This book discusses global ecotourism and its impact on local communities in rural areas. In recent years, an increasing number of international travelers travel all over the world in search for natural resource-based settings, tranquility and adventure in remote areas. Tourist expenditures create local demands for traded goods and services, thus creating jobs and generating income for local people. This book explores the impact of global ecotourism on the livelihoods of local people in Kinabalu National Park in Sabah, Malaysia, and the extent to which they incorporate daily economic activities in ecotourism industry. This book also suggests a model of rural production (household livelihood strategies) in an ecotourism area which highlights the increase in non-agricultural income from both wage-work and home-based production. The new forms of employment have benefited local women who now have easy access to income. The consequences of world incidents such as the attack on World Trade Center on September 11, 2001; Bali bombing and the outbreak of SARS disease on the arrival of tourists and the livelihood of local people here are also discussed.

This book consists of chapters that review concepts and theories to empirical evidences and case studies of cluster development in five Asian countries – Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. It explores the dynamic of clustering in linking its potential and challenges to economic development, policy making, innovation and social networking in various cluster development projects in different localities and regions. For many years clusters have been touted to have significant economic and strategic advantages to develop potential and successful industrial regions. This book offers a better understanding of rural challenges in cluster development in different localities of Asian countries, which would help in generating new ideas and suggestions in making appropriate recognition to rural agendas in the era of globalization. It is suitable as a reference for university and college students in related fields, as well as for researchers, planners, administrators and the society at large.

This volume presents a selection of articles aimed at introducing the field of local knowledge to a local and international audience. Based upon the theme “Retracing Tradition for a Sustainable Future,” the articles detail local practices that reflect local wisdom in various domains of knowledge such as literature, architecture, water management, tourism, dance and drama. This collection of articles embodies an important, tangible initiative by Universiti Sains Malaysia Local Knowledge Secretariat to identify and retrace indigenous local knowledge, besides documenting and conserving local wisdom for future generations. It presents an important resource for researchers and students interested in exploring the under-researched area of local knowledge and indigenous science in the Malaysian context.

Rural tourism provides opportunities for travellers to experience rural attractions and getting familiar with the culture and heritage. It is known to stimulate rural economy through job creation, farm support, nature conservation, rural supplies and services, landscape and nature conservation, rural arts and crafts, and enrichment of local heritage. The development will profit the local community through tourism products ranging from ecotourism to cultural tourism. With rich and melting pot of multicultural and biodiversity, Malaysia has great potential in rural tourism. Both Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia have the best ecotourism destinations in the region. Malaysia is blessed to have the UNESCO branded rural destinations such as Kinabalu Park, Gunung Mulu National Park and Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley. The rural tourism concept in Malaysia has been integrated with other tourism concepts such as sustainable tourism, indigenous tourism, ethnic tourism, agrotourism, ecotourism, farm tourism, cultural tourism and heritage tourism. This integrated concept has been explored in a few case studies involving archaeological, ecotourism, mangrove and highland tourism of rural destinations. These rural destinations offer great potentials in providing the ‘truly Malaysia’ experiences; however, it is yet to be fully capitalized. Managing rural tourism development is very challenging due to its limited resources and infrastructure; thus identification on how the destination is presented, managed and promoted are the major focus of this book. Therefore, these interesting case studies are hoped to enlighten the development of the selected rural tourism destinations in Malaysia.

Local knowledge refers to knowledge and expertise, which originate from local and indigenous cultures that have developed over time. Its practices have been absorbed naturally and effortlessly into the local communities. However, due to globalization and modernization, much of this knowledge has not been practiced and will be lost in time if efforts are not taken to preserve, conserve and transfer it to the community. Through the discussion of six articles written based on local and international research findings, this book brings together researchers committed to local knowledge in sharing the process of documentation on local knowledge transfer issues and challenges, and the methodology of knowledge transfer. Thus, new ideas are presented to promote the practice of preserving and conserving local knowledge to the practitioners, students and communities.

Discussing contemporary perspectives and new developments in the field of English language studies has gained ascendancy in view of the fact that such concerns about learning and teaching English make important contributions to society. Such discussions are of critical importance in today’s globalised societies and more needs to be done towards collaboratively presenting the growing wealth of quality research in linguistics and literature. Linguists and scholars continue to champion the need to interrogate the discourse of literary and language texts using a number of critical frameworks that help sensitise readers to the ideological nature of literary discourse and the ways in which certain dominant ideas of nation, race, ethnicity and gender are ratified or challenged. Readers need to be constantly challenged to think, interpret and evaluate differing views and perspectives. The collection of chapters in this book explores contemporary issues and perspectives in linguistics and literature among educators and researchers whose primary focus is to examine the manner in which English is used for various educational purposes from traditional curriculum demands to answering broader questions about human knowledge, global citizenship and social engagement.

Given the three pillars of sustainability, besides the environment, the interplay of social and economic dimensions provides valuable insight into how society is molded and the key components that should be considere. In terms of social sustainability, processes and framework objectives promote the wellbeing that is integral to the balance of people, planet, and profit. Economic practices consider the system of production, resource allocation, and distribution of goods and services with respect to demand and supply between economic agents. As a result, an economic system is a variant of the social system in which it exists. At present, the forefront of social sustainability research partially encompasses the impact of economic practices on people and society, with notable emphasis centered on the urban environment. Specific interdisciplinary analyses within the scope of sustainability, social development, competitiveness, and motivational management, as well as decision making within the urban landscape, are considered. This book contains nine thoroughly refereed contributions that interconnect detailed research into the two pillars reviewed.