The Growth Machine, Tourism, and the Selling of Culture

Abstract

This case study of conflict over land use on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i examines the tension between a tourism growth machine and the island's residents. Using newspaper accounts, qualitative observations, and a multidimensional inventory of value structures, the authors conclude that the basis of communal association varies among three groups: the growth machine, island residents who want to limit development, and those who favor diverse types of development. These social orientations are identified as gesellschaft, gemeinschaft, and Zwischengruppe (“in between group”). The article concludes with a discussion highlighting the internal contradictions of marketing traditional cultures.