Tourism and the social organization of leisure cause environmental problems for coastal communities which depend on tourism for their economic survival. Global-local linkages and power relations in the global political economy are directly responsible for many of the difficulties currently experienced by these remote areas. Drawing on research from the disciplines of global political economy, global environmental politics and political ecology, this book analyzes the consequences that social and economic policies in global institutions and industrialized countries have on particular locales, outside the centre. Focussing on the underlying structures of the political economy and its social and environmental consequences, Kutting shows that global linkages can have dramatically different results even in supposedly similar situations. Not only does this illustrate the importance of historical and socio-structural factors, but it also demonstrates how environmental values can be more significant than environmental law.

This book examines how local and global environment-society relations play out in coastal communities dependent on tourism for economic survival. It analyzes the consequences of social and economic policies on remote areas and makes a case for studying the role of environmental values in global environmental governance.