Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the conflicts among tourists and local population in the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park (Spain), to explore some of the fractures regarding heritagization processes and the instrumentalization of the so-called “community participation” in heritage policies.

Paper long abstract:

Some of the fractures regarding heritagization processes are related to the instrumentalization of heritage authorized discourse as well as the instrumentalization of the so-called "community participation" in heritage policies. These fractures will be explored using examples from a research project that focuses on the conflicts among tourists and local population in the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park (Spain). Particularly, I will concentrate on the conflicts related to the management of the island of Ons as a heritage site. In Ons, different people live in the island: four families live all around the year, together with tourists and summer seasonal inhabitants such as those who have been inhabiting houses in the island for many decades, and are fighting for property rights. This paper discusses the concept of "community" employed by managers of the site and policy makers when dealing with construction permits for the "local community" of the island.