Abstract
AbstractThe concept of sustainability is materialized differently in luxury ecotourism development and in locally-directed community development initiatives. I examine the diverse environmental ideologies at play in these two distinct incarnations of "sustainable development" on the southern Jalisco, Mexico coast; first, in La Manzanilla, a community inhabited by a proportionately large population of leisure consumption-driven lifestyle migrants, then to the north, in elite ecotourism enclaves and a community displaced by a wealthy developer. I suggest these divergent development incarnations may be understood by expanding the concept of lifestyle migration to include a broader range of enactments of home, from different class perspectives. Global environmental ideologies and lifestyle migrant capital play a fundamental but not the only role in local sustainable development. I suggest global influences and local initiatives are creating a productive friction, reassembling global environmental knowledge and tourism imaginaries to suit local agendas. While there is no consensus on what sustainable development should look like in La Manzanilla, the intersection of initiatives is producing locally-directed development that contrasts with the erasure of local agendas happening in elite costal developments nearby.Keywords: sustainable development, friction, environmental ideology, tourism, lifestyle migration
Highlights
How can we make sense of a concept like sustainability, when its meaning takes a multiplicity of shapes in practice? What does sustainability mean to a small community fostering natural resources that are the foundation of their livelihood? What does sustainability mean to a transnational corporation appealing to an environmentally-conscious 'jet set'? What happens to the concept of sustainability when it's paired with development? The UN Sustainable Development goals include promoting inclusive economic growth, creating access to clean water, energy, and quality education, as well as eliminating poverty and inequality
In La Manzanilla, lifestyle migrant capital and ideology have made an impact on local residents, and there were many examples of local entrepreneurial youths, in their twenties during field research (2009-2014), who were taking a leading role in capitalizing on the lifestyle migrant market and developing tourism in ways that align with their own aspirations, and shaping the town in which they envision their lives unfolding
Former Tenacatita business owners, including fishermen, divers, restaurant owners, tour guides, and shop owners, have found refuge in La Manzanilla. What does this coastal region tell us about "sustainable development"? The forms of sustainable development materializing in the town of La Manzanilla and the luxury enclaves to the north are in many ways as dramatically different as the class of lifestyle migrants that inhabit them
Summary
How can we make sense of a concept like sustainability, when its meaning takes a multiplicity of shapes in practice? What does sustainability mean to a small community fostering natural resources that are the foundation of their livelihood? What does sustainability mean to a transnational corporation appealing to an environmentally-conscious 'jet set'? What happens to the concept of sustainability when it's paired with development? The UN Sustainable Development goals include promoting inclusive economic growth, creating access to clean water, energy, and quality education, as well as eliminating poverty and inequality. In La Manzanilla, the local impact of these neoliberal agendas paired with the tsunami disaster did not result in state-supported corporate tourism development It did result in a small wave of lifestyle migrants moving in, building homes on the beach and in the hills, and beginning to participate in community life to various degrees. In La Manzanilla, lifestyle migrant capital and ideology have made an impact on local residents, and there were many examples of local entrepreneurial youths, in their twenties during field research (2009-2014), who were taking a leading role in capitalizing on the lifestyle migrant market and developing tourism in ways that align with their own aspirations, and shaping the town in which they envision their lives unfolding
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