The tropes of celebrity environmentalism

Celebrity advocacy for environmental causes has grown dramatically in recent decades. An examination of this expansion and the rise of causes such as climate change reveals the shifting politics and organization of advocacy. We address these changes to the construction and interpretation of celebrity advocacy and detail how they have produced a rich variety of environmental celebrity advocates. We also account for differences between legacy (e.g., radio, TV, newspapers) and online celebrities and their practices (e.g., hashtag publics, brandjacking, online communities). Environmental celebrity advocates’ performances can be divided into nine tropes, each characterized in part by the particular varieties of environmentalism that they promote. We present the tropes and discuss their five cross-cutting themes. We conclude with a set of questions for future research on celebrity environmentalism

Rapid emergence of boscalid resistance in Swedish populations of Alternaria solani revealed by a combination of field and laboratory experiments

Early blight, caused by Alternaria solani, is a common potato disease worldwide. Reduced field efficacy of the fungicide boscalid against this disease has been reported in several countries. Boscalid resistance has been mostly studied with in-vitro and/or greenhouse experiments. Field studies validating this phenomenon are largely missing. Here, for the first time in Scandinavia, we validated boscalid resistance in a Swedish population of A. solani both in the field and in the laboratory. Field trials between 2014 and 2017 in Nymo showed significant efficacy reduction by year. The target regions of the A. solani genes encoding the succinate dehydrogenase subunits (Sdh) B, C and D of samples collected from Nymo, and additional fields in south-eastern and central Sweden, were analysed for substitutions associated with loss of boscalid sensitivity. In 2014, the SdhC-H134R mutation was found at several sites at a low frequency, while, in 2017, the majority of the samples had either the SdhB-H278Y or the SdhC-H134R substitution. No mutations were detected in the gene encoding the SdhD subunit. Spore germination tests showed a high sensitivity (EC50 100 mu g mL(-1) and their growth rates hardly decreased at concentrations above 1-10 mu g mL(-1). These results add to the current knowledge of fungicide resistance development in field and indicate that early blight management in southeast Sweden should no longer rely on boscalid

Journeys from the east: the popular geopolitics of film motivated Chinese tourism

Over the past five years the number of outbound travellers from the People's Republic of China (PRC) doubled, making Chinese tourists the largest group of international travellers in the world. Drawing on media reports of the impact of box office hits on Chinese outbound tourism, we explore how popular cinema informs the Chinese tourism boom's impact on the everyday geopolitics of Sino-host tourism encounters. Through a critical discourse analysis of representations of tourism practices in Chinese film, we highlight key tropes of economic and political power that present touristic practices as imaginable, aspirational, and attainable. We then examine how actual tourism encounters compare to their onscreen imaginaries. Drawing on theoretical and methodological insights from film studies, political anthropology and geography, this article contributes to emerging multi-disciplinary work on how filmic representations of Chinese tourism mediates the ongoing rearticulation of geopolitics within what has been dubbed the 'Chinese Century'

Moral assemblages of volunteer tourism development in Cusco, Peru

In this paper, we develop a conceptual approach from which to examine the moral landscape of volunteer tourism development in Cusco, Peru. Drawing from recent work on assemblage theory in geography and tourism studies, we explore how assemblage thinking can facilitate new understandings of volunteer tourism development. Using assemblage as an analytical framework allows us to understand volunteer tourism as a series of relational, processual, unequal and mobile practices. These practices, we argue, are constituted through a broader aggregation of human and non-human actors that co-construct moral landscapes of place. Thus, reconsidering volunteer tourism as assemblage allows for more inclusive and nuanced understandings of how geopolitical discourses as well as historical, political, economic and cultural conjunctures mediate volunteer tourism development, planning and policy. Finally, this paper calls for further research that integrates assemblage theory and tourism planning and development

Reduced efficacy of biocontrol agents and plant resistance inducers against potato early blight from greenhouse to field

Early blight in potato, caused by Alternaria solani, is mainly controlled by frequent applications of synthetic fungicides. Reducing the use of synthetic fungicides in agriculture is desired to reach an overall sustainable development since the active components can be harmful for humans and for the ecosystem. In integrated pest management, IPM, the idea is to combine various measures, including optimized crop management, crop rotation, use of resistant cultivars, biological control agents (BCAs), plant resistance inducers, and fertilizers, to decrease the dependence on traditional chemical fungicides. In this paper, we present the results from greenhouse and field trials where we evaluated the effect of strategies aimed at reducing our reliance on synthetic fungicides including treatments with biological control agents (BCAs) (Pythium oligandrum, Polygandron (R), and Bacillus subtilis, Serenade (R)) and plant resistance inducers (silicon products HortiStar (R) and Actisil (R)) for early blight in potato. The agents were applied separately or in combination with each other or with synthetic fungicides. In the greenhouse, trials application of these agents resulted in 50-95% reduction of infection by A. solani, but their combination did not generally improve the outcome. However, the effects were much smaller in the hand-sprayed field trials, 20-25% disease reduction and almost disappeared in full-scale field trials where application was done with tractor sprayers. In this article, we discuss possible reasons behind the drop in efficacy from greenhouse trials to full-size field evaluation

Challenging the responsibility of ‘responsible volunteer tourism’

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This section of the journal encourages discussion between several authors on a policy-related topic. The same question may, therefore, be addressed from different theoretical, cultural or spatial perspectives. Dialogues may be applied or highly abstract. This Dialogue starts with this contribution and is followed by four comments by Sharpley https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2017.1362798; Reid https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2017.1362799; Coghlan https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2017.1362800 and, finally, Burrai and Hannam’s reflections prompted by the observations of fellow contributors https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2017.1362810

Destination Stakeholders' Perceptions of Volunteer Tourism: An Equity Theory Approach

This study explores destination stakeholders' perceptions of volunteer tourism (VT) using equity theory. In this paper, 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand individuals' needs, motivations, expectations and their assessments of inputs and outcomes. Equity theory sheds light on the micro-level of interaction between residents and volunteers and demonstrates why and how residents of Cusco (Peru) with an active role in VT develop certain perceptions in direct encounters with volunteer tourists. The data reveal how perceptions differ according to the respondents' social roles within VT. Heterogeneity, dynamism and a fluctuation between materialities and affection are discussed as important outcomes of these interactions

Rethinking media responsibility in the refugee ‘crisis’: a visual typology of European news

In this paper, we analyse how news images of the 2015 Syrian refugee ‘crisis’ visualise refugees and how, in so doing, they mobilise various forms of moral responsibility in ‘our’ mediated public life – various practical dispositions of action towards the misfortunes of migrants and refugees at Europe’s border. On the basis of empirical material from European news (June-December 2015), we construct a typology of visibilities of the ‘crisis’, each of which situates refugees within a different regime of visibility and claim to action: i) visibility as biological life, associated with monitorial action; ii) visibility as empathy associated with charitable action; iii) visibility as threat, associated with state security; iv) visibility as hospitality, associated with political activism; and v) visibility as selfreflexivity, associated with a post-humanitarian engagement with people like ‘us’. In conclusion, we argue that, important as these five categories of visibility are in introducing public dispositions to action towards the vulnerable, they nonetheless ultimately fail to humanise migrants and refugees. This failure to portray them as human beings with lives that are worth sharing should compel us, we urge, to radically re-think how we understand the media’s responsibility towards vulnerable others