Traveling with a disability: More than an Access Issue

People with disabilities have the same needs and desires for tourism as others. However, travel in a context designed primarily for people without disabilities poses unique challenges. A qualitative study was conducted employing indepth interviews and focus groups to explore the tourism experiences of individuals with mobility or visual impairments. The results revealed that they experience five different stages in the process of becoming travel active: personal, re-connection, tourism analysis, physical journey, and experimentation and reflection. Better understanding of these stages will facilitate more awareness of the tourism needs of people with disabilities.     

International insolvency law in the Netherlands: The pre-draft of title 10

In November 2007, in the Netherlands, the Insolvency Law Committee published a pre-draft for a new Insolvency Act, to replace its present Bankruptcy Act of 1896. One of the most interesting renewals the Committee has presented is Title 10, which contains provisions concerning “International Insolvency Law”, containing 35 articles, divided over five chapters. In this Article the English translation of the draft for Title 10 is presented, preceded by an introduction of these provisions. The Dutch Minister of Justice has introduce a consultation period which is open until September 15, 2008. Any comments to improve the present pre-draft are welcome: info@bobwessels.nl. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

UK Trade Performance and the Role of Product Quality, Innovation and Hysteresis: Some Preliminary Results

This paper seeks to explain the apparent contradiction in the UK's manufacturing trade performance over the past two decades: on the one hand, the early 1980s witnessed a substantial contraction in manufacturing employment along with a considerable surge in imports and decline in UK exports; on the other hand, UK trade performance, particularly exports, seems to have improved in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s. The paper shows that the substantial, but temporary , appreciation of sterling in the early 1980s caused permanent damage to both the UK's trade performance and industrial base; and that the UK's relative investment performance, via its hypothesised impact on product quality, helps to explain the subsequent improvement in UK trade performance since the mid‐1980s.     

Monetary Cooperation in Europe and the Problem of Differential Productivity Growth: an argument for a ‘two-speed’ Europe

Cointegration analysis of a productivity-modified purchasing power parity relation supports the hypothesis that—in the long run—the nominal exchange rate adjusts to accommodate different national rates of productivity growth in the traded goods sector. Accordingly, in the long run, an absence of exchange rate flexibility combined with productivity growth differentials is likely to generate an intractable adjustment problem. Because Germany and France display a similar evolution of productivity, this analysis supports their participation in monetary union, whereas a markedly different pattern of productivity growth in the UK constitutes an argument against membership. In passing, we find empirical support for Michael Porter's hypothesis that continuous devaluation can reduce the rate of productivity growth. This also has implications for UK membership.     

Reviews

Social Europe. European Commission 1996: SOCIAL EUROPE: PROGRESS REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MEDIUM-SOCIAL ACTION PROGRAMME 1995-97 (Supplement 4/96).

SOCIAL EUROPE: WORK AND CHILDCARE -A GUIDE TO GOOD PRACTICE (Supplement 5/96). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

Spatial planning. Healey, P., Khakee, A., Motte, A. and Needham, B. (eds) 1997: MAKING STRATEGIC SPATIAL PLANS: INNOVATION IN EUROPE. Basingstoke: Taylor and Francis, £14.95 paper.

Competing cities. Jensen-Butler, C., Shachar, A. and Weesep, J. (eds) 1997: EUROPEAN CITIES IN COMPETITION. Aldershot: Avebury, £55.00 cased.

Evaluating the City Challenge. Robinson, F. 1997: THE CITY CHALLENGE EXPERIENCE. Newcastle: Newcastle City Challenge West End Partnership Ltd, £15.00 paper.     

Developing post-normal technologies for sustainability

The last two decades have seen the development of an array of techniques and practices aimed at promoting sustainability. For many, results have been disappointing. There are charges that supposedly new organisational approaches remain embedded in managerialist, functionalist and anti-dialogic frameworks that are a significant part of the problem. Similarly the technocratic scientization of public policy is viewed as ill-equipped to deal with the social, economic and ecological issues currently facing neo-liberal societies. In this paper we seek to interpret these frustrations and identify pathways that move beyond this. Specifically, we argue that the gap between sustainability rhetoric and sustainability practices can be reconceptualised through the practice of science as post-normal and through developing the notion of post-normal sustainability technologies (PNSTs). The exponents of post-normal science show why stakeholder engagement in sustainability (and other scientific) issues is critical for the legitimacy and quality of decisions and the admission of complexity in decision-making and accountability processes. Building on this now well-established foundation we seek to characterise, and give examples of, PNSTs as tools for achieving this participation; wherein stakeholders assume expertise and interact with those possessing more traditional forms of expertise in order to co-produce knowledge about sustainability. Recognition of ideological and value diversity is also central to the post-normal sustainability agenda and with PNSTs, the values-based nature of the issues involved is articulated in a way that seeks to bring politics openly into the picture. To this end we identify processes that are emerging in the literature and in practice that will enable PNSTs. These include extended peer communities and multi-actor heuristics, agonistic processes and new characterisations of citizenship that support moves to sustainability. In so doing, we believe that PNSTs offer “clumsy solutions” for “wicked problems” that can be engaged with in both the research and practice arenas as significant contributions to addressing urgent needs.     

Non‐travel by Hong Kong residents

The study examined non‐travel by Hong Kong residents. Cluster analysis was used to segment the non‐travelling population into five groups. Overall, two‐thirds of non‐travellers indicated that taking a pleasure trip each year is unimportant to them. Yet, when asked to identify barriers to travel, lack of interest is cited rarely. Instead, intrapersonal barriers were identified as the most critical barriers by elderly singles and couples with low incomes. Affordability, work and family commitments were identified by all other groups. Non‐travellers simply do not have the travel bug and often have to rely on socially acceptable barriers to rationalise their lack of interest. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.