Garbage/art island: Micropolitics in tourism development

Power is inherent in tourism development, shaping who defines place narratives, controls resources, and governs participation. While scholarship has moved beyond top-down/bottom-up binaries to adopt a relational view of power as co-produced and negotiated, two limitations remain: 1) emphasis on institutional and discursive dimensions over how power materializes through spatial design, and 2) treatment of historical legacies as background rather than active forces shaping resistance. As such, this paper examines the spatially-oriented micropolitics of tourism development on Teshima, a Japanese island transformed from an industrial dumping-ground into an art destination. Drawing on multi-method fieldwork, the study identifies three micropolitics: identity politics, spatial politics, and engagement politics that structure how residents subtly resist or reconfigure the externally imposed “art island” identity. • Reveals how power in tourism is negotiated through identity, space, and engagement. • Shows residents use history and everyday practices to contest imposed narratives. • Discusses art tourism's role in masking unresolved traumas and local struggles. • Reveals how power is embodied and contested in everyday grassroots spatial practices. • Reveals local actors use historical memory to contest erasure and reclaim agency.