Journal Archives

Exploring the economic impact of national parks on the local economy. Functional approach in the context of Poland’s transition economy

Author: Mirosław Mika, Bernadetta Zawilińska and Robert Pawlusinski

The article presents the methodological assumptions in functional approach for exploring the economic impact of national parks on the local economy. The original model of systemic analysis proposed and discussed in the article allows the broad spectrum of direct and indirect economic relations of national parks with their immediate spatial surrounding to be analysed. The discussion on the economic aspects of national parks’ operation relates to the specic conditions of Poland’s transition economy. The factors determining the economic function of a national park in the local economy include legal regulations which specify the powers of the park’s managing body and regulate the park’s behaviour on the local market; the attractiveness of the park’s location as a tourist destination; the scale of growth and commercialisation of tourism. Also important is the local social and economic context in which the national parks are embedded. Endogenous and exogenous determinants of the operation of Polish national parks determine the dynamic nature of their local economic relations.

Mobile ethnography: emergence, techniques and its importance to geography

Author: Andre Novoa

This paper presents an overview of the emergence of mobile ethnography and its potential benefits to the discipline of geography. The rise of mobile ethnography has been linked with the so-called “new mobilities paradigm”, which has become especially important in geographical thinking over the past ten years. Erstwhile focused on more static concepts, such as space, place or landscape, geography is today rife with theories and analyses of movement, mobility and flow. In spite of that, mobile ethnography can soon claim a preeminent status within the discipline. In this paper, I document the rise of this methodology, focusing myself on three main aspects. The first is to attempt a definition of mobile ethnography itself. The second is to enlist some recent examples of its usages. The third is to provide several strategies and techniques arising from my own work. This paper might, thus, be useful to senior undergraduate and postgraduate students focused on qualitative research methods in geography.

EDITORS

Prof. dr. Liliana Dumitrache
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Daniela Dumbrăveanu
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Mariana Nae
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Gabriel Simion
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania