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Notions of rationality and value production in ecotourism: examples from a Mexican biosphere reserve

In this paper, two unique ecotourism projects in the Sierra of Manantlán Biosphere Reserve in west central Mexico are analyzed in terms of the economic and ideological discourses they reflect. In this region, ecotourism is promoted as (1) a sustainable development platform that is purportedly (2) different from traditional tourism in terms of the socioeconomic and environmental impacts. Economic programs and initiatives with explicit goals of sustainable development and conservation can directly influence local productions of value of forest resources and ethnicity. Weber's ideas on formal and substantive rationalizations are used as points on a continuum, and taken together with Kapp's Theory of Social Costs, the economic and ideological values of ecotourism projects can be compared and analyzed. Using anthropological methods, the two examples illustrate distinct types of ecotourism projects found within a single biosphere reserve. The discourse of ecotourism and integration into global markets through ecotourism are shown to be iterative processes. Production of value in conservation and sustainable development projects is situational; no universal model of value or rationality accounts for the two ecotourism projects presented. Ecotourism schemas should not be viewed as strictly modes for conservation because of the complex social strategies that they embody.