Search Results (158)

Social marketing modifies individual behavior to achieve specific outcomes, mitigating environmental pressures. While proven effective in influencing consumer behavior, empirical studies on its impact on the tourism sector remain limited. This study examines how various social marketing channels influence tourists’ consumption decisions and contributes to achieving SDGs 11 and 12 by reviewing the existing methods of disseminating social marketing content. A conceptual model grounded in theory was developed and empirically tested. In particular, it focuses on the establishment of direct and indirect multi-route effects between social marketing and consumer behavior and introduces different influencing factors. Given the scarcity of research on collective culture, quantitative methods were employed, with data collected through questionnaires in mainland China. Results indicate that social marketing media significantly influence tourist behavior, with three mediators—subjective norms, personal values, and communication channels—playing varying roles across media types (events, public relations, and traditional media). Subjective norms, values, and communication channels act as mediators. This study bridges social marketing, tourist behavior, and SDG attainment, offering novel insights and practical implications for tourism practitioners. Full article

The increasing integration of 3D technologies and machine learning is fundamentally reshaping mineral sciences and cultural heritage, establishing the foundation for an emerging “Mineralogy 4.0” framework. However, public engagement with digital 3D collections is often limited by complex or costly interfaces, such as VR/AR systems and traditional touchscreen kiosks, creating a clear need for more intuitive, accessible, and more engaging and inclusive solutions. This paper presents PETRA, an open-source, gesture-controlled system for exploring 3D rocks and minerals. Developed in the TouchDesigner environment, PETRA utilizes a standard webcam and the MediaPipe framework to translate natural hand movements into real-time manipulation of digital specimens, requiring no specialized hardware. The system provides a customizable, node-based framework for creating touchless, interactive exhibits. Successfully evaluated during a “Long Night of Museums” public event with 550 visitors, direct qualitative observations confirmed high user engagement, rapid instruction-free learnability across diverse age groups, and robust system stability in a continuous-use setting. As a practical case study, PETRA demonstrates that low-cost, webcam-based gesture control is a viable solution for creating accessible and immersive learning experiences. This work offers a significant contribution to the fields of digital mineralogy, human–machine interaction, and cultural heritage by providing a hygienic, scalable, and socially engaging method for interacting with geological collections. This research confirms that as digital archives grow, the development of human-centered interfaces is paramount in unlocking their full scientific and educational potential. Full article

Background and Objectives: The spontaneous reporting (SR) of adverse drug events (ADEs) is a cornerstone of pharmacovigilance and a critical mechanism for safeguarding patient safety. However, underreporting remains a persistent global challenge. In Korea, despite the widespread use of herbal medicines (HMs), adverse event reports from traditional Korean medicine doctors (KMDs) are remarkably scarce. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of KMDs regarding SR, identify key barriers, and suggest strategies to strengthen the safety culture within traditional Korean medicine. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, anonymous online survey was distributed to licensed KMDs registered with the Association of Korean Medicine. The questionnaire collected information on respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics and assessed their knowledge, attitudes, and experiences related to ADE reporting. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze the associations between the variables. Results: Of the 1021 KMDs who completed the survey, the vast majority acknowledged the importance of SR and recognized their role in pharmacovigilance. Nevertheless, only 5% had ever submitted an ADE report. A widespread lack of awareness about the national spontaneous reporting system (SRS), particularly its inclusion of licensed HMs, was evident. Although many respondents expressed support for expanding the scope of SR to cover all HMs, significant gaps in pharmacovigilance knowledge and limited access to relevant training were major barriers. KMDs affiliated with academic institutions or specialist groups showed higher levels of awareness, education, and reporting behavior. Conclusions: While KMDs exhibit positive attitudes toward patient safety and understand the importance of SR, their participation in it remains low due to knowledge deficits and insufficient training. Addressing these gaps through targeted education and expanding the national SRS to comprehensively include herbal medicines are essential steps toward enhancing pharmacovigilance and cultivating a proactive safety culture in Korean medicine. Full article

Religion played a pivotal role in shaping the political and cultural landscape of early China, particularly through the practice of relocating capitals (遷都). The relocation of capitals is an outstanding theme in early Chinese historiography, setting it apart from many other world traditions. In particular, this practice contrasts sharply with the early Mediterranean context, where the city of Rome transitioned from a modest city-state to a world empire and was celebrated as the “eternal city.” By contrast, early Chinese capitals were deliberately transient, their impermanence rooted in strong religious sentiments and pragmatic considerations. Religious and ideological justifications were central to these relocations. The relocation was not merely a logistical or political exercise; it was imbued with symbolic meaning that reinforced the ruler’s legitimacy and divine mandate. Equally important was the way rulers communicated these decisions to the populace. The ability to garner mass support for such monumental undertakings reveals the intricate relationship between political authority and religious practice in early China. These critical moments of migration offer profound insights into the evolving religious landscape of early China, shedding light on how religion shaped early governance and public persuasion. “Capital relocation” served as a means to rearticulate belief, reaffirm the centrality of worship, and restore faith in the ruling order. Drawing on recent archeological discoveries and updated textual and inscriptional scholarship related to the events of Pan Geng and the Zhou relocation to Luoyi, this article re-examines the motif of “capital relocation” as both a historical and historiographical phenomenon unique to early China. Full article

This study examines how South Korea’s 1970s Protestant democratization movement embodied Hans Joas’s concept of the “sacralization of the person” during the authoritarian Yushin regime. Challenging binary narratives of human rights origins as exclusively secular or religious, the research analyzes how Korean Protestant activists created institutions, rituals, and theological frameworks that infused human dignity with sacred character. The study demonstrates how religious actors effectively bridged religious and secular boundaries in human rights advocacy through historical analysis of the National Council of Churches in Korea’s Human Rights Committee, Thursday Prayer Meetings, and the development of Minjung theology. The findings reveal a distinctive process of sacralization that evolved from individual to collective understandings of human dignity, culminating in the radical Minjung Messiah theory. This case study illustrates how Joas’s affirmative genealogy operates in non-Western contexts, showing that sacralization emerges through dynamic interactions between religious conviction, historical events, and cultural transformation rather than through abstract reasoning alone. The Korean experience demonstrates that universal human rights gain moral force when diverse traditions collaborate to uphold human dignity across ideological divides. Full article

Traditional ethnographic methods have long been employed to study craft practices, yet they often fall short of capturing the full depth of embodied knowledge, material interactions, and procedural workflows inherent in craftsmanship. This paper introduces a digitally enhanced ethnographic framework that integrates Motion Capture, 3D scanning, audiovisual documentation, and semantic knowledge representation to document both the tangible and dynamic aspects of craft processes. By distinguishing between endurant (tools, materials, objects) and perdurant (actions, events, transformations) entities, we propose a structured methodology for analyzing craft gestures, material behaviors, and production workflows. The study applies this proposed framework to eight European craft traditions—including glassblowing, tapestry weaving, woodcarving, porcelain pottery, marble carving, silversmithing, clay pottery, and textile weaving—demonstrating the adaptability of digital ethnographic tools across disciplines. Through a combination of multimodal data acquisition and expert-driven annotation, we present a comprehensive model for craft documentation that enhances the preservation, education, and analysis of artisanal knowledge. This research contributes to the ongoing evolution of ethnographic methods by bridging digital technology with Cultural Heritage studies, offering a robust framework for understanding the mechanics and meanings of craft practices. Full article

Agricultural festivals play a vital role in promoting sustainable farming, local economies, and cultural heritage. Understanding public sentiment toward these events can provide valuable insights to enhance event organization, marketing strategies, and economic sustainability. In this study, we collected and analyzed social media data from Twitter to evaluate public perceptions of Al-Baha’s agricultural festivals. Sentiment analysis was performed using both traditional machine learning and deep learning approaches. Specifically, six machine learning models including Multinomial Naïve Bayes (MNB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), k-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and XGBoost (XGB) were compared against AraBERT, a transformer-based deep learning model. Each model was evaluated based on accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. The results demonstrated that AraBERT achieved the highest performance across all metrics, with an accuracy of 85%, confirming its superiority in Arabic sentiment classification. Among traditional models, SVM and RF performed best, whereas MNB and KNN struggled with sentiment detection. These findings highlight the role of sentiment analysis in supporting sustainable agricultural and tourism initiatives. The insights gained from sentiment trends can help festival organizers, policymakers, and agricultural stakeholders make data-driven decisions to enhance sustainable event planning, optimize resource allocation, and improve marketing strategies in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Full article

This paper investigates wine tourists’ preferences for the attributes of the wine tourism experience (WTEXP) in Italy and Turkey, exploring cross-cultural differences and similarities in two countries with diverse wine tourism development. Data were collected through an online survey of 253 wine consumers, and the Best–Worst Scaling method was employed in both countries to assess the perceived importance of selected WTEXP attributes that influence tourists’ choices. The samples were then segmented using cluster analysis based on key attitudinal scales (e.g., wine involvement), with BWS applied to each segment to further examine visitor preferences. The results show that both Italian and Turkish wine tourists prioritized expert-led tours but differed in other preferences. Italian tourists valued the winery’s aesthetic appeal, while Turkish tourists favored pre-visit informative sessions. Additionally, Italians placed less importance on accompanying events, while Turks considered the reputation of the wine, winery, or wine region the least significant factor. These preferences also varied within the clusters identified in each sample. This research represents the first comparison of consumer preferences in wine tourism between Turkey, a developing market, and Italy, a traditional Old World wine producer, while considering the diversity within each group. The findings provide key insights for wine tourism stakeholders, such as wineries and tourism managers, offering actionable recommendations to tailor their offerings for specific tourist segments to attract a larger number of wine tourists, enhance their experience, and foster sustainable growth of wine tourism. Full article

Environmental health literacy (EHL) is essential for individuals to protect themselves from environmental health risks. Indigenous populations are particularly vulnerable to these risks, given the historical threats they have suffered from the advance of agricultural frontiers and impacts of deforestation, mining, and extreme weather events. This study investigates the dimensions of EHL among indigenous communities in Brazil, considering the scarcity of research in this field. Using a scale adapted to measure EHL in topics such as air, water, and food, it was possible to access the EHL levels of a sample of different Brazilian indigenous ethnic groups. Statistical analysis included descriptive methods and the Wilcoxon and Kruskal–Wallis tests. The results revealed significant variations in EHL levels, influenced by factors such as gender, place of residence, age, education, access to health services, and potable water. In addition, the presence of traditional actors, such as midwives, was identified as an important factor in the transmission of health knowledge. The research highlights the need for public policies that respect the cultural specificities of indigenous communities and promote self-care and environmental preservation, contributing to the development of culturally sensitive public health strategies. Full article

This article critically examines the star persona of Lola Flores, an iconic Spanish flamenco artist, within the historical and political context of Francoist Spain (1939–1975). It argues that Flores’s carefully constructed star image not only persisted into post-Franco Spain but also served as a covert vehicle for the continued propagation of National-Falangist Catholic ideology. The article primarily focuses on two major productions: the book Lola en carne viva. Memorias de Lola Flores (1990) and the television series El coraje de vivir (1994). Both portray a linear and cohesive version of her life from childhood to her later years, carefully curated to defend and rehabilitate her image. While many view Flores as a self-made artist, the article argues that her star persona was a deliberate construct—shaped by Suevia Films, a major Francoist-era film studio, and media narratives that aligned her with traditional gender roles, Catholic values, and Spanish nationalism. Despite emerging in post-Franco Spain, Flores’s narrative does not mark a rupture from the ideological frameworks of the past. Instead, it repackages Francoist values—particularly those surrounding patriarchal gender norms, suffering, and the glorification of sacrifice—to ensure her continued relevance. Suevia Films (1951) played a significant role in shaping her star persona as a symbol of Spanish folklore, aligning her with Francoist ideals of nation, Catholic morality, and submissive femininity. Her image was used to promote Spain internationally as a welcoming and culturally rich destination. Her persona fit within Franco’s broader strategy of using flamenco and folklore to attract foreign tourism while maintaining tight ideological control over entertainment. Flores’s life is framed as a rags-to-riches story, which reinforces Social Spencerist ideology (a social Darwinist perspective) that hard work and endurance lead to success, rather than acknowledging systemic oppression under Francoism. Her personal struggles—poverty, romantic disappointments, accusations of collaboration with the Franco regime, and tax evasion—are framed as necessary trials that strengthen her character. This aligns with the Catholic ideal of redemptive suffering, reinforcing her status as the mater dolorosa (Sorrowful Mother) figure. This article highlights the contradictions in Flores’s gender performance—while she embodied passion and sensuality in flamenco, her offstage identity conformed to the submissive, self-sacrificing woman idealized by the Francoist Sección Femenina (SF). Even in her personal life, Flores’s narrative aligns with Francoist values—her father’s bar, La Fe de Pedro Flores, symbolizes the fusion of religion, nationalism, and traditional masculinity. Tico Medina plays a key role by framing Lola en carne viva as an “authentic” and unfiltered account. His portrayal is highly constructed, acting as her “defense lawyer” to counter criticisms. Flores’s autobiography is monologic—it suppresses alternative perspectives, ensuring that her version of events remains dominant and unquestioned. Rather than acknowledging structural oppression, the narrative glorifies suffering as a path to resilience, aligning with both Catholic doctrine and Francoist propaganda. The article ultimately deconstructs Lola Flores’s autobiographical myth, demonstrating that her public persona—both onstage and offstage—was a strategic construction that perpetuated Francoist ideals well beyond the dictatorship. While her image has been celebrated as a symbol of Spanish cultural identity, it also functioned as a tool for maintaining patriarchal and nationalist ideologies under the guise of entertainment. Full article

Festivals are significant markers of cultural heritage and community traditions. Nevertheless, every year, significant increases in pollution levels are recorded during celebratory events, due to the overuse of firecrackers. This study evaluated gaseous and particulate matter (PM) concentrations using a gas and particulate sampler, alongside noise levels measured by a sound level meter, during the pre-to-post-Diwali period of 2023 and 2024 in Malda, India, and PM concentrations in Warsaw, Poland in 2024, using a DustAir dust meter. The results indicated that during Diwali, the concentrations of PM_2.5 and PM₁ exceeded the standard set by the World Health Organization, while gaseous pollutants remained within acceptable limits. Since no standards set for PM₁ exist, PM_2.5 criteria were utilized as a benchmark. Additionally, on New Year’s Eve in Warsaw, concentrations of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and PM₁ surpassed the standard around midnight, while gaseous pollutants remained within the standard range. An elemental analysis revealed 13 elements in Diwali PM samples, with toxic metals like arsenic and cadmium more prevalent in PM₁. The risk of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects through ingestion was higher for children compared to adults. The findings of this study could potentially raise awareness among researchers and policymakers, prompting them to develop sustainable substitutes for firecrackers and sparklers. Full article

As an aspect of garden space, tea space is an important part of traditional culture and inherited culture. This paper takes 210 representative literati painting images of Ming and Qing dynasties as the research object, combining historical materials, the analysis of painted images and mathematical statistics to transform the representative paintings into visual plan form, and then identifies and extracts the environmental elements and behavior activities in the paintings to build the factor base. It is determined that the main sources of tea activities are Hall Style, Water Pavilion Style, High Pavilion Style, Grass Pavilion and Terraces Style and Combination Style. The analysis results show the following: (1) The tea events mainly occur in outdoor gardens and indoor and outdoor spaces, with windows as climate boundaries. (2) Regarding the use of furniture, indoor spaces tend to use wooden furniture, while outdoor spaces use stone furniture and natural stone, or portable wooden furniture. (3) In terms of indoor and outdoor spaces with tea activities, indoor and outdoor spaces often borrow landscape elements from each other, and screens and partitions are often used as a means of space division in terms of space separation. The findings of this study lay a theoretical foundation for the design of traditional garden tea spaces, and provide a reference for the fine design of contemporary architecture and garden tea spaces. Full article

Rockfall is considered the main geohazard in mountainous areas with steep morphology. The main objective of this study is to assess the rockfall hazard in the cultural heritage site of the Monastery of Agia Paraskevi, Monodendri, in northern Greece, where a recent rockfall event occurred, destroying a small house and the protective fence constructed to protect the Monastery of Agia Paraskevi. To evaluate the rockfall potential, engineering geological-oriented activities were carried out, such as geostructurally oriented field measurements, aiming to simulate the rockfall path and to compute the kinetic energy and the runout distance. In addition, using remote sensing tools such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), we were able to inspect the entire slope face and detect the locations of detached blocks by measuring their volume. As a result, it was concluded that the average volume of the expected detached blocks is around 1.2 m³, while the maximum kinetic energy along a rockfall trajectory ranges from 1850 to 2830 kJ, depending on the starting point (source). Furthermore, we discussed the level of similarity between the outcomes arising from the data obtained by the traditional field survey and the UAV campaigns regarding the structural analysis of discontinuity sets. Full article

This study analyzes the award-winning documentary film Searching for Rodakis, directed by Kerem Soyyilmaz, produced in 2023. The aim of this study is the historic comprehension and analysis of this filmic narrative in the field of social–semiotic literacy and its utilization in historical studies for approaching issues of conflict in modern history, otherness, collective experience and trauma, and collective memory. The research material is the documentary Searching for Rodakis (produced by Denmark, Turkey 2023; screenplay/director, Kerem Soyyilmaz; duration, 57’), which received the following awards: Adana Golden Boll FF 2023 Turkey | Best Documentary, Thessaloniki International Doc. Festival 2023 Greece, Greek Film Festival Los Angeles 2023 USA, and Istanbul Documentary Days 2023 Turkey. As regards the historic context, the year of production, 2023, coincides with the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, where Turkey’s current borders were set and the “population exchange” legally sealed, i.e., the violent expulsion of 400,000 Muslims, citizens of Greece, many of whom spoke only Greek, and 200,000 Orthodox citizens of Turkey, who in the majority spoke Turkish. At the same time, the Treaty of Lausanne ratified and finalized the expulsion of approximately one million Orthodox who were forced to leave the Ottoman Empire, as well as 120,000 Muslims who had fled Greece since the beginning of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). About two million people were deported and lost their citizenship and property, in the context of “national homogeneity” (which connotes an ethnic cleansing), with the official states ignoring the criticisms of lawyers and academics who spoke of violations of constitutional rights. Mohammedan Greeks, estimated at around 190,000 as early as 1914, based on ecclesiastical statistics in the Pontus region, did not receive attention from the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne, even though linguistically and culturally (origin, customs, culture and traditions) they did not differ in any way from the Orthodox Greeks. In Turkey, there was general indifference to the thousands of desperate people who arrived, with the exception of a few academics and the Lausanne Exchange Foundation. The filmic scenario is as follows: as a Greek tombstone of unknown origin is discovered underneath the floorboards in an old village house in Turkey, an almost forgotten story from the country’s creation unravels—the forced population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. The engraved Greek letters tell of a woman, Chrysoula Rodaki, who died in 1887. Thus the search for her descendants begins. It leads director Kerem Soyyilmaz to local archives, where his own family’s role in history is laid bare; to abandoned ghost towns, and through the memories of older villagers—all while Soyyilmaz meets massive support for his quest from Greeks on the other side of the border. The stone becomes a portal to the past—and for a while, the trauma becomes redeemed when the previous owners of the village house return. Searching for Rodakis is a movie that reconnects people, culture, and the stories that were discarded in order to build a strong, nationalist state—told through the director’s personal experiences. The research questions, as they arise from the cinematographic material itself, are as follows: How is the historical memory of traumatic events of the previous century, such as the exchange of populations according the Treaty of Lausanne, recorded in the cinematographic narrative? What are the historical sources? To what extent did the origin, ethnicity, and geographical location of the narrators as participants influence the preservation of historical memory and the historical research? What are the criteria of the approach of the creator, and what are the criteria of the participants? Methodologically, we apply historic and socio-semiotic analyses in the field of public and digital history. The results: The types of historical sources found in filmic public discourse include the oral narration of testimonies, of experiences and of memories, as well as the director’s historical research in state archives, the material cultural objects, and the director’s digital research. Thus, historic thematic categories occur, such as the specific persons and actions in Turkey/Greece, actions on-site and in online research, and the types of historical sources, such as oral testimonies, research in archives, and objects of material culture. Sub-themes such as childhood, localities and kinship also emerge. These cinematic recordings of biographical oral narratives as historical and sociological material help us understand the political ideologies of the specific period, between the years 1919 and 1923. The multimodal film material is analyzed to provide testimonies of oral and digital history; it is utilized to approach the historical reality of “otherness”, seeking dialogue in cross-border history in order to identify differences, but above all the historic and cultural similarities against sterile stereotypes. The historic era and the historic geography of the Greek and Turkish national histories concern us for research and teaching purposes a hundred years after the Treaty of Lausanne which set the official borders of the countries. Full article

The Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) model presents a transformative framework for advancing sustainability in food festival tourism, particularly in Thailand. Food festivals serve as dynamic platforms for celebrating local culinary heritage while fostering environmental responsibility and economic resilience. This study examined the integration of the BCG model with critical success factors and community identity to assess its impact on sustainable food festival management. Employing a quantitative research approach and structural equation modeling, data were collected from 503 festival attendees to analyze key relationships among event management, community identity, and sustainability practices. The findings underscore the effectiveness of the BCG model in enhancing resource efficiency, minimizing waste, and promoting local sourcing, thus strengthening the sustainability and attractiveness of food festivals. Notably, while the role of community identity was found to be less significant than anticipated, this suggests evolving tourist preferences favoring sustainability and quality over traditional cultural attributes. These insights offer valuable implications for policymakers, event organizers, and stakeholders in designing eco-conscious, culturally enriching festivals that align with the global sustainability goals. This study contributes to the theoretical discourse on sustainable tourism and provides practical strategies to foster environmentally responsible and economically viable food festivals. Full article