This subject introduces key concepts and objects of analysis in the relationships between tourism, the cultural landscape of destinations, and local communities.

Cultural landscapes are introduced and examined as the result of a complex process of inhabiting, practice, creative expression and representation by part of local communities throughout history and in contemporaneity. In this process, it is suggested that also non-local actors intervene in their re-production, as it is typical of globalized societies. Tourists – and the tourism industry that supports and promotes the attraction and mobility of tourists – are one of those.

This intervention is not neutral to places and communities, as it negotiates (and affirms new) values, images, uses of the cultural components of the territory, producing tourism landscapes that are also the result of processes of domination, occupation of space, political power and ideology, cognitive capacity, connectivity, unfolding at multiple geographical scales.

The course uses a mix of basic theory on the social construction of landscapes, the transformative power of tourism, and the relative positions and exclusions that may take place in the local community; and examples, exercises, experts’ interventions, student activities, focusing on specific case studies that are representative of the topics of study.

The course is organized in three blocks, from a descriptive (1) to a more analytic approach, focusing on transformations (2), and finally (3) engaging with the political dimension of the ‘touristification’ of cultural landscapes. Each block includes 2-3 ‘theoretical’ lectures and 4 ‘practical’ sessions, including class exercises, two field visits with related preparations, and seminars of invited experts.

The course will be given in English.

For the 2021-22 academic year, we will work with the maximumpossible attendance that allows us the size of the group, the capacity of theclassroom and the health guidelines. In the moodle space of the subject youwill be informed about the teaching of the subject and any changes that mayarise.