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Along these lines, Masuda and Garvin (2008) highlight how since the 1970s a new polit-
ical economy ushered in by an infl ux of migrants from urban areas has been transforming the
'agricultural heartland' of Alberta, Canada, traditionally centred on family farms, close-knit
communities and political conservatism, into a hybrid place, fraught with contested meanings
and social identities as the incomers seek to position themselves in the local socio-economic
structure. Heley (2008) and Holloway
et al.
(2009) point to the emergence of a new 'squire-
archy' of middle-class male incomers to the countryside, whose drinking landscapes are
cross-cut by class and ethnicity. The infl uence of such 'outside' interests on rural tourism
development is helping it to become globally integrated. For instance, while Rodger
et al.
(2009) underline the growing role of scientists in managing wildlife tourism in Antarctica,
Zorn and Farthing (2007) cite the use of creativity, invention and the active agency of local
hosts in Peru in mobilising assistance from 'outside' agencies to sustainably develop tourism.
Thus it would not be unfair to say that the emphasis is increasingly on accommodating
discourses from diverse stakeholders regardless of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, class
and/or sector to understand what can be described as a polymorphous structure of exchange
underpinning rural tourism development (see
Figure 29.1).
Figure 29.1
Polymorphous structure of exchange in rural tourism
Source:
adapted from Midttun, 2005
