Las manos sobre la ciudad. Reestructuración turística de centros urbanos en el último ciclo de valorización: gentrificación, turistificación y desplazamiento productivo en el caso de Sevilla

• Autores: Maria Barrero Rescalvo
• Directores de la Tesis: Ibán Díaz Parra (dir. tes.), Luz Fernández-Valderrama Aparicio (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad de Sevilla ( España ) en 2024
• Idioma: español
• Número de páginas: 474
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Hands over the city. Downtown tourism restructuring in the latest valorization cycle: gentrification, touristification and productive displacement in the case of Seville
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: Idus
• Resumen
  • español

    El turismo es hoy una fuerza clave que reconfigura ciudades y territorios de todo el mundo. Su boom en la última década ha implicado el desarrollo y expansión de esta actividad sobre espacios que no fueron concebidos para ello, generando distintos tipos de conflicto. La relación entre el turismo y el desarrollo urbano en las urbes del sur de Europa ha sido excepcional, determinando la planificación y las políticas públicas hasta constituir un importante reto para la gobernanza urbana. Un factor decisivo para la escala e intensidad de estos cambios sociales, políticos y económicos ha sido la emergencia del denominado capitalismo de plataformas, especialmente la expansión del alquiler temporal de uso turístico, que ha desencadenado un intenso debate sobre el futuro de las ciudades que trasciende con creces el ámbito académico. Esta tesis aborda, a través de un conjunto de publicaciones, la reestructuración espacial del centro histórico de la ciudad de Sevilla como relanzamiento neoliberal de un nuevo periodo de acumulación urbana. Desde la perspectiva de los estudios urbanos críticos, la presente investigación se centra en el análisis de los procesos de turistificación, gentrificación y desplazamiento residencial y productivo, desarrollados en el ciclo de valorización que cubre la recuperación inmobiliaria de la crisis económica y la irrupción de la pandemia del covid-19 (2015-2020). La tesis se basa en los fundamentos macro y microestructurales que explican procesos socioespaciales ya clásicos, pero, sobre todo, proporciona un marco para comprender cómo y por qué estos procesos están sucediendo ahora y cuáles son sus nuevas características y consecuencias. Para ello, se profundiza en las tendencias históricas, en los agentes de producción (públicos y privados) y en cuestiones a veces escurridizas como la responsabilidad pública, el poder o la ideología. También coloca en primer plano problemas o preocupaciones que no suelen estar en la agenda académica y mediática de los estudios urbanos, como la apropiación de la renta, el rol de la clase obrera o el desplazamiento, pero que son fundamentales para comprender las dinámicas recientes.

  • English

    Today, tourism is a key force that reconfigures cities and territories worldwide. Its boom in the last decade has implied the development and expansion of this activity in spaces that were not conceived for it, generating different types of conflict. The relationship between tourism and urban development in southern European cities has been exceptional, determining planning and public policies to the point of constituting a significant challenge for urban governance. A decisive factor for the scale and intensity of these social, political, and economic changes has been the emergence of so-called platform capitalism, especially the expansion of short-term rentals for tourist use, which has triggered an intense debate on the future of cities that goes far beyond academia. This thesis addresses, through a set of publications, the spatial restructuring of central areas in southern European cities as a neoliberal relaunching of a new period of urban accumulation. From the perspective of critical urban studies, the present research focuses on the analysis of the processes of touristification, gentrification, and residential and productive displacement, developed in the valorization cycle covering the real estate recovery from the economic crisis and the irruption of the covid-19 pandemic (2015-2020). The thesis builds on the macro and micro-structural foundations that explain already classical socio-spatial processes, but, above all, it provides a framework for understanding how and why these processes are happening now and what are their new characteristics and consequences. To this end, it delves into historical trends, agents of production (public and private), and sometimes elusive issues such as public responsibility, power, or ideology. It also brings up issues or concerns not usually on the academic and media agenda of urban studies, such as rent appropriation, the role of the working class, or displacement, but are fundamental to understanding recent dynamics. All this is addressed through the study of the city of Seville, a paradigmatic case because of its frenetic growth in tourist accommodation supply and visitor numbers, which broke its records to exceed three million tourists for the first time in 2018. Hospitality activity concentrates on its historic district, the area studied, focusing on traditionally non-tourist neighborhoods that had already undergone, to a lesser or greater degree, urban renovation and social promotion processes, such as San Luis, San Gil, and San Julián. It also analyzes the recent trajectory of enclaves with relevant urban, historical, and socio-cultural values (recognized in the city's planning and strategic instruments), like the still active manufacturers’ workplaces called ‘corralones’. The research explores their vulnerable and contradictory material and urban situation, which contrasts with the lived experiences of residents and manual workers, both active and displaced. The methodological approach is qualitative, combining semi-structured in-depth interviews with complementary sources of diverse origins to address a multifaceted process of change involving actors at different scales. These processes are explored by relating them to the notion of landscape—understood as a socially produced, perceived, and shaped space—to investigate transformations in the physical, social, symbolic, and emotional arenas. Its integrating capacity allows for a relational analysis of social and temporal variables, urban functions, and environmental aspects to unravel the contradictions that arise with the advance of touristification. It also proposes a long-term perspective to reconstruct connections between causes and effects that are sufficiently separated in time so as not to seem so but that determine the life histories of the affected groups. Although this level of socio-spatial polarization and the current tourism figures may seem a logical consequence, it is instead a strategy carried out by the State and the economic powers throughout the last century. The dissertation concludes that the main urban transformations carried out after the recovery from the economic crisis have been subordinated to the expansion of tourist activity. Its hands have permeated spheres of urban life to condition the housing market, the diversity of functions, cultural goods and expressions, public space, and the urban landscape of the historic center. Ultimately, they have deepened the democratic degradation and social segregation of the city as a whole.