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This paper examines how conceptions of national and local identity influence reactions to migration in the Shenandoah Valley, a rural location in Southwest Virginia with unique demographic characteristics. While Shenandoah Valley residents have been predominantly non-Hispanic whites of European descent, a recent visible influx of Hispanic laborers, a higher than national average Muslim population, a history of refugee resettlement and the migration of urbanites from Northern Virginia have made the Valley one of the most diverse locations in the state of Virginia today. Using a qualitative methods approach with both apriori and emergent coding, I offer some insights as to how a traditional ethnic and civic framework of national identity and emergent themes of local identity, including family values and traditionalism, influence reactions to the changing demographics in this rural community.

Communities next to national parks, known as gateway communities, can benefit from national park development. Gateway communities are unique and limited in the degree to which, and direction in which, they can be developed. In this research, Banff National Park was used as a case study to explore residents' perceptions of the impact of national park tourism via a survey questionnaire distributed in communities at three different spatial levels (core, intermediate, and remote portal). The data analyses were based on a sample of 231 respondents and were processed using factor analysis and linear regression models for different communities. The results identified six impact factors, and the differences in each community were analyzed. The findings indicated that residents' perceptions of the impacts of tourism in the town of Canmore rank first, followed by those of Banff and Golden. The regression analysis revealed that Banff was found to have the most supportive residents, and their support for tourism was found to be significantly affected by community natural environmental factors and cultural development factors. Canmore residents were mainly affected by cultural factors. Golden residents were least supportive due to through natural environmental factors and quality of life factors. An adaptive analysis revealed that Banff has the closest economic relationship with national park tourism, and Golden the weakest. Balancing the positive and negative impacts of tourism, exploring more cultural service functions of the communities, seeking a more diverse industrial structure, planning year-round tourism, and cooperating with other communities to ensure local benefits are recommended. The findings may provide an additional understanding of the local perceptions of tourism impacts and local support from a spatial perspective and can help sustainable tourism management by assisting communities to optimize the tourism industry structure and local management strategies.

This paper used the communities bordering the Bears Ears National Monument, located in rural Southeastern Utah, USA, as a case study to better understand the impact that potential changes in land management have on gateway communities. Our case study is concerned with capturing changes in the sense of community based on discussions concerning potential changes to the community. We employ “psychological sense of community” measures to assess the effect on community residents. Survey data from three gateway communities are modeled using bivariate regressions and ordinary least squares regressions with control variables to assess the four components of PSC against opposition to the proposed changes to the Bears Ears National Monument. We find that potential changes to the land designation significantly affect the respondents’ psychological sense of community. Because public protected areas and gateway communities are linked socioeconomically, environmentally, and culturally, changes in land designations can significantly impact those who live there.

Although the impacts and challenges of tourism in towns and cities near protected areas have been studied extensively, there is a lack of both data and understanding that limits progress towards generalizable solutions, planning strategies, and guidance for addressing the increasing pressures affecting these communities. This article compares the factors influencing residents’ perceptions and local support of tourism in five gateway communities to Grand Canyon National Park. Importance–performance analysis (IPA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to assess the proposed measurements of perceptions and hypotheses concerning local support and to compare the relationships among selected variables, such as community participation (CP), living environment (LE), trust in tourism institutions (TT), tourism benefits (TB), community satisfaction (CS), and perceived tourism cost (TC). Four groups of factors influenced residents’ perceptions; these were classified into four stages based on their management priority. A gap between the desires of community residents for the development of national parks and community tourism and the current state of development was identified, suggesting that these communities would benefit from management measures to mitigate the impacts of tourism. Through SEM, five factors were verified as drivers of local support for national park tourism development, including community participation, living environment, trust in tourism institutions, tourism benefits, and community satisfaction. Perceived tourism cost was not found to be a significant driver.

Appreciative Inquiry was employed to understand the mutual impact of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and nearby communities’ relationships with tourism. Specifically, the goals of this study were to: understand the role of Theodore Roosevelt National Park related to stimulating regional tourism; to ascertain gateway community resident perceptions of benefits from tourism as it relates to economic development and quality of; and, to explore nearby communities’ relationships with the park and how those communities may help influence quality visitor experiences, advance park goals, and develop and leverage partnerships. Results include a collection of emergent themes from the community inquiry related to resource access and tourism management, citizen and community engagement, conservation, marketing, and communication between the park and neighboring residents. These findings illuminate the need to understand nearby communities’ relationship to public lands and regional sustainability support between public land managers and these communities.

This paper focuses on the historical development and dynamics of political and administrative structures in regions of a fragmented empire that cannot be simply described as marginal ‘mouseholes’. Rather, it should be acknowledged that these spaces were part and parcel of a wider area (the Byzantine insular and coastal koine), which encompassed coastal areas as well as insular communities promoting socio-economic contact and cultural interchange. More importantly, they also boasted a peculiar set of material indicators suggesting a certain common cultural unity and identity. The koine coincided with liminal territories and the seas on which the Byzantine Empire retained political and naval rulership. Such liminal territories showed varied – yet coherent– administrative infrastructures and political practices on the part of local elites.

Affective economies align people and places according to identities and emotional capital, particularly during compound crises such as COVID-19. Through an embodied research approach, affect becomes an integral part of furthering knowledge production within crisis management to understand individual and community resilience. This research explores how affective dimensions express individual and community resilience as part of crisis and disaster management of tourism-based economies. We contribute knowledge of sustainable destination management in the context of intermountain western gateway communities (IWGCs) to center residents as primary stakeholders within conservation and resilience planning. The IWGC of Nederland, Colorado, is presented as a microcosm of change through which the lived experiences of residents during COVID-19 are analyzed. This approach embraces the potential of affective scholarship for conservation and destination planning through creative qualitative methods of inquiry. Within a crystallization methodology guided by a feminist new materialist epistemology, we incorporate residents’ creative expressions to understand how affective dynamics influenced resilience throughout compound crises. Findings are presented via three themes including affective dimensions of resilience, identity, belonging and responsibility, and affective tourism economies. Affective knowledge centering resident experiences may inform future planning for crisis and disaster management across IWGCs and other gateway communities balancing tourism, conservation, and community planning.

In September of 1996, without prior warning to Utah residents, the Clinton Administration announced the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) in southern Utah. Reactions by residents in neighboring gateway communities were both swift and intense. Lack of citizen input in the process drew ire among Utah citizens living near the monument and statewide. In this article we examine how the designation process has impacted residents' trust in the federal agency managing the monument—the Bureau of Land Management. Research on trust in federal resource management agencies is important for successful natural resource planning and management. We extend the research by incorporating the manner in which the designation of the GSENM occurred as an additional factor in the analyses on trust. We find the manner of designation matters, and discuss implications of this finding for both research and policy makers.