title: Community-Based Tourism Development in Long Lan Village, Luang Prabang, Laos

authors: Phillips, Laura Elizabeth

abstract: This thesis reports on research that was conducted from July to September 2014 in the village of Long Lan in Northern Laos into the potential for a community based, community operated, and community controlled ethnic-ecological-tourism enterprise. 
Long Lan is a White Hmong village located in a mountainous area 40 km northeast of Luang Prabang. They were traditional shifting cultivators growing rice and corn for subsistence and opium poppies for the production of opium as a cash crop. In 1999, however, the Lao government banned both shifting cultivation and opium production, presenting Long Lan with a serious livelihood challenge. In the same year, the Centre for Ecological Studies of Highlands (CHESH), a sister organization of the Vietnamese NGO the Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI), began working with Long Lan on a programme of Culture Based Sustainable Community Development aimed at developing the customary forms of leadership, governance, and ownership of territory in order for Long Lan inhabitants to maintaining their own spiritual values towards nature and their own customary ways of governing their community and natural resources.
As part of the overall village development plan, the objective of the current research was to gain an understanding of potential benefits, pitfalls and challenges involved in operating a community-based ethnic tourism enterprise in Long Lan village, and to gather information useful in aiding in the possible development of an endogenous, community-based tourism venture owned and operated by the people of Long Lan. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with Long Lan residents to ascertain their knowledge and understanding of tourism activities and their possible impact. These views were analysed and fed back to the village in research feedback meetings together with recommendations by the research team. 
The research is placed within the context of a critical review of ethnic tourism Thailand and Laos.

text: Community-Based Tourism Development in Long Lan Village, Luang Prabang, Laos This thesis reports on research that was conducted from July to September 2014 in the village of Long Lan in Northern Laos into the potential for a community based, community operated, and community controlled ethnic-ecological-tourism enterprise. 
Long Lan is a White Hmong village located in a mountainous area 40 km northeast of Luang Prabang. They were traditional shifting cultivators growing rice and corn for subsistence and opium poppies for the production of opium as a cash crop. In 1999, however, the Lao government banned both shifting cultivation and opium production, presenting Long Lan with a serious livelihood challenge. In the same year, the Centre for Ecological Studies of Highlands (CHESH), a sister organization of the Vietnamese NGO the Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI), began working with Long Lan on a programme of Culture Based Sustainable Community Development aimed at developing the customary forms of leadership, governance, and ownership of territory in order for Long Lan inhabitants to maintaining their own spiritual values towards nature and their own customary ways of governing their community and natural resources.
As part of the overall village development plan, the objective of the current research was to gain an understanding of potential benefits, pitfalls and challenges involved in operating a community-based ethnic tourism enterprise in Long Lan village, and to gather information useful in aiding in the possible development of an endogenous, community-based tourism venture owned and operated by the people of Long Lan. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with Long Lan residents to ascertain their knowledge and understanding of tourism activities and their possible impact. These views were analysed and fed back to the village in research feedback meetings together with recommendations by the research team. 
The research is placed within the context of a critical review of ethnic tourism Thailand and Laos.

year: 2015

title: The sonically evoked spaces of post-rock in an era of climate reality

authors: Schott, Gareth R.

abstract: While the transmediality of the early Icelandic literature is palpable in contemporary Icelandic art and music, this chapter highlights how the resultant vast, textured landforms of Iceland are mirrored not only within the praxis of Sigur Rós’ post-rock but also in its sonic sentiments of isolation (paired with exterior threats, instability and change) representative of a culture bounded by water. Today, rapid “ocean acidification” due to increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the ocean as a result of human actions is predicted to have a profound impact on the surrounding marine ecosystem. Sigur Ros’ ambient, haunting and affective compositions exist in the context of a broader artistic construction of “landscape as nation” in postcolonial Iceland. That is, the inclination for Icelandic cultural production to draw on the distinctive and natural features of the landscape – as a “land of fire and ice [ominous volcanos and stunning glaciers], cascading waterfalls, black sand beaches and vast, volcanic plains”.

text: The sonically evoked spaces of post-rock in an era of climate reality While the transmediality of the early Icelandic literature is palpable in contemporary Icelandic art and music, this chapter highlights how the resultant vast, textured landforms of Iceland are mirrored not only within the praxis of Sigur Rós’ post-rock but also in its sonic sentiments of isolation (paired with exterior threats, instability and change) representative of a culture bounded by water. Today, rapid “ocean acidification” due to increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the ocean as a result of human actions is predicted to have a profound impact on the surrounding marine ecosystem. Sigur Ros’ ambient, haunting and affective compositions exist in the context of a broader artistic construction of “landscape as nation” in postcolonial Iceland. That is, the inclination for Icelandic cultural production to draw on the distinctive and natural features of the landscape – as a “land of fire and ice [ominous volcanos and stunning glaciers], cascading waterfalls, black sand beaches and vast, volcanic plains”.

year: 2022-12-30

title: The importance of whakapapa for understanding fertility

authors: Rarere, Moana

abstract: The Māori fertility transition—which saw a shift from high to low birth rates between 1966 to 1976—was one of the most rapid fertility declines observed anywhere in the world. Since then, Māori fertility has hovered around replacement level (2.1 births per woman), somewhat above that of Pākehā (European) New Zealanders. More striking are differences in timing with Māori women bearing their children younger and over a longer duration. This paper sits within a broader research project that asks: What are the important influences that have sustained contemporary Māori fertility patterns? Drawing on Mana Wahine (Māori women’s discourses) and whakawhiti kōrero (interviews) with wāhine Māori (Māori women) this paper highlights whakapapa (genealogy) as an important concept in broadening and deepening our understandings of fertility, and situating individual fertility and reproduction within a broader set of relations.

text: The importance of whakapapa for understanding fertility The Māori fertility transition—which saw a shift from high to low birth rates between 1966 to 1976—was one of the most rapid fertility declines observed anywhere in the world. Since then, Māori fertility has hovered around replacement level (2.1 births per woman), somewhat above that of Pākehā (European) New Zealanders. More striking are differences in timing with Māori women bearing their children younger and over a longer duration. This paper sits within a broader research project that asks: What are the important influences that have sustained contemporary Māori fertility patterns? Drawing on Mana Wahine (Māori women’s discourses) and whakawhiti kōrero (interviews) with wāhine Māori (Māori women) this paper highlights whakapapa (genealogy) as an important concept in broadening and deepening our understandings of fertility, and situating individual fertility and reproduction within a broader set of relations.

year: 2022