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Dear colleagues,

We have the pleasure to announce the call for papers 2nd International Workshop on Lifestyle Migration and Residential Tourism, which will be carried out at the Department of Political Science of the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Centre of Human and Social Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council from March 23-25, 2011.

All the best, Michael Janoschka


Contested Spatialities of Lifestyle Migration - Public policies, local democracy and global market forces

** Call for papers **

Convenors: Heiko Haas*, Michael Janoschka** and Vicente Rodríguez*          

 *Centre of Human and Social Sciences, Spanish National Research Council, Madrid (Spain)

** Centre of Human and Social Sciences, Spanish National Research Council & Department of Political Science and International Relations, Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain) 

Contact, further information and abstract reception: [log in to unmask]

In recent years, new forms of migration and mobility have experienced a significant increase worldwide, inspiring interesting debates among scholars in a variety of areas within social sciences. While the protagonists of such movements mainly originate from highly developed countries, the destinations of their movements are increasingly diverse. These encompass attractive landscapes such as mountain regions, coastal and rural areas, as much as densely populated holiday destinations, remote and secluded places or sites of spiritual relevance. Furthermore, persons from diverse social and cultural backgrounds such as, for example, expatriates, global nomads, counter culture dropouts, highly skilled professionals, or retirement migrants take part in this specific form of transnational or intra-national mobility. They embody important social transformations and challenge conceptions of migration, tourism, home, community and belonging which are predominantly constituted on the presumption that people only have one residential place.

The research on these movements proves evidence that the reasons for people to move have diversified, and individualistic objectives and imaginations of a better quality of life have become an important inducement to migrate. At the same time, international academic discourse on the topic has developed a plethora of labels and theoretical concepts such as ‘retirement migration’, ‘amenity migration’, ‘residential tourism’ and ‘lifestyle migration’, among others, to capture the broad variety of such migratory movements. Regardless of the concept that is being used in the academia, the phenomenon can be evaluated as a privileged form of mobility in a contingent relation between the two poles of tourism and migration – privileged, because it usually does not occur primarily for economic reasons. Additionally, lifestyle migrants possess a privileged citizenship status in comparison to other migrant groups, which is of special relevance if movements to less developed destinations in the global South are analysed.

At a first glance, the phenomenon appears to be an a-political expression of individual mobility. Nevertheless, it may greatly alter the social and political life in specific destinations, not only if migrants involve politically. The existent nexus between tourism development and migration produces, amongst others, intimate relations of local and regional governments with globally active investment funds and other market actors of global capitalism, transforming space and place as well as introducing new scales of governance. Additionally, many places of reception adopt public policies that aim at the promotion of strategically constructed imaginations to frame the alleged paradisiacal conditions of life. Nevertheless, such policies may widely disregard the necessities of the autochthonous populations and cause undesired side-effects.

The 2nd International Workshop on Lifestyle Migration and Residential Tourism will bring together experienced and young scholars from different academic disciplines working on the topic in order to:

- Present ongoing international research- Foster interdisciplinary exchange and discussion on the topic
- Consolidate existing branches of research
- Discuss theoretical aspects and reconcile existing and diverging conceptual approaches
- Critically investigate the various social, cultural, and political effects
- Explore spatial and geographic characteristics of these phenomena
- Analyse the variety of international models of territorial appropriations among lifestyle-oriented movements and migrations

We especially invite contributions that focus on:

- Theoretical and analytical approaches that critically reflect on the importance of the international real estate industry and other driving forces of global market economies
- Approaches that conceptually discuss the role of public actors in geographical environments that deal with the consequences of lifestyle migration and residential tourism
- New and emerging geographical settings of residential tourism and lifestyle migration (for example in countries of the global South, in mountain areas, sites of spiritual relevance, urban locations, etc.)
- Participation, political contest and other forms of social, often conflictive relations between newcomers and autochthonous populations
- Discussions that reflect individual and social constructions of identity, belonging and citizenship in post-modern societies

The workshop will bring together a limited number of experienced and young researchers. It aims at establishing profound discussions of research ‘in progress’ and will be based on research papers that are submitted and circulated among the participants prior to the workshop. We expect to receive paper proposals of not more than 500 words before December 10th, 2010. All authors will receive knowledge regarding the acceptance of their proposal before December 31st, 2010. We expect all authors to submit full papers of a maximum of 7,500 words before February 28rd, 2011.

The organizers can provide financial support to a restricted number of participants.