Political ecology of inequality in tourism development in rural Mongolia. DORJSUREN, Amartuvshin. Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19575/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19575/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. REFERENCE ProQuest Number: 10694456 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10694456 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Political Ecology of Inequality in Tourism Development in Rural Mongolia Amartuvshin Dorj suren A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2014 Abstract Tourism is often advocated as a means of poverty reduction in the developing world, despite limited evidence about its effectiveness. There is even less research on tourism’s wider effects on standards of living and general inequality in developing countries. This study explores the views of different people involved in tourism development about tourism's contribution to quality of livelihoods and standards of living, and about associated equality and inequality, as a consequence of tourism development in rural Mongolia. Use is made of a critical realist stance and three theoretical approaches: a political ecology, an actor-perspective and a capability approach. Taken in combination, these approaches focus on the macro-level structural aspects of tourism and standards of living, the associated micro-level actor relations, and the relations within and among them. The study explores two case study rural areas with substantial tourism elements: the Lake Hovsgol region and the Gobi Desert region, in northern and southern Mongolia respectively. Qualitative methods were used, including 52 semi-structured, face-to-face and focus group interviews with 61 respondents, participant observation, and analysis of government and agency reports. Analysis of the sources was undertaken using a framework approach. The study findings suggest that tourism's contribution to grassroots people's standards of living was substantial and often accounted for more than half of household incomes, despite the short tourist season. Households with below average standards of living appeared to benefit the least from tourism in comparison to households with average and above average standards of living. It is argued that this relates to the lack of capability of many among the less-well-off to become involved in tourism. It was also shown that people held differing notions of tourism's contribution to inequalities. Tourism had varied environmental, economic and sociocultural burdens and benefits, resulting, for example, in water pollution, deforestation, soil degradation and the alteration of traditional patterns of nomadic culture. Tourism also competed with other economic sectors for natural resources. Tourism's burdens and benefits were influenced by the political economy of state governance, taxation policies, party politics and corruption. Many local actors considered that tourism development led by the private sector had only limited benefits for the host population, while private sector respondents considered it had led to substantial economic benefits. Community-based tourism programmes led by International Development Organisations were sometimes considered less efficient and destabilising in the long run as they created relatively low quality and low expenditure tourism. It was found that individual actors exerted agency and found some room for manoeuvre in order to achieve their goals within the structural constraints. Yet modest grassroots people seem to have been bearing a disproportionately large proportion of the problems or costs of the structural forces. They suffered most from low wages and commodity price inflation, limited access to natural resources due to conservation policies, and a lack of information and opportunities. Yet some of these grassroots people exerted much agency, such as through the use of their informal social networks to make the most of the tourism-related opportunities. II Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Professor Bill Bramwell and Dr Nicola Palmer for their valuable advices, constructive feedbacks, and all the encouragement given me over the past 7 years. I was blessed with a professional and world class supervisory team who were accessible all time throughout my studies. I would also like to thank my beloved parents Gombiin Dorj suren and Dashdorjiin Yanjmaa for your unconditional love, sleepless nights to bring me up and all efforts invested to my education. Without my happy childhood and fond memories that you have given me, I could not have travelled this far. Again, big thanks go to my family, wonderful siblings, nieces and nephews. I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart to Narantuya.G for being patiently supportive during my rather long PhD journey. Without your love, kindness, companionship, this journey couldn't be possible. Having all of your irreplaceable family bond mean a lot to me and always feel invaluably rich, content with your love, financial and emotional support throughout my studies. Many thanks must go to my friends in the UK and Mongolia, colleagues from Unit 5 and the National University of Mongolia whom I am afraid not be able to list the names due to world limit. You all give me the much needed boost to step forward and focus on my studies. Special thanks must go to Tsend-Ayush, MS Ganbaa’s family. I appreciate your great help during my field study. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank all my interviewees and the public of Mongolia, who made this piece of study possible. My study was partially funded by the scholarship of the Government of Mongolia. Ill TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .................................................................................................................................... II Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................Ill List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... VIII List of Figures .........................................................................................................................IX Acronyms ................................................................................................................................. X Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION.............................. 1 1.1. CONTEXT TO THE STUDY........................................................................................1 1.2. STUDY AIM AND OBJECTIVES.............................................................................. 4 1.3. KEY APPROACHES IN THE STUDY....................................................................... 7 1.3.1. Approaches and concepts used in the study ........................................................ 8 1.3.2. The case study context for the study .................................................................. 10 1.3.3. Philosophical context of the study ......................................................................12 1.4. ORGANIZATION OF THESIS...................................................................................12 1.5. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................17 Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................18 2.1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................18 2.2. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY APPROACH.............................................................20 2.3. THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY APPROACH..............................................................23 2.4. ENVIRONMENTAL INEQUALITY AND JUSTICE...............................................26 2.4.1. Distributional justice ............................................................................................ 26 2.4.2. Procedural justice ....................... .....28 2.5. APPLICATION OF POLITICAL ECOLOGY IN TOURISM...................................28 2.6. ACTOR-ORIENTED APPROACH TO THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF TOURISM...............................................................................................................................34 2.7. STANDARDS OF LIVING, POVERTY, INEQUALITY, AND TOURISM 38 2.7.1. Standards of living, poverty and inequality .....................................................