Community Roundtables for Tourism-related Conflicts: The Dialectics of Consensus and Process Structures
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The article discusses research on a community-based round table process to address conflict over tourism-related development in the rapidly growing mountain town of Canmore, adjacent to Banff National Park, Canada. Business, political, environmental and resident/community stakeholders convened as the Canmore Growth Management Committee (GMC) to develop a growth management strategy, though the planners and local government stayed at arms-length from decision-making. This interpretive study demonstrates that the collaboration space can be a contested terrain where power and legitimation interrelate with process structures and activities, influencing meaning constructions and outcomes. Process structures are paradoxical in terms of shaping, constraining or enabling meaningful stakeholder participation. 'Consensus' is a problematic construct that can be shaped through the enactment of certain process rules, structures and activities, commencing in the convening stage. Local government initiators, destination planners and facilitators/mediators also play an important role in shaping consensus. Hence, a multi-stakeholder process labelled as a consensus approach is no guarantee that interests and concerns will be considered in the decision-making process, or that implementation of participants' recommendations and plans will follow smoothly. Practical implications and suggestions are forwarded for multi-stakeholder processes for destination management and planning, under conditions of conflict and rapid growth. As this study indicates, conflict can be constructive as wellas destructive - community capacity was enhanced in some aspects by the GMC process. 1999, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.
