Christos Zografos

The Environmental Values of Potential Ecotourists: A Segmentation Study

Although sustainable tourism that contributes to biodiversity protection seems to be important anywhere in the planet, ecotourism is rarely examined as a rural development opportunity outside the context of ‘mega-diverse’ countries, i.e. those 12 countries1 that between them harbour 60–70% of the total biodiversity of the planet. Collecting data from 20 sites around Scotland, this study considered the potential of ecotourism development in this country through a market segmentation study based on the environmental values of potential ecotourists. With the assistance of the New Ecological Paradigm (Dunlap et al., 2000) four segments with a range of anthropocentric and ecocentric values were identified. Results indicate that demand for ecotourism is not confined to ecocentric segments and that biodiversity protection is prioritised by all segments as the most salient ecotourism attribute, although each segment attaches a different intensity to its importance. The study identifies visitor interest for a Scottish ecotourism experience that emphasises biodiversity conservation and low use of exhaustible resources, while providing facilities for wildlife watching, hill walking and relaxing. Although segment attitudes towards ecotourism do not differ significantly, environmental values can be used to segment potential ecotourists as they allow the formation of visitor groups with different trip characteristics.

The Politics of Landscape Value: A Case Study of Wind Farm Conflict in Rural Catalonia

Conflicts over the installation of wind farms constrain the potential to adopt an effective means for mitigating climate change. Although conventional wisdom attributes wind farm opposition to ‘not in my back yard’ attitudes, research shows that this explanation fails to incorporate the multiplicity of underlying motivations of opposition. Instead, distributional and institutional factors and procedural opportunities for public participation significantly influence support for wind farms. We consider the relevance of a political ecology explanation of wind farm conflicts by focusing on a case study in rural Catalonia, Spain. We argue that the conflict constitutes a recurrence of older and broader ‘centre’–‘periphery’ antagonisms and that two more explanatory elements are complementary to this political ecology explanation: the existence of alternative landscape valuations and the encouragement of instrumental rationality by the planning framework. We suggest that the absence of opportunities for meaningful deliberation in decision making and the predominance of decisional bottom lines curtail claims to fairer distribution of costs and benefits from locally hosted energy developments, as well as alternative landscape value claims, and that this fuels conflict.

Communal Lives and Imaginations

Žižek: I think that the greatest most dangerous dream of the left was precisely this idea of some type of immediate, self-transparence [sic] direct democracy where finally people will get rid of all alienated forms and so on, and directly self-organise themselves. Show me one, only one example where it worked! For more than two, three months. Voice from the audience: the Paris Commune. Žižek: Yes! For two months! Yes! For two months! Yes! I don’t want that, I want him [pointing at Alexis Tsipras sitting next to him] to be in power, sorry, for life! [...] I want the left to offer an actual alternative for the daily life after, when the enthusiasm is over. I want the left to be able to change things at the most everyday common life level. [...] I want an anonymous power, which in a relatively efficient, non-corrupted way does its job so that I can do my crazy philosophy...