Marginal entrepreneurship and economic change in the Cayman islands

National Parks, Tourism, and Local Development: A West Indian Case

Cerveny, Lee K. 2004. Preliminary research findings from a study of the sociocultural effects of tourism in Haines, Alaska. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-612. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 144 p. This report examines the growth and development of the tourism industry in Haines, Alaska, and its effects on community life and land use. It also describes the development of cruise-based tourism and its relation to shifts in local social and economic structures and patterns of land use, especially local recreation use trends. A multisited ethnographic approach was used featuring participant observation and in-depth interviews with local residents, cruise line industry personnel, and visitors to southeast Alaska. Results show that tourism brings both positive and negative changes to Alaska communities. Data from this report can assist Forest Service planners to identify factors involved in the relation between tourism growth and community well-being. It also may assist small southeast Alaska communities in decisionmaking related to tourism development.

background

https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr612.pdf

Preliminary Research Findings From a Study of the Sociocultural Effects of Tourism in Haines, Alaska

This thesis has two central aims: to test, at the empirical level, certain aspects of underdevelopment theory; and to demonstrate the utility of using an holistic approach for the investigation of 'geographic problems'. In particu­ lar, an attempt is made to investigate the processes and manifestations of linkages that render peripheral economies subordinated to, and dependent upon, metropolitan countries. The spatial manifestations of this form of development are investigated by inquiring into the nature of the processes themselves. This is achieved through the use of a case study of one industry, tourism, as it occurs in one, small, Pacific Island state Fiji. The study centres on the organisational and structural characteristics of the in­ dustry so as to determine the patterns of distribution of the industry's outputs. The study demonstrates that the incorporation of tourism into Fiji, and the key character­ istics of the Fiji economy and tourist industry, are funda­ mentally determined by commercial and political forces emanating from metropolitan economies. These forces struc­ ture the tourist industry in such a way that the interests of the metropoles are given priority over those of the peripheral economy.

Tourism in a peripheral capitalist economy : the case of Fiji

Where the family does play an important part in business itis often a reflection of the economic immaturity of the population, the absence of a tradition fimpersonal service in industry and the unreliability of employees who have no kinship ties to the firm. Industrial development cannot but be handicapped byinappropriate standards ofeconomic morality (United Nations 1955:20). E CONOMIC PLANNERS commonly assume that family firms are detrimental to economic development because they are based on nepotism and paternalism which foster inefficiency. Such a point of view assumes that impersonal role relationships are necessary for economic development and that the major economic effort should come from the public sector. It maintains that the private sector must be controlled tofit in with this (United Nations 1951). My investigations have led me to dispute this point of view. This paper contends that the private sector as represented bythe family firm is an important growing point in the economies of low income countries. I do not claim that family firms are suitable for every sort of enterprise r quired by a developing economy but that for commerce, industry, and many types of financial activity they are extremely well-placed to assist economic growth because they combine a number of unique sociological and economic characteristics. This paper examines the sociological characteristics of the family firm. It attempts to isolate a number of variables and treat hem diachronically with the development of the firm. The principal data are drawn from two family firms from East Africa, but material from Europe, India, the Lebanon, and Pakistan isalso used. I hypothesize that family firm organization is more important in the early stages of the growth of the firm than in the later stages. Indeed it seems likely 1 I would like to acknowledge the very great assistance of Mr. Iqbal Mamdani n the preparation f this paper. I must also thank Professor David Apter, Professor Elizabeth Colson, Dr. Charlotte Erickson, Professor Paul Kay, and Professor B.S. Yamey for helpful comments. None of them, however, bears any responsibility for the views expressed in this paper.

Family Firms and Economic Development

This paper is about social change in underdeveloped areas. It is based on field work in the European Mediterranean between 1965 and 1967. Hansen worked in the wine and champagne district of Villafranca del Panades, roughly 30 miles from Barcelona, in Catalonia. The Schneiders were in the wheat and pastoral latifundium zone of Western Sicily. The two regions exhibit quite different patterns of land use and tenure, social stratification and settlement. We were struck, however, by two characteristics which they shared. First, we found a plethora of noncorporate social structures (for the most part coalitions) which organized fundamental economic and political activities of a quite modern sort. In rural Catalonia, coalitions of businessmen, skilled workers and government functionaries are formed within the context of an emergent bar culture, centered in major towns like Villafranca. In Western Sicily, until quite recently, the locus of similar coalitions was the latifundium. As yet, no clearly defined urban tradition has replaced this predominantly rural one

Marginal entrepreneurship and economic change in the Cayman islands

Citations

National Parks, Tourism, and Local Development: A West Indian Case

Preliminary Research Findings From a Study of the Sociocultural Effects of Tourism in Haines, Alaska

Tourism in a peripheral capitalist economy : the case of Fiji

References

Family Firms and Economic Development

Modernization and Development: the Role of Regional Elites and Noncorporate Groups in the European Mediterranean

Related Papers (5)

Economic trends in the Pacific Islands

Development problems and prospects in Pacific Islands states

Seychelles: economic memorandum.

Financial sector development and economic growth in Pacific island countries

Global comparison of hedge fund regulations