Void Spaces

This thesis builds up a three part genealogy of the theoretical apprehensions of space through a three part narrative of a recently constructed public square, serving as the gateway to Edinburgh's new financial quarter, the Exchange. The aim of this genealogy and its narrative counterparts is to re-imagine the ways in which public spaces in the urban environment can be understood with reference to their materiality and use or non- use. This re-imagining aims to move away from all subjective accounts that focus only on varying degrees of use and the use-value of materiality and can lend themselves all to easily to ideals and aspirations of city planners and various scripted political projects. The thesis argues that of key importance in this re-imagining is to give space a clear role to play in its own apprehension. The argument of the thesis is that in order to apprehend public spaces in terms of their own materiality at one with use, a detailing of their materiality and use or non-use is insufficient if set up in juxtaposition to each other or made to interact through a dialectical confrontation. The thesis maintains that a strong empirical focus on the relations between materiality and use or non-use, on the most general level, will yield the most productive way of apprehending public spaces in terms of not reducing interactions between its materiality and use or non-use to a scripted theatre of determined functions and their subversion

Sustainable Tourism and Natural Resource Conservation in the Polar Regions

This book holds key papers from the fifth conference and community workshop of the International Polar Tourism Research Network (IPTRN), held in the village of Raufarhöfn (population 160) in Northeast Iceland at the end of August 2016. In total, 40 papers were presented at the conference which explored how expectations towards tourism development in peripheral places can be managed to contribute to the cultural well-being of peripheral communities and enhance the protection of the environment. The seven papers contained herein, in addition to the editorial, can roughly be grouped into two categories. The first set of four papers deals with methods and key assets for developing sustainable tourism operations in the Polar Regions. The second set of three papers deals more with the implications of different means of access to the more remote parts of the Polar Regions

What is the tourist landscape? Aspects and features of the concept

This paper will present a systematic review of the main publications for landscape and tourism research in Scopus and polish language databases. These were used to identify papers on landscape and tourism published from January 2003 to September 2013. A total of 382 articles and 37 other sources were identified, but 116 analysed. The analysis, focusing on the explicated relation between landscape and tourism, shows that it is a new but growing concern for geographers, ecologists, and landscape architects contributing to the debate. The result is a veritable smorgasbord of definitions and approaches. The objective of this paper is to systematise the current knowledge on tourism and landscape, review the existing definitions of the term “tourist landscape”, and determine its aspects and components in the context of proper functioning of regions. The paper concludes with a tentative definition of a tourist landscape and proposals for further scholarly research and some policy advice

Stefna íslenskra stjórnvalda og vöxtur ferðaþjónustu á jaðarsvæðum : Áhrif Héðinsfjarðarganga í Fjallabyggð

Peer reviewe

Dire necessity or mere opportunity? Recurring commercialization of peat exploited from raised bog commons in the Low Countries

Traditional commons scholarship, and in particular common-pool resource (CPR) theory, argues that historical commons institutions were autonomous, little influenced by either markets or states, and that commercialisation and sustainable collective use of common-pool resources were incompatible. This paper examines to what extent this view holds true. It does so by analysing historical sources on two local cases of peat commercialisation from raised bog commons in the early modern Low Countries: the Bakelse gemeint in the Peel region, and the commune de Xhoffraix in the Hautes Fagnes. The significance of peat commercialisation from commons was notably in its permanence, recurrence, and/or regional outreach, rather than in its limited volume share in total peat exploitation. Dire financial need of communities with high debts and taxes can partly explain the motives for peat commercialisation. Viewed over the longer term mere opportunity to gain some money was a plausible additional motive. In addition, stately institutions could influentially interfere in commons management in times of (internal) conflict. Sources indicate a pragmatic attitude towards peat commercialisation by these institutions, possibly to foster social peace and local prosperity in times of resource contestation and economic hardship. This study adds a novel intermediate category of peat exploitation to the traditional binary subdivision in domestic peat extraction from commons versus large-scale commercial exploitation of privatised bogs. We demonstrate that long-term use of common-pool resources could go together with a moderate degree of commercialisation. Rather than being fully autonomous, commons institutions were - structurally or at times of internal conflict - clearly impacted by markets, notions of private property, and stately institutions

Birtingarmyndir kyngervis og þversagnir í markaðsefni íslenskrar ferðaþjónustu

This article explores images in Icelandic tourism promotion and marketing. The empirical material presented is of two origins. First, images from tourist brochures promoting rural tourism in Iceland are explored. Second, the content of national marketing campaigns associated with marketing diversification in Icelandic tourism in the first years of the millennium, is detailed. The exploration is specifically focused on female representations in the marketing material and the discussion hinges on theories of images and gender in tourism studies. What is demonstrated is the paradox of women being objectified in a nation internationally recognised for successes in introducing gender equality. Thus an interesting perspective emerges for those studying processes of othering, which is traditionally associated with exoticism and race, effectively highlighting the role of gender and representations of femininity. The article concludes with some thoughts on how tourism promoters in Iceland could possibly make use of the country’s reputation in terms of gender equality and thus how tourism could help undermine hegemonic patriarchal discourses, which seemingly sustain the paradox observed

Riverhood: political ecologies of socionature commoning and translocal struggles for water justice

[EN] Mega-damming, pollution and depletion endanger rivers worldwide. Meanwhile, modernist imaginaries of ordering `unruly waters and humans' have become cornerstones of hydraulic-bureaucratic and capitalist development. They separate hydro/social worlds, sideline river-commons cultures, and deepen socio-environmental injustices. But myriad new water justice movements (NWJMs) proliferate: rooted, disruptive, transdisciplinary, multi-scalar coalitions that deploy alternative river-society ontologies, bridge South-North divides, and translate river-enlivening practices from local to global and vice-versa. This paper's framework conceptualizes `riverhood' to engage with NWJMs and river commoning initiatives. We suggest four interrelated ontologies, situating river socionatures as arenas of material, social and symbolic co-production: `river-as-ecosociety', `river-as-territory', `river-as-subject', and `river-as-movement'. globalThis work was supported by the ERC European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [Riverhood, Grant Number 101002921]; see also www.movingrivers.org.Boelens, R.; Escobar, A.; Bakker, K.; Hommes, L.; Swyngedouw, E.; Hogenboom, B.; Huijbens, EH.... (2023). Riverhood: political ecologies of socionature commoning and translocal struggles for water justice. The Journal of Peasant Studies. 50(3):1125-1156. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.21208101125115650

Denying bogus skepticism in climate change and tourism research

This final response to the two climate change denial papers by Shani and Arad further highlights the inaccuracies, misinformation and errors in their commentaries. The obfuscation of scientific research and the consensus on anthropogenic climate change may have significant long-term negative consequences for better understanding the implications of climate change and climate policy for tourism and create confusion and delay in developing and implementing tourism sector responses

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570