International Voluntourism as Secular Pilgrimage: A Case Study of Hosts and Guests in a Small Panamanian Town

In this paper, I discuss the social dynamics of international ‘voluntourism’ in Santa Catalina, a small town on the Pacific coast of Panama that has become a tourist mecca in the last two decades. Through my collection of documentary, interview, and ethnographic data, I contribute to on-going debates about the appropriateness and impact of volunteer tourism in developing countries (McGehee 2009, 2012; Palacios 2010; Tomazos and Butler 2012). While existing research tends to focus on the volunteers, here I focus on the complex relations between the volunteers and the ‘voluntoured’ (local Panamanians). My preliminary research shows significant parallels between secular international volunteers and short-term missionaries (often disparaged as partaking in ‘Christian tourism’ rather than genuine religious service). Specifically, both types of volunteers tend to exude a similar missionary zeal and the dual goal of enriching (or even ‘transforming’) their own lives while ‘helping others;’ both envision themselves as embarking on sacred journeys (Cohen 1979; Graburn 1989). In addition to empirically addressing questions about privilege and power, and whether (or how) international volunteering inadvertently perpetuates global inequalities, this research illuminates the difficulties in negotiating respect across unequal social positions and in interactions between seemingly agnostic local hosts and foreign guests on sacred journeys

Adult Strider

The goal of the Strider project was to create a mobility device that would support a person with weakened leg strength and allow them to push the device around with their legs and build more leg strength. There are many health benefits to standing and the Strider was intended to help a person with a disability experience these benefits. The Strider is a fully independent device that the user can get into and maneuver without assistance. The device is also safe, highly maneuverable, and complies with all ADA standards and requirements. The design is built around a frame that supports the user. A lowered push-off bar allows the user to push out of his wheel chair and the frame supports the user’s weight. The user then uses the transfer seat to get into the device. The transfer seat locks in the downward position so the user can sit in it while getting into the harness. Once the harness is attached, the transfer seat can be unlocked and swung back out of the way and the torso support system then is closed. At this point the harness supports the majority of the user’s weight and the user can now move the device around with his legs. Testing showed that a user can get into the device without help. However, the process is much more involved than originally believed, but with practice our user can learn how to transfer easily. The device moves very well for a person who is used to controlling their legs. However, for a person with less practice, accurately steering the Strider is a little trickier. Overall, the Strider fulfills the goals of the project. The user can get into the device and maneuver it around. The device also gives the user a workout. Future projects that are similar might want to look for alternative wheels that can provide better traction on smooth surfaces. This is especially important when the user is getting into the device and the brakes are on. As of now, the device slips a little on smooth floors while the user is getting into it. Lastly, having more adjustable arm rests would be beneficial

Logistic regression models for the nearest train station choice: A comparison of captive and non-captive stations

We usually assume that each commuter is an efficient traveller, which means they maximize trip utility. From a spatial optimization perspective, a commuter might therefore choose the nearest station to reach their destination. However, based on a survey at seven train stations in Perth, Western Australia, only between 30 and 80 percent of commuters choose the nearest station to their origin. Many factors could affect this travel behaviour. From a logistic regression model, five factors were found to be significant (p-value <0.05), indicating that commuters are more likely to choose the non-nearest station for longer commutes, while traveling further away from origins and destination if the chosen stations are at, or near, the end of train lines (captive stations). If the chosen stations are along the train line (non-captive stations), longer distance, longer wait times and lower costs from the chosen station to a destination were found to be significant. The results of the study are important for public transport policy makers to understand transit choice behaviours. Therefore public transport policies such as adjustments of travel fees and improving station service and facilities, could be developed

‘A place for everything’: Moral landscapes of ‘swiftlet farming’ in George Town, Malaysia

This paper is based on 6 months of ethnographic, multi-sited research in Malaysia, and investigates the relatively recent phenomenon of edible birds’ nest farming in urban areas (‘swiftlet farming’). Swiftlet farms are typically converted shophouses or other buildings which have been modified for the purpose of harvesting the nests of the Edible-nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus). I use the controversy over urban swiftlet farming in the Malaysian city of George Town, Penang, to examine discourses used by key stakeholders to shape debates over the place of non-human animals in cities. By considering everyday experiences of urban swiftlet farming, I explore how this burgeoning industry is perceived amongst residents, and how it is deemed to be (in)appropriate within the political, economic and cultural landscape of George Town. Yet, I also consider how farmers have sought to contest these discourses on ideological and normative grounds. In so doing, I place the cultural animal geographies literature in conversation with emergent literature on landscape and urban political ecology. Such a framing allows for a critical evaluation of the controversies surrounding this case, and their implications for human-animal cohabitation in cities. The paper reflects on the implications of this case for how we regulate human-animal relations and live in contemporary cities, and the crucial role of animals in altering urban form, aesthetics and everyday life, particularly in non-Western contexts

Analyzing and interpreting lime burials from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939): a case study from La Carcavilla Cemetery

Over 500 victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) were buried in the cemetery of La Carcavilla (Palencia, Spain). White material, observed in several burials, was analyzed with Raman spectroscopy and powder XRD, and confirmed to be lime. Archaeological findings at La Carcavilla's cemetery show that the application of lime was used in an organized way, mostly associated with coffinless interments of victims of Francoist repression. In burials with a lime cast, observations made it possible to draw conclusions regarding the presence of soft tissue at the moment of deposition, the sequence of events, and the presence of clothing and other evidence. This study illustrates the importance of analyzing a burial within the depositional environment and taphonomic context

Port City Relations: Global Spaces of Urban Waterfront Development

Urban waterfronts have become key sites where global restructuring processes and local interests are engaged in complex struggles that are influencing the future of cities. The author discusses three issues related to these struggles. First, new waterfront spaces are emerging from a convergence of economic restructuring, globalization and technological changes. Second, port security has become an increasingly important factor in waterfront developments and port-city relations. And third, urban waterfront developments are part of the construction of socio-nature. Following a discussion of these issues, the author suggests that new policies are needed for waterfront development

Introduction to "Political ecologies of urban waterfront transformations"

This is an introductory chapter for a series of papers which focus on the political ecology of waterfronts in selected cities in Europe, North America and the Caribbean. The papers incorporate emphases on the myriad influences that different scales of social and environmental policy development and implementation, planning decisions, infrastructure funding, investment and ownership practices, and public engagement, for example, have on the social and ecological processes that occur on urban waterfronts. The authors posit that urban waterfronts are interesting and complex spatial locations that, when studied with attention to broader transformative processes as well as the changes that occur within the scale of the urban waterfront, allow for new insights into the production of nature, patterns of social entanglement, and political–economic configurations in cities.Changing Urban Waterfronts research projec

Walking on Water: The Politics of Land Creation

This presentation looks at how a particular form of socio-nature, the Port Industrial District, was produced through intertwined human and non-human processes and how this new land-form supported wealth accumulation in Toronto during the early twentieth century.Changing Urban Waterfronts Research Projec