Search results
1 – 10 of 96The paper aims to present the case study of Arillas, a small beach resort on Corfu, Greece, where the locals have taken their fate into their own hands in the middle of a crisis…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to present the case study of Arillas, a small beach resort on Corfu, Greece, where the locals have taken their fate into their own hands in the middle of a crisis. It presents the historical background of the development of tourism in Arillas, the actions that have been undertaken by the local stakeholders to actively participate in the management of the village and to attract alternative, responsible and sustainable forms of tourism to Arillas, and the main players contributing to this process, as well as a look at three important themes contributing to the change.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an empirical study spanning many years by a local inhabitant who has an affinity with place management and marketing. It also includes some conclusions of a quantitative, questionnaire-based customer satisfaction survey carried out in 2011 and 2012 among 600 visitors. The analysis of the quantitative data was carried out by the Head of the Corfu Department of the National Tourism Organisation of Greece.
Findings
The paper demonstrates how a shared vision, combined with empowerment and communication among local stakeholders on improving the place, as well as many joint actions carried out on a volunteer basis have, first of all, dramatically increased the level of engagement of the locals in the present and future of Arillas, and second they have attracted and are attracting more individual travellers who are coming for the hospitality, local food and products, music and cultural festivals, walking, yoga and meditation rather than the outdated mass tourism model.
Research limitations/implications
It would be very interesting to perform another quantitative, questionnaire-based survey now to compare the results to those of 2012.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates that a bottom-up, horizontal approach to placemaking and place marketing can yield substantial results even (or especially) in an adverse economical and social environment.
Details
Keywords
This article explores the relationship between knowledge and sustainable placemaking. Distinguishing between “expert knowledge” and “local knowledge,” it first problematizes…
Abstract
This article explores the relationship between knowledge and sustainable placemaking. Distinguishing between “expert knowledge” and “local knowledge,” it first problematizes expert knowledge, and then traces the local knowledge approach to placemaking. The widening gap between expert and local knowledge prompts understanding their sources and modes of knowing. By viewing place as an organization this article draws from Nonaka's (1994) distinctions of four modes of knowledge creation in an organization, and explores the commonalities between the two. The analogy between place and organization helps gain new insights from the organizational theory literature which links processed information to knowledge creation. Seeking similarities between place and organization arises from how individuals in organizations and places process information to solve problems. Critically examining local knowledge questions the presupposition of a fixed, static mode of knowing, and helps incorporate a range of activities and knowhow associated with different stages of placemaking. The study suggests that local knowledge converts existing knowledge into four types of new knowledge during the placemaking process. Furthermore, compared to the top-down nature of expert knowledge which mainly adheres to the principles of scientific rationality for grand planning and problem solving, the local knowledge approach to placemaking is bottom-up, fosters piecemeal growth, and thus is more adaptable and sustainable. Promoting (social) sustainability through knowledge conversion (i.e., converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and vice versa), social interaction and self-help characterize placemaking in informal settlements.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to explore the planned urban renewal and re-scripting of Riyadh’s downtown as part of the capital’s aim to become a globally recognized city…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the planned urban renewal and re-scripting of Riyadh’s downtown as part of the capital’s aim to become a globally recognized city. Specifically, this paper examines in how far internationally established values and narratives are leveraged in the creation of an urban mega-destination that seeks to attract a transnational class of knowledge workers and tourists. The question is explored, in how far and to what extent urban heritage sites and iconic architectural projects are used as strategic tools to promote a process of cultural and economic transformation and in how far the resulting symbolic capital is leveraged to create a status of singularization that appeals to a national and international audience. This study investigates several neighborhoods in the area, analyzing how these will be transformed by Riyadh’s plan to turn the downtown into a commercially viable mixed-use destination by means of designated heritage destinations and iconic architecture.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines the views and experiences of governmental agencies, architects, developers and residents who are directly or indirectly involved with the planned restructuring of Riyadh’s historical downtown. In total, 40 semi-structured interviews were drawn from this stakeholder group to investigate their current understanding of the downtown associated with the effort to convert Riyadh’s historical downtown into a profitable urban destination. Five of these interviews were conducted with involved planning offices, and 35 with current residents in the area. In addition, a detailed site survey was conducted through a series of maps to reveal existing land uses, building typologies, states of disrepair, activity levels, pedestrian and car circulation patterns, as well as landmarks, and public spaces in each of the areas.
Findings
The subsequent data show that despite many positive outcomes in terms of commercial redevelopment, the adaptive reuse of the existing urban fabric is not considered, nor the preservation of underutilized or abandoned buildings along with its resident diverse communities, activities and milieus, many of which carry on evolving traditions.
Research limitations/implications
This is significant because this paper presents a massive case study that ties into a larger debate on cultural globalization where similar practices around the world entail a spatial reorientation of urban districts to attract a transnational cosmopolitan middle class along with a simultaneous displacement of diverse and migrant communities, albeit on a much larger scale. While highlighting the rationale and effectiveness of this approach to create a well-packaged commodity, this paper also underscores the ambiguous consequences of this strategy, which entails the loss of a layered urban fabric that documents the city’s evolution through different economic periods, along with the dispersal of migrant communities and their vernacular practices.
Social implications
Within this context, the current cultural value of the downtown as a heterogeneous, dynamic and multilayered fabric is debated, which documents the socio-economic conditions of the times in which these layers were formed. Departing from the UNESCO’s 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape and globally accepted sustainability standards, this study contrasts the proposed top-down tabula rasa approach proposed by the local authorities with an inclusive bottom-up approach, which would focus on the adaptive reuse of existing structures by taking into consideration the social meanings of belonging that heritage has for contemporary communities while fostering a more inclusive understanding of heritage as an ongoing cultural process.
Originality/value
The implications of the planned conversion of Riyadh’s historical downtown into an urban destination have not been previously explored and as a result, there is a conflict of interest between the creation of a marketable image, the preservation of heritage values, sustainable urban practices, social inclusion and Riyadh’s aim to become a globally recognized city.
Plain abstract
This paper explores the employment of urban renewal and city branding within the context of Riyadh’s aim to become a world city. Within this framework, the paper examines the capital’s plan to convert the historic downtown into a mega-destination for the country’s middle class and national and international tourists.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to focus on increasingly entrepreneurial approaches to urban governance in the country’s second city Cork, where neoliberal strategy has driven uneven spatial…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on increasingly entrepreneurial approaches to urban governance in the country’s second city Cork, where neoliberal strategy has driven uneven spatial development.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper combines insights from literature review with new knowledge derived from interviews with key informants in the city.
Findings
Post-colonial themes provoke a consideration of how uneven power dynamics stifle social innovation in the built environment.
Research limitations/implications
Assembled narratives expose opaque aspects of governance, ownership and participation, presenting opportunities for rethinking urban vacancy through placemaking.
Practical implications
These draw on nuanced models for tourism as a platform for a broader discourse on rights to the city.
Social implications
A century after independence, Ireland is recast as a leading small European economy, away from historical framings of a rural economic backwater of the British Empire.
Originality/value
The model of success is based on a basket of targeted investment policies and somewhat dubious indicators for growth.
Details
Keywords
Kayoumars Irandoost, Milad Doostvandi, Todd Litman and Mohammad Azami
This paper aims to present a critical analysis of placemaking by the urban poor based on the Right to the City, Henri Lefebvre’s influential theory regarding the production of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a critical analysis of placemaking by the urban poor based on the Right to the City, Henri Lefebvre’s influential theory regarding the production of space and placemaking.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reflects Lefebvre’s production of space and the right to the city theories and containing three main pillars including holism, the urban and praxis, and the use of spatial dialectics. Also, for collecting information in this research, along with scrutiny of documents and books, residents of the poor settlements of Sanandaj have also been interviewed.
Findings
In Sanandaj, urban poor who lack formal housing reclaim the Right to City by creating informal settlements. Such settlements, such as Shohada, Baharmast and Tagh Taghan, cover 23% of the city’s area but house 69% of the urban population.
Originality/value
This research seeks to understand placemaking in urban slums by low-income inhabitants using Henry Lefebvre’s critical theory of social production of space and the Right to the City. This case study examines the city of Sanandaj, Iran, where most residents are poor and live in cooperative informal settlements. It illustrates how the urban poor, as marginalized inhabitants, overcome the constraints of conventional planning and property ownership to creatively and cooperatively develop communities that reflect their needs. This indicates a schism between formal and informal sectors.
Details
Keywords
This paper explores Salsa co-creation processes in the city of Cali, Colombia. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the processes of bottom-up and top-down place governance at…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores Salsa co-creation processes in the city of Cali, Colombia. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the processes of bottom-up and top-down place governance at work in the system. This study proposed that these processes are founded on a place-based cultural identity in Cali’s civil society.
Design/methodology/approach
This research draws on practice and structuration theories to understand how social structures frame place-based cultural identity and takes a social constructivist approach to place making and place branding. Empirical data were collected using a qualitative, multi-method approach, with primary data gathered from interviews with key actors and records of in-situ interactions between tourists and local citizens.
Findings
Evidence is presented to show how tourists and visitors are attracted to Cali in pursuit of an urban existential authenticity generated through sensory experiences connected to music and dance mediated by interpersonal interactions with local residents.
Research limitations/implications
Further investigation is needed to gain greater insight into tourists’ motivations, and in addition, a more quantitative approach is required to understand better the range of interpersonal and intrapersonal factors involved.
Practical implications
Place branding should consider synergies between economics and culture as well as exploring the potential of sensorial interactions to produce emotional place attachment in a range of different stakeholders.
Originality/value
While place branding research tends to focus on the views and beliefs of stakeholders (cognitive dimension), this investigation takes an approach to the topic based on interpersonal sensorial interactions between visitors and local inhabitants as part of daily life (emotional dimension).
Objetivo
esta investigación analiza la co-creación artístico-cultural en relación con la Salsa –baile y música- en Cali Colombia; estudiando cómo este proceso emana de la identidad cultural-afectiva de la sociedad civil, y a partir de la base socio-cultural, se crean estrategias económico-culturales y de marketing territorial.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
el enfoque teórico-conceptual sigue un enfoque de construcción social para explorar la autenticidad territorial; y una lógica de servicio -Service-dominant Logic- aplicada a los procesos de co-creación cultural y socio-económico de la música y la danza como artes escénicas populares. Se adopta un enfoque multi-método cualitativo que analiza in situ las interacciones entre turistas y ciudadanos locales.
Hallazgos
se evidencia que las músicas y danzas populares se basan en la identidad de la sociedad civil, de interacciones sociales y expresiones artístico-culturales que co-crean una identidad sensorial cultural; y luego esas manifestaciones culturales son adoptadas por las elites empresariales para crear grandes shows o festivales de música y baile, y por los gobiernos para consolidar políticas culturales.
Limitaciones de investigación
el análisis se aplica a una ciudad en concreto, el proceso de co-creación de la Salsa en Cali, Colombia, donde turistas y viajeros son atraídos por la autenticidad de experiencias sensoriales de música y danza a través de interacciones interpersonales con los residentes caleños.
Implicaciones prácticas
los procesos de Marca Territorial deben considerar las sinergias entre las dimensiones económicas y culturales, y también las interacciones sensoriales, que propician conexiones afectivas y emocionales para diversos grupos implicaciones con el territorio.
Originalidad/valor
más allá de las grandes ciudades mundiales productoras de cultura, es necesario conocer mejor cómo emergen propuestas creativas de ciudades pequeñas y medias de países emergentes cuyas ricas tradiciones culturales, atraen viajeros y turistas en busca de experiencias de autenticidad interpersonal, en contacto con habitantes locales, en sus vivencias diarias e interacciones culturales.
Details
Keywords
Michael B. Duignan, Seth I. Kirby, Danny O’Brien and Sally Everett
This paper aims to examine the role of grassroots (food) festivals for supporting the sustainability of micro and small producers, whilst exploring potential productive linkages…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the role of grassroots (food) festivals for supporting the sustainability of micro and small producers, whilst exploring potential productive linkages between both stakeholders (festivals and producers) for enhancing a more authentic cultural offering and destination image in the visitor economy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is exploratory, qualitative and inductive. Evidence is underpinned by a purposive sample, drawing on ten in-depth interviews and 17 open-ended survey responses collected across 2014 and 2015 – drawing perspectives from traders participating in the EAT Cambridge festival.
Findings
This paper unpacks a series of serendipitous [as opposed to “strategic”] forms of festival and producer leveraging; strengthening B2C relationships and stimulating business to business networking and creative entrepreneurial collaborations. Positive emergent “embryonic” forms of event legacy are identified that support the longer-term sustainability of local producers and contribute towards an alternative idea of place and destination, more vibrant and authentic connectivity with localities and slower visitor experiences.
Originality/value
This study emphasises the importance of local bottom-up forms of “serendipitous leverage” for enhancing positive emergent “embryonic” legacies that advance “slow” tourism and local food agendas. In turn, this enhances the cultural offering and delivers longer-term sustainability for small local producers – particularly vital in the era of “Clone Town” threats and effects. The paper applies Chalip’s (2004) event leverage model to the empirical setting of EAT Cambridge and conceptually advances the framework by integrating “digital” forms of leverage.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to explore the capacity of Australian silo art from a creative placemaking perspective. The paper also takes up this case as fertile ground for probing into the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the capacity of Australian silo art from a creative placemaking perspective. The paper also takes up this case as fertile ground for probing into the complexity of creative placemaking.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study approach is exploratory, drawing on public documents and media sources to thematically (i.e. qualitatively) analyse the factors, actors and processes that pertain to how Australian silo art can contribute towards empowering communities, activating everyday spaces and, ultimately, making socially connected and resilient places.
Findings
Each theme encapsulates a particular interplay: (1) physical space – social place, (2) past – present – future place, (3) bottom-up – top-down energies, (4) residents – tourists, (5) urban – nonurban place and (6) material – digital place.
Research limitations/implications
Rather than proffering conclusions about the current impact of silo art on local communities, the paper illuminates the practical workings of silo art as a potential form of creative placemaking. Additionally, thinking of creative placemaking in terms of ongoing interplays could stimulate and expand knowledge and practice in this domain.
Originality/value
This paper initiates and charts a course for a rigorous and critical investigation into silo art as a substantive cultural and artistic phenomenon and a meaningful chapter in regional arts and creative placemaking in Australia. The interplays distinguished provide an additional basis for probing further into the many layers and overall complexity of creative placemaking.
Details