RQF Trial Evidence Portfolio
1.Name of Research Grouping:Social and Cultural Aspects of Environmental Management
2. Home Panel:9 Social Sciences and Politics
- Up to three 4 Digit RFDC Codes:3701, 30%:3704, 20%:3505, 30%: 3101, 20%
Up to three 4 Digit SEO Codes: 7799, 30%: 7105, 30%: 7508, 20%:7601, 20%
4. Name of Researchers / Level / M/F / FTE / ECR / RFCD Code / SEO Code1 Catherine Allan / B / F / 1 / Y / 3701-3704 / 7701-7799
2 Rosemary Black / C / F / 1 / N / 3505 / 7105
3 Penny Davidson / C / F / 1 / N / 3701, 3704, 3009, 3505 / 7801, 7799, 7105
4Digby Race / C / M / 1 / N / 3704 / 7701-7799
5Dirk Spennemann / D / M / 1 / N / 3101; 3703-3704; / 7508-7509
6 Rik Thwaites / C / M / 1 / N / 3704 / 7601
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5.Each Eligible Researcher’s four best outputs.
Catherine Allan
Allan, C. & Curtis, A.(2005). Nipped in the Bud: Why regional scale adaptive management is not blooming. Environmental Management, 36(3), 414-425.
In this article current constraints on adaptive management of natural resources are identified and discussed. Understanding these constraints is important because adaptive management is hailed as the answer to ‘wicked’ problems such as water sharing and global warming; this global significance is evidenced by the article’s publication in Environmental Management, a US-based,international journal. With a Thomson JIF of 1.097, it is ranked 77 of their 144 environmental science journals.Despite its recent publication date the article already has 4citations in ISI, and 7 in Google Scholar, including citations from authors in the US, Sweden, China and Australia.
Allan, C. & Curtis, A.(2003). Regional Scale Adaptive Management: Lessons from the North East Salinity Strategy.Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 10(2), 76-84.
The article focuses on the application of adaptive management as part of catchment management activities in regional Australia, and suggests ways for government funded land management projects to become more adaptive. The Australasian Journal of Environmental Managementhas been the voice of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand since 1994. The journal focuses on environmental management in the Asia –Pacific region, and is indexed in services such as APAIS and Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. The article has 5 citations listed in Google Scholar, including citations in the respected Australian journalsAustralian Geographerand Ecological Management and Restoration.
Allan, C. & Whalley, R.D.B.(2004). Some factors influencing landholder opinion of the native grass Microlaena stipoides'.Rangeland Journal, 26(2),178-189.
The management of farming landscapes has long been informed by physical scientists. This article provides a social science perspective on the opinions and behaviours of managers of native pastures. The Rangeland Journal, published by CSIRO since 1976, is one of only three scholarly international journals dealing with rangelanduse and management, and the only one with an Australian focus. The Thomson JIF factor was 0.625 in the year this article was published, which is comparable with the impact factors of the other Rangeland specific journals- Journal of Rangeland Management (0.676 in 2004) and Rangeland Ecology and Management (0.652 in 2006).
Allan, C., Curtis, A. & Mazur, N.(2006). Understanding the social impacts of floods. InA.Poiani (ed)Floods in an Arid Continent, (pp. 159-174). Advances in Ecological Research. San Diego, Elsevier.
Floods in an Arid Continent was published in 2006, the 50th anniversary of the devastating 1956 floods in southern Australia. This book was published as part of a long running series by Elsevier, a publishing house which has been one of the world’s leading sources of science information for over 125 years. The authors were invited by the book’s editor to provide a social science perspective in a work intended to give a holistic discussion of floods in Australia. As the book was published in late December 2006 no reviews are available at present.
Rosemary Black:
Black, R.S. Ham, S.H. (2005). Improving the quality of tour guiding: Towards a model for tour guide certification. Journal of Ecotourism4(3), 1-18.
This article represents one of the few that focuses on tour guiding in the context of ecotourism. It is a key article as it presents a model for developing a certification program for ecotour guides with the aim of improving the standard of tour guiding.The Journal of Ecotourismis a UK journal which is ranked 13 of the 40 tourism and hospitality journals assessed by McKercher et al. 2006. Following the publication of this article the author has received a number of inquires from overseas seeking further information about the proposed model, and there is 1 citation in Google scholar.
Black, R. S. (2003). Industry stakeholders’ views on tour guide certification in the Australian ecotourism industry. In Black, R. S. Weiler, B. (eds.) Interpreting the Land Downunder: Australian Heritage Interpretation and Tour Guiding, Golden, Colorado, US.Fulcrum Publishing Inc.
This chapter is in a book published as part of a series by Fulcrum Publishing focusing on interpretation and environmental communication. The volume explores current thinking and presents empirical research aimed at understanding heritage interpretation and tour guiding in Australia. In the Journal of Interpretation Research (2004) volume 9, No. 2 Professor Joseph Roggenbuck from Virginia Tech in the USA stated that “Australia seems to be conducting critical analyses of the effectiveness of visitor centres and visits to historical houses, and making recommendations about how to improve such programs. This we can applaud”.
Black, R.S Weiler, B. (2005). Quality assurance and regulatory mechanisms in the tour guiding industry: A systematic review. Journal of Tourism Studies 16 (1), 24-37.
This article examines a range of quality assurance and regulatory mechanisms that have the potential to enhance the performance of tour guides with respect to the key roles they are expected to perform. The article makes a significant contribution to the field of tourism by drawing together the key mechanisms to raise tour-guiding standards. Journal of Tourism Studies was published for 16 years from 1990, was ranked 9 of the 40 tourism and hospitality journals assessed by McKercher et al. 2006, and indexed in APAIS and other databases. The article has one citation in Google Scholar.
Black, R.S. King, B. (2002). Human resource development in remote island communities: An evaluation of tour guide training in Vanuatu. International Journal of Tourism Research, 4, 103-117.
TheUK basedInternational Journal of Tourism Research provides a respected international platform for debate and dissemination of research findings on tourism. It is ranked 6 of the 40 tourism and hospitality journals assessed by McKercher et al. 2006, and is indexed in well used services such as CAB and PsychInfo. This article represents a significant contribution to its field, as one of the few articles in the literature that considers issues of tour guide training in remote island communities.
Penny Davidson:
Davidson, P. & Black, R. (2001). Women in natural resource management: Finding a more balanced perspective, Society and Natural Resources. 14(8), 645-656.
The domination of Australian natural resource management by men results in missed opportunities for best practice management, and has implications for social justice.This article detailed the current gender imbalance in Australian organisations and pointed to strategies for including and valuing other cultures along with masculinity. Society and Natural Resourcesis a US based international journal with a current Thomson JIF of 1.064. That the article raised important questions about gender in the field of environmental management is apparent as it has been cited 2 times in ISI Web of Knowledge and 3 times according to Google Scholar.
Davidson, P., Jones, T. & Schellhorn, M. (2002), 'Women as Producers and Consumers of Island Tourism. In Apostolopoulos, Y. D.J. Gayle (eds.) Island Tourism and Sustainable Development: Caribbean, Pacific, and Mediterranean Experiences (pp. 199-221). Westport: Praeger.
The authors were invited to contribute to this multidisciplinary volume which discusses the impact of tourism on sustainable development in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Mediterranean. The chapter showed that women’s involvement in tourism production and consumption is directly linked to their gendered social positions, and that focusing on men’s roles in and perceptions of tourism is inadequate for both management and research. This work, published by Praegar (which has produced scholarly and professionalbooks in the social sciences and humanities since 1949), provides a much-needed understanding of the interplay among economic, cultural, environmental, and public health parameters.
Knight, A. & Davidson, P. (2006). Sense of place in Conservation Agencies: Exploring Emotions that affect Work Practices. In Whiteford, G (ed)Voice, Identity and Reflexivity, (pp. 219-227).Bathurst NSW Centre for Research into Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE).
A sense of ‘Place’ is fundamental to understanding landscape and natural resource management, but until this book chapter there was no published research on the place experience of managers of protected areas. This preliminary work confirmed the importance of an emotional connection between park workers and their parks, while highlighting the denial of such emotions in bureaucratic processes and structures. RIPPLE publications are well received in a variety of disciplines nationally and internationally, as evidenced by the interest that the chapter stimulated from other place researchers such as William E Hammitt, President of the US Academy of Leisure Sciences.
Allan, C., Davidson, P. & Curtis, A. 2006, Who us? Do the research? Reflections on some current participatory action research projects. In Whiteford, G (ed)Voice, Identity and Reflexivity,(pp.208-218). Centre for Research into professional Practice, Learning and Education, Bathurst NSW.
In this chapter Penny shares the lessons she learned from undertaking and evaluating one of the first Participatory Action Research projects undertaken in an Australian Irrigation district. In particular she highlights the constraints on negotiating new roles in participatory research, including those of expectations, ego and institutional requirements. Publication of this chapter led to an invitation to the authors to contribute to another edited book, this one with a focus on methods; Higgs, J., Titchen, A., Armstrong, H., & Horsfall, D. (Eds) Being Critical and Creative in Qualitative Research that was published in 2007.
Digby Race:
Race, D. (2004). Greenhouse gas abatement: A review of potential socialimplications of land use change. Australian Forestry, 67 (4), 267-273.
This article was published at a formative time in Australia’s debate about, and policy development on, Australia’s response to reducing ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions. Farm forestry is regularly included as a strategy to sequestering Australia’s carbon emissions, however, the social implications of land-use change to establish farm forestry on the massive scale required to significantly reduce Australia’s carbon emissions has received little attention. This articleoutlined some of the major social implications of the implied change.Australian Forestry, published in Australia since 1936, is now the AustralianForest sector’s foremost journal, and is indexed by services such as SCOPUS. Cited by 1 in Google Scholar.
Race, D. Desmond, H. (2002). Forestry out-grower schemes: A review from selected countries. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 15 (4), 79-98.
The trade relationship between growers and processors often plays an important role in determining the nature, extent and distribution of benefits from commercial forestry. Increasingly around the world small-scale growers are committing themselves to long-term contracts to supply forest products and services. This article proposes an analytical framework for assessing the likelihood that forestry contracts will be fair and beneficial between all the partners. Forestry out-growers schemes (contracted partnerships) continue to be an important phenomenon in forestry. The significance of this article, published in the foremost international journal on sustainable forestry, is highlighted by its 16 citations in Google scholar.
Race, D. (2002). Has extension changed to match Australia's dynamic forestry
landscape? Rural Society, 12 (2), 148-159.
Profound change has occurred in Australia’s forest policy and practices since the early-1990s – some of this change was deliberate and other aspects unintended. In this article it is argue that ‘extension’ (provision of information & support to rural communities) has a critical role to play in taking the public debate on forestry beyond stagnant contention and conflict. This article outlines how different approaches to extension can harness the pluralism of Australian forestry. This article has led to several positive approaches and feedbacks to the author from people instrumental in designing and managing farm forestry extension at a state-level.
Buchy, M. Race, D. (2001). The twists and turns of communityparticipation in natural resources management in Australia: What ismissing? Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 44 (3), 293-308.
The Australian forestry sector, as with much of the natural and primary resource sectors, has incorporated the mantra of ‘community participation’ into its rhetoric and policies over the past decade. However, the sector generally still lacks a strong understanding of the type and extent of participation that is most effective. This article, published in an international journal, continues to be cited in academic and professional literature, with 12 Citations in Google Scholar.
Dirk Spennemann:
Spennemann, D.H.R. (2004).The ethics of treading on Neil Armstrong’s footprints. Space Policy, 20, 279-290.
This article, which examines heritage management of human traces on the moon, continues to move in and out of the number 1 position in the ‘hottest article’list for Space Policy, a Science Direct count of articles downloaded by paying subscribers. Space Policy is the flagship policy journal in the field, and has a Thomson JIF of 0.490 in 2006. The journal is ranked 27 of the 50 journals in the field of International relations (the top one has a JIF of 0.733).The article is listed as being cited three times by Thomson ISI.
Spennemann, D.H.R.(2006). Out of This World: Issues of managing Tourism and Humanity’s Heritage on the Moon. International Journal of Heritage Studies,12(4), 356 -371.
This UK based journal is arguably the most respected publication in the field of heritage management- focussing on papers that expand the paradigms and conceptual understanding of the profession. The article discusses the ethical foundations for the management of the one cultural heritage site that is of true significance of all of humanity: the Apollo 11 landing site on the moon.
Spennemann, D.H.R. (2004). Digital Divides in the PacificIslands. IT & Society,1(7), 46-65.
This article has been influential in shaping the appreciation of the reality and capability of PacificIslands states to project their own social and cultural aspirations through the internet. Through publication in well a respected Open Access Journal, the paper has been widely available, and commented on in web blogs, has been drawn on by a Korean Government review, and has been extensively translated into Chinese as part of a reader produced in Taiwan.
Spennemann, D.H.R.(2005). Risk Assessments in Heritage Planning in Victoria and New South Wales. A survey of the status quo. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 12(2), 89-96.
By systematically reviewing all heritage management plans in two Australian states, this article provided a wake up call to heritage managers by drawing attention to the risk of failing to plan for catastrophic events at heritage sites. Because of this article and associated discussion Victoria now requires disaster planning as mandatory part of heritage site management. TheAustralasian Journal of Environmental Managementhas been the voice of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand since 1994. It focuses on environmental management in the Asia –Pacific region, and is indexed in services such as APAIS and Cambridge Scientific Abstracts.
Rik Thwaites:
Thwaites, R. (2002). Integration of conservation with development through Xilingol Biosphere Reserve, Chapter 8. In Han N., Jiang, G. and Li, W. (Eds) Management of the degraded ecosystems of Xilingol Biosphere Reserve. Series Case Studies on the Sustainable Management of Biosphere Reserves in China. China National Committee for MAB, UNESCO, Beijing and TsinghuaUniversity, Tsinghua, China. (In Chinese pp. 96-102, and English pp. 235-243.)
This book produced by the Chinese National Committee for Man and Biosphere UNESCO has brought together research on the management of Xilingol Biosphere Reserve with the specific intent of influencing public policy in protected areas across China. This invited chapter provides the concluding chapter to the book, summarising the experience of seeking to integrate conservation with development through a protected area in a productive agricultural landscape. As such, the chapter highlights the key issues for setting such integrated goals for protected areas in Xilingol Biosphere Reserve and other reserves in China and around the world.
Lipscombe, N. Thwaites, R. (2001). Education and Ecotourism. In The Encyclopedia of Ecotourism, (pp. 627-638). Wallingford, UK, CABI Publishing,
The Encyclopedia of Ecotourism is a comprehensive review of the ecotourism sector, and the seminal collection of papers on ecotourism across a range of topics. The 41 chapters were produced by key authors in each field. This chapter was an invited contribution on ecotourism education, produced as a result of ongoing research with CharlesSturtUniversity’s ecotourism students and from workshops undertaken with the national industry association Ecotourism Australia. This article raises questions for the education sector and the industry in Australia and overseas on ecotourism education and the diversity of education opportunities, on graduate employment and career development issues.
Thwaites, R., Lipscombe, N. Smith, E. (2002). Providing education in a growth industry: Issues in ecotourism education and employment in Australia. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism2(1).
This article explores issues raised by panel members during a workshop on ecotourism education held at the Ecotourism Australia national conference. These issues are of critical importance for the provision of ecotourism education, for graduates, and for the ecotourism industry itself.TheJournal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism is a US based journal, which was rated 27of the 40 tourism and hospitality journals assessed by McKercher et al. 2006.
Lipscombe, N. Thwaites, R. (2003). Contemporary challenges for ecotourism in Vietnam. Tourism Review International, (7, 1).
Tourism in Vietnam grew very rapidly around the turn of the century with drastic impacts for local natural and cultural environments. This article explores the practical and the policy aspects of achieving better outcomes from tourism development in Vietnam’s protected areas and mountain communities by considering key themes around parks management, political structures, local community engagement and communication. Tourism Review International, published since 1997, is a US based, interdisciplinary journal which is Ranked 18 of the 40 tourism and hospitality journals assessed by McKercher et al. 2006.
6.The Context Statement (1000 WORDS MAX)
History, strategic focus and research objectives of the group
The Social and Cultural Aspects of Environmental management group comprises six researchers whose research interests centre on social and cultural aspects of natural and regional environments. The group- Catherine Allan, Rosemary Black, Penny Davidson, Digby Race, Dirk Spennemann and Rik Thwaites- sit within the Human Dimensions Group (HDG) of CharlesSturtUniversity’s Institute of Land Water and Society (ILWS). The ILWS was formed in 2005 from two predecessor groups to contribute to the designated major research area of “Agriculture, Wine Science, Land, Water and Rural Society”. The ILWS mission is “to be an internationally recognised provider of integrated research that is contributing to enhanced social and environmental sustainability in rural and regional areas”.CharlesSturtUniversity provides strong financial and strategic management support for its Centres of Excellence, which are identified with particular areas of research strength. As one such Centre, the ILWS has been formally accredited by the University up to 2011 and support has been guaranteed over this period. The University provides approximately $350,000 per annum to support the Institute, including base level operating funding, performance based funding (based on grants income and publications) and targeted funding to support particular initiatives. The ILWS provides a rare research space in Australia where social, economic and environmental facets of landscapes can be studied and understood in a truly integrated fashion. Our group uses research paradigms and methods from the social sciences with the aim of better protecting and enhancing our physical and cultural environments. With our professional, applied occupational backgrounds, all members of the group bring real world experience to the research we undertake, and have well established professional and academic networks. We are developing sound individual research bases within an increasingly collegiate group to develop high quality research outputs, as exemplified in this portfolio.