Community-Centered Globalization

Abstract

The retreat of the state from the development process throughout Latin America has placed added responsibility on local communities to improve local living conditions. Research on the impacts of globalization and tourism has tended to highlight the negative repercussions of such engagements, often portraying the hosts as helpless victims of savage capitalism and overbearing tourists. Examination of the introduction of small-scale development initiatives into a small rural community in Costa Rica reveals that the local community is anything but a passive recipient and may actively manage the very modest inclusion of tourism into its overall development strategy. Drawing on the theoretical contributions of Max-Neef, Escobar, and others, this research provides further evidence that integrated small-scale rural development initiatives can achieve modest success by capitalizing on existing resources, gradually broadening the economic mix and collaborating with similarly situated communities.

The local politics of the global countryside: boosterism, aspirational ruralism and the contested reconstitution of Queenstown, New Zealand

“…As such, local actors are rarely able to completely resist global pressures, but can manipulate and adapt globalization processes, or at least secure a share of the spoils for endogenous communities (Jackiewicz 2006). At the same time, the very sphere of local politics is transformed as it is opened up to exogenous interventions, producing a 'scale of engagement' that transcends the local scale, creating new arenas in which conflicts are played out at a distance from the geographical site at the centre of the dispute, such as law courts and newspaper columns (Cox 1998).…”

Rural authenticity and agency on a cold-water island: Perspectives of contemporary craft-artists on Bornholm, Denmark

“…The impact of globalization on rural localities is revealed not as domination or subordination but as negotiation, manipulation and hybridization, conducted through but not contained by local micro-politics. (2007: 487) Local actors have the ability to create networks, adapt their value systems, and form internal structures, becoming meaningful agents in the production of their space (Chaperon and Bramwell, 2012;Jackiewicz, 2006;Milne and Ateljevic, 2001).…”