‘This land is my land’. Local identity and the development of outdoor leisure tourism in a French national park

Abstract

Through a theoretical approach based on the sociology of power relations and otherness, this paper considers the key role played by local inhabitants in the development of outdoor leisure activities in a natural protected space. Such social processes are explored in the context of a French national park where land property, territorial management and local identity are felt to be at stake. In this context, the social relations forged between the local inhabitants and park representatives greatly impact the local identity dynamics and power relations. It is argued here that these social relations and tensions are important processes to consider in the study of the development of outdoor leisure activities in a protected natural space, as they inevitably impact the form and impetus of local projects set out to develop tourism, outdoor leisure and accessibility to the protected space.