A Case Study of Ecotourism in the Kelabit Highlands : Is it Sustainable?

The purpose of this study was to examine ecotourism in the Kelabit Highlands, Malaysia, in terms of the sustainability of the industry. The empirical material, which is based on interviews carried out in the field, is analysed within the context of sustainable development theory in order to examine the central and most critical factors in determining the long-term future of ecotourism in the Kelabit Highlands, and in particular how these factors are likely to affect tourism patterns and the structure of the tourism industry in this region. The central conclusion drawn is that the geographic isolation of the area and the logging of the Kelabit communal forests are the two most critical factors impacting upon the tourism industry in the Kelabit Highlands. These two issues will be central in determining the future direction of tourism in this area and ultimately if ecotourism in the Kelabit Highlands is sustainable

The New Hampshire, Vol. 106, No. 02 (Sep. 8, 2016)

An independent student produced newspaper from the University of New Hampshire

Urbano zdravlje i sreća u hutonzima i neboderima

Urban bodies are complex integrated adjustable systems (CIAS), in flexible interaction with their natural, cultural, economic and political biotopes. Small entangled communities such as hutongs, existing in China for over 1000 years, and modern high-rise apartment buildings to a different extent represent more or less healthy and stable communities, based on interpersonal and interfamilial interaction, trust and solidarity, shared interest and involvement in sports, arts, gardening, social and other activities. Urban and other communities are interconnected by common history, narratives and visions, religions and internet cyberspaces. Religions and new internet communities extend beyond the local communities of hutongs, apartment buildings, cities and businesses; they may support or threaten local urban community and coherence.Urbana tijela su složeni integrirani prilagodljivi sustavi (CIAS) u fleksibilnoj interakciji sa svojim prirodnim, kulturnim, ekonomskim i političkim biotopima. Male prepletene zajednice, poput hutonga, koje u Kini postoje više od 1000 godina, i moderne visoke zgrade sa stanovima, u različitoj mjeri predstavljaju više ili manje zdrave i stabilne zajednice, utemeljene na međuljudskoj i međuobiteljskoj interakciji, povjerenju i solidarnosti, zajedničkom interesu i uključenosti u sportove, umjetnost, vrtlarstvo, društvene i druge aktivnosti. Urbane i druge zajednice međusobno su povezane zajedničkom poviješću, narativima i vizijama, religijama i internetskim cyberprostorima. Religije i nove internetske zajednice protežu se izvan lokalnih zajednica hutonga, stambenih zgrada, gradova i tvrtki; one mogu podržavati ili ugrožavati lokalnu urbanu zajednicu i koherenciju

Alternative Network Deployments: Taxonomy, Characterization, Technologies, and Architectures

This document presents a taxonomy of a set of "Alternative Network Deployments" that emerged in the last decade with the aim of bringing Internet connectivity to people or providing a local communication infrastructure to serve various complementary needs and objectives. They employ architectures and topologies different from those of mainstream networks and rely on alternative governance and business models. The document also surveys the technologies deployed in these networks, and their differing architectural characteristics, including a set of definitions and shared properties. The classification considers models such as Community Networks, Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs), networks owned by individuals but leased out to network operators who use them as a low-cost medium to reach the underserved population, networks that provide connectivity by sharing wireless resources of the users, and rural utility cooperatives

The Media Life of Cryptocurrencies: From Libertarian Dreams to Institutional Control

This project’s central research question is: ‘What are the key cryptocurrency discourses that exist in the crypto space, and by whom are they created?’. This thesis focuses on the historical trajectory of the media life of cryptocurrency. Specifically, it identifies cryptocurrency discourses in international news media and explores how they are socially constructed from a Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) perspective. Utilising computational topic modelling, a text analysis of cryptocurrency articles (N=4200) published from 60 countries in international news media, identified key topics associated with cryptocurrency from 2018 to 2020. The thesis presents a theoretical STS deconstruction of how cryptocurrency has been conceptually understood by media actors, accompanied by empirical evidence of the key finding that there are two major discourses which characterise news media communication about cryptocurrency: the ‘Crypto-Crime’ discourse and the ‘Financial Governance’ discourse. The main argument held in this thesis is that these two macro discourses are appropriated by international media but often emanate and are echoed from institutional positions. Vitally, this study is the first to demonstrate both theoretically and empirically, how news media in different countries ascribe diverging meaning to cryptocurrency technology, offering audiences varied images of what cryptocurrency is through discourse appropriation. Results showed that the co-constitution of discourse was strong across the UK and US whose news media appropriated the crypto-crime and crypto- governance discourses to different degrees. The thesis reveals how institutional positions are channelled through skewed news media narratives, from corporate economic and governmental control rationales. This control is demonstrated as being enacted through the state regulation of cryptocurrency, or complete bans, as in the case of China. Sometimes control is exerted through the innovation of state Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), as in many countries including the US, UK, Venezuela some EU countries. This is important because a new monetary form of digital currency can transform state macro-economic and micro-economic structures, affecting the social, economic, and political lives of global citizens

Stakeholders\u27 Involvement and Participation in the Internet Governance Ecosystem: An African Perspective

From an African perspective, internet governance requires not only an understanding of the variability in access to and use of the internet across the continent, but also an understanding of the disparities between developed and developing countries’ abilities to effectively participate in global internet governance debates. Few developing countries participate in these debates, and even fewer are active in agenda-setting for global internet governance. This paper seeks to understand how these factors transect with the notion of multistakeholder participation as a form of governance for internet policymaking, which is often informed by assumptions from more mature markets and Western democracies. It does so by exploring the evolution of multistakeholder participation through mapping the main international and regional instruments of the internet governance ecosystem in Africa. It critically assesses the ability of current multistakeholder initiatives to provide Africans with a compass to guide them through the miasma of cybercrime, political surveillance, censorship and profiteering that threaten the openness of the internet. The paper also highlights the participatory and accountability gaps in the current status quo, ultimately asking what solutions can be devised to enhance the participation of African stakeholders in internet governance

On Prospective Technology Studies

This volume includes papers to technological foresight, roadmapping and TA from two sources. On the one side it is based on a workshop in Budapest at the end of 2007, that was organized in the framework of the International Forum on Sustainable Technological Development. On the other side selected presentations from the symposium on History of Prospective Technology Studies, in the framework of the XXIII International Congress of History of Science and Technology, Budapest, July 2009