The Social and the Cultural Capital of a Place and their Influence on the Production of Tourism – A Theoretical Reflection based on an Illustrative Case Study

This paper is part of a larger research context where the social and cultural capital of places seem to be fruitful concepts in solving certain theoretical and empirical problems in research on tourism production. The purpose of this paper is to specify and define these concepts, and discuss their scientific productivity by using an illustrative example. The concept of place captures such factors as the sense of or for a specific place. The place is then a materialization of, and an absolute condition for, a certain life mode, which here refers to people's values and way of life at different places. The core of the life mode is grounded primarily in production. Different life modes contain different types of social and cultural capital that could have significance for tourism production. Certain types of social capital appear to be especially influential in the development of small business enterprises. This is labeled “bridging social capital”, which refers to social relations characterized by determination as well as a sense of community and solidarity. As for cultural capital, a longer tradition of smaller businesses appears to promote small business enterprise in the tourism industry. The conclusion is that these concepts are fruitful for analyzing the local breeding ground for small business enterprises in tourism production.