‘Dwelling’ with ecotourism in the Peruvian Amazon Cultural relationships in local–global spaces Tazim Jamal and Amanda Stronza Texas A&M University, USA abstract This article argues for a perspective to ecotourism development that is not determined solely by academics, capitalistic markets, conservationists or NGOs, but also by locally defined and culturally embedded relations and meanings. We start with a theoretical critique of ecotourism development and conservation at the intersection of the macro-global and micro-local levels. Insights from the existential philosopher, Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) help identify spaces and relationships in natural area destinations that illustrate the paradox of ecological modernization. A longitudinal case study of a community-based ecotourism initiative in the Peruvian Amazon is used to illustrate our argument. Local residents work in partnership with a private tour company to market and operate the lodge, but negotiations go beyond splitting profits or commodifying resources. Members engage in and resist tourism-related changes in multiple ways. Heidegger’s notions of dwelling and care (concern: Sorghe) introduces a way of understanding such performative ecotourism spaces. keywords care (concern: sorghe) dwelling; ecotourism development; Heidegger; human–environmental relationships; Peruvian Amazon; social-cultural sustainability Contesting the received view of ecotourism This article builds on previous critique of the commodified frameworks and development paradigms that currently guide ecotourism and sustainable tourism (Wearing and Ponting, 2005). Sustainable tourism and ecotourism are both rooted in notions of individual, societal and environmental well-being despite their different origins. Sustainable tourism is related closely to the notion of sustainable development as laid out by WCED (1987), where ‘balancing’ tourist studies © 2009 sage publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC vol 8(3) 313-335 DOI: 10.1177/ 1468797608100593 www.sagepublications.com article 313 ts