Intra-community contestation in institutional development process

of living ancient-village tourism management

Wu Yunmei

outline

Introduction Community tourism (or ancient

village tourism) in new socialist countryside construction: significance, advantage and challenges

General information of Tuanshan village

Contestations and problems Discussion Conclusion

introduction

Tuanshan as world monumental heritage and national heritage of China

Contestations and problems emerge in the process of developing tourism

Problem: Tourism benefit? Cause: ununited nature of villagers? Short-e

yes of villagers?

Community tourism (or ancient village tourism) in new socialist countryside

construction: significance, advantage and challenges

Tourism in Yunnan, new socialist countryside construction, small tourist town construction

Tourism as an important approach However, tourism is double-edged sword Tourism’s influences related to the social ch

aracteristics of local community (Huse et al. 1998)

Continued…Dramatic changes in rural China

changes of principle of social classification

changes of social identity (from clan identity to national identity)

reorganize social life

Family become the basic unit of production again

Market entered Government retreat Lack of independent and res

ponsible citizen consciousness

Public social life was weakened

(Shen 2006; 2007; Xiao 2003) )

1950s, land reform andcommunal construction:

1978, household responsibility system and open-up policy:

Since rural tourism is promoted as an important approach to development,

how will tourism interact with villagers’ daily life and

existent (or changing) social institutions?

Ancient village tourism as one of rural tourism, in which tourism combines with community development firmly

General information of Tuanshan village

environments

Social demographic and economic aspects 245 households and 927 pe

ople totally in this village, nearly 80% villagers belong to Zhang family clan,

Over 800 are agricultural, 100 are non-agricultural (65 are retired)

0.04 hectares per capita Self-consumption, traditional

way of life Han, Yi, Hani, Dai etc

In the past: remittance from tin industry and agriculture, livestock

Now: pension, agriculture and livestock(700yuan per capita), migrant worker (and tourism)

State of tourism resources

15 well-preserved local-style dwelling houses, 3 village gates, 3 temples, and one ancestral hall, occupying 18,384.5 square meters

Architectural style of the 19th century’s countryside

Continued…

Tourism management

Management committee (15 persons)

-Unclear attribute (semi-government or villagers’)

-vague rules Mao

History of tourism development In past, vicinity 1990s, China-Frence exch

ange 2000, tourism managemen

t committee 2003, raise the price and c

hange some committee members

2006, “ticket within ticket” 2007, first election

3, Problems and contestations appearing in tourism development

very low stage of development, no more than 180 thousand a year

understandard environment and infrastructure Lack of economic capitals to develop, constant del

ay of government’s project relationship between villagers and tourism manag

ement committee getting worse, and villagers lack of the consciousness of being the subject

divergence and contestations appear among villagers: resent vs eagerly pursue. Committee vs Mao

4, Discussion

Two sayings: selfish and greedy committee leaders and ununited nature; concern current benefit without longer consideration and lack of consciousness of social responsibility

4.1Tragedy of the commons 4.2 collective action and participation in touri

sm

4.1Tragedy of the commons

Tourism resource as common pool resource (Briassoulis 2002; Healy 1994; Healy 2006)

“communal approach” in China’s ancient-village tourism development (Ying 2006; Ying and Zhou 2007)

ancient-village tourism resource in China should be considered as a kind of common pool resource for villagers

These problems are ‘tragedy of the commons”

4.2 collective action and participation in tourism

Tuanshan still in the process of institution formation in tourism management

First, lack of power to organize villagers: concern about their own life and don’t see much relation between their livelihood and tourism; low heterogeneity among villagers; traditional authorities fade; government retreat

Continued…

Second, little participation in tourism: participation in benefit-sharing is disappointed; stress between much expectation and needed fund

5, Conclusion

villagers’ citizen consciousness and civil organizations are considered as cores of the success of the new socialist countryside construction (Yu 2006), but also significant impediments

systematically consider various factors influencing the institution formation and collective action

increase public activities and promote public social life, as well as enhance participation in tourism. Other factors: authority leader and capital

Thank you for

attentions!