Ell, Alexander: Wissenstransfer im Community Based Tourism. Eine Feldstudie in der Region Yogyakarta, Indonesien. Baden-Baden: Tectum Verlag, 2019. 138 pp. ISBN: 978-​3-​8288-​3977-​9. Preis: € 32,00

Sophie Strauß
2021 Anthropos: Internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- und Sprachenkunde  
The book under review is based on ten weeks of field study in rural areas around Yogyakarta (Java, Indonesia) in 2008. Adopting a social anthropological perspective, Ell is in quest of the "local knowledge" indispensable for the smooth progress of recently started projects of Community Based Tourism (CBT) if they are to be fully sustainable. In his field study the author analyzes the knowledge transfer among villagers of Ketingan and Sambi investigating its modes and causes and examining who
more » ... the bearers of relevant cultural knowledge. The author approaches these questions by first introducing the theoretical basics of "tourism" and "knowledge" and their treatment in social anthropological scholarship (40 pages). In chap. 1, the author provides the readers with a compact survey of the position of tourism in the social anthropological discipline, of criticism of tourism and the development of "sustainable" forms of tourism, among them Community Based Tourism (CBT). Ell is successful in distilling the core categories of CBT from innumerable definitions of CBT and in accentuating criteria of social, economic, and ecological acceptability. Next, he summarizes the subject of "knowledge" in recent social science literature, directing his focus on "local knowledge" and preconditions of its transfer (chap. 2). The resulting substantial survey of the existing literature is sadly lacking the publications after 2010. With the addition of an updated literature review of the same quality, this introduction (in a revised edition) might prove a considerably useful reference. The author employs the publications, above all those based on Indonesian case studies, to expound that knowledge is a vital resource in the course of CBT projects, which determines success and failure (23). His starting point is the generally accepted and often repeated assumption that the population in the target countries particularly lacks essential knowledge -a reason for their reluctance to partake in the projects (47f.). Chapter 3 is dedicated to an introduction to the region and the subject matter, beginning with a synopsis of tourism development in the Yogyakarta region (40-48) and an assessment of the status quo of tourism research in Indonesia. CBT is being recognized by the government as a profitable market, but does as yet little to improve the income of the population (43). Quoting literature relevant to the subject, Ell
doi:10.5771/0257-9774-2021-1-225 fatcat:rlunbvvg25fm7iodh37myzsxwu