INURA Málaga and the touristification of the city -- It includes Google

 

Google offices on the Malaga waterfront. Can you spot the G for Google? (Photo: Carr 2024)

 

 

The 2024 conference of the International Network of Urban Research and Action (INURA) took place this year in Málaga, Spain. Like every INURA conference, the city part was also followed by the INURA Retreat, which took place this year in the desert of Archidona.

A key objective of this year’s city conference was to expose participants to how cities like Malaga build dependencies on mass tourism. In some ways, this kind of urban development reminds me of other cities like Venice or Florence--cities that depend on the arrival of thousands of tourists into the city. They appeal to temporary tourists, visiting the city for just a few hours as their cruise ships dock and allow them to go souvenir shopping and consume a little bit of culture. They also attract overnight tourists that support the hotel industry and the Airbnbification of the historic downtown.

For Málaga, this has meant the renewal of the waterfront and the building of museums, as well as the promotion of strange stories about Picasso, which can be sold back to tourists. In this way, Málaga also reminds me of cities like Salzburg, which have built a dependency on popular narratives of Mozart.

It is clear that these cities make a conscious policy decision to boost the tourist industry. One Málaga resident explained that in some ways this was necessary. As Málaga is in the periphery of Spain and has no other industry, tourism was a logical choice. Another explained that tourism itself wasn't the problem, rather that many residents had little voice in the organization of the industry, while the Spanish authorities were lethargic in redistributing the wealth generated from it. This situation thus leaves a wide gulf between those who can profit, and those who left out.

There are definitely further downsides. For residents in Malaga, boosting the tourist industry has meant a housing squeeze, as downtown apartments are now almost wholly turned into Airbnbs. Additionally, it manifests as a water crisis, as water is reserved for avocado farms and businesses catering to tourists. Meanwhile, one looks around and sees riverbeds that are completely dried up and full of plants, or agricultural fields that are growing cactus crops. There were also reports of water being shut off between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM for certain parts of the city. This reminds me of Swyngedouw's work , “Liquid Power” on water politics in Spain.

Obviously, these topics are not directly central to DIGI-GOV. However, I did manage to find a Google headquarters on the waterfront. During one tour of the waterfront, I was informed that these lands are not managed by municipal authorities.

At the Retreat Katja Schwaller, Stanford University, and I held a nice panel looking at Big Tech and urban development. For Katja, big tech appropriates participatory urbanism and claims to build cities and offices "for people“ while it clearly does not. For my part, I talked about some of the processes of vertical integration of Amazon.com in both Seattle and Washington DC where Amazon.com has, or is building, its headquarter. 

--Constance Carr