In this critical review article, Isaac and Platenkamp present the case that tourism is not isolated from the world's dramatic situations in which humanity is at stake. Their argument principally centers on the devastating historical and contemporary conflict in Palestine and its relations with tourism. In this article, Isaac and Platenkamp maintain that (in relation to current happenings in Palestine) ethical and moral argumentation would be beside the point, and might even be a "cynical" exercise. They suggest that the conflict there is imbued with many kinds of normative argumentation. It is their view that positions need to be taken with regard to "Palestine," as in all extreme circumstances, where at the same time respect for the other positions becomes crucial. In this critical review article, therefore, Arendt's idea of "agora" will be introduced, in order to create a space where these "respectful positions" can be taken in a public arena and in order to contribute to a possible peaceful development. To Isaac and Platenkamp, tourism could enable this sort of "peaceful development" and could promote or help empower conditions where violence would be excluded, and where different sorts of "argumentation" could be generated and heard about these so-called "controversial spaces." In these respects, they maintain that tourism is a challenging field, because it has (itself) many faces-and they argue that such scenarios for "tourism" indeed could apply/should be applied for many controversial other spaces like Nepal and Burma (for instance) where (as in Palestine) the original population has no say in any economic development, such as that of tourism. But Isaac and Platenkamp recognize that (even in Burma) resistance against injustice can never be destroyed. Their own principal focus remains targeted upon Palestine, though. There, tourism is known to have "an incredibly high potential," despite the fact that (in their view) a strong and powerful "Israeli self" indeed controls the "humiliated Palestinian other." Thus, to our two reviewers in the Netherlands, therefore, tourism seems to be a communicative activity that might enable the implementation of Arendt's idea of and about "the agora." Isaac and Platenkamp suggest that there is no violence in the agora, itself, because only the force of argumentation rules. there.
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In maart 2011 dreigde Muammer Gaddafi van Libya duizenden onschuldige burgers van de stad Benghazi uit hun huizen te halen om hen te vermoorden. De Veiligheidsraad van de Verenigde Naties verwees de situatie door naar het Internationaal Strafhof in Den Haag, dwong een no-flyzone af en gaf de NAVO een mandaat om burgers te beschermen with all necessary means, met de uitzondering van grondtroepen. Deze operatie was snel, robuust en effectief. Het principe van The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) -de verantwoordelijkheid van de internationale gemeenschap om genocide, misdaden tegen de menselijkheid, etnische zuivering en oorlogsmisdaden te voorkomen en te stoppen- werd voor het eerst volledig toegepast. Is R2P daarmee een norm geworden? Dit onderzoek plaatst de casus Libië in het model van de "Norm Life Cycle" (de levenscyclus van een norm) van de Constructivistische theoretici Finnemore en Sikkink (1998). Libië toont aan dat R2P nu een tipping point (omslagpunt) heeft bereikt, en zich van de fase norm emergence (opkomende norm) naar de fase norm cascade heeft verplaatst. Er is echter een spanning ontstaan: de terughoudendheid van de Veiligheidsraad om R2P toe te passen in Syrië (2012) wijst de andere kant uit. Er is dus nog een lange weg te gaan, voordat R2P als een internalised norm (vanzelfsprekende norm) kan worden beschouwd. ABSTRACT In March 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya threatened to pull thousands of civilian protesters in the city of Benghazi out of their homes and kill them. The Security Council of the United Nations referred the crisis to the International Criminal Court, imposed a no-fly zone and provided NATO with a mandate to protect civilians by all necessary means, with the exception of ground troops. This operation was fast, robust and effective. It also marked the first time that the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle was fully implemented, being the responsibility of the international community to prevent and respond to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes if the state in question is not able or not willing to protect its citizens itself. Has R2P become a new norm? This study situates the case of Libya in the 'Norm Life Cycle' model of Constructivist theorists Finnemore and Sikkink (1998). It suggests that R2P has reached a tipping point and has moved from the stage of norm emergence to the stage of norm cascade. However, a certain tension still exists: the reluctance of the Security Council to implement R2P again in the crisis in Syria (2012)points in the opposite direction. This suggests there is still a long way to go before R2P becomes an internalised norm in the international community.
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As multifunctional places that combine shopping and hospitality with public space and residential functions, urban consumption spaces are sites where different normative orders surface and sometimes clash. In Amsterdam, such a clash emerged over touristification of consumption spaces, eroding place attachment for local residents and urging the city government to take action. Based on policy analysis and interviews with entrepreneurs and key informants, we demonstrate how Amsterdam’s city government is responding to this issue, using legal pluralism that exists within formal state law. Specifically, the city government combines four instruments to manage touristification of consumption spaces, targeting so-called tourist shops with the aim to drive them out of the inner city. This strategic combination of policy instruments designed on various scales and for different publics to pursue a local political goal jeopardizes entrepreneurs’ rights to legal certainty. Moreover, implicitly based on class-based tastes and distrust towards particular minority groups of entrepreneurs, this policy strategy results in institutional discrimination that has far-reaching consequences for entrepreneurs in itself, but also affects trust relations among local stakeholders.
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