Financial capitalism has driven profound changes in urban land use patterns in Majorca, at the Balearic Islands (Spain). This archipelago is a major tourist destination located in the Mediterranean basin, with 4,492 km 2 of surface area, 1,113,114 inhabitants and 12,316,399 tourists (2011), of whom 29.9% came from Germany, 24% from the UK and 19% from the rest of Spain. Neoliberal state regulation has favored the elite’s financial interests in the real estate sector through transport megaproject investment and lifting regional planning restrictions which prevented urban growth. Urban sprawl is becoming increasingly significant for inland Majorca, where intensive tourist resorts had not previously been developed. Urban growth distribution patterns are studied, firstly of suburban development both for tourists and for residential purposes, and secondly of exurban sprawl distribution for isolated dwellings. Recent regional planning relaxation guided by the free market economy and roll-with-it politics aims to promote this urban sprawl as a neoliberal answer to the current crisis of capitalism. In this way, a new model of capital investment in urban spatio-temporal fix, such as countryside villas with swimming pools, is shifting the urban model of this island. The paper identifies the site-specific spatial, temporal and planning pathways through which the actions and decisions of residential tourists and developers buying property in Majorca have driven urban sprawl and vice versa.
References
[1]
Casado-Diaz, M.A. Socio-demographic impacts of residential tourism: A case study of Torrevieja, Spain. Int. J. Tourism Res. 1999, 1, 223–237, doi:10.1002/(SICI)1522-1970(199907/08)1:4<223::AID-JTR153>3.0.CO;2-A.
[2]
Mantecón, A. Tourist modernisation and social legitimation in Spain. Int. J. Tourism Res. 2010, 12, 617–626.
[3]
European Environment Agency (EEA). Urban Sprawl in Europe—The Ignored Challenge; EEA: Copenhagen, Denmark/Luxembourg, 2006.
[4]
Barke, M. Second homes in Spain: An analysis of change at the provincial level, 1981–2001. Geography 2007, 92, 195–207.
[5]
Parés, M.; March, H.; Saurí, D. Atlantic gardens in Mediterranean climates: Understanding the production of suburban natures in Barcelona. Int. J. Urban Reg. Res. 2012, 37, 328–347.
[6]
Iglesias, A.; Garrote, L.; Flores, F.; Moneo, M. Challenges to manage the risk of water scarcity and climate change in the Mediterranean. Water Resour. Manag. 2007, 21, 775–788, doi:10.1007/s11269-006-9111-6.
[7]
Buswell, R.J. Mallorca and Tourism—History, Economy and Environment; Channel View Publications: Bristol, UK, 2011.
[8]
Bardolet, E.; Sheldon, P.J. Tourism in archipelagos: Hawai’i and the Balearics. Ann. Tourism Res. 2008, 35, 900–923, doi:10.1016/j.annals.2008.07.005.
[9]
Schmitt, T.; Blázquez, M. Der dritte tourismusboom auf Mallorca (1991–2000). Zukunftsweisender trend oder überschrittener Zenit? Tourism. J. 2003, 7, 505–522.
[10]
European Environment Agency (EEA). Corine Land Cover (1990, 2000, 2006) Raster Data; European Environment Agency: Copenhagen, Denmark, 2012.
[11]
Balearic Tourism Research and Technologies Centre (CITTIB). Conselleria de Turisme: Dades Informatives; Conselleria de Turisme: Palma, Spain, 2006.
[12]
Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE). INEbase/Demography and Population/Population Figures and Demographic Censuses—Population Figures 1970–2011; Population and Housing Census. Available online: http://www.ine.es/en/inebmenu/mnu_cifraspob_en.htm (accessed on 29 January 2013).
[13]
Molotch, H. The city as a growth machine: Toward a political economy of place. Am. J. Sociol. 1976, 82, 309–332.
[14]
Harvey, D. Fixed Capital, the Consumption Fund and the Accumulation of Capital. In The Limits to Capital; Verso: London, UK, 1999; pp. 235–238.
[15]
Brenner, N.; Theodore, N. Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban Restructuring in North America and Western Europe; Blackwell: Oxford, UK, 2002.
[16]
López, I.; Rodríguez, E. The Spanish model. New Left Rev. 2011, 69, 3.
[17]
Gobierno de Espa？a, Ministerio de Fomento, Estadísticas Sobre Transacciones Inmobiliarias (Compraventa) Según Residencia del Comprador. Available online: http://www.fomento.gob.es (accessed on 27 February 2013).
[18]
Institut d’Estadística de les Illes Balears (IBESTAT). Estadísticas: Economía, Comercio e Inversión Exterior: Inversiones Exteriors. 2012. Available online: http://www.ibestat.cat/ibestat/page (accessed on 15 February 2013).
[19]
Balearic Islands Business and Investment Guide; Govern de les Illes Balears, Ministry of Economy Business and Employment Promotion: Palma, Spain, 2012.
[20]
Artigues, A.A. Funcionalización Turística y Proceso de Urbanización en la Isla de Mallorca. In Introducción a la Geografía Urbana de las Illes Balears. Guía de Campo del VIII Coloquio y Jornadas de Campo de Geografía Urbana; Artigues, A.A., Bauzà, A., Blázquez, M., González, J.M., Murray, I., Rullán, O., Eds.; Grupo de Geografía Urbana AGE: Palma, Spain, 2006; pp. 110–162.
[21]
Smith, N. Towards a theory of gentrification: A back to the city movement by capital not people. J. Amer. Plann. Assn. 1979, 45, 538–548, doi:10.1080/01944367908977002.
[22]
Phillips, M. Rural gentrification and the processes of class colonisation. J. Rural Stud. 1993, 9, 123–140, doi:10.1016/0743-0167(93)90026-G.
[23]
Phillips, M. Other geographies of gentrification. Progr. Hum. Geogr. 2004, 28, 5–30, doi:10.1191/0309132504ph458oa.
[24]
McCarthy, J. Rural geography: Globalizing the countryside. Progr. Hum. Geogr. 2007, 32, 129–137, doi:10.1177/0309132507082559.
[25]
Sckalair, L. The transnational capitalist class and the discourse of globalization. Camb. Rev. Int. Aff. 2000, 14, 67–85, doi:10.1080/09557570008400329.
[26]
Bauzà, A. Spatio-Temporal Fix and Time-Space Compression: Transport Mega-Projects and Tourism Development in Mallorca. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Environmental Conflicts and Justice, Barcelona, Spain, 2–3 July 2010.
[27]
The Order of 31st of July 2001 of Approval of the Director Plan for the Airport of Palma (Majorca). In Spanish Official Bulletin (BOE). Num. 221 (14/9/2001); 2001.
[28]
Murray, I. Geografies del Capitalisme Balear. Poder, Metabolisme Socieconòmic i Petjada Ecològica d’una Superpotència Turística. Ph.D. Thesis, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma Spain, 2012.
[29]
Flyvbjerg, B.; Bruzelius, N.; Rothengatter, W. Megaprojects and Risk. In An Anatomy of an Ambition; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2003.
[30]
Harvey, D. The New Imperialism; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2003; Volume 115.
[31]
Morey, M. Disúrbia. Recull de Notícies 2000–2004; Maties Morey Ripoll: Valldemossa, Spain, 2007.
[32]
Kondo, M.C.; Rivera, R.; Rullman, S. Protection the idyll but not the environment: Second homes amenity migration and rural exclusion in Washington State. Landscape Urban Plan. 2012, 106, 174–182, doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.03.003.
[33]
Rullan, O. Las políticas territoriales en las Islas Baleares. Cuadernos Geográficos 2010, 47, 403–428.
[34]
van Slingerlandt, A.B. Insular Land Use Planning on the Balearic Islands (Spain): Weak or Strong Sustainability? In the Proceedings of the Inaugural Meeting of the IGU Commission on Islands—Island Geographies International Conference, Taipei, Taiwan, 29 October–3 November 2007; Volume I, pp. 4–20.
[35]
Peck, J.; Tickell, A. Neoliberalizing space. Antipode 2002, 34, 380–404.
[36]
Sandberg, L.A.; Wekerle, G.R. Reaping nature’s dividends: The neoliberalization and gentrification of nature on the Oak Ridges moraine. J. Environ. Pol. Plann. 2010, 12, 41–57, doi:10.1080/15239080903371915.
[37]
Keil, R. The urban politics of roll-with-it neoliberalization. City Anal. Urban Trends Cult. Theor. Pol. Action 2009, 13, 230–245, doi:10.1080/13604810902986848.
[38]
Blázquez, M.; Ca？ada, E.; Murray, I.; Playa-Sol, B. Conflictos derivados de la construcción de enclaves de capital transnacional turístico espa？ol en El Caribe y Centroamérica. Scripta Nova. Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales 2011, 15, 368.
[39]
Law 7/2012, of Urgent Measures for a Sustainable Urban Planning. the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (BOIB). Num. 91 (23/6/2012), Available online: http://boib.caib.es/pdf/2012091/mp4.pdf (accessed on 27 February 2013).
[40]
Decree Law 1/2009 on Urgent Measures for Investment in the Balearic Islands. the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands. Núm. 17 (2/2/2009), Available online: http://boib.caib.es/pdf/2009017/mp2.pdf (accessed on 27 February 2013).
[41]
Law 8/2012 on Tourism in the Balearic Islands, Dated the 19th of July. the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (BOIB). Num. 106, (21/7/2012), Available online: http://www.caib.es/govern/archivo.do?id=1224364 (accessed on 27 February 2013).
[42]
Journal of Plenary Sessions of the Balearic Parliament Dated the 11th of December 2012VIII Legislature; Num. 67, 2785. Available online: http://www.parlamentib.es/ca/publicacions/Detalle.aspx?criteria=2&year=2012 (accessed on 27 February 2013).
[43]
Vidal, M.; Domene, E.; Saurí, D. Changing geographies of water-related consumption: Residential swimming pools in suburban Barcelona. Area 2010, 43, 67–75.
[44]
Meeus, S.J.; Gulinck, H. Semi-urban areas in landscape research: A review. Living Rev. Landscape Res. 2008, 2. Available online: http://www.livingreviews.org/lrlr-2008-3 (accessed on 29 February 2012).
[45]
Saló, A.; Garriga, A. The second-home rental market: A hedonic analysis of the effect of different characteristics and a high-market-share intermediary on price. Tourism Econ. 2011, 17, 1017–1033, doi:10.5367/te.2011.0074.
[46]
Rullan, O. Edificis a？llats o residències?, àrees singulars o regions úniques?, “booms” o desenvolupaments?, espai rural o sòl rústic? Scripta Nova. Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales 2007, 11, 232.
[47]
Cabellos, M. Islas Balears—Tensión Entre Destrucción y Protección. In DeCOASTruction. La Desconfiguración del Litoral Mediterráneo Espa？ol; Gaja, F., Ed.; Universitat Politècnica de València: Valencia, Spain, 2012; pp. 128–253.
[48]
Mateu, J. Turismo residencial y dispersión urbana en Mallorca (Illes Balears)—Un ensayo metodológico en el municipio de Pollensa. Estudios Turísticos 2003, 155–156, 197–218.
[49]
Murray, I.; Blázquez, M.; Amer, J. Doblers, poder i territori de “marca balear” (1983–2009). J. Catalan Stud. 2011, 13, 321–350.
[50]
Cámara de Comercio de Mallorca. Estudio Sobre la Situación del Turismo Residencial en las Illes Balears—Conclusiones.; Servicio de Estudios y Publicaciones-Cámara de Comercio de Mallorca: Palma, Spain, 2006.
[51]
Deloitte y Exceltur. Impactos Sobre el Entorno, la Economía y el Empleo de los Distintos Modelos de Desarrollo Turístico del Litoral Mediterráneo Espa？ol, Baleares y Canarias; Exceltur-Alianza Para la Excelencia Turística: Madrid, Spain, 2005.
