Search

This article examines social disadvantage in tourist sites through the lens of labour geography by focusing on the residential trajectories of a sample of workers in Barcelona (N = 8,651) over a decade (2008–2019). Contrasting with the common view that tourism growth brings prosperity to local communities, it suggests instead that buoyant destinations may be prone to leaving their workforces behind. Path analysis modelling reveals that tourism sector workers are at a higher risk of residential displacement. Our analysis unearths stratifications in such results, pointing to different tactics to cope with housing market pressure depending on sex, age, and nationality. Residential displacement and the self-imposed devaluation of housing conditions are introduced in this paper as key avenues leading to social exclusion. In this sense, we contribute to the concern of critical tourism geographies with the inequality and disadvantage ingrained in tourist space production, bridging to the domain of labour geography and social mobility. The city of Barcelona offers a template for other urban contexts that have been reliant on tourism as a major driver of economic growth in recent decades. Following the call for closer attention to labour in the debate on transitions to sustainability in tourism, our results hint at future research avenues that extend their interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime and fear of crime are key challenges for civic coexistence in contemporary cities, specifically because of the unequal relationship between the two phenomena. In the case of Italy, for instance, even though crime has been trending downward over the past few decades, people are increasingly concerned about their safety. Based on survey data (N = 6002) collected in Milan, Naples, Rome, and Turin, this research provides a cross-city comparison of the factors that influence individuals' feelings of unsafety. The results of a multi-group structural equation model endorse the prior literature by revealing that being the victim of a crime predicts higher levels of subjective unsafety. On the other hand, perceived disorder in the neighbourhood, community disaffection, and objective and subjective measures of social exclusion are also consistent predictors of residents' fears in all four cities. All in all, the model outputs indicate that non-criminal factors have a higher explanatory power than victimization for perceived unsafety. The implications of these findings for urban safety management are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's perception of insecurity is linked to a wide range of factors and up-to-date sources stress the impact of socially constructed concerns on feelings of unsafety. Building further on recent developments, the present research proposes a measure of social vulnerability focusing on future-oriented anxieties and self-perceived social exclusion as predictors of subjective perceptions of insecurity. Data gathered in a large-scale survey in Italy (N = 15,428) were analysed by implementing structural equation modeling in an attempt to address people's vulnerability beyond the mere consideration of the likelihood of individuals' involvement as the victims of a crime. The results provide evidence for the predictive role of social vulnerability on neighbourhood-based worries, victimization patterns and community cohesion. Moreover, the analysis show that health and financial precariousness, together with the perception of being marginalized or in some way excluded from society, may result in higher levels of subjective insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces the concept of insecurity as a theoretical resource for identifying structural factors that affect social exclusion in Barcelona. Using principal component analysis, a composite index referred to as the Social Insecurity Ranking (SIR) is constructed with the aim of studying the structure and volume of available resources in the 73 neighbourhoods of Spain's second largest city. The results suggest the need for an alternative measure of deprivation in contemporary cities that can address the relationship between social exclusion and insecurity. In particular, an analysis of the spatial distribution of the SIR in Barcelona indicates that both socially disfavoured and affluent neighbourhoods are geographically concentrated, respectively at the margins and in the north-west of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]