Leisure, making innovation a tradition – the role of leisure in a city's transformation: the case of Bilbao Roberto San (original) (raw)

Tourism and the city: Towards new models (English text)

Tourism is undergoing significant changes through globalisation and new information technology. Tourism experiences are now increasingly being co-produced by tourism companies, tourists and local residents. This has significant implications for cities such as Barcelona, where there has been an explosion of new tourism products through new intermediaries such as Airbnb. As a result tourism is penetrating further into the fabric of the city, and is also being produced by the residents of Barcelona themselves. Perhaps for this reason they complain less about the negative effects of tourism than might be expected.

" BARCELONA IN COMMON " : A NEW URBAN REGIME FOR THE 21 ST CENTURY TOURIST CITY

A coalition of leftist political groups, civic movements, and grassroots organizations led by social activist Ada Colau has won the Barcelona municipal elections of 2015, and is now governing the Catalan capital. The key to this success may well have been its critical positioning in relation to its tourism. Until recently considered a best practice in urban regeneration and a successful global destination, Barcelona has lived in the last two years a radical change in the public perception on tourism: from " manna from heaven " to serious issue which is affecting the quality of life of its citizens. This paper looks into the factors which may have determined this political change. These go from the growth of tourism beyond what could be considered a critical threshold for an urban system, to the development of a critical discourse on tourism by the new coalition – attributed to its peculiar constituency and working methods – and the role of the media in airing this discursive shift. The paper follows the thread of the " growth machine " theorizations and questions whether the increasing dimension of tourism in urban societies could be a driver for regime changes.

Leisure and innovation: exploring boundaries

World Leisure Journal

Innovation has been widely debated in various fields. However, except for leisure innovation in ageing and digital leisure, scant research has been done on the relationship between leisure and innovation. This article presents an overview of the field by mapping out the areas of innovation and leisure, suggesting also a taxonomy for innovations in leisure. Considering both supply and demand perspectives, a roadmap for future leisure and innovation research condensed into 10 priority areas is proposed.

Tourism-Led Change of the City Centre

Land, 2024

In multicentric and increasingly complex urban regions, a city centre reinvents itself. In the case of Porto, tourism was essential for its “Baixa” renaissance. A relevant increase in visitors meant also a dramatic increase in real estate prices and significant land-use change. In field interviews, retailers noticed a “new life” before COVID-19 arrived, remarking on the positive role of tourism on urban rehabilitation and the economic viability of companies, and the negative effects for residents and traditional shops, directed to the common resident. In this article, we present and discuss its main effects in this exceptional area in Portugal’s second city. We also discuss tourism dependency and the challenge of sustainability in a high-density context, defending public policies oriented for a “city with tourists” that replaces the current construction of a “city of tourists”.

Social innovation and creativity in cities: A socially inclusive governance approach in two peripheral spaces of Barcelona

City, Culture and Society, 2015

Culture and creativity make two contributions to sustainability in cities: (1) Economic impact, related to the economy and the marketing of the city, involving consumers, jobs, creative clusters, technology, mobility, infrastructures and (2) urban regeneration concerned with social cohesion, socially creative initiatives and local citizenship with sustainability objectives. We provide a critical appraisal of the first and concentrate on the second. The paper focuses on how collective actors are capable of creating new spaces for public debate and daily practices that reinforce community life and citizenship. In some cities creation of spaces for cultural creativity has been the result of 'bottom-linked' innovation. Two examples are examined in two peripheral districts of Barcelona. These are: Ateneu Popular de 9 Barris (AP9B) and Fabra i Coats. Both are currently managed by a hybrid partnership between public administration and civil society organizations. The 'bottom-linked' approach to social innovation recognizes the centrality of initiatives taken by those immediately concerned, and also stresses the need for institutions that enable and sustain such initiatives through sound, regulated and lasting practices and through clear citizen rights, guaranteed by the functioning of the democratic state (Pradel, García & Eizaguirre, 2013).

Palpable Cities: leisure in the contemporary urban geographies – a theoritecal discussion

2020

Right to the city Urban geography Human geography Neoliberal capitalism This paper argues the role of cities as scenarios where the economic, social, political, cultural, leisure, educational and also geographical inequality it is increasingly evident. It is intended to reflect about the close relationship of humans with the territory. In addition, we seek to discuss the importance of leisure as a builder of identity (individual and social), of belonging and a key factor in appropriations (through the leisure experiences, the routes and places that each individual has in their city) of the territory by its inhabitants.

Tourism as an Agent of Change: A Spanish Basque Case

Ethnology, 1972

Greenwood, Davydd J., 'Tourism as an Agent of Change: A Spanish Basque Case," Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. I I I, No. 3, JanuarylFebruary 1976, pp. 128-142-Beginning with a brief general discussion of mass tourism in historical and social scientific perspective, this article reviews the history and effects of international tourism in the Spanish Basque municipality of Fuenterrabia. Paying particular attention to the effects of tourism on the local people, the article details the process by which tourism first benefited them, only later to come to be controlled by outside developers who have captured most of the major economic rewards. It also discusses changes in local social stratification and political structure wrought by tourism development. The need for a systematic, broadly conceived appraisal of the costs and benefits of tourism as an agent of economic development is stressed.