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This paper introduces an island tourism multi-dimensional model. Its aim is to develop an approach for integrating quantitative models and qualitative techniques into a coherent and useful methodology. The island tourism multi-dimensional model is divided into several modules as presented in the paper. They include geographic information system applications, economic impact assessment, forecasting modeling, accessibility modeling, seasonality modeling and alternative modeling. Forecasting models, economic impact assessments and geographic information systems can be used to project forecasts and demonstrate sustainable and economic development issues. The paper demonstrates that the outcomes of the accessibility and seasonality modules can be used to generate strategic plans of marketing segments, service engagement and community involvement. It suggests that by using alternative modeling the output of quantitative analyses and the input of private, voluntary and public sectors at community, business and governmental levels can be integrated with each other. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural areas in Europe have increasingly become cast as places of nature, and so consideration of sustainable rural development is preoccupied with the management and protection of environmental and natural resources. Yet rural areas are also places of business, commerce and living. This paper examines the character and treatment of rural economies in England over the past decade. It sets out some of the challenges for the socio-economic development of rural areas, and explains how concerns about sustainable rural economies have come to be eclipsed within central government by those of ‘greening farming’ on the one hand and urban policy on the other. The paper concludes by discussing how the role of rural areas and rural economies might be creatively rethought in the context of regional and sub-regional territorial development strategies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1980 and 1997, municipal waste in OECD countries increased by around 40%. This paper outlines the very real negative effects of this increase and then introduces the two main European Union policies that have been established to address this problem: a landfill directive and legislation on extended producer responsibility (EPR). The paper then describes and compares the four alternative strategies to reducing end-of-life waste within the context of extended producer responsibility: namely repairing, reconditioning, remanufacturing or recycling. It also introduces a more robust definition of remanufacturing, validated by earlier research, which differentiates it from repair and reconditioning. From a consideration of the different factors involved, it concludes that remanufacturing may well be the best strategy. This is because it enables the embodied energy of virgin production to be maintained, preserves the intrinsic ‘added value’ of the product for the manufacturer and enables the resultant products to be sold ‘as new’ with updated features if necessary. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Rapid transformations offer new challenges for rural regions to invent new pathways for development. For many, an obvious choice is to set out on the path towards economic growth and to compete with other regions for global, mobile capital and labor. There is however an increasing awareness that in the long run regions should anticipate a more sustainable development based on regional qualities. Across Europe new and fascinating forms of shared, value-driven leadership for such sustainable regional development can be observed. This leadership cannot be explained with traditional leadership models derived from management and business literature. In this paper a new leadership model is developed that is both empirically and theoretically informed. The model is shaped along two axes: an 'individual-collective' and an 'inner-outer' axis. Four leadership dimensions are discerned and described: 'the X-factor' (personal qualities, feelings, motives and values), 'vital space' (stimulating favorable behavior by flexible roles and building vital coalitions), 'shared leadership'(working across organizational boundaries) and 'bricolage' (connecting networks in institutional arrangements). We have applied this model in eight cases of rural regional development in the Netherlands. The cases show that sustainable regional development benefits from shared leadership where collective values, feelings, trust, commitment and energy form the basis for mobilizing private and public actors around a joint agenda in regional networks. Leaders can in this sense contribute to new regional agendas and the exploration of new pathways to sustainability. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]