Transforming Governance Fragmentation into Adaptive Rural Destination Governance: Institutional Transformation through the Island Agility Framework

Geographically isolated rural island destinations frequently experience governance fragmentation arising from dispersed territories, limited accessibility, and overlapping institutional mandates that constrain coordinated tourism and rural development. While collaborative and adaptive governance have advanced understanding of destination governance, they provide limited explanation of the institutional processes through which fragmented governance evolves into adaptive rural destination governance. Addressing this gap, this study investigates governance transformation in the Banda Islands, Indonesia, using a longitudinal Participatory Action Research design within a Living Laboratory informed by Structuration Theory and the RACM Model. The findings reveal a sequential process of institutional transformation comprising boundary spanning, trust building, policy-oriented learning, policy experimentation, institutional translation, and institutional reconstruction. Through these mechanisms, fragmented governance is reorganised into adaptive rural destination governance, strengthening institutional connectivity, entrepreneurial bureaucracy, Policy Implementation Capacity, and policy resilience under persistent geographical constraints. Based on this process, the study proposes the Island Agility Framework as an institutional explanation of how geographically isolated rural destinations continuously reconstruct governance relationships through collaborative learning, institutional adaptation, and collective action. The framework extends rural management and geographical governance scholarship by explaining governance transformation as a sequential institutional process rather than a static governance outcome.