Mega-damming, pollution and depletion endanger rivers worldwide. Meanwhile, modernist imaginaries of ordering ‘unruly waters and humans’ have become cornerstones of hydraulic-bureaucratic and capitalist development. They separate hydro/social worlds, sideline river-commons cultures, and deepen socio-environmental injustices. But myriad new water justice movements (NWJMs) proliferate: rooted, disruptive, transdisciplinary, multi-scalar coalitions that deploy alternative river–society ontologies, bridge South–North divides, and translate river-enlivening practices from local to global and vice-versa. This paper's framework conceptualizes ‘riverhood’ to engage with NWJMs and river commoning initiatives. We suggest four interrelated ontologies, situating river socionatures as arenas of material, social and symbolic co-production: ‘river-as-ecosociety’, ‘river-as-territory’, ‘river-as-subject’, and ‘river-as-movement’.

This paper explores the growth of tourism in Iceland and sets current policy discourses in the context of the global credit crunch of 2008. Tourism in Iceland has grown from being practically non-existent in the mid-twentieth century to being one of the three key sectors of the economy. With this growth, Iceland, as many other island states, started paying more attention to the potentialities of tourism as a development option. However, interest in tourism in public debates and policy seems to become prominent in times of economic crisis while it wanes during years of economic growth. In this light, the paper will relate discourses of tourism to the present condition of economic recession and potential crisis, especially when it comes to government policies. This paper investigates the relationship between tourism and crisis as it features in public discourse in Iceland, and aims at clarifying the implications this particular discourse on tourism has on tourism development in Iceland.

The paper deals with the complex meaning of risk for tourism mobilities. The impact of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption on tourism in Iceland is outlined, as well as the response of Icelandic tourist authorities. A survey in June and July 2010 among international tourists in the country revealed that for many the eruption had added considerable depth to their travel experiences. The sense of risk affects the relation between mobile travellers and their destination. The paper also analyses how events such as the eruption can facilitate new paths towards being sensitive to the natural world.

This paper explores whaling and whale watching to determine the viability of their divergent practices – and explains why they coexist in some cases. Whale watching is often viewed as an ecotourism product and presented as an activity that is fast growing, holds potential for local regeneration, promotes conservation and sustainable practice and is ecological and profitable. Whaling is currently under considerable scrutiny and relies on economic and increasingly cultural rhetoric to support its viability. Contrary to some statements, it is rarely a long-established practice. The paper uses Japan and Iceland as examples to examine the sustainability frameworks and political rhetoric surrounding these activities, and asks whether whale watching might offer an alternative economy for the whaling/fishing communities in an era of conflict over sustainable resource use. The paper finds that whale watching participation grew from 9 million tourists in 2001 to 13 million in 2008, with revenues rising from $1 billion to $2.1 billion per annum over that period. Whaling relies heavily on state and private subsidies. We also find, however, that whaling and whale watching can co-exist, that both use sustainability-based rhetoric, but that global trends in public opinion and taste favour whale watching over whaling.