Tourism-conservation enterprises for community livelihoods and biodiversity conservation in Kenya

Tourism-conservation enterprises (TCEs), such as eco-lodges, are a relatively new strategy of the African Wildlife Foundation for enhancing community livelihoods and wildlife conservation in wildlife-rich areas outside state-protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa. This article investigates the extent to which TCEs succeed in meeting these objectives by focusing on two enterprises in Kenya: the Sanctuary at Ol Lentille and the Koija Starbeds. Empirical data were gathered between October 2010 and March 2013 through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, literature review and document analysis. Both TCEs demonstrated significant contributions to employment, education, healthcare and security. Compared with the Starbeds, the Sanctuary realised a much larger conservation area and more pronounced biodiversity recovery. The analysis showed that the contribution of TCEs to livelihoods and biodiversity conservation depends on the nature of the partnership arrangement, as well as the local, national and international contexts in which they operate.     

Ethnocentric tendencies amongst arts audiences

• According to empirical research, the most regular consumers of art are well-to-do, well-educated members of the social elite who, as a socio-demographic group, would not be expected to exhibit ethnocentric tendencies. Yet, curators of arts institutions and art critics have long been concerned that ethnocentrism does exist amongst visitors to museums and art galleries. This paper reports the findings of a study that investigated the ethnocentric tendencies of arts audiences in Hungary (where, allegedly, individuals are more inclined to exhibit ethnocentric bias) and England (where the opposite is said to be true). The research examined whether ethnocentrism significantly impacted upon perceptions of artworks from (i) a visitor's own country, (ii) a culturally similar and (iii) a culturally dissimilar country. Intentions to attend art exhibitions featuring artists from these countries were then explored. The empirical analysis confirmed that individuals who exhibited ethnocentric tendencies did in fact overvalue the quality of artworks from their home country. Moreover, ethnocentrism within the Hungarian (but not the English) sample had a significant impact on intentions to visit particular types of exhibition.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

FLY‐BY‐NIGHT BUILDERS IN HARBIN AND SHANGHAI

This paper examines residential property development in the Chinese cities of Harbin and Shanghai in 2001–07. It reveals that development firms generally only built one residential development during the study period, which contrasts with the situation in most developed countries, where large, established firms engage in numerous projects. This finding appears to contradict theories on economies of scale, brand names and reputation. It is argued that institutional failure may be largely responsible for the business practices observed.     

Corporate responsibility and corporate personhood

In this paper, I consider the claim that a corporation cannot be held to be morally responsible unless it is a person. First, I argue that this claim is ambigious. Person flags three different but related notions: metaphysical person, moral agent, moral person. I argue that, though one can make the claim that corporates are metaphysical persons, this claim is only marginally relevant to the question of corporate moral responsibility. The central question which must be answered in discussions of corporate moral responsibility is whether corporations are moral agents or moral persons. I argue that, though we can make a case for saying corporations are moral agents, they are not moral persons, and hence, we can hold them responsible. In addition, we need not treat them the way we would be obligated to treat a moral person; we needn't have the same scruples about holding a corporation morally responsible as we would a moral person. Rita C. Manning is Lecturer at California State College, San Bernardino. She has published in Southern Journal of Philosophy and in Informal Logic.     

Un modello di controllo ottimo per i margini finanziari

In questo lavoro viene affrontato un problema di decisioni sui margini finanziari che può essere inquadrato nell'ambito dei problemi di controllo outimo governati da equazioni integrali di Volterra. Dopo una descrizione del problema economico e delle operazioni finanziarie coinvolte, si schematizza il modello nell'ambito del controllo ottimo regolato da equazioni di tipo integrale che ammettono controlli discontinui di tipo bang-bang. Si danno condizioni necessarie per l'esistenza di soluzioni ottime e, infine, si esamina un caso particolare per evidenziare come il metodo considerato consenta di analyzzare e di individuare le strategie adeguate qualora si specifichino le funzioni in questione.

---

Summary In this paper a decision problem for financial margins is investigated. The scheme of the model is a particular control problem governed by a Volterra integral equation, where the optimal control is usually discontinuous (bang-bang control).We provide necessary conditions in order to have optimal solutions and we solve the problem in a particular case.

     

An algebraic generalisation of some variants of simple correspondence analysis

For an analysis of the association between two categorical variables that are cross-classified to form a contingency table, graphical procedures have been central to this analysis. In particular, correspondence analysis has grown to be a popular method for obtaining such a summary and there is a great variety of different approaches that one may consider to perform. In this paper, we shall introduce a simple algebraic generalisation of some of the more common approaches to obtaining a graphical summary of association, where these approaches are akin to the correspondence analysis of a two-way contingency table. Specific cases of the generalised procedure include the classical and non-symmetrical correspondence plots and the symmetrical and isometric biplots.     

The influence of artistically recreated nature on the image of tourist destinations: Lanzarote's art,cultural and tourism visitor centres and their links to sustainable tourism marketing

Can distinctive natural assets in tourist destinations be artistically recreated and used to improve destination image and attract more visitors? This paper analyses the formation of the tourist image based on artistically recreated local nature icons, and shows how those images can enhance the overall destination image. It focuses on the island of Lanzarote, a destination with its development based on promoting an environmental image founded on the creation of a network of multifunctional, high-quality art, culture and tourism centres exhibiting artistic recreation of its unique environmental assets. The methodology utilizes a questionnaire (n = 453) structural equations modelling approach in which the overall image of the destination is directly dependent on the image of the environmental conditions and indirectly influenced by the image of the artistically recreated centres. Results show that the destination's image is significantly grounded on the image of the art, culture and tourism centres using art based on Lanzarote's natural assets. They suggest that destinations have relevant opportunities to artistically enhance natural assets to improve their tourist image and marketing, that quality multi-functional visitor centres can be important within a sustainable tourism policy, and part of the emerging breadth of approaches taken by sustainable tourism marketing.