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Rowan, Jane M. (2018) Co-creating an art-based livelihood development in West Bengal: an actor-oriented ethnographic approach. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
Despite the convergence of international development actors around cultural and creative industries as agents of dynamic change, a tool for innovation, wealth creation, and poverty alleviation, few studies have investigated the role of social enterprises in developing tourism. Social enterprises are relatively new actors in the tourism sector, developing innovative models using market-based approaches to address social issues. Consequently, there are few studies that have investigated the underlying processes of social enterprises in developing tourism models, which includes the role of social enterprises and actors from their enabling environment in developing tourism and their impact on development.
This thesis aims to address these gaps by providing an understanding of the processes, that is, the actors, resources, convergence of interests, and impact of a tourism-based livelihood development model in West Bengal, India, which provides an alternative focus on understanding social enterprises as change agents. To understand how a model, a road map for community-led cultural tourism, was co-created, it is important to trace the preproduction (community capacity building) and post-production (marketing and promotion) activities. By following the actors and resources that were brought together, how these emerging inputs were configured, how stability was maintained through material inscriptions, and how the outcomes of each action steered the future actions, this actororiented ethnographic analysis reveals the underlying framework of social enterprises innovation.
A key result of this study is that being positioned in between local and global networks means that social enterprises are well positioned to act as social change agents; however, co-created models reinforce top-down development structures rather than challenging them. The findings from this study make several contributions to the current literature. First, the studyshed new light on the role of social enterprises as change agents in the tourism sector and their impacts on local and global networks. The insights gained enhance our understanding of what impacts social enterprises and their networks have in implementing and scaling community-based festivals. Not only does the analysis of a tourism-based livelihood development model demonstrate that social enterprises transform destinations through creating value, but it also reinforces top-down development structures rather than challenging them.
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