Urban Responses to Climate Change: Theories and Governance Practice in Cities of the Global South

Cities around the world have recently started to become ‘proactive’ initiators of climate strategies containing both mitigation and adaptation elements. The experience of these first movers has been studied and documented both empirically and, to a lesser extent, theoretically, primarily for cities in the global North. This symposium addresses related knowledge gaps by exploring case studies of urban regions in the global South confronting their projected climate change challenges, showcasing the experiences of Delhi, Santiago de Chile and Bogotá. Its specific aim is to explore the urban social response to nature change, the adaptation challenges faced by cities across the world and current practices of urban adaptation. Further, the symposium seeks to understand to what extent and in what respect current conceptual frameworks — which highlight urban ecological security and vulnerability — provide a useful context/framing to assist cities in confronting their challenges and to explain their actions. This introductory article examines current knowledge of the theory and practice of urban climate response. It introduces the concepts of ecological security and vulnerability and discusses the adaptive capacity of cities and how they are starting to respond to the emerging challenges of climate change. It concludes with a synthesis of the case articles and highlights some of the findings.     

Roles for geographers in the international tourist industry

International tourism is an industry that is second only to petroleum as a commodity in world trade. There are many positions available in the international tourist industry to geographers who wish to pursue them. Nearly every geographic specialization, topical or regional, can be accomodated. There are opportunities for members of the discipline with experience ranging from the undergraduate to the post-doctoral levels in research and planning, information and marketing services, and technical services. Types of activities include development research and planning, location analysis, teaching, cartography, and others.     

Bottom-up sales forecasting through scenario analysis

A simple but effective bottom-up sales forecasting system, developed for a large New Zealand printing and packaging company, is described and analyzed. A central feature of the method is a procedure called “scenario analysis,” enabling the forecaster to incorporate in a systematic manner a large number of uncertainties in his or her assessment of the future.     

Constructing a legitimate history: crisis,legitimacy, and the atlantic schools of Business Conferences

The Atlantic Schools of Business (ASB) conference is one of the longest running academic business conferences in Canada. It continued without the structure of an organizing committee for 34 years. In its 35^th year, however, a formal structure was adopted. The adoption of formal structure provides an opportunity to look critically at the change process from various perspectives. This paper takes three interrelated approaches: reviews of archival material to provide context; surveys of ASB membership to ascertain individual perceptions of the organization's purpose; and interviews with key individuals involved in the change process to examine the decision to formalize. Our analysis shows that perceived organizational crisis and a search for enhanced legitimacy can precipitate isomorphism and exclude alternative avenues for change. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consuming heritage: Perceived historical authenticity

This paper examines tourists' perceptions of the historical authenticity of The Rocks, Australia, a heritage precinct fashioned by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority. It argues that overall tourists perceive this representation of history as authentic. Gender, income, education level, position in lifecycle, place of residence, and previous visitations to The Rocks were also explored to identify how these variables might shape tourism experiences and subsequent negotiations of authenticity. The overall uncritical “consumption” of the commodified version of history as heritage is regarded as a matter for concern. The commodified environment based upon the rhetoric of Australian nationalism has silenced alternative versions of the past which highlight oppression, racism, and conflict.     

The Dialogus de Scaccario (c.1179): The First Western Book on Accounting?

There has been much interest in the first books on accounting in the Western world. However, generally this has focused on books on double‐entry bookkeeping. Double‐entry bookkeeping emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and was first expounded in printed form in Pacioli's famous treatise in 1494. The system which double‐entry gradually supplanted was charge and discharge accounting. Charge and discharge accounting was widespread in medieval Britain. Its origins appear to have been in the English Exchequer about 1110. By the late twelfth century, it was well‐established. In 1177–79, Richard fitz Nigel wrote the Dialogus de Scaccario (Dialogue of the Exchequer) which explained its workings. This treatise, written in the form of a dialogue between master and disciple, outlines not only the duties of the parties involved, but also the accounting system which was employed. This book represents perhaps the first Western book on accounting.     

Tourists,black markets and regional development in West Africa

Currency brought into West Africa by tourists is strong support for black market operations. The positive as well as the negative effects of illicit currency exchanges are evaluated for their social and economic significance for the region. The black market is not only an index of economic conditions, but is important for individual and group survival and the maintenance of social structure in countries having long term weakened economies. Anthroplogical data provides Third World planners a broadened base for decisions dealing with the role of tourism in regional development.     

Towards an ethics platform for tourism

Ethical distinctions inform all human actions and decisions. On inspection, however, dominant paradigms in tourism scholarship are imbued with the myth of objectivity and thus ignore the ethical dimension. Since the four platforms of scholarship were first published in 1990, a representation of one of the most value-based concepts of this time, sustainable development, has been embraced; a fifth platform has emerged to dominate the rhetoric of tourism praxis. However, this paper argues that a sixth platform, an ethics platform, is needed to interrogate the morality of the positions taken in policy, planning, development, and management. These platforms are proposed against a background of environmental ethics and global political economy.     

Disclosing elements of disclosure: a test of legitimacy theory and company ethics

This paper focuses on some of the ethical issues related to voluntary disclosure of qualitative information by Canadian public companies. Drawing on various organizational theories, we examine some of the ways that companies can symbolically manage legitimacy through disclosure. Press releases of a sample of companies that received cease‐trading orders were analysed for their use of language. We found that high‐risk companies attempted to manage legitimacy by selectively releasing information and by using ambiguous language. Moreover, some companies behaved unethically by using language that suggested a positive future despite the imminent release of a cease‐trading order. These findings have implications for organizational and accounting theorists and stakeholders in the corporate, fiduciary, and investment communities. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of demand: US tourists to Aruba

This study examines international tourism demand to Aruba from the United States. This is the first empirical attempt to estimate the income, price, and exchange rate elasticities on Aruban tourism. An accurate estimate, understanding, and forecasting of the demand based on appropriate analytical methods is important for both the government and private investors. Tourism demand estimates from either the linear and the double log linear models reveal that the effects of income dominate those of prices and exchange rates. In general, US tourists appeared to be highly sensitive to the income variable and inelastic with respect to price. The exchange rate variable was not significant.