Paper short abstract:

Using data from foreigners living in the Costa Blanca, this paper asks how different collectives that reside in multicultural settings make their world intelligible? Here 'culture' is seen as processes of differentiation rather than a compound of distintive features owned by a concrete collective.

Paper long abstract:

Once the principle of territoriality has vanished (mobility: transnationalism, tourism) and the social structures that produced meaning and that offered the frame for the interpretation of the old and new places has weakened (Touraine's cultural paradigm) or dissapeared (Bauman's liquid life), how do the different collectives that resides in multicultural settings make their world intelligible, and specifically how do this the foreigners that have settled in the tourism environment of the Costa Blanca (Alicante-Spain)? Though a research in progress, the answer is analised from a perspective that considers 'culture' as a dimension that refers more to the processes of differentiation rather than to any compound of distintive features owned by a concrete collective. The paper focus on three main aspects of the topic: the transformation of the tourists resorts into places, the wish for getting away from government control, and 'ruralism'.