Ecotourism discourses in Bhutan: contested perceptions and values

Abstract

Ecotourism has often been characterized and employed as a panacea for sustainable development. Bhutan, a small Himalayan kingdom, follows suit promoting ecotourism within the framework of Gross National Happiness (GNH), a home-grown development philosophy derived from a Buddhist ethic and Bhutanese values. The investigation of three ecotourism ventures in Bhutan provides ethnographic evidence of divergences from previous social and human–environment relations. These divergences are representative of an underlying neoliberal logic and discourse driving the ecotourism sector. Departing from conventional analyses of ecotourism that emphasize its material nature, we treat it as a discursive process that has critical sociocultural implications. Employing a dwelling perspective [Ingold, T. (2000). The Perception of the Environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge], we conceptualize evolving perceptions of Bhutanese communities that engage in the sector, finding that ambiguity related to the GNH concept allows a neoliberal logic to infiltrate local understandings and practices. Part of this entails promotion of a particular environmental subject [Agrawal, A. (2005). Environmentality: Technologies of government and the making of subjects. London: Duke University Press] that manifests in local people’s evolving perceptions of the environment.

摘要：

生态旅游经常被描述为可持续发展的灵丹妙药而加以运用。喜马拉雅山脉小国不丹也在国民幸福总值(GNH)的框架内推广生态旅游, 国民幸福总值是源于佛教伦理和不丹价值观的本土发展理念。对不丹三家生态旅游企业的调查提供了民族志证据, 表明他们与以往人类社会与环境关系存在分歧。这些分歧代表了推动生态旅游部门发展的潜在新自由主义逻辑和话语。从传统的生态旅游分析（强调其物质性质）出发, 我们把它作为一个话语过程, 具有关键的社会文化意义。采用栖居的视角(Ingold, 2000), 我们归纳了参与该领域的不丹社区不断变化的观念, 发现国民幸福总值概念的模糊性允许新自由主义逻辑渗透到当地的理解和实践中。其中一部分需要促进一个特定的环境主题(Agrawal, 2005), 体现在当地人对环境的不断变化的看法。

Keywords:

• 关键词:不丹;生态旅游;新自由主义

Keywords:

• Bhutan
• ecotourism
• neoliberalism
• Gross National Happiness
• dwelling

关键词:

• 不丹
• 生态旅游
• 新自由主义
• 国民幸福总值
• 栖居

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 19-year-old male college student.

2 25-year-old male community informant.

3 Monetary currency of Bhutan. Approximately $3.68 million USD.

4 41-year-old female government employee

Additional information

Funding

Royal Thimphu College Research Development Grant.