Fishing families and cosmopolitans in conflict over land on a Philippine island

Abstract

Research on the social effects of tourism and beachfront property development in Southeast Asia finds that foreigners and local elites reap the main benefits, rather than fishing families and coastal communities, who also become vulnerable to displacement. This article, discussing cleavages and co-operation among parties brought together in court cases over land on a Philippine island, demonstrates that poor coastal dwellers just north of Dumaguete City on Negros Island differ in their ability to use social relations within and beyond kin groups to resist development-induced displacement from the increasingly lucrative foreshore. Members of families who are considered to be descendants of the 'original people of the place-have been far less vulnerable to displacement pressure than settlers with more of a 'migrant-status.