The use of values to understand visitors to natural areas: a study of campers on the Murray River

In Australia, protected areas such as national parks have extensive strategies in place to ensure the natural environment is conserved, and visitors are provided with a range of opportunities for satisfying experiences. Many areas, such as those in privately owned or unprotected areas have not yet developed such measures. A growing but relatively unknown type of recreation and tourism is the vehicle-based market which includes caravanning, camping and four wheel driving. This market is attracted to these remote areas and is beginning to create a number of negative impacts. It is a significant management problem that relatively little is known about. This paper describes an exploratory study conducted at a site on the Murray River in South Australia. Campers were grouped into two clusters, Nature lovers and Recreationists, based upon their values. The clusters differed in their intrinsic, use and non-use values but were similar with respect to their recreation values. The clusters indicated some differences in their attitudes to management and their support for the introduction of facilities. The campers' perceptions of the site's naturalness were also measured

Preferences and values for forests and wetlands: a comparison of farmers, environmentalists, and the general public in Australia

[Abstract]: Over the past decades, a trend towards environmental concern has been measured in general population samples. Natural resource management is a complex area in which multiple stakeholders compete for their different views to be heard. Different entities and natural areas must also compete with each other for access to resources such as funding for research and management. This paper describes the natural area management preferences of three samples (general public, environmentalists and farmers) based upon their intrinsic and instrumental values. A cluster analysis of the combined sample shows that while some clusters indicated strong and opposing management preferences, most respondents indicated a mid-range position. Respondents from all samples held the same level of conservation or use preferences regardless of whether the area was a forest or a wetland, but some differences were shown towards endangered species

Tourism and Making the Places after War: The Somme and Ground Zero

The sites of war have varied from single fields of battle, to those at sea and in the air, to the long trench lines of the Great War (1914-1918), the vast cities and regions of World War Two and more recently, to small urban sites that epitomise the ‘War against Terror’.  This paper is primarily based upon the landscapes of the Great War in Europe, but it explores some of the similarities with the ‘Ground Zero’ terrorist attack in New York, with respect to the associations between memory, tourism and geography, and how these manifest as different landscapes. A core component in the commemoration and understanding of conflict is in actually visiting the site where events occurred. Tourists are known to perform a key role in the creation and maintenance of these important sites: not only do they ‘consume’ them, but tourists actively contribute towards creating a touristscape

Mission Impossible? Exploring the Limits of Managing Large IT Projects and Ways to Cross the Line

For decades much effort has been made to improve project management capabilities. Still, the failure rate remains high, especially for large IT projects. Our postmortem analysis of 15 large IT projects of the Swiss Federal Administration, with an accumulated loss of one billion U.S. dollars, shows that while project management deficits account for some of the failures, project failure is primarily caused by poor project governance capabilities. Based on insights gained from the initial failure analysis, the Swiss Federal Government decided to assess all its large IT projects based on our co-designed framework. Meanwhile, also private companies have assessed IT projects applying our framework. As a consequence, valuable discussions and measures have been initiated and sporadically projects were stopped. The data gained by these assessments will allow to identify patterns that promise to be a reference for governance actors and bodies what information to ask for, when to intervene, and how

European Defense in A New Age (#EDINA): Geostrategic Changes and European Responses Shaping the Defense Ecosystem

Delve into the transformation of Europe's defense landscape following Russia's Ukraine invasion in 2022 with our comprehensive report. Part of the long-term project on European Defense In a New Age (EDINA), this report provides expert insights on shifts in Europe's military order, defense cooperation, and geopolitical landscape, with a focus on Europe's evolving Defense Technological and Industrial Base (DTIB). Explore key findings on political change, potential divisions, and China's role and discover the seismic shifts reshaping European defense

The Future is Meta: Five Revolutionary Ideas for Cataloguing and Metadata in Libraries and Archives

A job talk given as part of an interview for a faculty librarian positio

Giving Voice to Australia’s Professional Tour Guides: Perspectives of their Social Identity

Professional tour guides (PTGs) play an instrumental role in Australia’s tourism industry, however, there is little understanding of their perspectives regarding their challenges, expectations, belonging, and recognition. Anecdotal evidence suggests that they lack a voice and feel neglected within the tourism industry. This study adopted an interpretivist approach to capture the voices and perspectives of 19 Australian PTGs, through focus group discussions and one-on-one interviews. This qualitative study was seen through the lens of Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory (1974). A key finding is that the tour guides’ strong sense of belonging is the motivating factor to address the lack of recognition, unmet expectations, as well as numerous challenges framed around Australia’s unregulated tour guiding industry. Belonging is the attribute that motivates them to engage and strive for better recognition

Práticas alternativas e inclusão na educação em ciências : da criação pedagógica ao afeto

Diferenças significativas são aquelas acompanhadas de preconceito e discriminação em maior intensidade, capazes de dificultar ou mesmo impedir a vivência plena dos direitos sociais do indivíduo. No campo da Educação, uma diferença significativa só se torna uma deficiência por conta da incapacidade do sistema escolar de oferecer as condições, sejam elas estruturais, institucionais ou pedagógicas para que as alunas e alunos possam exercer seu direito de aprender. Neste sentido, a Educação Inclusiva deve ser feita em todos os espaços escolares, seja com a construção de rampas de acesso ou com práticas pedagógicas que oportunizem a participação efetiva das alunas e alunos juntamente com toda a turma. A Educação em Ciências, foco deste estudo, deve proporcionar discussões que incitem a reflexão e a conscientização do nosso papel na sociedade como seres pertencentes à natureza e deve ser feita por meio de propostas pedagógicas que vão ao encontro da Educação Inclusiva. Desta forma, este trabalho teve o objetivo de analisar e descrever práticas lúdicas, artísticas e experimentais, ou seja, alternativas às tradicionalmente aplicadas na Educação em Ciências e discutir sobre o processo de criação pedagógica destas práticas. O objeto de estudo deste trabalho encontra-se em um acervo de registros de um projeto Universitário de Iniciação ao Ensino de Ciências, denominado “A educação inclusiva e a construção do pensamento científico”, trazendo, como resultado, um Portfólio contendo 23 Práticas Pedagógicas Alternativas (PPAs), suas descrições e relatos de criação e aplicação. Desta forma, este trabalho estimula e encoraja a educadora ou educador de ciências a desenvolver novas propostas baseando-se nas alunas e alunos com Necessidades Educacionais Especiais como sujeitos-centrais, de modo a inverter a lógica do planejamento pedagógico e buscar o educar inclusivo. Em sendo a prática pensada na esfera das potencialidades e necessidades do sujeito com diferenças significativas, maior a possibilidade de afetá-lo, no que se refere à memória de experiências e emoções, que influenciam diretamente no desenvolvimento deste sujeito. Este trabalho conclui que se faz necessário um maior diálogo entre as disciplinas sobre inclusão com as demais áreas específicas na formação de professoras e professores de Ciências, para que haja uma vivência contínua e significativa correlacionando estas duas dimensões ao longo de toda a formação e, por consequência, oferecendo um maior repertório de práticas inclusivas