385 research outputs found
Slowing Down with Stinging Nettle
Full text linkIn ‘Slowing down with stinging nettle,’ Veera Kinnunen, Françoise Martz, and Outi Rantala seek to develop transdisciplinary knowing methods by gathering around stinging nettle. Due to the rich cultural and biological heritage inscribed in nettle, it provides a fruitful starting point for transdisciplinary theorising about human–plant relations from the local nettle that is simultaneously present around the world. The three authors—a sociologist, a tourism researcher, and a biologist—end up inviting two plant mentors to their conversations, enabling them to attend to situated nettle relations. The plant mentors’ rich situated expertise in utilising nettle enables the authors to pay attention to the material, symbolic, and temporal particularities embedded in making a living with nettle
Metsä matkailukäytössä : etnografinen tutkimus luonnossa opastamisesta
Full text linkKansainvälisten matkailijamäärien lisäännyttyä Lapissa on metsän keskeinen puutuotannollinen rooli saanut rinnalleen toisen roolin: lappilainen metsä toimii yhä useammin myös ainutlaatuisten luontokokemusten lähteenä. Miten talouskäytössä oleva metsä taipuu kaupallisten luontomatkailupalveluiden toteuttamisympäristöksi? Maankäyttömuotojen yhteensovittamista käsiteltäessä ovat kaupallista luontomatkailutoimintaa sisältäpäin tarkasteleva ja erityisesti oppaiden näkökulmaa esille tuova tutkimustieto olleet sivuroolissa. Kuitenkin on pitkälti matkailun globaaleista toimintatavoista ja oppaiden paikallisesti tekemästä työstä kiinni, minkälaisia luontokokemuksia lappilaisessa metsässä tuotetaan.
Väitöskirjatutkimuksessani tarkastelukohteena ovat lappilaisen metsän matkailukäyttöön liittyvät kaupallisen luontomatkailun erityispiirteet ja ulkomaalaisten matkailijoiden kanssa luonnossa toimivien oppaiden käytännöt. Analysoimalla oppaiden metsään liittyviä toimintatapoja tarkastelen sitä, kuinka lappilaisesta metsästä tuotetaan matkailukäyttöön soveltuva ympäristö yhteisen toiminnan kautta. Analyysi pohjautuu käytäntöteoreettiseen tutkimustapaan. Käytäntöjen sosiaalisia, rutiininomaisia ja materiaalisia ulottuvuuksia tutkimalla osallistun luontomatkailututkimuksen käsitteelliseen kehittämiseen.
Tutkimusaineisto on tuotettu osallistuvalla havainnoinnilla Lapin luontomatkailualueilla vuosien 2006–2009 aikana, jolloin olen työskennellyt oppaana ja osallistunut luonto- ja elämysohjaaja koulutukseen. Tausta-aineistona toimivat muun muassa vuosien 2005–2009 aikana toteutetut haastattelut. Metodologisesti tutkimukseni edustaa etnografista tutkimusperinnettä, jossa keskeistä on tutkijan osallistuminen tutkittavaan ilmiöön. Painottamalla kolmitasoisen refleksiivisen tutkimusprosessin tarkkaa kuvausta, tarkoitukseni on ollut edistää metodologian sovellettavuutta luontomatkailututkimuksessa. Toteuttamalla kirjoitustyötä sekä tutkimuskentällä, aineiston käsittelyvaiheessa että tutkimusraportteja laatiessani olen työstänyt kenttäpäiväkirjoista, raporteista, valokuvista ja videosta koostuvasta aineistosta tiheää kerrontaa sisältäviä kertomuksia tutkimuksen lukijakuntaa varten.
Metsä tuottaminen kaupalliseen luontomatkailutoimintaan soveltuvaksi perustuu oppaan toiminnan, matkailijoiden motiivien ja metsän tarjoamien rajoitusten ja mahdollisuuksien väliseen dynamiikkaan. Metsän käyttö kaupallisessa luontomatkailutoiminnassa edellyttää ensinnä valmisteluita ja ennakointia, joihin liittyy erilaisten materiaalisten järjestysten kuten luonnon olosuhteiden ja teknisten apuvälineiden tuntemista. Toiseksi toiminta metsässä vaatii infrastruktuurin ja apuvälineiden käyttöön liittyvien taitojen hallintaa muuttuvissa olosuhteissa. Kolmanneksi esimerkiksi sään metsän olosuhteisiin tuomia vaihteluita tulee osata hyödyntää sovitettaessa tunnelmia matkailijoiden motiiveihin ja luotaessa tunteisiin perustuvaa intensiivisyyttä metsässä tapahtuvaan toimintaan. Oppaiden käytäntöjen analyysi osoittaa, että sää ja turvallisuus voidaan nostaa metsän estetiikan ohella luonnonvarasuunnittelussa huomioitaviksi tekijöiksi, sillä ne tuovat esille metsän käyttöön liittyviä kollektiivisia toimintamalleja. Lisäksi ne osoittavat esimerkiksi ulkomaalaisten matkailijoiden ja sesonkioppaiden kokemattomuuden tunnistamisen tärkeyden. Kaupallisessa luontomatkailutoiminnassa metsässä toimimiseen liittyvään hiljaiseen tietoon tulisi kiinnittää enemmän huomiota ja siihen, miten kokemusperäinen tieto voi olla muutettavissa opetettaviksi tiedoiksi ja taidoiksi.As international tourism in Lapland continues to grow, the role of Lappish forests is reaching beyond traditional forestry to a source for extraordinary nature experiences. This study asks how commercial forests can be adapted to be an environment in which commercial nature tourism services can be provided. In dealing with the reconciliation of forms of land use, research findings looking at nature tourism from within the field and, in particular, research findings foregrounding the perspectives of guides have been slighted. Clearly, the production of nature experiences in Lappish forests is very much dependent on global tourism practices and on the work conducted at tourism locations by guides.
My dissertation focuses on the special features of commercial nature tourism and on the practices of guides leading foreign tourism groups in nature. By using an ethnographic methodology in which research has been conducted from inside the tourism field and which analyzes the actions of guides while in the forest, I study how the Lappish forest is produced through common action as an environment suitable for tourism use. The analysis of the social, routinized and material dimensions of practices is based on practice theory and thus contributes to the conceptual development of nature-based tourism research.
The research data was produced by myself from 2006-2009 while working as a guide and while participating in a nature experience instructors’ course in Lapland’s nature tourism areas. Background information was gathered from interviews and a writing competition conducted from 2005-2009. The study uses ethnographic methodology in which the researcher’s participation in the field is an integral component of the research. By describing in detail the three-phased reflexive research process I have aimed to promote the application of ethnographic methodology within the field of nature-based tourism research. By engaging in the writing process while in the field, during data analysis and in devising research reports, I have constructed narratives based on thick description from field notes, photographs, and different kinds of reports.
The production of a forest as a suitable environment for commercial nature tourism is based on the dynamics between guides’ actions, tourists’ motivations and the restrictions and possibilities afforded by the forest. The use of a forest in commercial nature tourism requires, firstly, preparation and anticipation including knowledge related to material entities such as natural circumstances and technical gear. Secondly, action while in the forest presumes mastery of the use of infrastructure and gear in changing circumstances. Thirdly, one needs to be able to take advantage of the variation of natural circumstances brought about by weather when, for example, fitting together a forest’s atmosphere, tourists’ motivations and the intense feelings produced in the process. The analysis of guides’ practices points out that weather and safety should be considered along with forest aesthetics when planning the use of natural resources since these factors bring out collective ways of action related to the forest. Additionally, the significance of weather and safety point to the importance of recognizing the inexperience of foreign tourists and seasonal guides. In commercial nature tourism more attention should be paid to the tacit knowledge attached to acting in local forest environments and on how experience-based knowledge can be transformed into learned knowledge and skills.ei tietoa saavutettavuudest
Made-to-Measure: In and Out of Touch with the Old-Growth Forest
Full text linkThe condition of forests is a major issue when it comes to climate change and biodiversity. One way to define the quality of a forest is by its age. In the cross pressure of socio-economic and ecological guidelines, what qualifies as an old-growth forest is not determined by a mere number but the co-constitution of various measurements, indicators, political ambitions, and the performance of the measured biological ‘units’ themselves. This transdisciplinary chapter studies how old-growth forests are made-to-measure, moving from close proximity encounters with an indicator organism, being-with-beard lichen, to the internationally defined level and timescale of economic activity and (un)management in categorising forest ecology, wherein various compromises in decision-making may also compromise local ecosystems and the vastness of scale in the biosphere. The study heads off to the ‘roots’ of science—definitions, conceptualisations, onto-epistemology, and methodologies—considering how they as active processes are performing the entity of the ‘old-growth forest’ by cutting-together-apart on multiple scales.202
Introduction:reimagining ways of talking about the Anthropocene
Full text linkThis chapter introduces the focus of the book – the discussion of the Anthropocene through the lens of ethics and politics, with an emphasis on the question of space. The chapter explains the need for this emphasis: many of the issues concerning the Anthropocene revolve around questioning how space between the human sphere and the rest of the world is, or is not, shared––an ethical and political question in itself. Furthermore, the chapter suggests that existing ways of talking about the Anthropocene can be reimagined. It describes three core pillars for such alternative narratives: the generation of situated, in-depth knowledge, the recognition of non-Western knowledge and the entanglement of humans and more-than-humans. The outline of the book is based on these three pillars
Suggestions for Future Wanders
Full text linkIn this book, we have been messing up and speculating rather than classifying, offering accurate representations or nailing things down. Instead of providing clear answers or claiming to solve the ecological crisis, we have tested different ways of attending to our proximate relations with a curiosity about what might happen or become. In this spirit, the last pages of the book provide suggestions that can help us continue to engage with the mode of wonder in the Anthropocene
Preface
No full textArctic areas have seen a boom in tourism during the last few decades, which has led both to an increasing amount of business opportunities, jobs and economic well-being, but also to increased recognition that the development of tourism in the North comes with unforeseen challenges to indigenous and local communities and non-human nature. Therefore, a variety of perspectives from the social sciences, the humanities as well as from science address tourism in the Arctic from their respective angles, asking new questions and experimenting with new ideas. This has led to the traditional business perspectives to be complemented by alternative theoretical approaches highlighting communities, geographical imaginaries and spatial relations, also featuring the application of recent theoretical reasoning within an Arctic context. The volume at hand brings together creative thinking across “tourism” disciplines in order to set a research agenda for future Arctic tourism that recognizes tourism as one future storyline for the Arctic - a narrative embedded in local human and non-human communities
Arctic tourism in the 21st century
No full textAcademic interest in Arctic tourism has developed rapidly since 1990s, hand in hand with increased tourism to the Arctic and the subarctic regions. In the volume at hand, experts addressed some of the topics that have arisen on the academic agenda and elaborated on potential future pathways for research. The concluding chapter introduces some overall development – such as warming climate, increased political and economic turmoil, complexity of interests and relations among stakeholders, and value-based practices for the Anthropocene – that may affect the future of Arctic tourism, and further aligns this development with the research agendas presented in the chapters of this book.Academic interest in Arctic tourism has developed rapidly since the 1990s, hand in hand with increased tourism to the Arctic and the subarctic regions. In the volume at hand, experts addressed some of the topics that have arisen on the academic agenda and elaborated on potential future pathways for research. The concluding chapter introduces some overall developments - such as warming climate, increased political and economic turmoil, complexity of interests and relations among stakeholders, and value-based practices for the Anthropocene - that may affect the future of Arctic tourism, and further align this development with the research agendas presented in the chapters of this book
- …
