IN-PERSON Barcelona Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, many digital nomads, mostly coming from North America, have been moving to Mexico City; they concentrate in a few central neighbourhoods, well served in amenities and accessible. A restructuring of urban life and infrastructure is underway to cater to the needs of this new population: coworking and coliving spaces are multiplying, the short-term rental sector is on the rise, and businesses are diversifying. Digital nomads live in a “bubble”, seeking to replicate their previous lifestyle, at a cheaper price. Their lack of integration and the use of English in public space accentuate the visibility and audibility of the gentrification process and reinforce feelings of forced adaptation, loss, and exclusion for local communities. Using interviews with a range of actors, my research explores post-pandemic transnational gentrification and comprehends digital nomads as a specific type of gentrifiers generating a specific set of changes. As digital nomads decide to settle for a relatively long period in a city, they may generate more permanent forms of transnational gentrification. The research also unpacks perceptions and framings of gentrification, and underlines a form of complicity from digital nomads: they are aware of their contribution to gentrification but tend to emphasize the natural or necessary dimensions of the phenomenon. I will continue the research by doing a comparison with Barcelona, where similar phenomena are unfolding, although with differences in temporality, state intervention, and forms of resistance, thus raising the question of the possibility for and challenges of policy mobility.