Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on the changes that have taken place in a valley of the Catalan Pyrenees during the last decades. Our aim is to analyze the process of change in the social structure, values, identities and life styles in the context of a 'modern rurality' modeled by the creation of a natural park, the encouragement of landscape's wilderness and the promotion of cultural heritage and tourism policies. Specifically, the paper will focus on the residents of the second homes as a social category and their discourses and practices in relation to local population and also their economic and political influence. Second homes' background description and analysis can help us shed light into the processes of changes that have transformed local society.