Contribution short abstract

Can tourism be re-signified for the social reproduction of the popular classes —as part of the degrowth project— outside the logic of capital?

Contribution long abstract

Tourism has become distorted into an excuse for a bulimic mobility, interpreted as a form of sweet and naive nihilism in the era of imminent catastrophe (Rodríguez, 2025), while it is glorified as an activity available only to the privileged populations of the Global North. First, our research seeks to explain the processes underpinning compulsive consumerism, which we interpret—following Andrews (2023)—as culturally rooted in the myth of the Land of Cockaigne. Second, we examine the disqualification of mass tourism as a “barbaric” taste, analysing the classement of its practitioners (Bourdieu, 1972) as a mechanism of top-down exclusion. Third, we investigate how this discourse distorts the degrowth political project, rendering it more exclusive (Blanco-Romero et al., 2023). Fourth, we explore bottom-up social responses to touristification by analysing the counter-hegemonic discourse produced by seven civil society organisations in the Balearic Islands that advocate for a socio-ecological transformation of the islands’ tourism model. Finally, our research agenda asks whether tourism can be re-signified for the social reproduction of the popular classes—as part of the degrowth project—outside the logic of capital.

Andrews, H. (2023). Tourists and the Carnivalesque: Partying in the Land of Cockaigne. Journal of Festive Studies, 5, 167-189. https://doi.org/10.33823/jfs.2023.5.1.142

Blanco-Romero, A., Blázquez-Salom, M., & Fletcher, R. (2023). Fair vs. fake touristic degrowth. Tourism Recreation Research, 50(2), 435–439. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2023.2248578

Bourdieu, P. (1979). La Distinction: Critique sociale du jugement. Paru aux Éditions de Minuit.

Rodríguez, E. (2025). El fin de nuestro mundo. La lenta irrupción de la catástrofe. Traficantes de Sueños.