The Contentious Politics Of Touristification In Southern Europe

In recent years, touristification has become a central site of social conflict across Southern Europe: in a wide range of cities and tourist destinations in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, and Cyprus, residents and activists, through neighborhood associations and unions, have increasingly voiced their opposition to tourism-led transformations of urban and rural spaces. Their protest campaigns have targeted various developments, ranging from the spreading of platform-based short-term renting to specific forms of tourism reserved for Israeli soldiers. To oppose this, they have engaged in a variety of practices such as demonstrations, symbolic actions, legal challenges, and everyday forms of resistance. And, parallelly, they have confronted powerful narratives that frame tourism as inevitable or economically necessary by putting forward counter-narratives that denounce its unequal social costs and benefits.

This workshop offers a space for collective discussion of ongoing research on diverse protest campaigns against touristification and the forms they take across Southern Europe. We plan to have presentations of 20 minutes, discussed in a roundtable format, bringing together contributors and the audience. 

The workshop has 4 main objectives: First, to understand the various ways in which touristification has become a political and social field of contention across Southern Europe, building on existing and ongoing research, and addressing both urban and insular territories. Second, to further advance a social movement perspective on mobilizations against touristification and foster interdisciplinary dialogue with related fields such as urban studies, political ecology, and tourism studies. Third, to encourage a comparative analysis of the forms of mobilization and their effects across different cases, assessing similarities and differences, as well as the usefulness of Southern Europe as a comparative frame. Finally, the workshop aims to foster critical discussion on the broader political, social, and symbolic implications of touristification and the conflicts it produces.

09:30
Donatella Della Porta | SNS
The contentious politics of tourism: an introduction

PANEL 1: Anti-touristification and housing struggles in Southern European cities and islands: Comparative perspectives

10:00-10:20
Donatella della Porta & Carla Mannino | SNS
Protests against touristification in Florence and Palermo

10:20-10:40
Lorenzo Velotti | SNS
Protests against touristification in Naples and Barcelona

10:40-11:00
Gomer Betancor & Pau Orihuela | National University of Distance Learning
Beyond Touristification: the 20-A Mobilisation and the Contestation of the Tourism Model in the Canary Islands

11:00-11:20 
BREAK

11:20-11:40 
Guya Accornero | Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon, Agustin Cocola-Gant | Universitat Rovira i Virgili & Claudio Milano | University of Barcelona
Who Has the Right to the Tourist City? Counter-Narratives and Urban Mobilisations in Barcelona and Lisbon

11:40-12:00
Iacopo Zetti | DiDA 
Effects of touristification on urban spaces and planning

12:00-13:00 
Q&A + roundtable

13:00-14:30
LUNCH BREAK

PANEL 2: Opposition to Israeli investments in tourism across Southern European islands

14:30-14:50
Hara Kouki | University of Crete and Haris Malamidis | University of Athens
Mobilizations against genocidal tourism in Greece

14:50-15:10
Leandros Fischer | American University of Beirut and Ianthi Papadema | University of Cyprus
Real-estate-ification - The contentious (geo-)politics of Israeli real estate purchases in the Republic of Cyprus

15:10-15:30
Giada Bonu Rosenkranz | SNS
Protesting Israeli Soldiers in Sardinia: the Gender and Colonial Nexus

15:30-15:50
BREAK

15:50-17:00
Q&A + roundtable

17:00-18:00
Conclusion and Next Steps

Image: Nicolas Vigier, Murals in València - Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication