Relasi Kuasa dan Eksklusi Ruang dalam Pembangunan Pariwisata Eksklusif di Labuan Bajo: Perspektif Michel Foucault

Abstract

Exclusive tourism development in Labuan Bajo is part of the government’s strategy to enhance tourism competitiveness, attract investment, and promote economic growth. However, this development also generates various problems related to local communities’ access to space, resources, livelihoods, and the distribution of economic benefits. This study aims to analyze power relations and spatial exclusion in tourism development in Labuan Bajo from Michel Foucault’s perspective. The study employs a qualitative approach using a literature review method. Data were obtained from books, journal articles, research findings, reports, and other relevant sources. The data were analyzed using Foucault’s concepts of power relations, power/knowledge, discourse, governmentality, and resistance. The findings indicate that tourism development in Labuan Bajo does not only produce economic and physical transformations, but also produces and regulates space through power relations. These relations operate through development discourse, regulations, conservation policies, investment practices, and tourism industry standards. Such mechanisms have the potential to limit local communities’ access to space and resources and to reinforce inequalities in the distribution of development benefits. Therefore, tourism development in Labuan Bajo can be understood not merely as an economic development process, but also as a process involving power, spatial control, and social relations that influence the position of local communities.