Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RIGHTS UP (THE RIGHT TO THE CITY AND THE AMBIVALENCE OF TOURISM: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH TO MEDIA DISCOURSES AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS' DISSENT IN VENICE, AMSTERDAM AND BARCELONA)
Période du rapport: 2018-06-01 au 2020-05-31
Global mass tourism is a highly complex industry that contributes to both job and wealth creation in almost every nation around the world. The diversity of this global industry includes ‘big players’ (such as hotels chains and airlines), but also many locally-owned businesses. In recent years, many cities in Europe have experienced the emergence of a series of social movements critical of mass tourism, which have engaged in various protest acts in order to publicize the side-effects related to tourism as a global industry, which include: lack of affordable housing (linked to the popularity of tourist rentals), overcrowding, excessive waste and pollution, the ‘Disneyfication’ of the cities, the ‘disorderly’ behavior of tourists, and the deterioration of the environment. These social movements are also diverse, and while some activists advocated for a reform of the current management of tourism, other groups actively demand tourism degrowth. Moreover, many private stakeholders and local and national authorities are interested in boosting the tourism industry, but they are also aware of the many challenges associated to the tourism management. The RIGHTS UP project focused on the media debate surrounding the emergence of these social movements critical of mass tourism in three European city-cases: Venice (Italy), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Barcelona (Spain).
The overall objectives of the RIGHTS UP project are:
To contextualize the role and ambivalence of the tourism industry in post-industrial European cities vis-à-vis changes in the economic structure.
To understand how the externalities and benefits of the tourism industry are discussed in the local (European) and global public sphere, by following the narratives/discourses related to both the right to the city and the emergence of social movements critical of global mass tourism.
The specific objectives are:
• SO1. To identify and describe the discourses related to the social movements critical of global mass tourism published in local, national and international media (printed and online press) for the selected cities (Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam) contrasting the pro and against tourism narratives.
• SO2. To understand how social media networks (i.e. YouTube and Twitter) are used by local social movements to promote their causes (citizen journalism) and/or to challenge discourses/narratives about the anti-tourism protests and the city.
• SO3. To compare the discourses and narratives in local and international media (SO1) and the discourses and narratives created by the citizenship (SO2), by engaging in dialogue with a plurality of sources.
• SO4. To advance the impact of the urban protest by developing the concept of the right to the urban protest and by creating high-impact materials that contribute to both academic and non-academic audiences in their engagement with local policies and processes of governance (particularly in the European context).
The overall objectives of the RIGHTS UP project are:
To contextualize the role and ambivalence of the tourism industry in post-industrial European cities vis-à-vis changes in the economic structure.
To understand how the externalities and benefits of the tourism industry are discussed in the local (European) and global public sphere, by following the narratives/discourses related to both the right to the city and the emergence of social movements critical of global mass tourism.
The specific objectives are:
• SO1. To identify and describe the discourses related to the social movements critical of global mass tourism published in local, national and international media (printed and online press) for the selected cities (Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam) contrasting the pro and against tourism narratives.
• SO2. To understand how social media networks (i.e. YouTube and Twitter) are used by local social movements to promote their causes (citizen journalism) and/or to challenge discourses/narratives about the anti-tourism protests and the city.
• SO3. To compare the discourses and narratives in local and international media (SO1) and the discourses and narratives created by the citizenship (SO2), by engaging in dialogue with a plurality of sources.
• SO4. To advance the impact of the urban protest by developing the concept of the right to the urban protest and by creating high-impact materials that contribute to both academic and non-academic audiences in their engagement with local policies and processes of governance (particularly in the European context).
With the explicit objective of comparing the impact of the global mass tourism industry in these city-cases, and while tracking the public debate regarding the management of the tourism industry, this research is based on a qualitative analysis of:
• media texts (published in various newspapers around the world, printed and online);
• publications in social media (including YouTube and Twitter);
• participant-observation of protest acts;
• visual documentation of both the impacts of mass tourism and the protest and dissent acts orchestrated by local inhabitants;
• participation in community meetings;
• review of specialized reports created by corporations, NGOs, local goverments or international bodies such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO);
• interviews and informal conversations with activists, local authorities, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders of the global tourism industry.
Through the analysis of these varied discourses and narratives, the main results of the RIGHTS UP project are a better understanding of the motivations of local activists for engaging in protest act against global mass tourism, which seem to be mainly associated to two key subjects: the lack of affordable housing and the transformation of the economic tissue of the neighborhoods (for example, to fulfill the needs of visitors instead of the needs of the local inhabitants). The RIGHTS UP project also helps to demystify the idea that local authorities are mainly responsible for the ‘overtourism’ crisis, by pointing out the complex political and economic forces at play at the global scale. In this sense, there is a power struggle between major global corporations and national and local authorities that are unable to fully-manage tourism as an industry. This analysis also addresses the transformation and commodification of the city, which is re-framed as a ‘tourist destination’, as part of a broader discussion on the notion of the ‘right to the city’. Finally, the RIGHTS UP project also examines some of the strategies and policies set in place by local authorities in order to regulate the so-called ‘disorderly behavior’ of tourists, while bringing into question both the scope and limits of these campaigns, and theorizing about the impact that these measure have for the overall management of shared public spaces.
It is expected that these results will impact the discussion on both the management of tourism at the city and national level, while also contributing to deconstruct the stereotypes frequently associated with ‘protesters’. In this sense, the social movements engaging in criticism of the global tourism industry are highly diverse, they seem to have specialized in the issues affecting their communities, they actively produce information to counteract official narratives about both mass tourism and their protests acts, and they foster a diverse narrative about the city and its future (for example, the city as a lived space instead of as a commodity for profiting). These narratives contradicts common views about the protesters, oftentimes also promoted by local and national authorities, which depict them as ‘ignorant’ or 'radical'. The RIGHTS UP project calls into question media buzzwords such as 'overtourism' and 'tourism-phobia', and explains the political uses associated to these terms.
• media texts (published in various newspapers around the world, printed and online);
• publications in social media (including YouTube and Twitter);
• participant-observation of protest acts;
• visual documentation of both the impacts of mass tourism and the protest and dissent acts orchestrated by local inhabitants;
• participation in community meetings;
• review of specialized reports created by corporations, NGOs, local goverments or international bodies such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO);
• interviews and informal conversations with activists, local authorities, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders of the global tourism industry.
Through the analysis of these varied discourses and narratives, the main results of the RIGHTS UP project are a better understanding of the motivations of local activists for engaging in protest act against global mass tourism, which seem to be mainly associated to two key subjects: the lack of affordable housing and the transformation of the economic tissue of the neighborhoods (for example, to fulfill the needs of visitors instead of the needs of the local inhabitants). The RIGHTS UP project also helps to demystify the idea that local authorities are mainly responsible for the ‘overtourism’ crisis, by pointing out the complex political and economic forces at play at the global scale. In this sense, there is a power struggle between major global corporations and national and local authorities that are unable to fully-manage tourism as an industry. This analysis also addresses the transformation and commodification of the city, which is re-framed as a ‘tourist destination’, as part of a broader discussion on the notion of the ‘right to the city’. Finally, the RIGHTS UP project also examines some of the strategies and policies set in place by local authorities in order to regulate the so-called ‘disorderly behavior’ of tourists, while bringing into question both the scope and limits of these campaigns, and theorizing about the impact that these measure have for the overall management of shared public spaces.
It is expected that these results will impact the discussion on both the management of tourism at the city and national level, while also contributing to deconstruct the stereotypes frequently associated with ‘protesters’. In this sense, the social movements engaging in criticism of the global tourism industry are highly diverse, they seem to have specialized in the issues affecting their communities, they actively produce information to counteract official narratives about both mass tourism and their protests acts, and they foster a diverse narrative about the city and its future (for example, the city as a lived space instead of as a commodity for profiting). These narratives contradicts common views about the protesters, oftentimes also promoted by local and national authorities, which depict them as ‘ignorant’ or 'radical'. The RIGHTS UP project calls into question media buzzwords such as 'overtourism' and 'tourism-phobia', and explains the political uses associated to these terms.
The RIGHTS UP project has contributed to the current state of the art by highlighting the systemic nature of various negative effects of the global mass tourism industry, by exposing the intertwinement between many of these ‘externalities’. Indeed, a major finding of the RIGHTS UP project, which is directly attributable to its comparative approach, is the identification of these interconnections between ‘separate issues’, which are not exclusive on a single ‘tourist destination’. The findings of the RIGHTS UP project are expected to impact not only the cities included in this research, but also other European cities currently dealing with mass tourism, such as Dubrovnik in Croatia or Lisbon in Portugal. By fostering a better understanding of the increasing discontentment regarding global mass tourism, the RIGHTS UP project aims at promoting a more responsible and sustainable form of tourism, one which not only protects the needs of the local population, but that also secures the invaluable contributions that tourism creates at the local and national level, both as an industry and as a social force.