Abstract
When reading the above research credo, the reader will realise that this thesis attempts to create a bridge between “grey … theory”, as Mephistopheles calls it in Goethe’s Faust, Part I, and real-life practice. Having worked as a development practitioner in Asia and South America for over 15 years, I have become aware of a number of challenges in implementing development initiatives to reduce poverty that are beneficial for both the private tourism sector and the local communities. Amongst the many challenges faced, the one I consider is the management of cultural diversity in such business partnerships, given that the two parties involved may use different approaches to doing business because they have different ethnic backgrounds and thus, different cultural understandings of how a business should be run. Also, communities are based on complex social systems with existing livelihood strategies that may even sometimes be totally incompatible with the organisational structure of the cooperating enterprise.
Research credo:
Speaking only as one individual, I feel strongly that I should not go into research unless it promises results that would advance the aims of the people affected and unless I am prepared to take all practicable steps to help translate the results into action (Hall, 2004, p. 152, quoting White, 1972).
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Notes
- 1.
The version available to the author is not paginated, but rather is divided into sections.
- 2.
- 3.
The difference between ‘institution’ and ‘organisation’ can be interpreted in various ways. Many social entities can be characterised as both organisations and institutions. For example, generally speaking, a university is an institution for education, but a particular university, such as Leeds Beckett University, is an organisation.
- 4.
Over the last 20 years, the concept of social capital has gained popularity in the development literature and especially in the literature that focuses on community development. According to Clainborne, “it is a relatively new concept in the field of tourism studies” (2010, p. 3). The concept of social capital and its role in the context of tourism and poverty reduction is discussed in more detail in Chap. 3.
- 5.
In social anthropology, ‘culture’ is a catchword for any pattern of thinking, feeling and acting within the social environments in which one grew up and collected one’s life experiences. Culture is learned, not inherited, and is therefore subject to transformation (Hofstede, 1991a; Pheysey, 1993). ‘Ethnic culture’ denotes the culture of a group of people who share the same ancestry, tribal heritage, and collective consciousness. The concept of ‘ethnic group’, as a smaller unit, is usually contrasted with the concept of ‘the people’ (i.e., national culture) (Hirschberg, 1988). Cf. Chap. 2 for a detailed discussion.
- 6.
Burns criticise in his publication on ‘An Introduction to Tourism & Anthropology’ (1999a) that “too much work on the anthropology lacks empirical (i.e. research) grounding, and may reflect the white, middle class views of the authors…”
- 7.
I am not naïve. I understand very well that representatives of local communities might not be favourably disposed to read such a thesis. Still, we must think about how they might be meaningfully involved into such a discussion.
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Häusler, N. (2017). Analysing Cultural Diversity in Approaches Towards Poverty Alleviation. In: Cultural Due Diligence in Hospitality Ventures. Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51337-9_1
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