Insular identity and urban contexts: representations of the local in the construction of an image of Palma (Mallorca, Balearic Islands)

Abstract

This article analyses the relationship between island and city in the configuration of an insular identity. The hypothesis addresses the special visibility that, in the case of small islands, results from the confrontation between two relevant singularities – the city and the island – in the symbolic conceptualization of territory. The opposition between island contexts and urban spaces is thus considered in terms of the local/global and rural/urban binaries. These are analysed in contemporary cultural representations of the relationship between the island of Mallorca and its historical and administrative capital, Palma. Since the 1960s, Mallorca has become a mass tourism destination with a considerable demographic impact, especially in the capital, which is the island’s gateway for both tourism and immigration. This paper considers geographical, literary and media discourses along with particular mass-consumption cultural products to argue that Palma is represented as a predatory ‘monster’ devouring the island’s ‘local’ identity. It is argued that different types of neo-ruralism have emerged and reinforced the opposition between the island and the city. This opposition underlies a process of counter-acculturation that delineates and strengthens Mallorcan self-representation in a context defined by an increasingly diverse population as a result of tourism and migratory flows.

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