Robert Hales

The Rise of Individualism. the Implications for Promoting Relations between Self, Others and the Environment in Outdoor Education

In this article I explain how the process of individualisation has led to the prioritisation of the self over aspects of community and place. The theories of risk society (Beck, 1992; Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002) and neoliberalism (Bourdieu, 1998; Forsey & Lockhart, 2004) are used to explain this process. These theories have three significant implications for outdoor educators working for social and environmental change. The first is that people are urged to negotiate their futures through constructing identities of an autonomous self as a reaction to these social processes. Secondly, individuals consequently tend to de-value certain others in a market-oriented world. Finally, place has become less important in the construction of individual identity and the shaping of social relations. These aspects have significant implications for outdoor educators interested in promoting new understandings of self, others and the environment (Martin, 1996, 1999; Mann, 2002). As a way of understanding how social processes influence young people’s notions of self, others and the environment I explore how young people have adopted mobile phone technology. Suggestions to counter some negative aspects of the individualisation process are offered to outdoor educators whose general goal is to promote a greater understanding of self, others and the environment.

Indigenous free prior informed consent: a case for self determination in World Heritage nomination processes

Free prior informed consent is a critical concept in enacting the rights of Indigenous People according to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This paper outlines a case for the inclusion of free prior informed consent in World Heritage nomination processes and examines issues that are problematic when enacting free prior informed consent. Case research was used to analyse current issues in the potential nomination of certain areas of Cape York Peninsula, Australia. The authors’ reflexive engagement within this case offers insights into the praxis of developing a World Heritage nomination consent process. The outcomes of this research were: preconditions need to be addressed to avoid self-exclusion by indigenous representative organisations; the nature of consent needs to account for issues of representation and Indigenous ways of decision making; the power of veto needs to have formal recognition in the nomination process; and prioritising self-determination within free prior informed consent ensures the intent of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The paper contributes to the human rights agenda of Indigenous People and conservation management processes by helping address the issues that will be raised during a World Heritage nomination process.

Partnering for real world learning, sustainability, tourism education

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to study how real world learning was used to engender and enhance sustainability principles and practices with 11 micro-, small- and medium-tourism business enterprises and 101 university tourism students enrolled across three university courses. Design/methodology/approach – Action research processes were used to focus curricula on “education about and for sustainability”. A participatory paradigm informed the action research processes. The key methodology was qualitative. Empirical materials were generated through lived experiences, reflexive team conversations, team journals, reflexive journals and student learning materials. Reflexive conversations and reflective dialogue framed interpretations. Findings – The action research process found that pedagogies, andragogies and ethnogogies that emphasize social processes of meaning making and sensemaking enhance and engender “education about sustainability” and “education for sustainability”, especially when coupled ...

Have Australia's tourism strategies incorporated climate change?

ABSTRACT Tourism is widely acknowledged as a key contributor to climate change, but it remains unclear how the tourism industry has been planning for climate change in practice. This paper conducts the most comprehensive critical review of Australias tourism policy and planning documents to date. The paper explores the complex challenges posed by climate change to tourism and how tourism policy has been adapting over a 15-year period. Drawing on a longitudinal data-set of 477 Australian tourism policy and planning documents at the national, state, regional and local level, this research analyses the strategic discourse on climate change using content analysis and bibliometrics. The findings reveal opportunities, challenges and strategies for the tourism industry to contribute to the sustainable management of climate change. Opportunities include developing more “green” products, while strategies include establishing and/or participating in collaborative climate change schemes and strengthening dialogue surrounding climate change to aid the implementation of sustainable practices. Future research should consider the broader policy-making environment, such as the stakeholders, power and interest dynamics when analysing tourism strategies in relation to climate change.

Collaborative marketing for the sustainable development of community-based tourism enterprises: voices from the field

ABSTRACT This paper examines stakeholder engagement in the collaborative marketing of community-based tourism enterprises (CBTEs). The study explored the various collaborative marketing approaches shaped by diverse stakeholders’ perspectives on ways to achieve the sustainable development of CBTEs in Vietnam. The results of 30 in-depth, semi-structured interviews from three CBTEs in Vietnam showed that three collaborative marketing approaches were prevailed among CBTE stakeholders and were categorised as commercial viability-driven, community development-driven and balanced approaches. The approaches’ differences were reflected in the marketing objectives to achieve CBTE sustainability, the central linkages of CBTE collaborative marketing, and the facilitators of stakeholder collaboration. The research found a knowledge gap between researchers and research participants and divergent perspectives among different categories of research participants regarding marketing and CBTE sustainability. This paper implies the role of a knowledge co-production approach to drive the stakeholder engagement in CBTE collaborative marketing for CBTEs’ long-term success. Additionally, this study provides insights into the discussion of marketing for sustainable tourism. Furthermore, the findings contribute to a better understanding of the collaborative approach at the organisational level.

Proximity ethics, climate change and the flyer’s dilemma: Ethical negotiations of the hypermobile traveller:

This article offers a reading of proximity ethics as a novel way of understanding the moral dilemmas that underpin decisions of whether or not to fly. The question of why people fly, despite holding pro-environmental attitudes and knowing that their behaviour, in contradiction, is harming the earth they value, is not an easy one to answer. Through a co-constructed narrative method, we examine our own flying activity in relation to the proximal ethical decisions in the intersection of family, social and work domains. Our stories highlight that the tensions between normative positions on climate change and travel activities are bound up in the ethical proximal relations that compel intimate contact with others, create the need for face-to-face contact and impel obligation in family/work/social domains in a globalised world. Proximity ethics illuminates the flyer’s dilemma as a complex and tenuous web of moral decisions, in which care and proximity play key roles in guiding actions. The contribution of this article lies in its exploration of the quandaries of human behaviour associated with climate change mitigation, using moral philosophy as a window of understanding onto our increasingly technological and hypermobile world.

Carbon Budgeting Post-COP21: The Need for an Equitable Strategy for Meeting CO 2 e Targets

The Paris Climate Change Agreement is a mixed blessing. Although it has been heralded as a great success, there is a low probability that it will reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions at the pace required to ensure a safe climate, based on current progress and processes. This chapter provides an overview of the scale of the problem of achieving the Paris Climate Change aspirations using a carbon emissions budget approach. This is important because current National Determined Contributions and Intended National Determined Contributions do not place the global community on a pathway to limit warming at or below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Suggestions are made on how a general carbon emissions budget can be used to limit global warming through equity and transparency processes. This chapter adds to the conversation on the imperative to ratchet up commitments under the Paris Agreement as the window on action to mitigate against dangerous climate change is about to close.

Successful action in the public sphere: the case of a sustainable tourism-led community protest against coal seam gas mining in Australia

ABSTRACT As demand for resources grows, there is increased pressure on the places and communities in which sustainable tourism is situated. This research examined the experience of an academic and a sustainable tourism business operator who were engaged in a community protest against coal seam gas mining in Queensland, Australia. Our research used a co-constructed narrative method and a post-ecological democratic framework to understand the significance of the public-sphere action of the tourism business. Our findings reveal that sustainable tourism organisations can link with the local community to be effective in public-sphere protest because of their social relationships within communities. The tourism business engagement in the public sphere was characterised by an increase in the locus of control of the business in responding to environmental threats, reconceptualising “the environment” as a valued local place worth fighting for, and tactics that ensured the campaign was not subsumed and devalued within government administrative processes. We found that if the value basis for public-sphere action aligns with the business model, tourism businesses can engage in public-sphere action with no financial loss. Protest actions by sustainable tourism business operators can be part of a deeper sustainability movement through protest actions in the public sphere.

Collaborative marketing for the sustainable development of community-based tourism enterprises: a reconciliation of diverse perspectives

ABSTRACT Collaborative marketing for the sustainable development of community-based tourism enterprises (CBTEs) is subject to diverse stakeholder perspectives and a complex mix of factors determining collaboration success. This research investigates a framework supporting stakeholder collaborations in marketing CBTEs for sustainable development. The proposed framework is an outcome of the process of reconciling divergent perspectives in CBTE collaborative marketing using a knowledge co-production approach. Particularly, knowledge interactions between researchers and research participants to achieve a synthesis of perspectives in developing a collaborative marketing approach for the sustainable development of CBTEs in Vietnam were investigated. The knowledge interaction occurred in the form of a workshop that included 15 CBTE stakeholders and the first author and was undertaken in the village of Triem Tay (Vietnam). Through the workshop, a collaborative marketing framework for CBTE sustainability was identified. The framework stated the reasons for the divergence of perspectives on CBTE collaborative marketing for sustainable development: limited understanding of involved stakeholders; individuality in collective efforts; stakeholder self-righteousness; and contextual factors. Accordingly, the framework identified four attributes supporting stakeholders collaborations in marketing CBTEs for sustainable development: improved and right-directed perspectives of CBTE stakeholders; a set of rules governing stakeholder interventions; government involvement in CBTE collaborative marketing in the roles of an inspirer and an arbitrator; and the transformation from successful tour operators to social entrepreneurship to facilitate CBTE collaborative marketing. The contribution of this study lies in the potential of a knowledge co-production approach to be utilised in collaborative works involving multiple perspectives. Additionally, the study provides insights into the discussion of community-based tourism collaboration.

Coastal Urban and Peri-Urban Indigenous People’s Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change

This chapter discusses the adaptive capacity of coastal urban and peri-urban Indigenous People’s to climate change. It is based on the findings of a National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) funded project that utilised a series of case studies that engaged key representatives from Indigenous organisations in five coastal locations in three states of south-eastern Australia (Low Choy D, Clarke P, Jones D, Serrao-Neumann S, Hales R, Koschade O et al., Aboriginal reconnections: understanding coastal urban and peri-urban Indigenous people’s vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, 139 pp, 2013). The study has highlighted the social, economic and environmental impacts on urban and peri-urban Indigenous communities inhabiting coastal areas throughout south-eastern Australia. These impacts include a loss of community and environmental assets, such as cultural heritage sites, with significant impacts on their quality of life and the establishment of potential favourable conditions for the spread of plant diseases, weeds and pests. The study also found that opportunities did not readily exist for engagement with climate change adaptation policy and initiatives and this was further exacerbated by acute shortages of qualified/experienced Indigenous members that could represent their communities’ interests in climate change adaptation forums. The evidence emerging from this research clearly demonstrates that Aboriginal people’s consideration of the future, even with the overlay of climate change and the requirements for serious considerations of adaptation, are significantly influenced and dominated by economic aspirations which are seen as fundamental survival strategies for their communities.