Ingo Mose

Travel motives of German tourists in the Scandinavian mountains: the case of Fulufjället National Park

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the travel motives of German visitors to Fulufjället National Park (FNP). The park attracts more than one-third international visitors, which is a high proportion compared to other regions in the Scandinavian mountains. Data for this study were derived from a mixed-method approach including a visitor survey and on-site interviews conducted in summer 2014. Factor and reliability analysis revealed, along with the usage of recreational experience preference scales, five motivational factors with an appropriate internal consistency including focus on self, nature, freedom, others, and experiences. As a result, the self-related and socialness factors play a subordinate role within the travel decision of German visitors. Instead, it is the outstanding scenery of FNP that provides German visitors with rewarding experiences in the Scandinavian “wilderness”. Results from the study are discussed with respect to national park management and business development.

Creating Regional Futures: A Scenario-Based Inter- and Transdisciplinary Case Study as a Model for Applied Student-centred Learning in Geography

Human geography students face changing qualification requirements due to a shift towards new topics, educational tasks and professional options regarding issues of spatial development. This ‘practical turn’ raises the importance of inter- and transdisciplinary work, management and capability building skills, with case study projects and student-centred learning providing suitable approaches. This paper introduces the example of the teaching and research project ‘Leben 2014’: Students, faculty and local actors have collectively worked out future development scenarios for a rural region in Austria, actually creating impact. The project may thus serve as a model that inspires similar schemes in other countries.

The Delphi Method as a Useful Tool to Study Governance and Protected Areas

Abstract The Delphi method is a systematic, interactive, written method, which relies on a panel of experts. This paper seeks to discuss whether the Delphi method is an appropriate method for obtaining information about governance. In this study we used the Delphi method to assemble information from 10 professionals with vast experience in nature conservation, protected areas and governance. The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of the scientific governance debate. Three rounds of questionnaires were sent to the selected experts. The results of this Delphi Questionnaire reveal that there is a broad common understanding of protected area governance. They also reveal insights into how individual categories of protected areas will develop in the future. However, the study also shows that specialists are not fully agreed on this point.

Regional Governance-Stile in Europa. Eine vergleichende Analyse von Steuerungsstilen ausgewählter LEADER-Netzwerke in Extremadura (Spanien), Warmińsko-Mazurskie (Polen) und Western Isles (Schottland)

ZusammenfassungIn dem vorliegenden Beitrag wird der Versuch unternommen, unterschiedliche Regional Governance-Stile auf europäischer Maßstabsebene herauszuarbeiten. Dies soll es ermöglichen, von der nahezu unendlichen Zahl verschiedener kontextueller Interpretationen von Governance zu abstrahieren und damit eine weiterführende Perspektive für Analyse und Vergleich von Regional Governance-Phänomenen zu entwickeln. Diesem Vorhaben liegen Ergebnisse einer vergleichenden Fallstudienuntersuchung zugrunde, die im Rahmen eines von der DFG geförderten Forschungsprojektes in den Jahren 2008 bis 2011 in ausgewählten peripheren ländlichen Räumen der EU durchgeführt wurde. Es handelt sich dabei um die Regionen Extremadura (Spanien), Warmińsko-Mazurskie (Polen) und Western Isles (Schottland). Konkreter Gegenstand der Untersuchung waren dabei in allen drei Regionen die Entstehung, Handlungsorientierungen, Akteurskonstellationen und Legitimationsgrundlagen ausgewählter LEADER-Akteursnetzwerke.AbstractThis paper aims at an elaboration of regional governance styles on a wide European scale. Thereby it should help to dissociate from the almost infinite number of diverse contextual interpretations of governance and develop a further perspective towards a deeper analysis and comparison of regional governance phenomena. The results of this paper are based on a comparative case study analysis carried out within the framework of a research project, funded by the German Research Foundation in the years 2008–2011. The research was conducted in selected peripheral rural areas in the EU, namely Extremadura (Spain), Warmińsko-Mazurskie (Poland) and Western Isles (Scotland). The overall objective was to examine the emergence, action orientations, functioning, actor constellations and legitimacy of selected LEADER actor networks.

Participation and Regional Governance. A Crucial Research Perspective on Protected Areas Policies in Austria and Switzerland

Current management of large protected areas is faced with the twofold challenge of fulfilling its core mission of nature conservation and landscape protection while also responding to more complex societal expectations. The latter refer to regional development in particular and shaping of the future in general. Accordingly, research into protected areas should shift its focus towards regional shaping of the future within the framework and by means of large protected areas, if expectations are to be met. This would reflect the paradigm shift in area protection we have witnessed, transferring its emphasis increasingly towards the societal significance of protected areas on one hand and the integration of protection and development on the other. This contribution follows up on the results of a workshop organized by an international panel of researchers, managers of protected areas and representatives of protected area networks, which was held in St Pierre de Chartreuse (France, October, 2011). The following paragraphs will discuss the role of structures and processes of participation and the emergence of configurations of regional governance in the context of protected area development in view of the results mentioned above. These issues have gained relevancy in the current phase of protected area policies of the early twenty-first century and open up an array of important questions to be explored.