural tourism development in Eastern Libya, and how the institutions of tourism education can contribute towards preparing tourism employees with the skills required, and knowledge of the various aspects of rural tourism. However, research on rural tourism in developing countries in general, and in Libya in particular, is characterized by the lack of literature and insufficient data, and even when the data is available; it is often unreliable, fragmented and misleading. The aim of the study was to improve and develop the quality and services of rural tourism in Eastern Libya in order for it to become a sustainable and attractive destination. This was achieved by investigating the major obstacles to the development of rural tourism, and by providing appropriate alternatives to the current status quo and projected pathways for development. This was predicated upon close cooperation between the higher institutions of tourism and tourism sector based locally in Eastern Libya. The cooperation and communication between these sectors was not found to be mirrored when viewing the sector nationally and internationally. The thesis combines the findings from descriptive, analytical and inferential critical analysis, within an informative historical background on tourism in general and rural Libyan tourism in particular. The target area for this study was Eastern Libya; however, the findings and policies are proposed to be adapted for other rural regions in Libya with special consideration to the geographical variations among these regions. The success of the study was based upon the understanding of the cultural dimension from a Libyan national's perspective as this meant the process was achievable. It was important to get an unbiased local impression of the potential impacts of change in order to factor this into the development process. The findings of this study indicate that the institutions of tourism education can contribute towards preparing tourism employees with the necessary skills and techniques, knowledge and competencies to reduce the gap between what is taught and what should be taught in the tourism institutes, However, in order to achieve this some of the deficiencies of the present training programmes need to be further investigated and solutions identified. In addition co-operation between tourism higher institutions and other tourism sectors nationally and internationally need be increased if tourism education is to flourish and initial and in-service training of tourism employees to be improved

The aim of this thesis is to explore the role of local knowledge for climate adaptation. Despite increasing interest over recent years in people's knowledge and capacity for adaptation to climate change, there have been few systematic studies of what this implies for adaptation theory and practice, particularly in a developing country setting. The motivation for the thesis is that a better understanding of the current use of local knowledge in responses to climate variability and change is needed for policies to support adaptation. The thesis addresses this gap by examining what role local knowledge plays in household and community level responses to drought. Building on an environmental entitlement framework, the thesis examines the preferences, actions and outcomes at household level, and the role of informal and formal institutions in shaping responses and outcomes. A case study was conducted in Kigwe and Nzali villages in the Dodoma Region, Tanzania. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, data were collected on people's perceptions and actions in response to an ongoing drought, and the reasons for them. The study further considered the role of local informal and formal institutions in providing support during droughts. Data were derived from household questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews and group discussions, as well as observations and transect walks. Key findings are, first, that a widely held perception of a changing rainfall regime has made a large proportion of farmers change their resource use strategies. Second, the study documents changes in informal institutions, from past systems of reciprocal exchange and mutual dependency to market-based systems of seasonal labour and loans with high interests. Third, it explains how formal interventions and support systems, as translated and implemented at the local level, may not improve long-term adaptation, but rather put short term constraints on farming activities, undermining farmers' own responses. The thesis concludes that local knowledge plays an important role in observing environmental changes and explaining their causes. However, there is a widespread sensethat rainfall changes mean that some local knowledge-based options are no longer feasible. Findings suggest local knowledge plays an important role in understanding farmers' agency, perceptions and responses to climatic changes, preferences, and the barriers to the introduction of new strategies. Such contextual aspects may be as important a contribution for adaptation policy as documentation of the local skills and practices normally associated with local knowledge 6

This thesis investigates the relationship between the spatial concentration of South Asian ethnic groups and experiences of inequality in education, employment and health. Ethnic and racial segregation has become of increasing concern in Britain over the past decade, but there has been little research that has examined the relationship between the spatial concentration of minority ethnic groups and their socio-economic outcomes in various domains. This study sets out to address this gap in the literature. In recent years, segregation has become an increasingly ambiguous and value-laden concept. The shift in its meaning to denote the self-segregation of minority ethnic groups in Britain has made it an increasingly problematic concept for investigating inequality. At the same time the rise to prominence of research on segregation in the US has greatly influenced academic research on the matter in Britain. In this thesis I adopt a more critical approach to segregation in Britain by framing South Asian geographies within a socialhistorical context by taking account of the nature of migration and settlement of South Asians to Britain, and the structural context, namely discriminatory housing and labour market pOlicies, within which this occurred. In light of this, I suggest that a more appropriate measure of spatial segregation is neighbourhood deprivation, which more accurately reflects the material disadvantage of many areas of high minority ethnic concentration. Thus, the focus of my empirical analysis looks at the extent to which the divergence in socio-economic outcomes across geographies for South Asian and White British ethnic groups is related to the South Asian concentration of neighbourhoods, and the extent to which this is associated with levels of neighbourhood deprivation. I also look at the extent to which differences between the South Asian and White British ethnic groups are associated with neighbourhood co-ethnic concentration and deprivation. I address the research question using two national datasets. Comprehensive neighbourhood data available from 2001 Census tabular data is used to obtain data measuring the ethnic composition of neighbourhoods and the employment, education and health outcomes of ethnic groups at the neighbourhood level. With this data I examine the relationship between levels of neighbourhood South Asian concentration, levels of neighbourhood deprivation, and outcomes in education, employment and health for Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and White British ethnic groups. The second dataset I make use of is the 2005 Citizenship Survey which includes additional requested data on the ethnic composition and deprivation levels of neighbourhoods for respondents in the survey. I use multilevel logistic regression methods to determine the extent to which the neighbourhood context matters. I find neighbourhood deprivation to be more important in explaining the divergence in education, employment, and health across geographies than levels of South Asian concentration for all ethnic groups. I find the negative association between Pakistani and Bangladeshi concentration and education and employment outcomes to be explained when levels of neighbourhood deprivation are considered. In terms of inequality, while, on average, the Indian group report better or equal socio-economic outcomes compared with the White British group, the disadvantage experienced by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis is not explained by levels of co-ethnic concentration. Factors such as human capital and household income are shown to be more important. My evidence suggests that policy approaches to tackling inequality should focus on area deprivation, rather than the ethnic composition of neighbourhoods.

No description available.

This thesis presents a study of the roji, a form of Japanese urban alleyway, which was once part of people's personal spatial sphere and everyday life but has increasingly been transformed by diverse and competing interests. Marginalised through the emergence of new forms of housing and public spaces, re-appropriated by different fields, and re-invented by the contemporary urban design discourse, the social meaning attached to the roji is being re-interpreted by individuals, subcultures and new social movements to fit hybrid and multiple concepts of living and life styles. The roji presents a unique opportunity to study the pressures of globalisation on smallscale ordinary places at the micro level. Focusing on the case of contemporary Tokyo and drawing on ethnographic data supported by a conceptual framework derived from theories of place and place-attachment, the thesis investigates the kind of functions the roji fulfilled in the city in the past, and the qualities of urban life that have been lost or changed as the alleyway has ceased to be an everyday part of the urban landscape. The thesis further analyses the physical social, personal and cultural dimensions of change, critically interrogating not only spatial marginalisation but also the process of personal re-interpretation and cultural re-appropriation that has befallen the roji. The thesis argues that an analysis of this marginalised urban form can lead to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of urban change and a more sensitive approach to the design of ordinary places. If urban planners and architects are to develop alternative approaches to the creation of diverse and versatile public places in contemporary cities to facilitate richer levels of social interaction, then they must confront the real and conceptual links between everyday practices of place making - the social construction, appreciation and attachment to place - and the ways in which places are affected and shaped by global forces.

The definitions of tourism and leisure in Soviet and western societies are scrutinised in terms of the impact these differing ideologies exert on their respective organisational structures. Economic and sociological implications of the development of tourism are reviewed together with the controls that the Soviet regime automatically imposes and which reduce the extent of the impact experienced in a western situation. The tourist industry's requirements in general are outlined using western models and a consideration is made of the degree to which Soviet practice conforms to the premises advanced. Soviet controls on free time are discussed in conjunction with the opportunities available for domestic tourism within the USSR. The evolution of the Soviet tourist industry is expounded, commencing with the legacy of the Tsarist era, with particular reference to its present geographical aspects. Infrastructural provision in terms of transport and accommodation is discussed with specific reference to the limitations they embody on rapid development of a domestic tourist market. The natural environment as a resource is also considered in this context, including the degrees of conservation practised. Detailed reference is made to the various sectors of the Soviet tourist industry. In particular the Soviet Health Resorts are considered, examining the facilities they offer, their organisational and treatment characteristics and the profiles of their typical consumers. The youth sector of the USSR's tourist industry is examined under its direction by Sputnik which also deals with young foreigners visiting the Soviet Union. The role of Intourist in controlling foreign travel is also investigated and an attempt is made to assess the impressions, gained by foreign visitors to the USSR, of its tourist organisation by analysing a questionnaire given to International Geographical Union participants in Moscow in 1976. The future developments of the Soviet tourist industry, both planned and probable, are speculated upon and the limitations of development to date are reviewed.