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Few people living in informal settlements in the Global South spontaneously claim that they are “resilient” or “adapting” to disaster risk or climate change. Surely, they often overcome multiple challenges, including natural hazards exacerbated by climate change. Yet their actions are increasingly examined through the framework of resilience, a notion developed in the North, and increasingly adopted in the South. To what extent eliminate’ do these initiatives correspond to the concepts that scholars and authorities place under the resilience framework?

Three longitudinal case studies in Yumbo, Salgar and San Andrés (Colombia) serve to investigate narratives of disaster risks and responses to them. Methods include narrative analysis from policy and project documents, presentations, five workshops, six focus groups and 24 interviews.

The discourse adopted by most international scholars and local authorities differs greatly from that used by citizens to explain risk and masks the politics involved in disaster reduction and the search for social justice. Besides, narratives of social change, aspirations and social status are increasingly masked in disaster risk explanations. Tensions are also concealed, including those regarding the winners and losers of interventions and the responsibilities for disaster risk reduction.

Our findings confirm previous results that have shown that the resilience framework contributes to “depoliticize” the analysis of risk and serves to mask and dilute the responsibility of political and economic elites in disaster risk creation. But they also show that resilience fails to explain the type of socioeconomic change that is required to reduce vulnerabilities in Latin America.

Disaster risk reduction is of prime importance in informal settlements in the Global South, where several forms of vulnerability coexist. Policy and official programmes, however, rarely respond to the needs and expectations of citizens and local leaders living in these settlements. Even though these agents constantly attempt to reduce risks in their own way, we know very little about their activities, motivations and effective impact on risk reduction. Here we seek to conceptualize bottom-up initiatives to better grasp their origins, limitations and success.

Through a four-year action-research project in Colombia, Cuba and Chile, we theorize about the production of change by local agents. Through detailed case studies we explored the activism of 17 local leaders. Through narrative analysis we studied their motivations and explanations. Finally, by documenting 22 initiatives, we revealed effective changes in space.

In the face of risk and disasters, residents and leaders in informal settings engaged in symbolic, physical and social spaces of interaction. Their actions were guided by trust, emotions, time cycles and activism. Local agency was justified by narratives about risk and climate change that differ from those of authorities and scholars.

There is still limited understanding of bottom-up initiatives in informal settings. It is crucial to conceptualize their origins, limitations and success. The focus on three specific countries necessitates further research for broader applicability and understanding.

A better comprehension of bottom-up actions is crucial for informing policies and programmes aimed at reducing risk in informal settings. Stakeholders must recognize the political, social and cultural roles of these actions for more impactful climate action.

We borrow Simon’s concept of “artefact” to introduce the notion of “Artefacts of Disaster Risk Reduction”, providing insights into the multifaceted nature of bottom-up initiatives. We also emphasize the simultaneous political and phenomenological character of these actions, contributing to a deeper understanding of their origins and impact.

Climate change poses diverse, often fundamental, challenges to livelihoods of island peoples. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that these challenges must be better understood before effective and sustainable adaptation is possible.

Understanding past livelihood impacts from climate change can help design and operationalize future interventions. In addition, globalization has had uneven effects on island countries/jurisdictions, producing situations especially in archipelagoes where there are significant differences between core and peripheral communities. This approach overcomes the problems that have characterized many recent interventions for climate-change adaptation in island contexts which have resulted in uneven and at best only marginal livelihood improvements in preparedness for future climate change.

Island contexts have a range of unique vulnerability and resilience characteristics that help explain recent and proposed responses to climate change. These include the sensitivity of coastal fringes to climate-environmental changes: and in island societies, the comparatively high degrees of social coherence, closeness to nature and spirituality that are uncommon in western contexts.

Enhanced understanding of island environmental and social contexts, as well as insights from past climate impacts and peripherality, all contribute to more effective and sustainable future interventions for adaptation.

The need for more effective and sustainable adaptation in island contexts is becoming ever more exigent as the pace of twenty-first-century climate change increases.

Adventure activities have become the core products of many tourism destinations. Hiking, which is known to be a soft adventure activity, represents an especially important product for many tourism destinations around the globe and in the European Alps. However, little research has explored hikers’ underlying motivation and experiences, which are expected to differ from the hard adventure context, as mountain hiking provides a low risk, but high immersion. This paper aims to determine and explore the underlying dimensions and dynamics of mountain hikers’ soft adventure motivation (SAM).

A concurrent mixed-method design that builds on a quantitative survey (N = 379) and qualitative interviews (N = 14) was used to explore SAM factors. This study combined exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis with semi-structured interviews and template analysis.

The quantitative results provide six SAM factors and emphasize that “relaxation,” “socializing” and “discovery” contribute to hiking satisfaction, while “recognition” has adverse effects. By triangulating these findings with hikers’ experiences, this study underlines the associated recreational meaning of hiking and provides an in-depth qualitative discussion of SAM factors and the subordinate role of “recognition.”

The contribution of this paper is a refined understanding of SAM in the hiking context by emphasizing the recreational meaning of mountain hiking. As a result, this study adds an important missing link to previous outdoor tourism and leisure studies by showing the special composition and dynamics of SAM. The findings also support the creation of tailor-made touristic products.

探险活动已经成为许多旅游目的地的核心产品。其中徒步旅行被认作为一种“轻松”探险活动并且代表着全球众多旅游目的地及欧洲阿尔卑斯山的重要产品。然而, 很少有研究探索远足者的潜在动机和经验, 由于徒步远足的风险较低, 但参与感高, 因此预计于艰苦的冒险环境有所不同。因此, 本文确定并探索了山地徒步者“轻松”冒险动机的潜在维度和动力。

采用基于定量调查(N = 379)和定性访谈(N = 14)的并行混合方法设计来探索SAM因素。因此, 我们将探索性因子分析和回归分析与半结构化访谈和模板分析相结合。

定量结果提供了6个SAM因素, 并强调“放松”、“社交”和“发现”有助于提升满意度, 而“认知”则有负面影响。通过将这些发现与徒步旅行者的经历进行三角分析, 我们强调了徒步旅行的相关娱乐意义, 并对SAM因素和“识别”的从属作用进行了深入的定性讨论。

本文的贡献在于通过强调登山的休闲意义, 对徒步情景下的SAM进行了精细化的理解。因此, 我们通过展示SAM的特殊组成和动态, 为之前的户外旅游和休闲研究添加了一个重要的缺失环节。最后, 研究结果支持了定制旅游产品的创造。

探险旅游, 动机, 软探险, 徒步

研究论文

Las actividades de aventura se han convertido en uno de los productos principales de muchos destinos turísticos, especialmente el senderismo, una actividad de aventura de baja dificultad que representa un producto importante para muchos destinos turísticos alrededor del mundo y en los Alpes europeos. Sin embargo, pocas investigaciones han estudiado la motivación y las experiencias subyacentes de los excursionistas, las cuales se espera que difieran del contexto de aventura de alta dificultad, ya que el senderismo de montaña proporciona un bajo riesgo pero una alta inmersión. Por lo tanto, este documento determina y examina las dimensiones y dinámicas subyacentes de la motivación de aventura de baja dificultad (SAM, por sus siglas en inglés) de los excursionistas de montaña.

Se utilizó un diseño de método mixto concurrente que se basa en una encuesta cuantitativa (N = 379) y entrevistas cualitativas (N = 14) para explorar los factores de SAM. De este modo, se combinó análisis factorial exploratorio y análisis de regresión con entrevistas semiestructuradas y análisis de plantillas.

Los resultados cuantitativos aportan seis factores de SAM y enfatizan que la “relajación”, la “socialización” y el “descubrimiento” contribuyen a la satisfacción del senderismo, mientras que el “reconocimiento” tiene efectos adversos. Al relacionar estos hallazgos con las experiencias de los excursionistas se destaca el significado recreativo asociado al senderismo y se brinda una discusión cualitativa profunda de los factores de SAM y el papel subordinado del “reconocimiento”.

La contribución de este artículo es una comprensión refinada de la SAM en el contexto de senderismo al enfatizar el significado recreativo del senderismo de montaña. De este modo, se suma un importante eslabón perdido a los estudios anteriores de turismo al aire libre y de ocio al mostrar la composición y dinámica especial de la SAM. Por último, los resultados respaldan la creación de productos turísticos hechos a la medida de las preferencias de los turistas.

Work-based research is the applied form of work-based learning (WBL) and has been described as the systematic and methodical process of investigating work-related “problems”. Such problems can either be associated with specific workplaces and domains of practice or may more broadly be described as practical, social or real-world in nature. However, the specific characteristics of work-related problems for organisations and society have yet to be explained, and inadequate problem definition, multiple and competing goals, and lack of agreement on cause-effect relationships have hampered understanding. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of work-related problems and provides examples from real-world contexts in Australia.

The paper provides models and examples of standard and non-standard work-related problems based on prior research and current practice.

Research paradigms view work-related problems as either definable and solvable or ill-defined, complex, difficult to describe and not easily rectified. The former view is concerned with “high ground problems” associated with traditional research methods; the latter with “lowland, messy, confusing problems” more frequently associated with the social sciences. Irrespective of orientation and definition, work-related problems have one thing in common: they are typically messy, constantly changing and complex, and many are co-produced and wicked.

Despite difficulties with identifying and isolating the various types of work-related problem, the paper establishes the importance of doing so for the practitioner. The definition and examination of work-related problems contribute to an evolving formulation of WBL and its application to private organisations, government agencies and work more generally.

While the South Pacific is often cited as highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, there is comparatively little known about how different groups perceive climate change. Understanding the gaps and differences between risk and perceived risk is a prerequisite to designing effective and sustainable adaptation strategies.

This research examined three key groups in Samoa, Fiji and Vanuatu: secondary school teachers, media personnel, and rural subsistence livelihood-based communities that live near or in conservation areas. This study deployed a dual methodology of participatory focus groups, paired with a national mobile phone based survey to gauge perceptions of climate change. This was the first time mobile technology had been used to gather perceptual data regarding the environment in the South Pacific.

The research findings highlighted a number of important differences and similarities in ways that these groups perceive climate change issues, solutions, personal vulnerability and comprehension of science among other factors.

These differences and similarities are neglected in large-scale top-down climate change adaptation strategies and have key implications for the design of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and therefore sustainable development in the region.

The research was innovative in terms of its methods, as well as its distillation of the perceptions of climate change from teachers, media and rural communities.