Paper short abstract:

On Negros Island in the Philippines, 'beachfront property' has become keenly sought after by urbanites with money. As a consequence, long-estalbished social relations in these coastal communities are being challenged.

Paper long abstract:

Based on fieldwork at the outskirts of the provincial capital of Negros Oriental, Dumaguete City, Philippines, this paper traces the history of land tenure and use along an increasingly contested coastline. First settled by landless fisher-farmers and former sugarcane labourers, the beach has in recent decades become of interest to a rapidly growing number of Filipinos with urban-based careers and work experience abroad who maintain a connection with their island of origin through investment in beach housing. Linked to a broader cultural re-valuation of coastal space, 'beachfront properties' have become the most expensive real estate in the area. With escalating commodity value of land along the coastline and new state created entitlements to the foreshore, eviction cases have flourished.

In this context, relatively poor coastal dwellers without legal tenure claim the status of being the first settlers or natives of the place and distinguish themselves from more recent arrivals and migrant fishers. The changing significance of the indigenous/exogenous social distinction is brought out in negotiations over the status of land ownership claims and regulation of marine resources. Community brokers from long-term settled families play a key role in the politics of defining the appropriate use of space. At the same time, some well-off local residents who have separated themselves from the community of 'village regulars' and outsiders with money challenge the status of customary entitlements in court. The result of the current power-struggle is what I describe as an ostracising process of local community formation.