Finisterra, LXI, 2026(131), e45326

ISSN: 0430-5027

doi: 10.18055/Finis45326

Recensão

“CONTESTED URBAN BODIES: THE PRODUCTION OF LIBERATED

SPACES IN THE TOURIST CITY OF NAPLES” BY MARTINA

LOCOROTONDO

LUIS MENDES

Contested Urban Bodies: The Production of Liberated Spaces in the Tourist City of Naples by Martina

Locorotondo (2026) offers a rich, theoretically informed and empirically grounded contribution to

contemporary debates in urban studies, critical geography, and tourism research. Drawing on long-term

ethnographic fieldwork in Naples, the book interrogates the ways in which tourism-led urban transformation

reshapes not only spaces and economies, but also bodies, subjectivities, and political practices.

Locorotondo’s central concern lies in understanding how grassroots initiatives, particularly those organised

around the occupation and collective management of abandoned public buildings, emerge as both a response

to and a critique of the neoliberal reconfiguration of the city.

The book is situated within a growing body of literature on touristification, gentrification, and the right

to the city (Cocola-Gant, 2018; Gravari-Barbas & Guinand, 2017, 2025; Mendes, 2018, 2022), yet it

distinguishes itself through its sustained attention to embodiment and to the material practices through which

urban space is produced and contested. Locorotondo conceptualises the city as a site where bodies (residents,

activists, tourists, workers) are differentially valued, regulated, and mobilised. This embodied perspective

allows her to move beyond abstract analyses of urban restructuring and to foreground the lived, sensorial,

and affective dimensions of urban conflict. In doing so, the book contributes to a more nuanced understanding

of how power operates through everyday spatial practices.

Methodologically, the work is based on in-depth ethnographic research conducted over several years,

combining participant observation, interviews, and engagement with activist networks and municipal actors.

This approach enables the author to capture the complexity and internal tensions of the movements she

studies, avoiding romanticised portrayals of urban resistance. Rather than presenting Liberated Spaces as

coherent or unified entities, Locorotondo carefully documents the negotiations, contradictions, and frictions

that characterise their daily functioning. This empirical richness is one of the book’s major strengths, offering

readers an intimate view of how alternative urban practices are sustained over time. Building on this

ethnographic detail, the text shows that such frictions are not merely obstacles but generative moments

through which commoning is continuously reworked. Repair emerges as a multidimensional practice that

exceeds technical maintenance, encompassing the reconstruction of collective memories, the forging of

social bonds, and the production of new political subjectivities. By situating these practices within the

pressures of touristification and neoliberal urban transformation, Locorotondo demonstrates how the

Liberated Spaces operate as counter-hegemonic infrastructures that prioritize use value, care, and social

reproduction over commodification. Crucially, the figure of the activist-inhabitant captures how ordinary

residents become political subjects through everyday acts of repair, inhabitation, and storytelling. These

processes, Locorotondo and Fishwick (2026) argue, prefigure alternative urban futures, revealing repair not

only as a strategy of survival in a broken city but also as a practice of counter-power capable of expanding

the horizons of urban commons and collective governance.

The early chapters establish the theoretical and contextual foundations of the study. Locorotondo

situates Naples within broader discussions of urban neoliberalism and tourism-driven development (Gravari-

Barbas & Guinand, 2017; Santos-Izquierdo et al., 2026), while also emphasising the city’s specific historical

and political trajectories. Naples is presented not merely as a passive victim of global tourism dynamics, but

Recebido: 02/02/2026. Aceite: 16/03/2026. Publicado: 20/04/2026.

Luís Mendes: luis.mendes@edu.ulisboa.pt

¹Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território, Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício IGOT, R. Branca Edmée Marques,

1660 - 276, Lisboa, Portugal.

Published under the terms and conditions of an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.

Mendes, L. Finisterra, LXI(131), 2026, e45326

as a place where long-standing traditions of informality, political struggle, and civic experimentation shape

contemporary responses to urban change. This contextualisation is crucial, as it prevents the analysis from

becoming overly generalisable and instead highlights the situated nature of urban struggles.

A key conceptual contribution of the book lies in its articulation of Liberated Spaces as both spatial

and corporeal processes. These spaces – often former schools, convents, or public buildings – are not simply

reclaimed territories, but sites where alternative forms of social reproduction, governance, and political

subjectivity are enacted. Locorotondo draws on feminist and post-Marxist theories of the commons to show

how collective management practices challenge dominant property regimes and market logics (Benjamin &

Turner, 1992; Shulz, 2026). At the same time, she remains attentive to the vulnerabilities of these spaces,

including issues of sustainability, exclusion, and institutional co-optation.

Tourism plays a central role in the analysis, not only as an economic force but as a cultural and

symbolic one. The book demonstrates how tourism redefines urban value by prioritising certain aesthetics,

narratives, and uses of space, often at the expense of residents’ everyday needs. Locorotondo examines how

tourist imaginaries of Naples – rooted in ideas of authenticity, disorder, and spectacle – intersect with urban

policies and investment strategies. In response, liberated spaces can be read as attempts to reclaim alternative

narratives of the city, grounded in collective care, political participation, and cultural production.

One of the most compelling aspects of the book is its examination of the relationship between

grassroots movements and local government. Locorotondo explores the emergence of forms of new

municipalism in Naples, where municipal authorities have, at times, recognised and even legitimised

occupied spaces through legal frameworks that acknowledge their role as commons. This analysis avoids

simplistic binaries between state and resistance, instead revealing a dynamic field of negotiation in which

activists engage strategically with institutions while seeking to preserve their autonomy. The book thus offers

valuable insights into the possibilities and limits of institutional recognition for radical urban practices.

Throughout the text, the author pays close attention to the role of the body as both a site of control and

a medium of resistance. The regulation of bodies – through policing, surveillance, labour precarity, and

housing displacement – is shown to be integral to the production of the tourist city. Conversely, collective

bodily practices such as assemblies, performances, protests, and everyday acts of care become central to the

making of liberated spaces. This embodied lens enriches the analysis and connects urban struggles to broader

debates on biopolitics and social reproduction (Minca, 2009).

While the book’s focus on Naples is a clear strength, it also raises questions about the transferability

of its findings to other urban contexts. Locorotondo is careful not to present Naples as a model to be

replicated, yet readers may still wish for a more explicit engagement with comparative cases. Nonetheless,

the theoretical framework developed in the book provides useful tools for analysing similar dynamics in other

tourist cities, particularly in Southern Europe and the Global South.

In terms of style and structure, the book is clearly written and well organised, balancing theoretical

discussion with empirical narrative. The author successfully weaves together voices from the field with

analytical reflection, allowing participants’ experiences to inform broader conceptual arguments. At times,

the density of theoretical references may pose challenges for readers unfamiliar with critical urban theory,

but this is largely offset by the clarity of the ethnographic material.

The endorsement I wrote for the book: “Through a decolonial feminist lens and activist ethnography,

Locorotondo offers a powerful intervention into urban geography. By centering the everyday labor of Naples’

abitanti attive, this book challenges dominant narratives of tourist urbanism, revealing the city as a contested,

lived space shaped from below. A vital contribution to critical urban studies and the geographies of

resistance”.

Overall, Contested Urban Bodies makes a significant contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship on

urban transformation, tourism, and social movements. Its emphasis on embodiment, commoning, and

everyday practices offers a refreshing perspective on debates that are often dominated by macro-economic

or policy-oriented analyses. The book will be of interest to scholars and students in urban studies, human

geography, sociology, and tourism studies, as well as to practitioners and activists engaged in struggles over

urban space. By foregrounding the contested production of both bodies and spaces, Locorotondo provides a

compelling account of how cities are continuously remade through conflict, cooperation, and collective

imagination.

ORCID

Luís Mendes

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5281-4207

Mendes, L. Finisterra, LXI(131), 2026, e45326

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