25,676 research outputs found
Ambiguous memorial landscapes in post-socialist cities: The case of Tirana's Pyramid
No full textThis article is a descriptive study that narrates the history of the so-called “Pyramid” since 1991 and explores why it was never either restored or demolished. The Pyramid is a memorial landscape in Tirana, constructed to commemorate former socialist leader Enver Hoxha. The Pyramid became a landmark building in Tirana and has been recurrently discussed. The Pyramid has survived all discussions, decisions, and plans, but is now in decay. Generating clear answers regarding the continued existence of the Pyramid proved to be arduous, as the Pyramid has been subject to overlapping discourses around architecture and urban design, politics, history, memory, and identity. The first main conclusion of the study is that the Pyramid is hardly recognized as a memorial landscape. A second is that various governments have developed ideas, discussed, and quarrelled, but political parties could not reach an actionable conclusion – refunctioning of the Pyramid is apparently too complex. A survey was carried out to understand what the general population thinks about the Pyramid. Most respondents indicated that their attachment to the Pyramid is not very strong and they are in favour of redevelopment. The paper concludes with recommendations for adding elements of a memorial landscape to the planned redevelopment of the Pyramid
Ecosystem-Based Governance of Forest Commons - The Case of Shkumbini River Basin, Albania [Governance basata sui principi dell’ecosistema sui beni comuni forestali - Il bacino fluviale di Shkumbin, Albania]
No full textLe interazioni uomo-ambiente incorporate nei sistemi socio-ecologici stanno diventando sempre più complesse, a causa dell'aumento del dominio umano sulle risorse del pianeta. Da più di mezzo secolo, il discorso su queste interazioni è dominato dal paradigma dello sviluppo sostenibile, ma l’applicabilità di questa nozione astratta è ancora in evoluzione a causa del suo principale dilemma: l'incertezza. La resilienza degli ecosistemi e delle istituzioni, quindi la loro adattabilità e solidità, è un percorso critico verso la comprensione degli sviluppi sostenibili e dei mezzi per raggiungerli. Tuttavia, nonostante le crescenti conoscenze sulla resilienza dei sistemi socio-ecologici, altre tre lacune necessitano di ulteriori ricerche, in particolare: 1) il sistema umano di valori utilizzato per indirizzare le risorse naturali nella pianificazione e nella governance. Questo sistema è principalmente utilitaristico e ha considerazioni limitate sulle prospettive egualitarie e morali ed etiche delle risorse naturali; 2) il lento processo di integrazione dei principi e dei valori dell'ecosistema nella governance e nella pianificazione territoriale, come mezzo per collegare la governance con uno sviluppo territoriale equilibrato; 3) e la mancata corrispondenza tra i livelli di governance, dai regimi tradizionali di successo dei beni comuni alle minacce e politiche globali. Le lacune sopracitate mostrano che i collegamenti tra il lavoro teorico sulle risorse dei beni comuni - un modello di successo dell'azione collettiva su piccola scala comunitaria e la ecosystem-based governance - un modello di governance scientifica e territoriale sono entrambi mancanti o deboli. L’intenzione di questa ricerca è esplorare le opportunità per stabilire questi collegamenti e, auspicabilmente, il contribuire al discorso globale sul superamento della mancata corrispondenza spazio-temporale tra istituzioni e modelli di governo, attraverso la creazione di un modello di ricerca. È necessaria una governance basata sulla ecosystem-based governance delle risorse naturali per attenuare le mancate corrispondenze territoriali e ottenere uno sviluppo territoriale sostenibile ed equilibrato. Questa ricerca si sviluppa attorno alla seguente questione centrale: possono i modelli / regimi dei beni comuni forestali influenzare positivamente l'impostazione della governance convenzionale a favore della sostenibilità e superare la mancata corrispondenza tra "confini e scale"? Metodologicamente, l'area geografica di ricerca è un bacino fluviale, come spazio naturale e funzionale per i confini dei servizi degli ecosistemi. Oltre a sviluppare una discussione critica sulle teorie delle risorse del bene comune e dei servizi dell’ecosistema, la ricerca include il lavoro sul campo attraverso: l’ osservazione diretta del bacino e delle foreste, focus groups con gli utenti delle risorse del bene comune per identificare e testare gli 8 principi di design delle solide istituzioni delle risorse comuni, interviste con funzionari ed esperti per analizzare le variabili SESMAD per commons su larga scala, e test dell'acqua e questionari per gli utenti della foresta per decostruire il concetto di valutazione dei servizi dell’ecosistema. Una mappatura dei bilanci della domanda e dell'offerta (SE) è realizzata per collegare il sistema di governance agli effetti territoriali dei servizi dell’ecosistema. L'esistenza di vari valori viene quindi verificata all'interno delle istituzioni delle risorse comuni. La ricerca fornisce un quadro logico per l'ulteriore e più approfondito studio della governance basata sui principi dell’ecosistema sui beni comuni forestali, come mezzo per collegare le istituzioni con il territorio e le conoscenze scientifiche sui servizi degli ecosistemi.Human-environment interactions, embedded into socio-ecological systems are becoming more and more complex, due to increasing human dominance over the planet’s resources. Since more than half a century, the discourse on these interactions is dominated by the sustainability development paradigm, but the operationalization of this abstract notion is still in evolution due to its main dilemma – uncertainty. Resilience of ecosystems and institutions, therefore their adaptability and robustness, is a critical path towards understanding sustainable developments and means for achieving it. However, despite growing knowledge on the resilience of socio-ecological systems, three other gaps need further research, namely: 1) the human system of values used to address natural resources in planning and governance. This system is mainly utilitarian and has limited considerations on the egalitarian and moral & ethics perspectives on natural resources; 2) the slow process of embedding ecosystem principles and values in governance and spatial planning, as a mean to linking governance with balanced territorial development; 3) and the mismatch between scales of governance, from the successful traditional commons’ regimes to the global threats and policies.
The above gaps show that linkages between theoretical work on common pool resources – a successful model of collective action at small community scale, and ecosystem based governance – a scientific and territorial governance model, are either missing or weak. It is in the intention of this research to explore opportunities for establishing these linkages, and hopefully contribute to the global discourse on spatial-temporal mismatches between institutions and governance models, through creating a model of research. An ecosystem-based governance of the natural resources is needed to mitigate territorial mismatches, and achieve sustainable and balanced territorial development.
This research is developed around the central question of whether forest commons’ models/regimes can positively influence the conventional governance setting in favour of sustainability, and outmatch the ‘boundaries and scales’ mismatch. Forest is chosen as the natural resource that contributes through its ecosystem services to balanced and resilient territorial development on both, the small and the global scale. Methodologically, the geographical area of research is one river basin, as a natural and functional space for ecosystems services boundaries. The river basin is composed of several ecosystems and human settlements in a continuous interaction, and constitutes a larger-scale common, or a polycentric network of commons.
Besides developing a critical discussion on common pool resources and ecosystem services theories, the research includes fieldwork through: visually surveying the basin and the forests; focus groups with commoners to identify and test the 8 design principles of robust commons’ institutions; interviews with officials and experts to analyse SESMAD variables for the large scale commons; and water tests and questionnaires for forest users to unravel the concept of ecosystem services (ES) valuation. A mapping of ES supply-demand budgets is made to link the governance system with the territorial effects of ecosystem services. The existence of various values within the common’s institutions is then verified. The research provides a logical framework for the further and deeper study of ecosystem-based governance of forest commons, as a means for linking institutions with the territory and scientific knowledge on ecosystem services. The latter is the key to enabling sustainable development in a world of spatial-temporal scale mismatches as regard natural resources and the services they render to humanity
Planning for sustainable city tourism in the Netherlands
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to examine policies and planning for sustainable city tourism in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and relate them to the notions of ‘tourism reset’ that emerged during the COVID pandemic period. Amsterdam is a prime European tourist city and has been suffering from problems associated with overtourism. Rotterdam receives much less tourists and can be seen as an emerging tourist city. Both cities have recently adopted new tourism policies, essentially future tourism visions. The case of Amsterdam and to a lesser extent that of Rotterdam show that formulating and agreeing on a tourism policy vision is easier than the decision-making process and implementing a vision. The instruments and powers of local government to manage the quantity and qualities of tourism are limited. Overtourism problems have stimulated carrying capacity thinking, which is considered inadequate for a multi-faceted problem like urban tourism
Social Innovation and Sustainable Economic Development: Participatory Tourism Destination Management
No full textThe importance of tourism for the Balkan region is growing (World Travel & Tourism Council 2017). Tourist numbers are increasing, and, perhaps given the lack of much promising alternatives, governments embrace tourism as a priority economic develop- ment sector. There is however a substantial gap between governments aiming at tour- ism development, and tourism practices in real life. Tourism is a fragmented sector with many service providers and a dynamic tourism demand. Since tourists organize their travel increasingly by themselves with the support of internet (Nientied & Karafili, 2016) tourism demand also becomes more diverse and ad hoc. The increasingly impor- tant role of internet, the lower fares of airlines, and tourist searching for new destina- tions offer opportunities for the Western Balkan. However, Western Balkan governments have no adequate answers to such developments and for example marketing is rather conventional and destination management is inadequate.
The Albanian government recognizes the importance of tourism as an economic growth sector, yet, its contribution to the GDP is almost insignificant based on the National Institute of Statistics data. The latter may not be a genuine reflection of the real situation for numerous factors, among which informality. According to Medina and Schneider (2018) and Boka and Torluccio (2013), the informal sector in Albania accounts for at least 30% of the GDP. The World Tourism and Travel Council, how- ever, assess that the direct contribution of the sector during 2016 is 7.9%, with a growth rate projection of 5.4% annually (WTTC 2016). Despite contradicting fig- ures, the Government of Albania aims at developing tourism in its broadest sense and to extend the tourism season to span across all four seasons by introducing alternative forms of tourism, such as sightseeing, cultural, culinary, sportive, histori- cal, religious, and adventurous. This would lift the development pressure off the coastal area and shift the focus towards more inland destinations.
The Government’s overall development strategy is the National Draft-Strategy for Tourism 2014–2020. This strategy has two significant flaws. First, 3 years after discus- sion in parliament, it is still a draft policy. Insufficient attention has been given to the strategy after delivering the draft. In the real world, the importance of the policy is lim- ited. Second, the strategy is broad and aims at promoting “everything”. The strategy talks about sustainable tourism, but does not elaborate the concept in practical measures for destination management, environmental management, etc. In practice, it is noted that tourism development is rather uncoordinated, is led by the private sector tourism service providers, and the role of government at local and regional level is limited. A risk is that local governments (and national government too) are eager to get investors and can easily “forget” about sustainability when investors come with a tourism project proposal. Indeed, the current conditions for sustainable tourism in Albania are rather unfavourable. The current tourism policy of the government is inconclusive with regard to sustainable tourism development, the priorities for short-term economic development are high (and much higher than the concern for environment and communities), and local governments are weak in applying regulations. In terms of management and coordination, the culture of working together in partnerships in destinations is weak.
The experience of tourism in the Durres coastal region, close to Albania’s capital Tirana, gives ample reasons for concern. Tourism development along the Durres coast is a typical example of unsustainable tourism as it is seasonal sun-sea-sand tourism, with high environmental costs and congestion. Local governments have issued permits for construction of hotels, and later “discovered” that their actions led to serious reper- cussions, such as higher investments needed in infrastructure. Alternatives for this type of tourism development are needed. There are however only very few best practices on small-scale sustainable tourism in Albania, and no replicable local sustainable tourism models have been designed and promoted. Exactly this issue is taken up in a sustain- able tourism project developed in the Albanian municipality of Gramsh. The concept is to develop an innovation in local scale tourism, based on available resources and with local coordination. The role of an external NGO (non-government organization) is meant to fuel the process during the first 2 years and then develop others sustainable tourism cases. Before discussing the case of Gramsh, attention first turns to a brief discussion of the two key concepts of social innovation and sustainable tourism, and to the methodology of social network analysis, used for the present study
Ambiguous memorial landscapes in post-socialist societies. The case of Tirana’s Pyramid
No full textMemorial Landscape, Memory, Identity, Icon, Urban Developmen
Author Peter FitzSimons speaking at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 13 November 2012 /
No full textTitle from acquisitions documentation.; Part of the collection: Portraits of author Peter FitzSimons speaking at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 13 November 2012.; Acquired in digital format; access copy available online.; Mode of access: Online.; Photographed by a staff member of the National Library of Australia
Place Attachment in Seven Areas of Tirana, Albania
No full textLittle is known about place attachment in the Balkans. This study aims to start filling this gap. After a contextualization of place attachment studies in the Balkans and its relevance for research and practice, a brief review of theory is offered. Then the methodology of the empirical part of the study is clarified. Over 300 citizens living in seven different neighborhoods of Tirana have been interviewed on place attachment issues such as sense of belonging, familiarity, self-identification and neighborhood experience. The results of the empirical study show that place attachment in Tirana is quite positive. The findings and analysis indicate that place attachment indicators do not vary significantly according to educational level, gender and age, but do cor-relate with length of residence. It also appeared that place attachment indicators are higher in well-established neighborhoods compared to the new high-rise areas. The study concludes with recommendations for follow-up research, specifically qualitative research on citizens’ meanings of place attachment and study on place attachment related to responsible behavior
Moral Good, the Beatific Vision, and God’s Kingdom Writings by Germain Grisez and Peter Ryan, S.J.. Edited by Peter J. Weigel
No full textFor close to half a century, the work of Germain Grisez has been highly influential, and his writings continue to receive considerable attention from philosophers and theologians of diverse viewpoints. His co-author for this work is the professor and noted moral theologian Fr. Peter Ryan, S.J., currently the executive director of the Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). These two eminent scholars explore fundamental questions about Christian eschatology, moral theory, the purpose of human life, and the promise of human fulfilment. The authors examine Christian teaching on the final destiny of persons, investigating the meaning of God's kingdom, the hope of the beatific vision, and the centrality of moral goodness and divine grace in one's final end. This work is an ideal source for students, scholars, ministers and lay persons interested in basic questions of Christian theology, the philosophy of religion, ethical theory, and Catholic doctrin
Murder on the mountain: author talk with Peter J. Wosh
No full textAuthor talk by Peter J. Wosh on May 5th, 2022, on his book, "Murder on the Mountain: crime, passion, and punishment in gilded age New Jersey.
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