Alternative spaces in Lisbon and the resistance to gentrification

Abstract

Between the start of the financial crisis (2007-08) and the pandemic crisis (2020-), Lisbon was at its peak as a fashionable European tourist destination. During this period, in a singular concentration in the Portuguese capital, associations and other collectives proliferated as alternative spaces, overlapping political and cultural action. In this dossier, through a qualitative methodology of ethnographic nature, we show that these spaces form a model of urban development of their own. If, since the 1970s, alternative spaces have played a role in resisting gentrification in several western countries, the case of Lisbon stands out for its contrast with a national context of weak civic participation.