1259 | 229 | Mobile lifestyles and commercial change: privilege and exclusion in Lisbon city centre | Franz Buhr, Agustín Cocola-Gant
Alongside the inflow of tourists and postcolonial migration patterns, Lisbon has recently become a hotspot for various kinds of privileged migration. International students, business ‘expatriates’, digital nomads, and second-home owners are among the transient populations which have converged to Lisbon, often attracted by the city’s new ‘cosmopolitan’ appeal. While taking advantage of tourism-oriented economies (such as finding accommodation through short-term rental platforms), some of these populations also resort to other infrastructures and amenities outside the tourism sector (such as co-working and co-living spaces). Moreover, given their capacity to maximise their purchase power through relocation, privileged migrants usually cling to higher segments of the market, generating a stronger demand for more upscale retail options and services._x000D_
This presentation describes the impact of privileged forms of transnational consumption on the commercial landscape of the Misericórdia district in Lisbon. We present the results of a commercial census that our team carried out in 2021, which identifies deep changes in the neighbourhood’s retail and service sectors, increasingly catering to a relatively privileged foreign clientele. This paper shows that such transformation has established ‘parallel worlds’ of consumption and sociability, which rarely intersect with those of longer-term and less well-off residents. The research leading to these results was conducted in the framework of the Horizon 2020 SMARTDEST project addressing the urban impact of contemporary mobile lifestyles. Besides the commercial census, data was also generated in interviews and in a CityLab that took place in 2022 including residents and shop owners, as well as representatives of public and private stakeholders.
Franz Buhr, Agustín Cocola-Gant
University of Lisbon
ID Abstract: 229