Abstract

The issues on the tourism, cultural landscape and participation generally result in the urgent necessity to study on strengthening place identity. Despite of booming tourism, currently in Taiwan, potential tourist destinations in the rural community are loosing their cultural landscape and lack of community participation. Based on the context of Taiwan, three phenomena influence the conservation of cultural landscape and tourism development: 1) tourism development is a necessary tool to complement the community income. Concerning the booming tourism development, cultural landscape can be seen as the tourism resources to produce the community niches. 2) The cultural landscape is vulnerable and facing the endangering situation owing to the rapid tourism development. 3) The democratic awareness highly lifts up the issues of national identity, reflects the political identity and practices in the decision-making process. The policies in terms of community participation and action cause the certain legitimacy to emphasize the place identity. These three phenomena caused an instant crisis and demands for strengthening place identity, conservation of cultural landscape and development of community tourism.

This research aims to clarify the strategies of strengthening place identity to achieve the conservation of cultural landscape and development of community tourism in Taiwan. This research tries to answer three questions: 1) whether the strengthening of place identity is tending to be important in Taiwan? 2) If yes, what are the policies? And how the policies intervene in and support to the conservation of cultural landscape and development of community tourism? 3) How to strengthen place identity? Based on these questions, the objectives are: 1) to illustrate the issues and trends of strengthening place identity in Taiwan; 2.1) to identify the institutional instruments including regulation and its stakeholder and subsidy policy; 2.2) to analyze and verify the governmental support at local level; 3.1) to review and re-conceptualize the new aspects of strengthening place identity; 3.2) to construct a framework of strengthening place identity; 3.3) to establish the operational tools on strengthening place identity; 3.4) to establish the mechanism of strengthening place identity; and 3.5) to verify the mechanism of strengthening place identity. However, this research is on the basis of theoretical deductions through the processes beginning in identifying issues, theoretical literature reviews, conceptual arguments, re-conceptualization, constructions of operational processes, measures, mechanism and analytical framework, and final to the clarifications based on findings and feedback to theoretical discussions.

Place identity is the people perceptions to distinguish a specific area from others. The concept of place identity is subjective based on personal integrated evaluations of the perceptions. Many researchers are interested in this issue so it becomes a concept but unable to discuss in the same conditions. Based on the scanning of the related theories on the concepts of place identity, particularly Breakwell initials a theory of "place and identity process" stemmed from environmental psychology is potential to deduce the new aspects of strengthening place identity from its four principles, "distinctiveness", "continuity", "self-efficacy" and "self-esteem". Through the commentaries on these four principles from planning aspect, this research assumes the "self-esteem" has no obvious behavior links to planning and is able to be an inner agent which interferes with other three principles. Concerning the theoretical recognition on the cultural landscape conservation and community tourism development, this research proposes that: 1) assuming the "distinctiveness" principle is a given variable which can be substituted by tourism popularity, owing to the reasons that it is a blurred definition of "outstanding cultural landscape" and partially relates tourism planning discipline. But the relationship between tourism popularity and place identity is still necessary to be verified in the research methodology. 2) The "continuity" principle should focus on more about spatial concerns as a new aspect termed "spatial continuity". 3) The "self-efficacy" principle should highlight the social concerns as a new aspect named "shared ownership". However, two new aspects, "spatial continuity" and "shared ownership", are deduced but still arguable: 1) in the absence of shared ownership, the interests among communities are weaken and they stay silent and that results in inactive participation. So, the argument is that the necessary aspect of "shared ownership" should be ensured to encourage community as active participation in the conservation. 2) In the absence of sustaining spatial continuity, the community does not ensure the conservation of cultural landscape. So, the argument is that the necessary aspect of "spatial continuity" should be capable of conservation of cultural landscape. Both aspects of strengthening place identity play important roles on objectives and become an intersection set between theories of cultural landscape and tourism development.

Therefore, the research mainly claims that "institutions based on two aspects, i.e., spatial continuity and shared ownership will not only strengthen the place identity but shall also conserve the cultural landscape and develop the community tourism in Taiwan". These two aspects will be the prime objectives to the further analyses to develop a mechanism of strengthening place identity.

Based on these two aspects and related theoretical literatures, this research initiates the operational tools, i.e., processes, measures and criteria, and mechanism of strengthening place identity. Reviewing the analytical methods of strengthening place identity, the institutional analysis is surely appropriate to be adopted. The analytical framework mainly focuses on the case studies at community level. For the sake of expanding to the wider context of Taiwan, it considers the interventions from the institutional instruments and supports at the national and local levels as well: 1) at the national level, based on the overviews on the instruments including regulation and its stakeholder and subsidy policy, this research broadly reviews and analyzes the interventions on regulations and policies on strengthening of place identity, conservation of cultural landscape and development of community tourism. 2) At the local level, this research conducts a quantitative questionnaire survey targeting all the rural municipalities to understand the attributes in tourism development of cultural landscape as well as to test the hypotheses of institutional supports and the relationships between strengths of tourism popularity and place identity. 3) At the community level, this research conducts a qualitative analysis in four typical case studies of the intersection set based on careful selection. According to the operational tools and mechanism, the contents of case studies include the institutional evidences in the tourism development process of cultural landscape. Consequently, the comparative analyses on the four case studies will be adopted and following as the discussions on the strategies of strengthening place identity, conservation of cultural landscape, development of community tourism and the lessons on case studies.

There are five parts which include nine chapters in this dissertation. Part I is Chapter 1 mainly introduces the objective and structure of this dissertation. Part II is Chapter 2 reviews the evolution of place identity theory. Its contents mainly highlight the theory of "place and identity process". Part III is methodology including Chapter 3 and 4. Chapter 3 reviews the theories, recognitions and arguments. It mainly focuses on the re-conceptualization of strengthening place identity. Chapter 4 constructs the methodology on operational tools, mechanism, analytical framework and its data sources. Part IV including Chapter 5, 6 and 7 is the findings and analyses. Chapter 5 illustrates the overviews of institutional instruments on strengthening place identity in Taiwan. Chapter 6 presents the preparations and findings of questionnaire survey, and verifies the attributes and hypotheses in tourism development of cultural landscape. Chapter 7 firstly describes the processes of case study selection, then, it clarifies the findings on the mechanism functions through four cases including Tanayiku Ecological Park, Chiufen Mining Settlement, Shueili Snake Kiln and Chaofeng Recreation Farm. Part V is constructed by Chapter 8 which achieves the comparative analyses and discussions of the research, and Chapter 9 which is conclusions and recommendations of this dissertation.

The main findings and conclusions of this dissertation are mainly: 1) at the national level, the strengthening of place identity is tending to be important in Taiwan. The central government emphasizes the Taiwanese identity as well as the unique cultural identity. The regulations of land use planning and conversion are still strict, complex, and less community participation. The institutional instruments of regulation and its involving stakeholder are unlikely to work well recently. A possible intervention from central governments is only to focus on the way of project subsidies. The project subsidies are highly encouraged to support conservation of cultural landscape and the community development but centralized tourism agencies often hinders the community tourism. 2) At the local level, the local governments support the tourism development, but do not specially concern about cultural landscape. The governmental supports are correlated with the tourism municipalities with stronger place identity. It implies the local government should do efforts to relate subsidies with the place identity. "Good place identity better subsidies". 3) At community level, the findings of four case studies clarify the comparisons with operational tools and mechanism of strengthening place identity. It mainly clarifies two aspects, "spatial continuity" and "shared ownership", are sufficient and necessary objectives. The conservation of cultural landscape and development of community tourism should complement each other through "catalyzer" of place identity.

Thus, the main recommendations for strengthening place identity are: 1) at national level, the strategies should not only focus on subsidy intervention but should also establish clearly operational tools and mechanisms, i.e., the research findings, and regulations i.e., Community Development Act, Landscape Act, etc. 2) At local level, the local governments should encourage strengthening place identity to strive for better subsidies. 3) At community level, to obtain the benefits and fairly share the ownership, the community need to establish their decision-making body, goals, set and maintain principle along with consensus to conserve cultural landscape. They also need to hold more cultural activities, and spreading their recognition for cultural landscape conservation. Those communities which are good at spatial continuity of cultural landscape should ensure that their common properties are the main niches for tourism development and should provide enough opportunity for retails. They should also make sure to establish a representative organization that will assist them in maintaining good financial balance to support their activities and welfares. It is also necessary to ensure valid community participation according to the appearances of institutional attributes and behaviors. Need is to ally the small retailers for more empowering business on tourism, and establish the distribution mechanism of benefits and welfares.

Keywords: Place Identity, Cultural Landscape, Conservation, Community Tourism, Community Participation, Spatial Continuity, Shared Ownership, Taiwan

観光の発展や文化的景観、参加についての議論は一般に、場所の個性についての研究の差し迫った必要性に行き着く。現在台湾では観光が活況であるにも係らず、地方のコミュニティはその文化的景観を失いつつあり、コミュニティの参加が欠如している。とくに、台湾の状況に基づけば、次の3つの現象が文化的景観と観光の発展に影響を与えている。1)観光の発展はコミュニティの収入を補うための必須の手段である。2)文化的景観は失われやすく、急速な観光の発展によって、危機的状況に直面している。3)民主的意識が国家の独自性の問題を掲げ、意思決定過程における政治的な独自性と実践を反映している。これら3つの現象が切迫した危機となり、コミュニティ観光の発展過程に着目した場所の個性に関する研究の必要性を生じている。

本論文は、上記のような背景の下で、コミュニティ観光の発展過程の要因を明らかにし、場所の個性の強化との関係について検証することを目的としているが、具体的には次の3つの研究設問に答えようとするものである。1)場所の個性を強化することは台湾において重要となってきているのか?2)もしそうであれば、どのような政策なのか?政府の支援や観光資源がコミュニティ観光の発展にどのように作用しているのか?3)コミュニティ観光を発展させるプロセスは何か?場所の個性を強める方法は何か?

これら3つの研究設問に基づき、本研究は次の3点について検討した。1)台湾における場所の個性を強化することの課題や傾向を明らかにする。2.1)規制を含む制度、そのステークホルダーや国家レベルでの補助金政策を明らかにする。2.2)コミュニティ観光発展のための地域レベルでの政府支援や観光資源について分析する。3.1)コミュニティ観光の発展過程を再概念化する。3.2)場所の個性の強化の評価、仕組み、分析枠組みを確立する。3.3)場所の個性を強化する仕組みを検証する。そのために、1)国家レベルでは、規制を含む制度、そのステークホルダーや補助金政策について検討し、2)地方レベルでは、全ての地方自治体を対象にした定量的なアンケート調査を行い、政府支援と観光資源がコミュニティ観光の発展にどう作用するかについての理解すると同時に、3)コミュニティレベルでは、抽出したエリアの4つのシナリオにおいて分析をおこなった。

本論文において得られた主要な知見と結論は以下の通りである。1)場所の個性の明確化:本研究は、場所の個性という曖昧な概念を定義付ける全体的な視点を提供する。典型的なエリア間の比較により、コミュニティ観光の過程における制度的な厚みが、より強い場所の個性につながる傾向があることが明らかとなる。2)研究の中心:「文化的景観の活用」がコミュニティ観光の発展に必要不可欠である。「共同所有の促進」がコミュニティ観光の発展の重要な要素である。3)国家レベルでは、場所の個性を強化することは台湾において重要になりつつある。土地利用計画や観光開発への転用は規制が依然として厳しく、複雑で、コミュニティの参加が少ない。中央政府からの介入はプロジェクトへの補助金にのみ焦点が当てられている。コミュニティは場所の個性を強化するために適切な補助金を得ることができるが、中央集権化された観光庁はコミュニティ観光を長期にわたって妨げている。4)地方レベルでは、政府支援はコミュニティ観光の発展のための観光資源に向けられる傾向がある。地方政府の支援がここ10年間のコミュニティ観光の発展を支えている。地方政府は地方の共通資源をコミュニティ観光の発展に利用することを支援している。地方政府の支援は場所の個性の感覚を増大させる。連続した古い文化的景観のようなより長い観光資源は、場所の個性の強さとは関係が無い。5)コミュニティレベルでは、本研究は「文化的景観の活用」と「共同所有の促進」がコミュニティ観光の発展の重要要素であり、場所の個性を強化する基盤となるものであることを実証した。

とりわけ、場所の個性の強化に成功している事例では、内部の繋がりは厚くなる変更点であり、外部の繋がりは政府機関、プロジェクトや他のスポンサーと強く結びついていることが明らかとなった。

以上のとおり、本研究は、とくに、台湾を対象として、場所の個性化とコミュニティ観光の発展プロセスならびに景観保全の正の循環プロセスに関する実証的研究を行い、優れた学術的価値を有している。さらに、その分析を通じて今後の改善のための有益な提言を行っている。

よって本論文は博士(工学)の学位請求論文として合格と認められる。