Issue 336: September 19-October 3, 2019

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Witness: The Modern Writer as Witness

Editor\u27s Note [Excerpt] The United States, as a society, is on the brink of profound and positive change. Demographically and culturally, things are improving, and the reason is obvious to people who study history: Conflict pushes us to be better, to strive for principled goals. Consider the inspired eco-advocacy of Greta Thunberg. Or the swearing in of most diverse class of lawmakers in history into the 116th Congress. Or billionaire Robert F. Smith’s pledge to pay off every Morehouse College (in Atlanta, Georgia) student’s debt. Indeed, there are many good people helping and great moments happening in spite of a bleak 24-hour news cycle designed to ruin happiness and to limit our understanding of our human potential. We at Witness see this yearning for transformation in the works we selected. The doorway must be crossed, and the voices and characters we featured in our Winter 2019 issue stand at the vestibule, ready for the light to warm them, primed to fight for that necessary illumination.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/witness/1000/thumbnail.jp

Making a home in the in-between : an exploration of the ideas of Ivan Illich and John Turner through the history of Sudoeste del Besòs

This thesis explores the ideas of Ivan Illich and John Turner as a continuous development of a theory of anti-industrialism rooted in analysis of the divorce of production from consumption. For Illich and Turner, this divorce ultimately leads to planetary overreach, global inequality in access to resources, and loss of personal freedom. Both authors put forward an alternative framework to industrial productivity which emphasizes localism and individual control over the means of reproducing everyday life. Illich offers a more high-level analysis applicable to all sectors of society, whereas Turner applies Illich’s philosophy to the production of housing. After exploring each author’s thinking through a close reading of one text by each, this thesis will attempt to illustrate their critiques of industrialism through a historical and anecdotal account of the building of the Sudoeste del Besòs neighborhood in Barcelona and the experience of some of its first residents in the 1960s.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles::11.1 - Per a 2030, assegurar l’accés de totes les persones a habitatges i a serveis bàsics adequats, segurs i assequibles, i millorar els barris margina

Identification of tourism developmental success factors: Benchmarking the Malawi tourism industry

This thesis explores the potential development of, and model for, tourism on Lake Malawi. It builds upon the historic associations attached to colonisation and how this led to the acceptance, for 30 years, of Western based models in formulating strategic plans for tourism development in Malawi. The study confirms that Lake Malawi has development potential to compete with existing successful destinations; both in the African region and the global tourism market. The thesis concentrates upon the power relationships between the current stakeholders involved in the development process and the potential mechanisms available to involve local people more in the heritage tourism dynamic. The study explores the concepts of historic tourism development within Malawi and assess the success or failure of those strategies within the context of sustainability. The primary research involved the local population within two areas on Lake Malawi, and the government employees responsible for the planning process. The literature pointed to there being a gap between theory and practice within Malawi. The study confirms the potential in the region by analysis of similar locations and their stages within the development process. The primary research confirmed the need to identify a successful model that could be adapted for the Lake Malawi. These are then adapted to country branding suggested for Malawi, as a basis for development models influenced by the branding imperative, which then concludes the circular argument built from the destination analysis.N/

Migrant Conversions

"Peruvian migrant workers began arriving in South Korea in large numbers in the mid-1990s, eventually becoming one of the largest groups of non-Asians in the country. Migrant Conversions shows how despite facing unstable income and legal exclusion, migrants have come to see Korea as an ideal destination, sometimes even as part of their divine destiny. Faced with a forced end to their residence in Korea, Peruvians have developed strategies to transform themselves from economic migrants into heads of successful transnational families, influential church leaders, and cosmopolitan travelers. Set against the backdrop of the 2008 global financial crisis, Migrant Conversions explores the intersections of three types of conversions—monetary, religious, and cosmopolitan—to argue that migrants use conversions to negotiate the meaning of their lives in a constantly changing transnational context. As Peruvians carve out social spaces, they create complex and uneven connections between Peru and Korea that challenge a global hierarchy of nations and migrants. Exploring how migrants, churches, and nations change through processes of conversion reveals how globalization continues to impact people’s lives and ideas about their futures and pasts long after they have stopped moving or after a particular global moment has come to an end. “A model of what transnational ethnographic research can accomplish.” ELEANA J. KIM, author of Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging “With crisp prose and candid presence throughout the text, Vogel gives us the first book-length study of the experiences of non-Asian migrants in South Korea.” CAREN FREEMAN, author of Making and Faking Kinship: Marriage and Labor Migration between China and South Korea ERICA VOGEL is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Saddleback College.