Not only tourism: unravelling suburbanization, second-home expansion and “rural” sprawl in Catalonia, Spain

ABSTRACT

This study illustrates multifaceted urbanization patterns and processes in a coastal region of Catalonia (northeastern Spain) as a paradigmatic example of the socio-economic transformations typically observed in the northern Mediterranean basin since World War II. By focusing on the expanding tourism industry, second-home expansion, infrastructural development and sprawl around traditional rural centres, the paper assesses the effects of long-term economic, demographic, social and cultural transformations on rural landscapes in Alt Empordà, the so-called “Catalan Tuscany”. The stratification of distinct urbanization waves and the underlying socio-economic processes observed in Alt Empordà reflect population dynamics and settlement morphologies typical of rural districts moving rapidly towards a suburban spatial organization. Recent urban dynamics in Mediterranean rural systems deserve further investigation in order to shed light on latent suburbanization processes involving marginal European regions.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban growth
• metropolization
• land consumption
• Barcelona
• Mediterranean Europe

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Richard Shearmur (Urban Geography) and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research project was funded by the Catalan Autonomous Government (2014-SGR-1499-INTERFASE) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO: CSO2009-14397-C04-01).