Mobility dilemmas: conflict analysis of road constructions in a Tibetan tourism community in China

Abstract

Road construction offers a unique lens through which to investigate tourism mobility. To date, research has focused on the socio-cultural effects of road construction, such as its influence on tourists’ movements and its hindrance to tourism development, with less use of systematic methods to analyze road construction-related conflicts. Accordingly, this study comprised a systematic analysis of road construction-related conflicts in Yubeng, China, and potential strategies to solve the underlying mobility dilemmas. A geo-historical trajectory of conflicts was examined, and road construction conflicts were categorized as involving resource competition, tourism dilemma, modern anxiety, or protection paradox. Then, formal conflict analysis and an evolutionary game model were used to analyze these different conflict categories and develop a general pattern of strategies by which the dilemmas might be resolved. The theoretical implications and practical insights of the findings for tourism development, as well as other social conflict contexts, were also investigated.

Keywords:

• Road construction conflicts
• geo-historical analysis
• formal conflict analysis
• evolutionary game model
• conflict strategies
• sustainable tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Data were provided by the MSMSA Management Bureau.

Additional information

Funding

This article was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China#1 under Grant No. [41771160]; Major Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China#2] under Grant No. [15ZDB118]; Youth Project of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Ministry of Education#3 under Grant No. [17YJCZH111].