Political discourse analysis of the degrowth challenge to dominant tourism narratives in Spain.

Abstract

Abstract This chapter uses as a case Spanish cities such as Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Bilbao, Seville, Valencia and Barcelona, to explore the role that degrowth social movement actors and ideas have played in protest action directed at the tourism sector in recent years. The authors identify important episodes of contestation in which degrowth activists have been present. Particularly after 2015, the Neighbourhood Assembly for Sustainable Tourism, a degrowth-inspired association made up of grassroots organizations, assemblies and groups, has made several efforts to reduce the flow of tourists to Barcelona in an attempt to reverse the damaging social, economic, cultural and environmental effects that mass tourism is having on the city. In its attempt to explore various degrowth issues, the chapter sets out a conceptual framework that draws from key literature in the field of political discourse analysis, Althusserian treatment of ideology and interpellation, and work on degrowth and tourism.