Influence of social capital on community-based action in tourism development: a study of social network analysis

Communiy-based Tourism Development;Sustainability;Rural Tourism;Social Network Analysis;Community-based Action;Tourism Impact

Hwang, Doohyun

关键词: Communiy-based Tourism Development;    Sustainability;    Rural Tourism;    Social Network Analysis;    Community-based Action;    Tourism Impact;   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/34473/Hwang_Doohyun.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Understanding a community’s behavior in the tourism context is important. Whenconsidering local residents are the major group of people who are affected by tourismimpacts no matter if the impacts are positive or negative, residents who feel they belongto that community normally will try to both minimize the negative changes and maximizethe positive impacts of tourism development. These efforts have the potential to engageoutsiders and community members in conversations that may lead to sustainable tourismdevelopment and also contribute to directing efforts to either slow down or re-directtourism development in a way that aligns with what the community members want.Previous tourism impact studies indicate the need for understanding of residents’behaviors in relation to tourism impacts, emphasizing the unbalanced growth of ourunderstanding of residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward tourism impacts, which havebeen studied extensively. This study aims to understand residents’ collective actions inthe tourism context and the dynamics of the process through which each individual formshis or her behaviors in response to the impacts of tourism. Social capital theory providesa good theoretical lens to understand the dynamics of a community’s collective actioninvolvement because it is strongly built on the basis of the connections among actorswithin a network boundary and on social norms that delineate the quality of theirconnections. In other words, this study explored the influence of social capital on thelocal residents’ collective action involvement. Specifically, this study addressed threeresearch questions related to the role of social capital in residents’ collective actioninvolvement:a. To understand the relationships between the network element of social capital andcommunity-based collective action related to tourism development.b. To understand the relationship between the social norm element of social capitaland community-based collective action related to tourism development.c. To understand the relationship between community-based social capital and theextent of collective action in the Olle project of Jeju Island, South Korea.The relationships between the network and social norm elements of social capitaland community-based collective actions in response to the tourism impacts werethoroughly examined. This examination is based on the broad range of literature indiverse fields that adopt the concept of social capital and led to the theoretical frameworkused in this research. Furthermore, network and social norm elements of social capitaland residents’ level of collective action involvement were empirically measured by usingsocial network analysis, a general survey, and semi-structured interviews. Specifichypotheses addressing their relationships were tested based on multiple regressionanalysis. Considering that social capital theory is strongly based on network and socialstructure, using network analysis provides relational and structural information thatexplains not only the influence of social capital on collective action, but also thedynamics of residents’ collective action involvement. Residents in two communities onJeju Island, South Korea, which are engaged in the Olle project were studied to exploreeffect of social capital on their engagement in collective action. This led tocomprehensive understanding of the dynamics of residents’ collective action involvementin response to the tourism impacts.This study found that both elements of social capital – networks and social norms,are critical factors that explain residents’ collective action involvement. Both strong andweak ties are critical for residents’ successful collective action involvement. Specifically,two types of strong ties, residents’ informal networks and shared relationships throughsocial organization activities, have been emphasized in this study as the significant tiesthat positively influence residents’ collective action involvement. However, residents’connections with major stakeholders deeply engaged in tourism in a community did notexplain residents’ collective action involvement. Furthermore, people holding similarstructural positions, sharing similar roles in the community, did not present a similarpattern of community involvement.Weak ties at the individual level yielded inconclusive findings on residents’involvement. At the community level the ties between the community and stakeholdersoutside it had positive effects on the residents’ involvement.Regarding the social norms element of social capital, existing social pressureperceived by residents to participate in tourism-related collective action was positivelycorrelated with the level of residents’ involvement. However, interestingly, findingsregarding trust in both communities were inconclusive. The trust level was negativelycorrelated with the level of residents’ involvement in the Mang-Jang community, but thetrust element failed to explain residents’ involvement in the Nak-Ch’ŏn community. Thisnegative correlation of social capital with residents’ involvement was also identified inthe kinship society where all the residents are extensively connected and share anextremely high level of trust and understanding of each others’ behaviors.When it comes to the effects of relational structure of these communities onresidents’ level of involvement, the study findings presented that the community highlyconnected among the members and shares meaningful interactions is positivelyassociated with their level of involvement. However, another finding also highlighted theimportance of relational structure of a community that presents group interactions thatshare collaboration and at the same time, hold each other in check to balance out thepower structure.From a theoretical and methodological point of view, this study contributed to thecurrent knowledge of social capital and tourism impact studies and a methodologicalunderstanding of the analysis of social relationships and community structure in thetourism context. These contributions were possible by identifying specific conditions,which facilitate the creation of social capital for better residents’ collective actioninvolvement in a rural tourism context, which delineate specific features of networks andstructure of the community that encourages each member of a community to participatein collective actions. From a practical point of view, this study contributes to enhancingunderstanding of tourism policy makers and developers about the dynamics of the localresidents’ community-based behavior related to tourism, which ultimately contributes tosuccessful mobilization of residents’ supports and active involvement. For thecommunity itself, findings from the study are related to specific relational and structuralfeatures. These results will provide the residents with the relational and structuralweaknesses and strengths being compared to those of another community. Furthermore,discussion of these network characteristics with other members would encourage thecommunities to modify their preexisting relational and structural features toward the ways that facilitate successful involvement of the members in tourism related collectiveaction for making a better community.