Commodification and the making of a rural destination: Insights from Cromwell district, Central Otago, New Zealand

Abstract

The process of rural commodification and its role in the diversification and strengthening of the economies of small rural towns has been an enduring theme in the rural change literature (Cloke, 1993; Mackay, Perkins &Espiner, 2009; Perkins 2006). This process has been occurring since the 1980s as a part of rural restructuring and has worked itself out differently across the globe where capital has accumulated and interacted with different local regulatory arrangements a production and consumption practices (Perkins, 2006). Some scholars have argued that we can now only speak of a global countryside comprising rural places made and commodified in unique local ways, but which are reliant on (and capitalise from) global capital flows, including international tourism, and the economic, social and political activities of an increasing complex network of local and global actors (Woods, 2007).