In order to study the consequences of governmental sustainable
tourism initiatives for place-specific social dynamics, the social
construction of local populations becomes a central research issue.
Ingram et al. (2007) proposed the term ‘social construction of
problems and issues’ as a tool to analyse how a set of actors in
specific situations and at specific times, ascribe meaning to phenomena.
In our case, this entails the study of how priorities defined
by the Pueblos Magicos program are reflected in complex interaction
processes and translated into action. The social construction
approach acknowledges that public policies are instructive goals
and means to be implemented by the local administration
(Schwandt, 1994; Berger and Luckmann, 1967)