Realizing common prosperity: The action logic of social entrepreneurship community mobilization in rural tourism

Abstract

The effective participation of rural residents in tourism social entrepreneurship can improve their quality of life and promote community transformation. Hence, it is important to understand the strategies and process of community mobilization by social entrepreneurs. This study focuses on the strategy of village cadre, who play the dual roles of an entrepreneur and a policy implementer to mobilize community residents to participate in collective tourism entrepreneurship and the mechanism for changing residents’ attitudes in a rural China context, by using the longitudinal research method of nonparticipatory observation and 50 interviews conducted in Yuanjia Village, Shaanxi Province. The results show that the community mobilization of social entrepreneurs has not been accomplished overnight but has undergone a 3-stage dynamic process of change. These results indicate that social enterprises should incorporate indigenous people into their value network in the early stage of tourism development and continue to explore the mechanism of affiliating residents with benefits, so as to further increase residents’ in-depth participation. Residents play the dual roles of producer and collaborator in tourism social entrepreneurship and work with social entrepreneurs to promote the sustainable development of rural tourism and achieve common prosperity.