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Production of livestock in urban spaces is a common phenomenon globally, particularly in the Global South. Livestock provides multiple benefits to society yet its production in urban spaces can result in adverse impacts to residents that can trigger conflicts. Understanding of the ecosystem services and disservices of livestock from the perspectives of residents can inform inclusive local management plans. Using household surveys and key informant interviews, this study sought to examine the contribution of livestock to owners, and perceptions of livestock services and disservices among non-livestock owners and key informants in Makhanda, a medium-sized South African town. Livestock owners derived multiple benefits from their livestock, including provisioning services such as meat, milk, skins and draught, and use livestock and livestock products in cultural activities such as rituals, bride price payments and funerals that are key elements of local identity. Among residents, there were marked differences in perceptions on the services and disservices of livestock which points to potential conflicts over urban land use and the need for addressing trade-offs. A key trade-off for local municipal authorities is addressing hunger and poverty by supporting well-regulated urban livestock production versus managing potential livestock disservices such as injuries to humans, livestock-vehicle collisions, health hazards and damage to urban green infrastructure. The trade-offs should be understood and considered by local authorities and residents as a basis for collectively developing strategies that can integrate livelihoods and cultural realities to balance competing demands for urban spaces including livestock production and other uses.

We present evidence of how researchers from developing countries are represented in three areas of research: conference presentations, articles in journals, and citations. We find that the bulk of ...

A violent conflict, known as the Anglophone Crisis has been occuring in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon since 2016. This conflict and associated consequences have affected the way h...

Individuals in the forensic mental health system experience barriers to recovery and lack opportunities for engagement in meaningful activities. Equine interventions have the potential to promote r...

Interest in preventing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offending is growing. A variety of initiatives have been proposed, including the use of warning messages triggered by keyword searches. An under-explored question is how the public might perceive such initiatives. Existing research reveals that the public holds very negative views about individuals labeled ‘sex offenders’ and ‘pedophiles’. Yet, little is known about how the public views individuals who commit CSAM offenses. This study explores the beliefs of 491 young adult Internet users toward a hypothetical novice-user of CSAM. Using thematic analysis, five key themes are identified. Informed by this analysis, implications for introducing prevention initiatives are discussed.

Within tourism studies, there has been a gap in attempting to understand chronic illness within the context of travel. Researchers examining affective tourism have noted that much of everyd...

Landscape stewardship is considered an important place-based approach to addressing sustainability challenges. Working at landscape-level requires collaboration between diverse landscape stakeholders. In this study, we partnered with local stewardship practitioners across six cases in South Africa to investigate how they facilitate collaboration towards social-ecological sustainability outcomes. We found that practitioners facilitate collaboration among stakeholders by operating as relational hubs in the landscape. Through these hubs, they build new inter-personal relationships among stakeholders, creating social networks which enable stewardship practice. The hubs deepen human-nature relationships by creating enabling conditions for stewards to put stewardship ethics into action. Drawing on insights from these cases, we call for a relational approach to landscape stewardship which focuses on human-to-human and human-to-nature relationships. Moreover, we argue that landscape stewardship initiatives need to re-focus stewardship on stewards, recognizing them as key agents of change in addressing the conflict between agriculture and conservation inherent in many landscapes.

In recent decade tourism researches turned their attention to creative qualitative methodologies to gain the deeper understandings of tourism phenomena. Despite the considerable body of research focusing on creative methodologies there is a need to challenge and creatively disrupt conventional methodological approaches as they are criticised for their inability to be participant driven, capture the co-construction of research context or to address the impact of wider social dynamics to knowledge creation in tourism studies. Based on our research focused on host–guests experiences participating in the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) programme in New Zealand we provide a critical consideration of LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® for tourism studies. LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® is a communication tool aimed at developing creative thinking through building metaphors around identities and experiences using LEGO ® bricks. To demonstrate how the method can be used in tourism studies, we draw on examples from three LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® workshops to illustrate the benefits and challenges of this methodological approach. LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® offered a metaphorical way for participants to construct creative artefacts and explain their ideal WWOOFing experience, representing sometimes complex, entrenched and emotional issues, and relationships that may have been difficult to express via traditional methods. The method enables participant driven, co-production of knowledge in a playful, free-flowing way to foster creative thinking, meanings and possible solutions. The method helps participants creatively communicate complex and sensitive issues, especially around their relationships–to objects, landscapes, people and identities–aspects that may otherwise be silenced by traditional research methods. As a novel method LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® provides opportunities for researchers who want to gain a deeper understanding of the social dimensions of tourism, to co-create spaces for knowledge exchange and develop an in-depth understanding of socially constructed relationships and realities.

A growing body of literature shows that social media plays a key role during crises and conflicts. In addition to traditional media, social media are used to mobilise people for a common cause and ...

Two young women stood arm-in-arm at a microphone that was technically closed for further questions. Supporting one another in their embrace, they courageously made their request to the rather prest...

This special issue features papers culminating from a six seminar ESRC series ‘Liability versus innovation: Unpacking Key Connections,’ convened between December 2015 and September 2017 at Keele, QUT (Brisbane, Australia) and Durham universities.11 See: ‘Liability v Innovation: Unpacking Key Connections, An ESRC Seminar Series’. The support of ESRC towards this research is acknowledged. The seminar series was conceived in response to perceptions of scientists and clinicians that, despite the pro innovation rhetoric in Government policy documents,the threat of malpractice liability might stifle innovative treatment (IT). Such perceptions are supported by two related claims common in medico-legal literature – that the threat of legal liability following adverse outcomes causes defensive medicine, and that the threat of legal liability stifles innovation. The extent of these problems remains disputed. In particular, the Bolam-Bolitho test of clinical negligence in England – which excludes liability for clinical decisions accepted as proper by a responsible body of skilled medical peers unless such practice is illogical – is arguably problematic in terms of incentives to engage in IT. An IT is by definition less likely to accord with accepted practice. So, while policy-makers encourage and pay considerable lip service to innovation, tort law might give the opposite incentive to clinicians. Or so goes the argument.

Overcoming traditional tourism silos to develop long-term relationships with stakeholders is essential for transformational change. Adopting broader networks connects researchers to pertine...

Many interfaces attempt to assist users by offering suggestions, predicting actions, or correcting user input. Although these attempts may often be beneficial, they will occasionally fail, and prio...

When refugees are resettled into a destination, refugee-focused service providers offer frontline services to ease refugees’ experiences of trauma and marginalisation, providing advocacy an...

Ontario urban development necessitates stream restoration projects for existing watercourses that flow through a property under development. This is part of the planning process, mandated by local ...

Loss is a universal human experience that every person encounters. In our life journey, loss may come in many forms including suffering the death of a loved one, living with chronic illness, disabilities, separation, being abused, unemployment, and there are many other losses. These changes signal the reality of significant losses, which are often viewed negatively, affecting an individual’s experiences and inclination to travel. Many scholars neglect that, for some, loss can prompt positive reflection of their own mortality, existence and purpose, which may reshape their travel experiences. This paper aims to critically review these issues within the tourism literature to ascertain how loss is conceptualized and understood in relation to its influence on travel.

The United States Association for Body Psychotherapy’s Summer 2016 conference attracted 152 people to the three-day event held in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Joan Borysenko, who, now in her 70s,...

Retirement village living is a growing housing option for older people. Research to date has focused primarily on the social milieu of the village with limited attention to the legal and financial obligations associated with this form of specialized seniors' housing. Using data from a survey of 312 Australian residents, this article suggests while residents place financial and legal obligations at the forefront when considering relocation and during residency, there is variability in professional advice and constraints on choices when needs and capacities change. The distinctive obligations associated with retirement village living require greater attention to ensure an informed lifestyle decision.

Winter is a stressful season for freshwater, stream-dwelling fish because ice decreases habitat area and creates habitat fragmentation, and cooler water temperatures lower fish metabolism. Small streams regularly become completely ice-covered, and common techniques used to study fish developed for open-water conditions are not easily modified. These winter conditions make it difficult to accurately observe fish behaviour in their natural habitat. This study evaluated remote underwater video cameras used to observe minnow behaviour in overwinter conditions. Waterproof action cameras (e.g. GoPros™ and Sony™ action cameras) were lowered into the water column from the channel ice and set to record for 30-minute intervals, and with a modified antenna, Bluetooth™ connected cameras facilitated real-time observations to check and ensure camera position and function. Advances in video camera technology have allowed high quality video to be captured with inexpensive equipment (∼$500 CDN for camera, case, memory card and back-up batteries), such as small, portable action cameras that are now readily available. This technique was effective at observing fish behaviour, communities and habitat preference during the winter in small, ice-covered streams, which is important for water resource and fisheries management, conservation biology and stream restoration.

The Burtonsville landslide in central New York, USA, is a kilometer-scale rotational block failure in glacial till that was likely initiated by incision of the adjacent Schoharie Creek. Although the timing of initial failure is unknown, relatively fresh scarps and tilted surfaces suggest that movement is post-glacial and active. The river currently erodes the toe slope and it removed significant material during flooding associated with Hurricane Irene (August 2011). We retrieved tree cores from 111 trees across the landslide to reconstruct modern movement and block tilting as it related to moisture conditions in the region. Our data show that trees across the slide are in sync with respect to the stress response indicated by reaction wood. The magnitude of response to slope instability, as inferred from eccentric growth, has varied considerably across the site. We hypothesize that macropore development during the driest periods, and the differential rate at which water has reached subsurface failu...

Conference travel tends to be perceived as a functional activity for professional gatherings rather than leisure. Yet, there is potential for including leisure in this type of travel especially when being ‘accompanied' by a significant other. Literature has been limited on the topic but relevant studies have illustrated how conference travel can become couple leisure with the presence of an accompanying partner. This paper aims to explore accompanying partners’ conference travel experiences, particularly how conference travel fulfils the purpose of a couple's leisure. An interpretative phenomenological analysis approach is used to uncover the meanings of accompanying partners’ travel experiences from their perspective. The findings illustrate that conference travel can facilitate the pursuit of personal interests allowing opportunities for serendipity and increased intimacy in the couple's relationship compared to traditional family holiday travel. We call for further research on the lived experie...

It is no accident that successful school principals assign their very best teachers to the first elementary class (Cockburn, 2013) for it is, without a doubt in our minds, one of the most challengi...

In the past few years, there has been more recognition and research that has highlighted how women and girls have often been overlooked by traditional diagnostic assessment approaches used in autis...