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- Exploring the micro-politics of place: lifestyle migrants, collective identities and modes of belongingPublication . Torkington, KateTaking up Hopkins and Dixon’s (2006) call to attend to the micro-politics of everyday constructions of space and place, which necessarily involves psychological concepts such as identity, belonging and attachment, this paper aims to show how a critical socio-cognitive approach to discourse analysis is an effective means of unpacking the ways in which versions of place are (re)produced and negotiated through discursive practices, and in particular the ways in which ‘legitimate’ collective identities are constructed in relation to place. I focus on the contemporary social phenomenon of lifestyle migration. Within Europe, this typically involves relatively affluent northern Europeans moving to destinations in southern Europe that are strongly linked to tourism. Although lifestyle migrants are generally viewed by their hosts as ‘desirable’ migrants due to their perceived economic and socio-cultural capital, their integration into destination communities is often minimal. The question arises as to how these migrants construct modes of belonging in relation to their adopted home-place and how they relate to the other social groups with whom they share it. Using texts from a variety of sources, including in-depth interviews with British migrants in Portugal, I explore not only how migrants position themselves (and others) discursively in relation to places, but also how they are already positioned by discursive practices in the public sphere. I also examine to what extent the construction of a ‘legitimate’ mode of belonging involves the construction of intergroup cooperation within that place.
- Dissemination report on preliminary findings of the T-rELMA research project july 2023Publication . Torkington, Kate; Ribeiro, Filipa Perdigão; Rebelo, Sandra; Conceição, SusanaThis report follows the seminar on Algarve Tourism: Sustainability, Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship, jointly organised by the T-rELMA and IMPACTUR Algarve research project teams at the School of Management, Hospitality &Tourism, University of the Algarve, on 22June 2023.
- Defining lifestyle migrationPublication . Torkington, KateThis paper seeks to provide a conceptual framework for studying migration to the Algarve by Northern Europeans. ‘Lifestyle migration’ is suggested as a generic term for this trend, which is part of a recent but flourishing global social phenomenon. I also point to the glaring gap in the literature as far as empirical studies based in the Algarve are concerned, and make suggestions for a research agenda.
- ‘A true feeling of authentic portuguese golf'? The discursive construction of the Algarve region in portuguese golf websitesPublication . Pereira, Rosária; Ribeiro, Filipa Perdigão; Torkington, Kate; Dias, Joana AfonsoIn an increasingly competitive global marketplace, the need for golf destinations to differentiate themselves from competitors has become more critical than ever. This paper raises questions about the promotional strategies employed by the golf sector in the Algarve, focusing on internet communication strategies, since this medium has become the biggest driving force towards the commoditisation of all aspects of the tourism experience. By offering a complementary perspective to the field of (critical) tourism studies, and drawing on a qualitative, multi-modal discourse analysis, this work-in-progress looks at the particular ways that representations and images presented on the Algarve golf websites constitute and frame identities (of people and places) and socio-spatial relationships. This paper analyses a corpus of 45 texts collected from official websites of the 40 Algarve golf courses and from five entities which promote the Algarve as a golf destination, along with the golf images that are displayed alongside them. Findings point to salient discursive and visual representations of a global setting enjoyed by the global elite. Whereas the courses‟ positioning in relation to their regional competitors draws on similar discursive strategies which reflect those used in tourism advertising discourses in general – e.g. reiteration of explicit comparisons, superlatives and hyperbolic statements -, representations of local emplacedness are not salient; in some cases local place seems to have been almost intentionally suppressed.
- Faro National Capital of Culture (FCNC 2005) and Tourism - reflections on the profile of tourists who attended the eventsPublication . Ferreira, Ana Maria; Martins, Ana Isabel; Gonçalves, A. R.; Perdigão, F.; Torkington, Kate; Pereira, Luis Nobre; Martins, Paula VenturaThis paper presents and reflects on some of the results obtained from a study conducted 0ver a 6 month period. The study focused on the tourists who visited the Faro National Capital of Culture. Between March and December 2005, a total of 154 events and attractions (with a total of 2513 sessions) including art exhibitions theatre, concerts, dance and cinema, took place in Faro and other towns throughout the Algarvian region, Although FCNC 2005 was not specifically project as a tourist related event, the fact that the Algarve is the most important tourist region of Portugal together with the concentration of most of the session over the summer months, which constitute the tourism high season, meant that many of events were well attended by tourist.
- Place and lifestyle migration: the discursive construction of ‘glocal’ place-identityPublication . Torkington, KateInternational lifestyle migration is a rapidly growing worldwide phenomenon. Within Europe, increasingly large numbers of northern Europeans are moving south in search of what they perceive as a better quality of life. The typical representation of this form of migration suggests that it is consumption-led, tourism-related and leisure-based; it is to be located within late modern, global, elitist, borderless and highly mobile social practices. The question arises as to the role of local place in this type of migration process and in the construction of individual and collective social identities. Using data from advertising texts produced by a residential-tourism resort and from in-depth interviews with British residents in the Golden Triangle area of the Algarve, Portugal, this article explores the relationships between discourse, identity, g/local place and lifestyle migration.
- Conflicting discursive representations of overtourism in Lisbon in the Portuguese digital pressPublication . Ribeiro, Filipa Perdigão; Torkington, KatePurposeThis study aims to explore the ways in which Portuguese online news reports and opinion studies have framed the discussion about overtourism in Lisbon and its impacts on the city and its inhabitants. Design/methodology/approachDrawing on critical discourse analysis applied to media texts, this paper discusses the discursive representations of overtourism by focusing on how an emerging new discourse which constructs tourism as problematic began to challenge the established discourse - in which tourism is perceived as beneficial. FindingsAs a consequence, and to maintain the status quo, many media texts deploy strong legitimating strategies focusing on the benefits of tourism growth. These are juxtaposed with de-legitimating strategies which serve to deny problems of overtourism. Findings highlight the role the media play in shaping tourism discursively and uncover the complexities of discourses on the effects of (over)tourism and the ways in which they are constructed, disseminated and discussed. Social implicationsThis research is particularly relevant when newspaper opinion articles from 2021 voice the Portuguese Government's concern in bringing back to Portugal the pre-pandemic tourist numbers as soon as possible. Originality/valueThis study attempts to reveal the conflicting interests and imbalances of power among different tourism stakeholders by taking a qualitative, critical approach to the analysis of media discourse as a social practice within the broader socio-political context. This study argues that from an analytical-methodological perspective, media discourse is an optimum research site to critically explore how conflicting interests are positioned in the mass media and how this shapes public opinion.
- Whose right to the city? An analysis of the mediatized politics of place surrounding alojamento local issues in Lisbon and PortoPublication . Torkington, Kate; Ribeiro, Filipa PerdigãoIn view of the proliferation of alojamento local (short-term vacation rentals) in the major Portuguese cities of Lisbon and Porto, along with the recent transformation of the historic city centre neighbourhoods, this study explores the mediatized politics of place by analysing data sets resulting from different, but interconnected, discursive practices. At the level of governance, we examine how legislation has enabled and facilitated this transformation. We then explore the media coverage of the issues surrounding these recent changes. Finally, we focus on individual and collective stakeholder voices by analysing the various rights claims and arguments found in social media communication channels. Framing our analysis initially in Lefebvre’s concept of ‘the right to the city’, often invoked as an argument for the promotion of justice, inclusion and sustainability in the face of urbanisation policies, we argue that a ‘rights in the city’ approach is better suited to gaining insight into the multiple tensions and conflicts brought about through the interlinking processes of regeneration, gentrification and touristification that affect neighbourhoods with high proportions of short-term rental accommodation, and conclude that there are many rights claimants within a seemingly unified group of stakeholders, invoking rights claims which are sometimes overlapping, but often conflicting.
- The discursive construction of place-identity: british lifestyle migrants in the AlgarvePublication . Torkington, KateThis thesis takes an interdisciplinary, critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to investigate the discursive construction of place-identity. For the purposes of this research, place-identity is understood as the relationship between the discursive construction of place and the discursive construction of the multiplicities of the individual and collective self. The main data is provided by interviews with British lifestyle migrants in the Algarve, Portugal. I develop a framework for investigating both the individual and the collective dimensions of migrant place-identity by combining elements from Systemic Functional Linguistics (in particular Appraisal theory) and Cognitive Linguistics. This allows an analysis of both strategic features of the micro-level of discourse, such as evaluation of place(s), and apparently less conscious features, such as the use of spatial deixis. I draw on Positioning Analysis as a means of linking micro- and macrolevels of analysis. At the micro-level, the findings suggest that various modes of belonging are constructed in interaction by positioning the self as being attitudinally aligned (or not) with place(s) and by positioning the self as being (literally and metaphorically) inside/outside place(s). The macro-level context of the research is the growing contemporary trend of lifestyle migration, which is strongly related to tourism mobilities. Since this social phenomenon is fertile ground for the production of privileged, elite identities, one of the aims of this thesis is to expand the agenda of CDA research by developing an understanding of how such privileged identities are articulated, (re)produced, reinforced and negotiated through discursive positionings, and how these positionings are linked to hegemonic discourses that ‘legitimise’ certain types of migration. The study thus aims to show how the discursive construction of place-identity is not only an integral part of the discursive construction of migrant identities, but also how place-identity is linked to broader ideologies and contributes to the politics of place.
- Clouds in the normally sunny sky? The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Dutch lifestyle entrepreneurs in the AlgarvePublication . Nijhoff, Karijn; Torkington, KateThis article explores the experiences of Dutch B&B and short-term rental property owners in the rural Algarve, Portugal, as a case study on the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for entrepreneurial lifestyle migrants. The empirical data comes from twelve in-depth interviews with Dutch lifestyle migrants who moved to and settled in the more rural areas of the eastern Algarve and started small tourism accommodation businesses. Specifically, we look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting measures and restrictions on the economic situation of the businesses, the health and wellbeing of the business owners and their guests, as well as their accounts of social solidarity and community support. The findings reveal that there were relatively few changes in the lifestyles of the respondents and that their businesses, whilst impacted by the dramatic effects of the pandemic on travel and tourism, remained afloat. The findings confirm both the relative privilege of lifestyle migrant entrepreneurs, and the unequal impacts of the global pandemic. Their resilience to disaster is positively connected to their embeddedness in different networks. Finally, the rural location of the properties was also found to be instrumental in facing the pandemic in several ways.