The urbanization of poverty: From primitive accumulation to housing crisis in Ibiza (Spain)

Abstract

Based on the theory of uneven geographical development and analysing Ibiza from the Lefebvrian point of view, the article presents a new narrative of the transformation of the Ibiza territory from the pre-tourist period to become a leading destination for hedonistic tourism. A process that has turned the city of Ibiza into the most expensive city in Spain and has subjected it to a profound housing crisis. In the text, housing is interpreted as one of the main axes that has facilitated this transformation: from the primitive accumulation that led to interest in the island's autarkic life and its vernacular architecture, to the emergence and expansion as a destination for clubbers and the offer of tourist rental, all as a trigger for the current processes of housing dispossession. The article aims to generate a discussion on the urbanization of poverty as a phenomenon that inherently integrates the processes of commodification, financialization and dispossession of housing in an urban logic that can be conceptualized as producing spatial inequity.