Urban tourist precincts as sites of play

This chapter examines the urban tourism precinct as an organised space for playful forms of leisure in the city. We argue that these spaces create an environment for leisured interaction where both visitor and host engage as mutual actors in urban playgrounds. The chapter commences with a conceptual overview of the urban tourism precinct. It then considers the notion of play through an analysis of selected seminal discourses. These discourses are linked to the precinct in the context of a play space within the city using data gathered from two studies conducted in The Rocks and Darling Harbour precincts in Sydney, Australia (Hayllar and Griffin 2005, 2006). The chapter concludes with a discussion on the implications for the design and management of urban tourism precincts

Rural and village tourism in developing countries

Planning for tourism in villages is difficult, especially where the natural and cultural environments are sensitive to the impact of visitors and where local and governmental control are in tension. There is a tendency to overlook the subtle differences between places, and to improse stereotype solutions. A series of case studies shows that tourism plans are not always founded on planning principles that have been interpreted to facilitate local control and expression. This paper examines planning for ruraltourism in developing countries; examples from Indonesia and Thailand reveal a set of principles that could be adopted to develop tourism sympathetically

Outback Queensland tourism

The geographical consequences of tourism are coming under increasing scrutiny, particularly as the level of tourism activity threatens new forms of environmental disturbance. The research reported in this paper pursues two intentions; firstly, to identify geographical patterns of tourism development; secondly, to speculate on the application of a number of geographical principles which may be used both to analyse prevailing circumstances and then to underpin the creation of appropriate tourism policies. The general discussion in the paper is supported by empirical evidence from central and western Queensland. In sequence, this paper will review briefly the study area and will consider a number of concepts which may be used to help understand the distribution of tourism destinations and attractions. Three case studies will be examined at different hierarchical levels of tourism attraction, and a few speculative comments will be offered by way of conclusion. -from Autho

Nauru: Substituting one dependency for another? A challenge to the orthodoxy of sustainable development

Although the general thrust of strategies to achieve sustainable development is focused on the careful husbanding of various resources, there are some circumstances in which a different focus is necessary. The central Pacific island of Nauru is a special case in which the principal resource, phosphate, has been mined almost to the point of exhaustion. For this island microstate the challenge becomes 'what to do next?', a question which is particularly acute because there is little else which can be done on the island. This represents a challenge to the orthodoxy of sustainable development. In this paper the special circumstances of Nauru are examined to reveal the difficulties which may be encountered in developing countries when the primary resource is exhausted, not least in finding a suitable strategy to maintain a sustainable state

Ideological fundamentalism in town planning-an exploratory appraisal

Modern town planning has developed from a diffuse and unstable set of philosophical and technical stimuli, to which has been added the provocations of contemporary scientific achievements. There is a persistent danger that town planning can become 'dehumanized' persuing altruistic internally-generated rather than anthropocentric goals and objectives. This paper explores some of the basic philosophical and ideological parameters of planning as a step towards the establishment of a substantial raison d'etre for the craft-expressed succinctly it attempts to review a possible basis for ideological fundamentalism in town planning by examining the concept of social justice, the spectrum of ideology, the historical legacy of town planning and its commitment to spatial systems

Revealing the elusive obvious: making sense of creative practice through reflection and writing out

This article draws on the idea of the elusive obvious as a useful way of examining how creative arts practitioners can make sense of their practice through expressive writing. Defining the elusive obvious as that ethereal aspect of creative arts practice that is often palpable to the practitioner but equally hard to pin down within the creative process, the article argues that expressive writing enables the creative practitioner to engage with their practice in insightful ways that integrate theoretical insights and help to reveal the elusive obvious, which in turn gives life to what is being explored. It examines ways in which expressive writing could be used to facilitate practitioners' experience of their creative practice and facilitate a better appreciation of the interconnectedness of practice (doing) and theory (critical reflection and analysis) in the creative arts. The article draws on discussions on practice as research to highlight the distinction between 'writing out' and 'writing up'; where 'writing out' calls attention to the idea of 'searching' within the creative process, while 'writing up' is firmly located in the recording and documentation phase of that practice. It argues that it is within this process of 'writing out' - of searching - that the elusive obvious can be revealed. The article also illustrates how reflective practice/writing can be understood through drama. It examines how reflective practice/writing can often lead to 'eureka' moments when, by personalizing their practice within the creative working environment, practitioners suddenly discover the elusive obvious. Through the ideas explored in this article, we invite a consideration of how expressive writing can act as a vehicle through which meaning could be found. This article argues, therefore, that expressive writing is not an end in itself, but is exploratory and transient in nature, and a rich terrain for the elusive obvious to be revealed