Graduation date: 1975

It is commonly assumed that the development of tourist attractions, the formulation of tourism policies and the marketing of destination areas are dictated by the needs and interests of foreign visitors. What is ignored is the role that local factors and agencies bring to bear upon the process. This thesis is devoted to exploring the ways that local and non-local factors are responsible for shaping the form and function of tourism development. Drawing upon the case of Singapore, the thesis examines the country's heritage tourism phenomena as the outcome of 'local' and 'global' forces. This argument is elaborated along four lines of enquiry. They include a study of government policies on tourism, a look at entrepreneurs involved in heritage projects, an exploration of marketing and promotional strategies, and the examination of a particular urban landscape the Little India Historic District. To conceptualize the global-local nexus, the thesis adopts two bodies of theory. They are the 'locality concept' advanced by industrial geographers in the 1980s and writings on 'globalism-localism' by cultural/economic geographers in the 1990s. Both theoretical discussions reinforce the argument that place uniqueness is not necessarily sacrificed as a result of globalization. They also provide a way of viewing tourism geographies as the product of global and local forces.

The hypothesis was that salmon farming can be the basis for the establishment of a viable small business in British Columbia. The constraints on the establishment of a salmon farm imposed by government regulations, the availability of funds, and the market for pan-size salmon were presented and discussed. The pertinent biological knowledge associated with the rearing of captive salmon was summarized. A simple production model designed to produce approximately one-half million marketable, pan-size salmon within 15 months was derived from published accounts of studies at experimental fish farms. A hypothetical salmon farm was described in detail including estimates of the capital and operating costs associated with the farming and processing activities. The required information was obtained through interviews with knowledgeable members of the industry. The estimated revenues and expenses attributed to the hypothetical farm were analysed using pro forma financial statements to ascertain the financial position and the net cash flow which may be expected. The profitability of the farm was analysed by applying net present value and internal rate of return criteria to the net cash flow. Sensitivity analysis of the effect of changes to the product mix. market price, labour rate, feed price, tax rate, and stocking density upon the profitability of the farm was conducted. Estimates of the critical values of the above parameters which would allow the farm to be a feasible investment opportunity were derived. The conclusion is that pan-size salmon farming can be a feasible small business in British Columbia. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

本文提出「影像/形象資本」作為考察影像/形象、資本及權間關係的工具。「影像/形象資本」發展至自布爾迪卮的文化資本，但「影像/形象」資本把焦點放在視覺或形象資源如何在文化/經濟、生產/消費以及上層建築/下層建構界線越趨模糊的符號空間經濟主導代，成為文化場域中新的權資源。 / 透過考察橫店影視城一個結合影視生產及遊的中國影城生產地域化及經濟符號化的過程，本文嘗試對「影像/形象資本」的概作深入的分析。沿著布爾迪卮的框架，影視城被視為一個由擁有同影像/形象資本的能動者構成的場域，而這些能動者自在地及跨境的生產及消費網絡。在橫店影視城生產、積與轉換的過程的探中，本文嘗試回答：一)影像/形象在文化場域中的功能及其轉換為經濟或其他資本的條件；二) 影像/形象資本在國際文化分工成員中的分佈以及其結構對影像資本的價值及轉換的影響。第一條問題旨在闡釋經濟符號化的過程，第二條問題則希望剖析影像/形象與資本主義結下的地域分工以及動政治。作為一個可以同時探究影像帶的可能性及限制的概，影像/形象資本把媒介影像的研究，從批判學派對影像呈現的控制及霸權形成，展至影像對同能動者、以至在符號經濟時代中冒升的社會機構所產生的建設性及壓迫性的權的多重探索。 / This thesis develops the concept of image capital to investigate the relationship between image, capital and power. Image capital is built on Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, but looks specifically into how visual and imagery resources becomes a power at stake in the cultural field at the juncture of the economies of signs and space featured by growing convergence of culture and the economy and subsequent blurring of the boundaries between base/superstructure and production/consumption. / The concept of image capital is examined through the case study of the spatialization and the semioticization processes of Hengdian World Studios, a China studio complex that serves domestic and international film and TV productions and operates film studio tourism. The studio, as a case, is theorized as a field which is constituted by different agents with various forms of image capital, including those embedded in local as well as transnational production and consumption networks. The processes of production, accumulation and conversion of image capital at the field of Hengdian World Studios are investigated to chart 1) how image functions as a form of capital at stake in the cultural field and how it can be converted into other forms of capital; 2) how the distribution of image capital is structured amongst agents in the field and how this structure influences the value and conversion rate image capital to other forms of capital. The first question aims at studying the semioticization process, whilst the second attempts to scrutinize the spatialization and the labor politics underpinning the alliance of image and capitalism. By theorizing image as Bourdieusean form of capital and examining both its enabling possibilities and constraints, this thesis sheds light on the study of media images by steering beyond ideological control to both the productive and repressive power of images onto different agents as well as the social intuitions of the up and rising economies of sign and space. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Chow, Pui Ha. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [419-439]). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT / 摘要 / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / TABLE OF CONTENT / Chapter CHAPTER I --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER II --- Image and Capitalism --- p.21 / Marx's capital and critical media theories on image studies --- p.21 / Political economies of signs and the media --- p.26 / Implications of the political economy of signs on critical Marxist media theories --- p.31 / Alternative frameworks for the study of image and capitalism: End of Production and Labor or NICL? Or Bridging capital and labor in image production and consumption? --- p.38 / Chapter CHAPTER III --- Bourdieu's Capital, Field and Habitus --- p.51 / Bourdieu's concept of Capital --- p.52 / Field and Habitus --- p.63 / Theoretical implications of habitus and field of Bouredieusean capital --- p.71 / Chapter CHAPTER IV --- Field Theory of Cultural Production and the Political Economy of Signs --- p.76 / The field of cultural production --- p.77 / The field of cultural production and the political economies of signs and space --- p.91 / Image Capital and the political economies of signs and space --- p.105 / Chapter CHAPTER V --- Image Capital, Field and Film Studio --- p.112 / Intercontextuality: Contextual knowledge, globalization and field --- p.113 / Film Studio, image capital and field --- p.117 / Research question, design and method --- p.124 / Chapter CHAPTER VI --- The Development of Film Studio Complex --- p.135 / The emergence of film studio complex in the global field --- p.135 / Transformation of China's National Field of Cultural Production --- p.144 / Conclusion: Studio complex, image capital, and field of cultural production --- p.170 / Chapter CHAPTER VII --- Spatialization: Hengdian as a Field of Cultural Production --- p.176 / Iron Road: co-production, image capital, and boundaries negotations --- p.179 / Hengdian World Studios as Image Factory --- p.192 / Conclusion: the image factory flying beyond the place --- p.219 / Chapter CHAPTER VIII --- Semioticization: Capitalizing Image and the Mediation of Production and Consumption --- p.227 / Image capital and film-induced tourism --- p.228 / Capitalizing image at Hengdian World Studios --- p.237 / Key Image Labors --- p.252 / Chinese Hollywood: the negotiations and struggles in the capitalization of the global and the national imagination --- p.261 / Conclusion --- p.271 / Chapter CHAPTER IX --- Image Capital and Tourist Consumption: Gaze, Class and Prosumption --- p.275 / Image capital and tourist consumption --- p.276 / Tourist gaze at Hengdian World Studios --- p.284 / Image Capital, class and prosumption --- p.314 / Chapter CHAPTER X --- Image Capital and Place-Making --- p.339 / Hardware make-up: physical infrastructure engineering --- p.341 / Software make-up: lifestyle formation --- p.345 / Place branding --- p.365 / Chapter CHAPTER XI --- Conclusion: Image, Capital and Power --- p.372 / Image as capital --- p.374 / Forms of image capital --- p.376 / Functions of image capital --- p.382 / Image capital: semioticization and spatialization --- p.400

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

This thesis is concerned with social and economic aspects of freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) culture development in converted paddy field gher systems in SW Bangladesh, based on economic features of prawn production and social impacts within and around prawn farming communities. Based on a sample of 400 farmers from the four different zones in Bagerhat district in SW Bangladesh, 345 (86.25%) cultured prawn with fish and rice in their gher. The culture period is typically nine months, wild fry are stocked when available in May-June and harvested from November to January. A variety of feeds are used but the preferred material is the freshwater snail, Pila globosa. Productivity is variable, averaging 432 kg ha-!. The freshwater prawn is a highly valued product for international markets and is therefore almost all exported. All farmers in all zones and different gher size categories made a profit, with seed and feed dominating variable costs. Considerable variation in production costs and profitability was observed. The culture of prawn in gher systems is technically possible in a variety of conditions though expanding small scale of farming mainly depends on reducing production costs. Future targets could be to integrate with other agricultural activities especially dike cropping and rice production in the monsoon. The livelihoods of a large number of people are associated with prawn farming. Four different fry, snail and prawn markets were surveyed, including a sample of 60 fry catchers, 40 fry traders, 75 snail collectors, 40 snail traders and 40 prawn traders. A sample of 200 women, associated with gher farms was also surveyed. In spite of socio-economic constraints, most of the households of farmers (81 %) have improved their status through prawn farming where prawn have brought out clearly positive changes of economic activities and generated new employment. All appeared to have gained from their activities, women have enhanced their position in families and societies. However, concerns arise about the long-term sustainability of prawn farming due to high production costs, low supply of wild fry and snail meat, poor natural resources, poor institutional support and inadequate extension services, all of which have affected sustainable livelihoods of farmers and associated groups. It may necessary to establish local ingredients feed industries, prawn hatcheries and to provide low-interest credit with institutional and policy support for sustainable gher farming.

“The Political and Cultural Economy of Sightseeing” examines how personnel within the state tourism bureaucracy struggled to balance the use of foreign tourism as a form of political, historical, and cultural representation with the demands of developing a revenue-generating service industry in a socialist economy. I argue that tourism, particularly the practice of sightseeing, played an important role in the creation of the “New China”: a re-imagination of the Chinese nation-state as a political, economic, social, and cultural entity under socialism. By focusing on particular elements of the state’s production of the tourist experience, including the formulation of itineraries, the regulation of tourist photography, and changing notions of customer service, this dissertation reexamines the ways the political and economic goals of the state converged during the Mao era (1949-1976) and through the early period of market reforms under Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s. This dissertation traces the development of tourism infrastructure in the first three decades after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, locating this history at the intersection of public diplomacy and economic development. It will help further our understanding of modern Chinese political and economic history, as well as the broader history of socialism in the twentieth century. “The Political and Cultural Economy of Sightseeing” focuses on the production of tourism rather than the consumption of it. It follows three main groups of actors in the tourism industry of the New China: tourism industry officials; the rank-and-file workers who fed, transported, and guided the tourists; and, to a lesser extent, the tourists themselves. Tourism officials, tourism workers, and tourists all had their own conceptions of the New China and the place of tourism in it. Tourism officials needed to know what the tourism industry meant for the politics and economy of the New China before they could show that new nation to others. Tourism workers needed to understand where their labor fit into the narrative of the New China in order to serve the tourists and serve “the people.” Finally, foreign tourists gazed upon the landscape of the New China in ways that tourism planners, guides, and service workers often struggled to anticipate and manage. Together, these three groups built a tourism industry and contributed to the establishment of a new national narrative.

Social media influencers are online content creators who seek audience support, form relationships with their audiences, and shape audience interests, opinions, and behavior. Not only is the influencer economy a cultural market in its own right, but it is also increasingly shaping other cultural industries as influencers serve as cultural gatekeepers who filter cultural products for their audiences (Hirsch, 1972). As social media influencers become powerful gatekeepers and producers, the relational nature of their activities and performance is reshaping norms in cultural industries overall. Lay audiences gain more influence and agency as their evaluations and support are critical for influencer survival and success. Then how has the evaluative landscape in cultural industries changed, and what are the broader social implications of these changes? In this dissertation, I outline the rise of social media influencers both as gatekeepers and producers in cultural markets and argue that scholarship in management and sociology must examine the unique ways in which these influencers’ activities differ from their predecessors’. Chapter 1 defines social media influencers and describes their activities and market dynamics by comparing and contrasting them to their traditional counterparts. Chapter 2 examines the relationship between influencer-audience relational interactions and performance outcomes, focusing on influencers’ role as cultural gatekeepers. Chapter 3 looks at the effects of race and race-based social movements on influencer-audience interactions, highlighting influencers’ role as cultural producers. In all three chapters, the focus is on the sociological theory of relational work, which is the process through which economic actors balance the transactional and social components of their relationships (Zelizer, 2012; Bandelj, 2020). Social media influencers serve as an ideal type to demonstrate how relational work contributes to market value and performance, given the tight balance between their relational and transactional activities. I use mixed quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze channel-, video-, and comment-level data on 1,167 BookTubers (YouTube influencers who evaluate books). I find that social media influencers indeed serve as trusted gatekeepers for their audiences, and that audiences demand not only evaluative content, but also intimate relationships with influencers. Influencers use audience interactions as relational work efforts to build trusting relationships with audiences and gain their support, but this effect is moderated by the perceived trustworthiness of the influencer. The effectiveness of influencer relational work also varies by race, and relational work thus reproduces racialized logics that underlie cultural markets. In sum, this dissertation not only highlights the rise of an important new market actor, but also contributes to theories on how relational work shapes and is shaped by inequality.