CON-DOMINIUM: Turismo residencial internacional y desarrollo inmobiliario en el nordeste brasileño

In this report, we analyze the effects of the “touristic-real estate boom” on a little touristic locality, Pipa, located in the municipality of Tibau do Sul in the State of Rio Grande do Norte (RN) - one of the eastern-most point of the Latin-American Continent. We analyze, from a sociological perspective, the economic, administrative and political processes that shape the settlement of touristic investments and their territorial organization; insisting particularly in the actors and stakeholders involved in the development of resorts and condos. The socio-political analysis of the negotiations, resistances and coalitions that take place between actors of the touristic-residential model allows identifying the power distribution within the local configuration of Pipa. This approach, by putting forward a socio-anthropological vision of regional touristic planning processes, considers the socio-cultural variables (usually considered as “contextuals”) as central determinant variables. The study tries to understand the policies of touristic valorization considering at the same time the economic forces which characterize the current conjuncture and the social dynamics which characterize the local context. Far from a linear representation of development, we want to show that the “production of space” (Henri Lefebvre) is always negotiated between several actors who come from different social positions and geographical scales. We want to show that real estate speculation is not a one-way and all-external process: it also finds articulations within the internal political, social, cultural, legal (and illegal) logics of the region, municipality and local community in which it takes place. Finally, we will study the risks of international residential tourism and real estate speculation for the territory, the economy, the environment and the inhabitants of Pipa – all of this based on qualitative fieldwork, but also quantitative and cartographic data