Gastronomy as a social catalyst in the creative place-making process

This paper examines the integration of gastronomy in the creative place-making process. The study is based on the interviews with the organizers of five gastronomy events: a cooking workshop, a gastronomy festival, a series of gastronomy events at museums, a gastronomy theatre performance and an intimate dinner event. The contextual analysis shows that gastronomy events can contribute to five important features defining quality of place: diversity, liveliness, innovativeness, creativity and openness/tolerance. The final phase of our study brings comparison with findings in art-based place-making studies and discusses on diversity, integration in development policies and replicability potential of analyzed gastronomy events

Vloga polkmetij v preobrazbi slovenskih obmestij

This volume (‘The role of part-time farms in the transformation of the urban fringe’) discusses the role of part-time farms in the economic, environmental and spatial transformation of the urban fringe. On the basis of the sample of Slovene suburban farms, the impact level of the proximity of workplaces on the mobility of the agricultural workforce was determined. It was also determined if socio-economic characteristics of suburban agricultural economies reflect in the characteristics of farm management and in the environment. This consequently stresses the role of part-time farms in the strengthening of multi-layered agriculture.Knjiga obravnava vlogo polkmetij v gospodarski, okoljski in prostorski preobrazbi obmestij. Geografski, sociološki in ekonomski vidiki polkmetij so bili že raziskani in so povzeti v prvem delu knjige. Sledi predstavitev raziskave slovenskih obmestnih kmetij, s katero avtorica ugotavlja, kakšen je vpliv bližine trga delovnih mest na mobilnost kmečke delovne sile, ali se socialno-ekonomske značilnosti obmestnih kmetijskih gospodarstev odražajo v značilnostih gospodarjenja in posledično v prostoru ter kakšna je vloga polkmetij pri krepitvi večnamenske vloge kmetijstva.Rezultati so pokazali, da je kmetijstvo na večini kmetij le stranska dejavnost, stopnja urbanizacije območja, kjer je določena kmetija, pa pri tem, nekoliko presenetljivo, nima statistično pomembne vloge. S podrobno analizo vzorčnih obmestnih kmetij je bilo ugotovljeno, da so polkmetije glede na površino obdelovalnih zemljišč manjše od čistih, struktura njihovega gospodarjenja je prostorsko bolj razdrobljena in prispeva k večji pokrajinski pestrosti. V zadnjem delu knjige so predstavljeni tudi rezultati vrednotenja večnamenske vloge kmetijstva po posameznih socialno-ekonomskih tipih kmetij

Agriculture in modern landscapes: A factor hindering or facilitating development?

Agriculture plays an important role in both protecting and developing farmland. In Slovenia, the main reasons for this loss are urbanization and the implementation of large development projects that require the destruction of fertile farmland. About 3000 ha of farmland has been lost each year since Slovenia’s independence. The importance of agriculture and farmland is touched upon in this special issue of Acta geographica Slovenica. The authors focus on management of farmland, analyse the development potential for agriculture, observe the changes in the landscape by remote sensing, soil quality and its pollution, and land cover as an element of biodiversity. They draw attention to the lack of participation in spatial planning procedures and the question of the importance of agriculture and jobs in this sector in national economy. This introductory paper brings a short analysis of how the issue of farms’ spatial constraints and moving farm structures to new locations is perceived by municipal offices, nature parks, and the Slovenian Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry and its regional offices

Gastronomy tourism: A brief introduction

The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical and conceptual introduction for the special issue on the interactions between food and territory manifested in gastronomy tourism. We focus on four perspectives: sustainability, the role of heritage, the potential for rural development and the networking of stakeholders. The contributions critically examine the development potentials but also the weaknesses of the growing gastronomy tourism. The case study approach and qualitative methods provide a detailed and concrete insight into the emerging challenges of host communities, tourism businesses and farmers, public policy makers and visitors. The special issue also provides applicable results for stakeholders involved in the strategic development, creation and consumption of tourism offerings

Evaluating the development potential of farms on urban outskirts: methodology

This article presents a methodology for evaluating the development potential of farms on urban outskirts, which forms an important basis for long-term (spatial) planning of the development of Slovenian agriculture. It uses publically available spatial and statistical data, and analyzes and evaluates the characteristics of farms that show their future development potential and tendencies: vitality and stability, potential to expand, potential for conflicts, quality and structure of farmland, and effects of spatial planning and special protection measures on their development potential. This methodology is used to evaluate farms on urban outskirts, where development factors differ from those in areas with less favorable farming conditions

Spatial limitations on farms in urban outskirts

Farms face spatial pressures, disagreements with the non-farming population, and accessibility restrictions especially on urban outskirts. Limitations within settlements prevent them from expanding farm buildings or making changes to the areas used for work on the farm. Such a situation is the result of unsuitable spatial planning of settlements, in which farmland was included within areas zoned for development. This article focuses on spatial limitations on farms in the settlement of Moste in the Municipality of Komenda. These were determined by using officially available spatial data and records and by using geographical information systems. The analysis also included applicable spatial acts by the Municipality of Komenda, on the basis of which future expansion opportunities for farms were assessed

The role of part-time farms in the economic, environmental and spatial transformation of the urban fringe

The doctoral dissertation focuses on the role of part-time farms in the economic, environmental and spatial transformation of the urban fringe. On the basis of the sample of Slovene suburban farms, the impact level of the proximity of workplaces on the mobility of the agricultural workforce can be determined. It can also be determined if socio-economic characteristics of suburban agricultural economies reflect in the characteristics of farm management and in the environment. This consequently stresses the role of part-time farms in the strengthening of multi-layered agriculture.\ud From the perspective of spatial planning, it is important to learn about the development potential of farms in the planned area and to put greater emphasis on the most vital and stable farms, whether they be pure farms or part-time farms. As an answer to the question in what way should the development potential of farms in the selected area within the acceptable temporal and financial scope be evaluated, a methodology for evaluating the development potential of suburban farms from the perspective of socio-economic and spatial conditions was formed. The evaluation was divided into four segments: the evaluation of the stability and vitality of farms; the evaluation of the expansion potential and the conflict potential among farms; the evaluation of the quality and structure of agricultural land; and the evaluation of the impacts of spatial planning and protective measures on the development potential of farms. The methodology may be employed for the evaluation of all socio-economic farm types. It was tested on the case of sample farms on the Kamniška Bistrica plain \ud The end of the dissertation offers suggestions for spatial site selection of farms and agricultural activities in urban settlements or other planned areas. These suggestions comprise some hypothetical examples of site selection of farms in the environment to guarantee a more efficient performance of farms and only minimal conflicts with the rest of the population.\u

The Alps: A physical geography, political, and program framework

In order to improve the understanding of the concepts featured in this special issue of Acta geographica Slovenica, this review article presents the Alps as a geographical concept, the Alpine Convention, and the Alpine Space transnational cooperation program. All three categories have a different spatial scope and thus must be clearly defined and distinguished from one another

Certification, labelling and branding in tourism research: systematic review

The aim of this paper is to present a systematic review of tourism certification, labelling and branding research. To review the scientific literature, we followed the PRISMA methodological approach. We started by outlining the spatial and temporal distribution of research linked to certification, labelling and branding, carried out in the social sciences and humanities. In the second step, we extracted the theoretical definitions and characteristics of these three processes in tourism from a selected body of literature. We continued by analysing hierarchical and non-hierarchical relations between certification and branding, and by drawing conclusions linked to duality, or even contradictions that are emerging in this field of tourism research

Sustainable spatial development in the Alps

This special issue of Acta geographica Slovenica discusses selected topics in spatial development in the Alps from the perspective of spatial planning legislation, stakeholder engagement in spatial planning decisions, tools that enable the effective flow of expertise and exchange of instruments, and best practices across the Alps, as well as from the economic perspective using the example of Alpine regions’ reaction to the economic crisis that affected Europe and the rest of the world at the end of the past decade. By including articles written as part of the WIKIAlps project, which was financed through the EU transnational cooperation program Alpine Space, this special issue seeks to invigorate discussions on sustainable spatial development in the Alps and thus contributes to a greater familiarity with this issue and to more prudent decisions