Scottish Archaeological Research Framework: Future Thinking on Carved Stones

No abstract available

The Business of Dark Tourism: The Management of Dark Tourism Visitor Sites and Attractions with Special Reference to Innovation

This study explores the management of visitor sites and attractions associated with death, disaster and suffering, commonly referred to in the literature as ‘dark tourism’. Although gaining increasing academic attention, the supply-side perspective of dark tourism is poorly understood with scarce empirical evidence relating to management operations and practices. This may be due to management operations and practices that are perceived to conflict with the sensitive themes of visitor sites associated with dark tourism. Particular consideration is given to the management concept of innovation identified as a significant gap for scholarly exploration. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out with senior management at 23 sites and attractions across the United Kingdom associated with dark tourism. The findings reveal that, contrary to suggestions that dark tourism sites may be restrictive in management practices, a wide array of innovative activities and marketing practices are widely conducted and innovation was viewed as a stimuli for repeat visitation. Furthermore, management operations are viewed as facilitating important stories of trauma for present and future generations. Omission of these stories would belittle the tragic circumstances in which people associated with the sites had died or suffered. Moreover, managers at dark tourism sites acknowledged the ethical and moral tensions surrounding management practices at dark tourism sites. Indeed, the majority of managers adopted both highly ethical processes resulting in ethical innovations and complex consultation processes in order to mitigate any potential concerns from stakeholders. The ethical stance underpinning operations positions the phenomenon of dark tourism as a subset within the tourism sector, distinct from its counterparts. Recommendations include calls to widen the study to explore visitor perceptions of innovative measures undertaken by managers, and to focus on specific commercial aspects, such as retailing, within the business of dark tourism.ESR

PARTICIPATORY MAPPING GIS TOOLS FOR MAKING HIDDEN PLACES VISIBLE: A CASE STUDY OF THE TEXAS FREEDOM COLONIES ATLAS

Freedom colonies are historic black settlements established by freed black men and women after emancipation. They exist all over the United States with a high concentration in Texas. Black Texans founded more than 557 independent rural communities between 1865 and 1930. Today, many FCs are unmapped and many disappeared from public records, maps, and memories. Furthermore, while a comprehensive database or an interactive map of FCs’ location and information is not available the location data for known FCs is scattered across various archives and agencies. The Texas Freedom Colonies Project is an evolving social justice initiative aiming to document historic black settlements names and locations as well as gathering information about community origin stories, cultural practices, and providing support to grassroots preservation groups and their planning activities. The Texas Freedom Colonies Project Atlas and Study is a digital humanities platform based on research and crowdsourced data about freedom colony place, heritage, and social geographic data in Texas serving as an interactive map and online archive in order to make them visible to policymakers, researchers, and descendants of settlement founders

Annual report of the town council, departments, boards, committees, and commissions of the town of Hooksett, New Hampshire. Hooksett fiscal year ending June 30, 2016.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire

Annual report of the town council, departments, boards, committees, and commissions of the town of Hooksett, New Hampshire. Hooksett fiscal year ending June 30, 2016.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire

Annual report of the town council, departments, boards, committees, and commissions of the town of Hooksett, New Hampshire. Hooksett fiscal year ending June 30, 2016.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire

The Third Space: The Meeting of Jew and Christian in the Act of Remembering, Restoring, and Reconciling - A Case Study of the Matzevah Foundation

Problem Due to long-standing religious, racial, and cultural tensions, a complex and challenging relationship exists between Jews and Christians. The resulting breach isolates and separates these two faith groups from each other. Consequently, they struggle to interact and engage in meaningful dialogue, which could repair the breach and lead to forgiveness and reconciliation. Dialogue bridges the gap between Jew and Christian allowing them to meet in the third space—the liminal space of the Jewish cemetery in Poland. Jews and Christians may deal with the evil of the past through what researchers term as loving acts. Method This study was conducted as a qualitative case study of the work of The Matzevah Foundation (TMF) in its efforts to bring Jew and Christian together in the space of the Polish-Jewish cemetery to work cooperatively to care for and restore cemeteries. The study employed a purposeful sampling method that selected specific people, who have had contact with TMF and its work. Sources of data for the study were derived from individual and corporate interviews, observations, documents, artifacts, and personal reflective journals. Through inquiry of the interaction of Jews and Christians in the liminal space of the Polish-Jewish cemetery, the study sought to understand how acts of loving-kindness influence attitudes and create mutual bridges of understanding as the underpinning for dialogue. The investigation asked two primary questions. First, how have Jews and Christians responded to the work of TMF? Second, in what ways did Jews and Christians learn how to dialogue within their interaction in the work of TMF? Results It was discovered that Jews and Christians reacted to the work of TMF in five ways: developing relationships, engaging in loving acts, remembering, restoring, and reconciling. These reactions produced the footing for dialogue. The data revealed a framework for dialogue that emerged from Jewish and Christian interaction, which consisted of seven components: addressing proselytism, developing common ground, gaining understanding, building a sense of community, speaking about matters of faith, confronting the present past, and overcoming differences among them. Conclusions The study discovered a potential model for Jewish and Christian dialogue and contributed a greater understanding of the experience of dialogue. Instead of meeting and talking, the distinctive difference of dialogue as encountered in this study is the creation of a nexus within the liminality of a cemetery in which Jews and Christians may mutually interact and cooperate in the restoration of Jewish cemeteries in Poland