Exporting consumption: Lifestyle migration and energy use

This paper examines how international population movements from highly developed to less developed countries spread environmentally-impactful consumption habits around the world. Lifestyle migration, a phenomenon whereby relatively privileged migrants move in search of a more fulfilling life, is increasingly common around the world and serves as an optimal example for studying the spread of unsustainable consumption. We wonder whether lifestyle migrants take high consumption lifestyles typical in their countries of origin to their destination places and whether their presence in destination communities increases consumption among natives as well. This study investigates these relationships based on the case of Costa Rica, a well-established recipient country for lifestyle migration. We analyze 100% sample microdata from the Costa Rican Census 2011 to test relationships between lifestyle migration and consumption of energy-intensive goods using multilevel models that nest consumption at the household level within communities. Our findings suggest that lifestyle migrants not only consume more energy-intensive goods than native Costa Ricans, but that their presence elevates consumption among native neighbors as well. Thus, lifestyle migration may increasingly serve as a mechanism through which unsustainable consumption patterns are transferred from the Global North to the Global South.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Centro Centroamericano de Población (CCP

Profiling Attached Residents in an Urban Community in the U.S.: An Empirical Study of Social–Landscape Interactions within a Park

Community attachment has been studied predominantly in terms of the social dimensions of community life, which explains what makes residents feel connected to a locality. Following a more recent trend within the community attachment literature, this study examined the role of communities’ physical dimensions in fostering sentiments of rootedness and connections to communities. More specifically, the study sought to better understand the role that urban parks play in predicting community attachment using a discriminant analysis technique to profile attached residents. We selected Discovery Green Park in Houston, Texas, as the study site, where we administered 606 total surveys to park visitors inquiring about their interactions with the park itself, emotional connections to it, and social interactions within the park. We found that strongly attached residents tend to be older, have a greater reliance on the park service and programs, and have meaningful interactions with new people in the park and frequently visit the park in groups to socialize and relax. Additionally, those who are strongly attached to the community attribute greater symbolic meanings to Discovery Green and more strongly identify with the park. The profile of residents attached to the community, given their interactions with the park and its visitors, provides important knowledge to both park managers and community leaders; they can use this information to create conditions, fostering more strongly attached residents who tend to be active agents of positive change in the community

Cultural Immersion Camps and Development of Ethnic Identity in Asian American Youth

The purpose of this study was to explore camp outcomes specialized in ethnic identity among Asian American youth after they participated in a residential cultural immersion camp. In this study, the cultural immersion camp is viewed as a mediating factor that channels other influences in such a way as to guide Asian American youth to commit more expressly and more fully to their perception of ethnic identity. The results obtained from 3 cultural immersion camps located in the Western United States reveals that cultural immersion camp experiences significantly increase perceived levels of ethnic identity among Asian American youth. Implications of cultural immersion camp on the development of Asian American youth are discussed

Amenity/Lifestyle Migration in the Chilean Andes: Understanding the Views of “The Other” and Its Effects on Integrated Community Development

Within the context of domestic amenity/lifestyle migration, we are interested in understanding the way local rural residents and migrants: (1) view each other; and (2) how those views affect an integrated community development. Using alterity theory as a guiding framework, we engaged in a qualitative study to examine such views and their effects along the lines of three axes: an epistemological (what people know about the other), an axiological (how people value the other), and a praxeological (how people interact with the other) one in the Chilean community of Malalcahuello. Findings suggests that, overall, both types of residents know little of the other, have and constantly reproduce negative value judgments of the other, and relate only in mundane non-significant ways. We provide explanations of how these relate to the reported diminished community development efforts in town

Amenity Migration in the New Global Economy: Current Issues and Research Priorities

© 2015, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Drawing from a panel session held in June 2013 at the 19th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management in Estes Park, CO, this article offers a review of the current state of research on amenity migration and calls for future research to more comprehensively address critical gaps in the literature. We highlight five promising avenues for future research on amenity migration: international patterns—both domestic outside the Global North and across national borders, inequality, interdisciplinary investigations, the importance of policy contexts, and the effects of contemporary social, economic, and demographic factors

Incorporating Physical Environment-Related Factors in an Assessment of Community Attachment: Understanding Urban Park Contributions

Community sociologists have examined community attachment through an almost exclusive focus on people’s social relations. Recent research efforts have noted the neglect of the physical place in traditional community sociological studies. Doing this has brought the physical environment into their discussions of community attachment. Despite this progress, we remain limited in our understanding of the physical environment’s contribution to peoples’ attachment to their communities and whether its effect on community attachment is applicable in the context of urban settings. In an effort to expand our knowledge of this topic, this study explored the contributions of the urban physical environment on community attachment. By selecting the Discovery Green Park as a typical form of physical environment in Houston, Texas, this study sought to investigate how people’s levels of community attachment could be predicted by: (1) peoples’ interactions with an urban park; (2) people’s emotional connections with such a park; and (3) peoples’ social interactions with others within the park. After conducting a series of block model regression analyses, we found that community attachment was not completely defined by social factors, but also depended upon peoples’ emotional connections with the local physical environment and the social interactions happening in those settings

Examining the Conflicting Relationship between U.S. National Parks and Host Communities: Understanding a Community’s Diverging Perspectives

The growing importance of participatory and collaborative approaches in resource management has resulted in an increased emphasis on identifying the complex relationships between natural national parks and neighboring rural communities. Given the limited number of studies dealing with parks beyond rural areas, our exploratory case study examines how conflict stemming from diverse community stakeholders’ perspectives and values in regard to the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park influences their involvement and attitudes toward park management. Thirty-two interviews were conducted and analyzed using a content-analysis methodology. Guided by the Progress Triangle conflict management framework, each stakeholder’s views, interests, and aspirations associated with the missions were organized according to the framework’s three dimensions: Substance, procedure, and relationship. The study findings discussed how stakeholders’ varying perspectives regarding cultural resources influenced their interactions with urban historical national parks and their attitudes toward park management. Furthermore, how stakeholders can reconcile their differences through a collaborative approach for better park management was discussed