The prepandemic unbridled growth of tourism has triggered a significant debate regarding the futu... more The prepandemic unbridled growth of tourism has triggered a significant debate regarding the future of cities; several authors suggest that neighbourhood change produced by tourism should be conceived as a form of gentrification. Yet research on population shifts—a fundamental dimension of gentrification—in such neighbourhoods is scarce. Our exploration of the Gòtic area in Barcelona, using quantitative and qualitative techniques, reveals a process of population restructuring characterised by a decrease of long‐term residents and inhabited dwellings, and the arrival of young and transnational gentrifiers that are increasingly mobile and form a transient population. We then use some insights from the mobilities literature to make sense of these results. In the gentrification of the Gòtic, the attractiveness of the area for visitors and for a wider palette of transnational dwellers feeds one another, resulting in an uneven negotiation whereby more wealthy and ‘footloose’ individuals g...
Scripta Nova Revista Electronica De Geografia Y Ciencias Sociales, 2014
Durante la ultima decada, el intercambio de casa ha ido imponiendose para un numero creciente de ... more Durante la ultima decada, el intercambio de casa ha ido imponiendose para un numero creciente de viajeros como una alternativa atractiva a la oferta comercial de alojamiento. Se trata de un nuevo concepto de hospitalidad que se puede enmarcar adentro del paradigma emergente del “consumo colaborativo”, impulsado por la evolucion hacia la interoperabilidad de la Web 2.0 y la proliferacion de redes sociales en linea. A la vez reflejo de un cambio social y enfrentamiento de estructuras consolidadas de poder y agentes, este fenomeno puede contribuir a enriquecer el debate academico sobre las movilidades, y en particular sobre el turismo como forma de movilizacion de lugares a traves del caracter transitorio de sus vivencias, y de la negociacion de diferentes poblaciones. En este articulo se realiza una aproximacion conceptual y analitica a este modelo desde el punto de vista geografico, enfocada hacia la estructura singular del “mercado” de intercambios de casa y su articulacion espacial, tanto a nivel de patrones de movilidad origen-destino como a nivel de actividad turistica en el destino. El analisis se funda en datos obtenidos a traves de dos encuestas en linea, una de caracter cuantitativo y otra de caracter cualitativo, entre los miembros de una de las principales comunidades web de intercambios de casas. Los resultados, aunque preliminares, permiten corroborar que se trata de un fenomeno caracterizado por una logica espacial distinta de la del turismo convencional, lo cual impone vincular nuevas lineas investigacion en geografia del turismo con la comprension y el estudio de los cambios sociales y culturales que caracterizan la nueva generacion de “viajeros 2.0”
Building on work funded by the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network 2013 Program, the ar... more Building on work funded by the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network 2013 Program, the article analyzes the regional development of the “creative workforce” among its active population against regional economic growth measured by changes in per capita gross domestic product over the period 2001 to 2008. The analysis establishes regional typologies in this relationship according to the “sense” and evolution of this association, allowing a critical evaluation of processes and policies that may explain the large degree of spatial variation encountered, and addresses the issue of causal relationships between these two dimensions, suggesting the need to rethink development policies based on “creative capital.”
Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 2015
ABSTRACT The cartographic identification and characterization of urban settlements is problematic... more ABSTRACT The cartographic identification and characterization of urban settlements is problematic, particularly in varied areas or in large geographical extensions. This is due to the divergence between morphological area structures and data attribution, which is generally available at the level of administrative units. Most existing experiences focus on small regions or use indirect data, from which only indirect information can be derived. This paper proposes an identification of urban settlements in the European Union space, which combines urban population and shape through geographic information system (GIS) techniques. For that purpose, 1 km2 cells with associated population data are used. A procedure is developed establishing three different types of urban settlements, according to population and population density values: high-density urban clusters, small and medium-sized towns, and very small towns. A validation of this procedure is performed using direct survey from local experts in 10 selected study areas. The final results show that 78,307 urban settlements can be identified: 88.17% of them are classified as “very small towns,” 10.75% as “small and medium-sized towns,” and 1.08% as high-density urban clusters. This exercise generates new information for the European Union and surrounding countries, and yields the basis for further research. All GIS operations are performed using vector layers, which is not usual in large-area regional studies.
Geospatial information is commonly used in tourism to facilitate activity planning, especially in... more Geospatial information is commonly used in tourism to facilitate activity planning, especially in a context of limited information on the territory, as it is common in the case of complex and heterogeneous tourism destination regions where the constrained spatial activity of visitor is likely to generate inefficiencies in the use of assets and resources, and hinder visitor satisfaction. Because of the large amount of spatial and non-spatial data associated with different resources and activities, it is a logical choice to use geographic information systems (GIS) for storing, managing, analyzing, and visualizing the data. Nevertheless, in order to facilitate personalized recommendations to visitors, interaction with Artificial Intelligence is needed. This chapter presents SigTur/E-Destination, a tourism recommender system based on a semantically-enriched GIS that provides regional tourist organizations and the industry with a new powerful tool for the sustainable management of their ...
The Attractiveness of European regions and cities for residents and visitors-Scientific Report, 2012
The concept of attractiveness refers to how a place is perceived and what types of assets it has ... more The concept of attractiveness refers to how a place is perceived and what types of assets it has to offer to (different types of) residents and visitors. The growing importance of these issues has coincided with an increasing emphasis on spatial issues, in particular concerning European development policy. Over the last two decades, an emerging message in the EU policy debate has been that territory matters (ESPON, 2006b). Yet the extent to which this has actually been absorbed into and structured sectorial policies is debatable.
This paper develops an analytic framework for the ESPON 1.3.3 project “The Role and Spatial Effec... more This paper develops an analytic framework for the ESPON 1.3.3 project “The Role and Spatial Effects of Cultural Heritage and Identity”, started in December 2004 by a network of 12 European Universities under the leadership of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The conceptual framework of this project lies on the assumption that the cultural heritage of Europe is not just
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a critical framework to analyse how “smart” pla... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a critical framework to analyse how “smart” plays out in tourism places. Moving from a recognition of the strategies, expected impacts and imageries of Smart City, the authors engage with the mobilities literature to identify pitfalls in the quest of “smartening up” cities for hypermobile populations. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a set of geoanalytical techniques to establish the potential relationship between the territorial upgrade of mobility and the socio-economic change processes the city of Barcelona is experiencing. Findings The paper suggests the effect of “smart” in cities could indeed be one of economic recovery; however, one triggering fundamental transformation of the social fabric of the city, whose most evident facet is the creation of globalised functional enclaves that may be forcefields of exclusion for the most vulnerable populations. Originality/value This paper contributes to a new stream of criti...
Barcelona, one of the main destinations for Airbnb users, has turned into one of the main stages ... more Barcelona, one of the main destinations for Airbnb users, has turned into one of the main stages for the now global debate around short-term rentals and their impacts on resident communities. Criticism has mostly focused on the conversion of housing into conventional tourist apartments while less attention has been paid to the problematization of short-term rentals in primary residences. Important questions thus arise as to whether these allegedly genuine forms of home-sharing should be ‘formalised’ at all through a regulation, and which type of controls should be applied. Our research helps to excavate this issue, shedding further light on the different logics and practices behind the development of home-sharing, and discusses the limitations of a regulation which is being introduced. To this end, it offers an in-depth analysis of the home-sharing supply in Barcelona, tackling its social and spatial logics, which is framed in the broader debate on processes of social change affecting inner cities. It then focuses on el Raval, one of Barcelona's core neighbourhoods where home-sharing practices have become more diffused, revealing how these practices are strongly correlated with high residential mobility and the presence of a single-dweller childless European resident population. Finally, we argue that home-sharing becomes an equally problematic agency of conversion of housing into a mooring for mobile communities, further contributing to potential gentrification and the displacement of residents.
The paper considers a specific type of cultural district, evolving within an art city where the v... more The paper considers a specific type of cultural district, evolving within an art city where the value of cultural heritage and a wide attraction for tourist appear the main features. Such a model faces a growing paradox, since users tend to overexploit cultural resources, while local stakeholders are interested in the sustainability of their protection and promotion. The dilemma is then between attraction on one hand, and genuine cultural values on the other. The experience of many Italian art cities, discussed in the paper through the example of Venice, induces to ask for a new model of governance able to widen the area of financial transfers between the cultural and the tourist sectors. The paper elaborates a series of guidelines for the transformation of Venice into a city of cultural events.
The prepandemic unbridled growth of tourism has triggered a significant debate regarding the futu... more The prepandemic unbridled growth of tourism has triggered a significant debate regarding the future of cities; several authors suggest that neighbourhood change produced by tourism should be conceived as a form of gentrification. Yet research on population shifts—a fundamental dimension of gentrification—in such neighbourhoods is scarce. Our exploration of the Gòtic area in Barcelona, using quantitative and qualitative techniques, reveals a process of population restructuring characterised by a decrease of long‐term residents and inhabited dwellings, and the arrival of young and transnational gentrifiers that are increasingly mobile and form a transient population. We then use some insights from the mobilities literature to make sense of these results. In the gentrification of the Gòtic, the attractiveness of the area for visitors and for a wider palette of transnational dwellers feeds one another, resulting in an uneven negotiation whereby more wealthy and ‘footloose’ individuals g...
Scripta Nova Revista Electronica De Geografia Y Ciencias Sociales, 2014
Durante la ultima decada, el intercambio de casa ha ido imponiendose para un numero creciente de ... more Durante la ultima decada, el intercambio de casa ha ido imponiendose para un numero creciente de viajeros como una alternativa atractiva a la oferta comercial de alojamiento. Se trata de un nuevo concepto de hospitalidad que se puede enmarcar adentro del paradigma emergente del “consumo colaborativo”, impulsado por la evolucion hacia la interoperabilidad de la Web 2.0 y la proliferacion de redes sociales en linea. A la vez reflejo de un cambio social y enfrentamiento de estructuras consolidadas de poder y agentes, este fenomeno puede contribuir a enriquecer el debate academico sobre las movilidades, y en particular sobre el turismo como forma de movilizacion de lugares a traves del caracter transitorio de sus vivencias, y de la negociacion de diferentes poblaciones. En este articulo se realiza una aproximacion conceptual y analitica a este modelo desde el punto de vista geografico, enfocada hacia la estructura singular del “mercado” de intercambios de casa y su articulacion espacial, tanto a nivel de patrones de movilidad origen-destino como a nivel de actividad turistica en el destino. El analisis se funda en datos obtenidos a traves de dos encuestas en linea, una de caracter cuantitativo y otra de caracter cualitativo, entre los miembros de una de las principales comunidades web de intercambios de casas. Los resultados, aunque preliminares, permiten corroborar que se trata de un fenomeno caracterizado por una logica espacial distinta de la del turismo convencional, lo cual impone vincular nuevas lineas investigacion en geografia del turismo con la comprension y el estudio de los cambios sociales y culturales que caracterizan la nueva generacion de “viajeros 2.0”
Building on work funded by the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network 2013 Program, the ar... more Building on work funded by the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network 2013 Program, the article analyzes the regional development of the “creative workforce” among its active population against regional economic growth measured by changes in per capita gross domestic product over the period 2001 to 2008. The analysis establishes regional typologies in this relationship according to the “sense” and evolution of this association, allowing a critical evaluation of processes and policies that may explain the large degree of spatial variation encountered, and addresses the issue of causal relationships between these two dimensions, suggesting the need to rethink development policies based on “creative capital.”
Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 2015
ABSTRACT The cartographic identification and characterization of urban settlements is problematic... more ABSTRACT The cartographic identification and characterization of urban settlements is problematic, particularly in varied areas or in large geographical extensions. This is due to the divergence between morphological area structures and data attribution, which is generally available at the level of administrative units. Most existing experiences focus on small regions or use indirect data, from which only indirect information can be derived. This paper proposes an identification of urban settlements in the European Union space, which combines urban population and shape through geographic information system (GIS) techniques. For that purpose, 1 km2 cells with associated population data are used. A procedure is developed establishing three different types of urban settlements, according to population and population density values: high-density urban clusters, small and medium-sized towns, and very small towns. A validation of this procedure is performed using direct survey from local experts in 10 selected study areas. The final results show that 78,307 urban settlements can be identified: 88.17% of them are classified as “very small towns,” 10.75% as “small and medium-sized towns,” and 1.08% as high-density urban clusters. This exercise generates new information for the European Union and surrounding countries, and yields the basis for further research. All GIS operations are performed using vector layers, which is not usual in large-area regional studies.
Geospatial information is commonly used in tourism to facilitate activity planning, especially in... more Geospatial information is commonly used in tourism to facilitate activity planning, especially in a context of limited information on the territory, as it is common in the case of complex and heterogeneous tourism destination regions where the constrained spatial activity of visitor is likely to generate inefficiencies in the use of assets and resources, and hinder visitor satisfaction. Because of the large amount of spatial and non-spatial data associated with different resources and activities, it is a logical choice to use geographic information systems (GIS) for storing, managing, analyzing, and visualizing the data. Nevertheless, in order to facilitate personalized recommendations to visitors, interaction with Artificial Intelligence is needed. This chapter presents SigTur/E-Destination, a tourism recommender system based on a semantically-enriched GIS that provides regional tourist organizations and the industry with a new powerful tool for the sustainable management of their ...
The Attractiveness of European regions and cities for residents and visitors-Scientific Report, 2012
The concept of attractiveness refers to how a place is perceived and what types of assets it has ... more The concept of attractiveness refers to how a place is perceived and what types of assets it has to offer to (different types of) residents and visitors. The growing importance of these issues has coincided with an increasing emphasis on spatial issues, in particular concerning European development policy. Over the last two decades, an emerging message in the EU policy debate has been that territory matters (ESPON, 2006b). Yet the extent to which this has actually been absorbed into and structured sectorial policies is debatable.
This paper develops an analytic framework for the ESPON 1.3.3 project “The Role and Spatial Effec... more This paper develops an analytic framework for the ESPON 1.3.3 project “The Role and Spatial Effects of Cultural Heritage and Identity”, started in December 2004 by a network of 12 European Universities under the leadership of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The conceptual framework of this project lies on the assumption that the cultural heritage of Europe is not just
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a critical framework to analyse how “smart” pla... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a critical framework to analyse how “smart” plays out in tourism places. Moving from a recognition of the strategies, expected impacts and imageries of Smart City, the authors engage with the mobilities literature to identify pitfalls in the quest of “smartening up” cities for hypermobile populations. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a set of geoanalytical techniques to establish the potential relationship between the territorial upgrade of mobility and the socio-economic change processes the city of Barcelona is experiencing. Findings The paper suggests the effect of “smart” in cities could indeed be one of economic recovery; however, one triggering fundamental transformation of the social fabric of the city, whose most evident facet is the creation of globalised functional enclaves that may be forcefields of exclusion for the most vulnerable populations. Originality/value This paper contributes to a new stream of criti...
Barcelona, one of the main destinations for Airbnb users, has turned into one of the main stages ... more Barcelona, one of the main destinations for Airbnb users, has turned into one of the main stages for the now global debate around short-term rentals and their impacts on resident communities. Criticism has mostly focused on the conversion of housing into conventional tourist apartments while less attention has been paid to the problematization of short-term rentals in primary residences. Important questions thus arise as to whether these allegedly genuine forms of home-sharing should be ‘formalised’ at all through a regulation, and which type of controls should be applied. Our research helps to excavate this issue, shedding further light on the different logics and practices behind the development of home-sharing, and discusses the limitations of a regulation which is being introduced. To this end, it offers an in-depth analysis of the home-sharing supply in Barcelona, tackling its social and spatial logics, which is framed in the broader debate on processes of social change affecting inner cities. It then focuses on el Raval, one of Barcelona's core neighbourhoods where home-sharing practices have become more diffused, revealing how these practices are strongly correlated with high residential mobility and the presence of a single-dweller childless European resident population. Finally, we argue that home-sharing becomes an equally problematic agency of conversion of housing into a mooring for mobile communities, further contributing to potential gentrification and the displacement of residents.
The paper considers a specific type of cultural district, evolving within an art city where the v... more The paper considers a specific type of cultural district, evolving within an art city where the value of cultural heritage and a wide attraction for tourist appear the main features. Such a model faces a growing paradox, since users tend to overexploit cultural resources, while local stakeholders are interested in the sustainability of their protection and promotion. The dilemma is then between attraction on one hand, and genuine cultural values on the other. The experience of many Italian art cities, discussed in the paper through the example of Venice, induces to ask for a new model of governance able to widen the area of financial transfers between the cultural and the tourist sectors. The paper elaborates a series of guidelines for the transformation of Venice into a city of cultural events.
A coalition of leftfield political groups, civic movements, and grassroots organizations led by s... more A coalition of leftfield political groups, civic movements, and grassroots organizations led by social activist Ada Colau has won the Barcelona municipal elections of 2015, and, though with a minority of seats, is now governing the Catalan capital. Commentators believe that the key issue that determined this success has been the positioning of this coalition in relation to city tourism. Until only recently considered a best practice in urban regeneration and successful transition from industrial city into a global tourism capital, 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 compromising the quality of life of its citizens. This paper looks into the factors which may have determined this shift and the associated success of the Barcelona en Comú candidature. These go from the objective growth of tourism beyond what could be considered a 'social-economic carrying capacity' threshold for an urban system, to the affirmation of a critical discourse on tourism. This new discourse marks a radical turn over previous 'boosterist' policy approaches and situates tourism at the core of the debate on progressive urbanism: the state of health of cities in the age of mobilities, the reclamation of the right to the city and public goods, and the role of redistributive institutions face to the global pressure of capital. It then follows the steps of the 'Barcelona in Common' candidature and identifies its communicative and participatory strategy as the main factors behind this turn.
A coalition of leftfield political groups, civic movements, and grassroots organizations led by s... more A coalition of leftfield political groups, civic movements, and grassroots organizations led by social activist Ada Colau has won the Barcelona municipal elections of 2015, and, though with a minority of seats, is now governing the Catalan capital. Commentators believe that the key issue that determined this success has been the positioning of this coalition in relation to city tourism. Until only recently considered a best practice in urban regeneration and successful transition from industrial city into a global tourism capital, 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 compromising the quality of life of its citizens. This paper looks into the factors which may have determined this shift and the associated success of the Barcelona en Comú candidature. These go from the objective growth of tourism beyond what could be considered a 'social‐economic carrying capacity' threshold for an urban system, to the affirmation of a critical discourse on tourism. This new discourse marks a radical turn over previous 'boosterist' policy approaches and situates tourism at the core of the debate on progressive urbanism: the state of health of cities in the age of mobilities, the reclamation of the right to the city and public goods, and the role of redistributive institutions face to the global pressure of capital. It then follows the steps of the 'Barcelona in Common' candidature and identifies its communicative and participatory strategy as the main factors behind this turn.
A coalition of leftfield political groups, civic movements, and grassroots organizations led by s... more A coalition of leftfield political groups, civic movements, and grassroots organizations led by social activist Ada Colau has won the Barcelona municipal elections of 2015, and, though with a minority of seats, is now governing the Catalan capital. Commentators believe that the key issue that determined this success has been the positioning of this coalition in relation to city tourism. Until only recently considered a best practice in urban regeneration and successful transition from industrial city into a global tourism capital, 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 compromising the quality of life of its citizens. This paper looks into the factors which may have determined this shift and the associated success of the Barcelona en Comú candidature. These go from the objective growth of tourism beyond what could be considered a 'social‐economic carrying capacity' threshold for an urban system, to the affirmation of a critical discourse on tourism. This new discourse marks a radical turn over previous 'boosterist' policy approaches and situates tourism at the core of the debate on progressive urbanism: the state of health of cities in the age of mobilities, the reclamation of the right to the city and public goods, and the role of redistributive institutions face to the global pressure of capital. It then follows the steps of the 'Barcelona in Common' candidature and identifies its communicative and participatory strategy as the main factors behind this turn.
This paper's ambition is to explore how the material, social and symbolic legacy of conflicts tha... more This paper's ambition is to explore how the material, social and symbolic legacy of conflicts that have taken place since the turn of the 20th century may be made more resonant and comprehensible to visitors. We take the Spanish Civil War sites in Catalonia as emblematic of the issues and entrenchments which to date hinder their full potential as sites of reconciliation, awareness and identity-shaping for Europeans. After analysing their current situation and embedding in place strategies, which is remarkably different – one in a peripheral mountain location and one in the very core of Barcelona's touristscape –, our research examines the way in which historical memory is constructed, narrated and practiced in those spaces, underlining unsolved issues and contradictions. In retrospect, this research contributes to the critique of the very concept of historical memory, its patrimonialisation and the modes of social construction of heritage in the 'age of mobilities'.
Urban regimes rely critically on consensus and the normative power of discourse. Tourism is no ex... more Urban regimes rely critically on consensus and the normative power of discourse. Tourism is no exception: the development and transformation of contemporary destinations must be understood in relation to discourses of competitiveness, economic buoyancy, and community pride which became hegemonic in society throughout the 20th century. Yet we are facing a new stage in which pro-tourism discourses face increasing contestation by wider sectors of the society. Critical analysis excavating the nexus between discourse, urban regimes and policy developments in the field of tourism is poorly represented in the literature, and especially so when it comes to analyse shifts in social perception of tourism. The City of Barcelona offers an exceptional context in this respect. Our paper deploys a sociosemiotics approach to reveal how discourses on tourism have been given salience by the media during the last four municipal electoral periods in the Catalan capital. The positioning of different urban actors around them, and the way in which certain political forces have aligned to shifting sensibilities, allow unpacking the furthering and eventually the breakdown of a pro-tourism development regime. In more general terms this may hint at 'overtourism' as bringing forward political change in cities.
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Papers by Antonio Paolo Russo