Urban tourism as a source of contention and social mobilisations: a critical review

Across the globe, there has been a proliferation of manifestations of discontent and protest around tourism-related issues in cities. This points to an increasing “politicization from below” of the impacts of the visitor economy on people and places, which is the result of the quantitative and qualitative transformation of urban tourism, and of the ways in which tourism has been governed (or not) in contemporary cities. This critical review discusses the variety of tourism-related social mobilisations recently witnessed in cities. It distinguishes between multi-focal versus single-issue mobilisations; between those purposefully and primarily focused on tourism and those which have integrated tourism within broader urban struggles; between those with a radical, progressive agenda for urban change versus those primarily defending narrower interests or exhibiting reactionary or hostile characteristics. The paper ends by discussing how urban governance and public policies have responded so far to the conflicts and social mobilisations around tourism

Place marketing and branding in (Anglophone) urban studies and urban political econony: a critical review

The paper offers a synthesized account of the different disciplinary, theoretical and normative perspectives offered by the (primarily Anglophone) literature on place marketing and branding. It first reviews the changing context which has given rise to place marketing and branding practices, i.e. the widespread shift towards ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘neoliberal’ forms of urban governance. It then reviews the ways in which such practices have been analysed by different disciplines, making a broad distinction between the body of literature linked to ‘new public management’ and the broad range of work falling under the loose label of ‘critical urban studies’ and urban political economy. Within the latter (which includes human geography, sociology, politics, planning, architectural and cultural studies), the paper contrasts two types of approaches: those shaped primarily by a materialist political economy approach and those of a cultural-semiotic nature. The paper then highlights the work of a small number of scholars who have sought to reconcile these approaches in a fruitful way to generate a better understanding of the politics of place marketing, branding and imaging and the role of the ‘symbolic’ in contemporary urban governance, to overcome the long-standing divide between ‘culture’ and ‘economy’, between the study of ‘symbolic’ and ‘material’ processes in urban studies

Territorial politics, devolution and spatial planning in the UK: results, prospects, lessons

© 2015 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis.This article critically analyses the debates which have unfolded in the aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum of 18 September 2014 concerning the constitutional arrangements of the UK as a plurinational state and the internal governmental structure of England. The debates unfolding in the UK reflect and illustrate two central themes in planning, territorial development and public policy. First, they highlight the contested distribution of power across multiple layers of government in states with an inherited centralized pattern of governance that are now facing strengthening regionalist and nationalist claims. Second, they illustrate the linked growth in the demand for new governance and strategic planning arrangements in large metropolitan areas with fragmented administrative and institutional boundaries. The article first discusses what the outcome of the Scottish referendum (and its aftermath) means for planning in Scotland. It then turns to the debates on devolution in the rest of UK which were stoked in the wake of the referendum, looking at the planning implications of further devolution in Northern Ireland and Wales, and at the possible consequences of the various options currently being aired to solve the ‘English question’. Finally, ongoing debates on decentralization to regions and city-regions in England are briefly considered

Urban tourism as a source of contention and social mobilisations: a critical review

Across the globe, there has been a proliferation of manifestations of discontent and protest around tourism-related issues in cities. This points to an increasing “politicisation from below” of the impacts of the visitor economy on people and places, which is the result of the quantitative and qualitative transformation of urban tourism, and of the ways in which tourism has been governed (or not) in contemporary cities. This critical review discusses the variety of tourism-related social mobilisations recently witnessed in cities. It distinguishes between multi-focal versus single-issue mobilisations; between those purposefully and primarily focused on tourism and those which have integrated tourism within broader urban struggles; between those with a radical, progressive agenda for urban change versus those primarily defending narrower interests or exhibiting reactionary or hostile characteristics. The paper ends by discussing how urban governance and public policies have responded so far to the conflicts and social mobilisations around tourism

Urban tourism and its discontents: an introduction

This chapter examines Belfast, Northern Ireland as a case study in order to analyse how the politics of tourism development intersect with the politics of ethnic conflict in deeply divided cities with histories of violent conflict. Policy-makers began strategizing Belfast's comeback long before the conflict was settled. Protestants, in turn, frame the hardships of their communities in light of the Catholic community's growing financial and political influence. As Baker states, if there is one thing that can be said for sectarianism, it gives meaning to one's life and it is free at the point of entry'. The economic growth that was supposed to undermine ethnic tension has become a driver of the old conflict in a new form. Groups are also attempting to circumvent state constraints by seeking investment from international organizations such as the European Union or the International Fund for Ireland

Spatial planning, nationalism and territorial politics in Europe

The paper explores whether spatial planning, infrastructure, and territorial management issues and policies are an important field of mobilization for nationalist actors in European substate contexts characterized by demands for more autonomy or independence: Scotland, Catalonia and Flanders. It is shown that such issues are sometimes mobilized to support the autonomist or separatist political agendas of substate nationalist parties, but that this varies significantly in the three cases, because of the different political ideologies of each nationalist party vis-à-vis the role of the state and the legitimacy of public policy interventions in private property, land development and market processes

General Principles of Military Organization

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LHWCA Section 905(b) and Scindia: The Confused Tale of a Legal Pendulum

The article presents the U.S. Supreme Court case Scindia Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. v. De Los Santos to discuss Section 905(b) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers\u27 Compensation Act (LHWCA), which provided negligence as a course of action in advancing workers\u27 compensation claims

A European perspective on Anglo-Scottish cross-border cooperation: lessons from EU-funded territorial cooperation programmes

The article aims to reflect on the development and prospects of cross-border cooperation between Scotland and England in a European perspective. Over the past 25 years the EU has supported specific programmes of cooperation across the EU’s internal borders (INTERREG), which have allowed thousands of local and regional actors to work on common actions, projects or strategies to overcome long-standing processes of conflict, competition or lack of cooperation. The paper first discusses the added-value and shortcomings of these EU territorial cooperation initiatives, before considering recent developments and future options for cooperation across the Anglo-Scottish border. In capturing how the drive for local and regional actors within the EU to engage in trans-boundary cooperation is shaped by both the a priori existence of strong, historically-rooted cross-border relationships and by more pragmatic concerns to access new resources and policy ideas, the article goes on to examine how such motivations have played out across the Anglo-Scottish border. While acknowledging the benefits of trans-boundary co-operation, the article provides a more cautious assessment of the various barriers and asymmetries that can hinder cross-border co-operation and, in focusing on the area of spatial planning, highlights a particular challenge for economic and social collaborations across the Anglo-Scottish border. The article ends with a brief reflexion on the implications of the results of the 2016 Brexit referendum, before concluding with the most relevant lessons from European territorial cooperation initiatives for Anglo-Scottish cross-border cooperation