From indigenous villages to World Heritage Sites: Structural violence in spatial transformation

Once indigenous villages are designated as World Heritage Sites, they no longer belong exclusively to local residents. The political, cultural, and tourism-related values of these sites are overemphasized, often undermining the subjectivity of local residents. This transformation in spatial attributes of the villages constitutes “structural violence” against local communities. Existing literature still lacks direct research attention on this issue. This study uses the Fujian Tulou villages in China as case sites, employing a “material-social-cultural” three-dimensional framework to summarize three forms of structural violence: resource deprivation, imbalanced interest structure, and discourse erosion, rooted in spatial transformation, and further explores their underlying causes. The findings deepen insight into the tensions between World Heritage practices, tourism, and sustainable community development.