ABSTRACT
The following case study1 from a small rural setting, Gassin in Southern France, is an example of how development discourses concerning tourism may provoke social battles and positioning in a setting which at first sight would appear as yet another case of social decomposition and rural crisis. The example is taken from a small locality in which the population in many ways balances between a rural past and a modern future involved with tourism. By approaching the concept development with great care, and with respect for its complexity in an equally complex social context, I would thus like to point to some surprising social effects that tourism may have. I hope this example will clarify some of the risks of conceptual oversimplification which we face when dealing with local development, and in particular when we try to shed light on power-relations and oppositions characteristic of such situations.
