Special Issue Open Call - Coastal Squeeze: Beaches under Socio-Economic and Ecological Pressure

2024-06-25

Theme: Coastal Squeeze: Beaches under Socio-Economic and Ecological Pressure

 

Guest editors:

Marina de Souza Sartore (Universidade Federal de Sergipe - UFS)

Isabelle Bruno (Uni. Lille – CERAPS-IUF)

Gregory Salle (CNRS – CLERSÉ)

Felipe Comunello (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS-campus Litoral)

 

Deadline for abstract submission in English (500 words): October 30th, 2024. (Final manuscripts can be submitted in English, Spanish or Portuguese).

 

Steps to upload your abstract:

1. Register in TOMO’s website by filling all the information required (https://periodicos.ufs.br/tomo);

2. Upload your article in the system (please read this entire document before submitting your abstract – if you have any question, please write to marinass@academico.ufs.br).

 

General description:

 

In 2017, the French journal Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales (ARSS) launched a Special Issue (SI) entitled “Beaches, contested territories” (Plages, territoires contestés). In this SI, Jennifer Bidet and Elsa Devienne bring together articles that challenge current approaches on beaches in the social sciences, especially on the coveted “sandy beaches”. The well-established view of the literature describes the gradual transformation of beaches from hostile territories to territories for leisuring and vacationing without considering both social constraints and power relations as decisive elements for this transformation. Instead, the main argument from the ARSS SI editors is that beaches are not isolated geographical territories, but rather territories embedded in political and economic circuits that occur at local, regional, national, and international levels. As such, they are contested territories that are at the center of contemporary political and economic disputes. From this perspective, beach studies are of interest to everyone, not only to those living closer to the sea.

The TOMO SI on “Coastal Squeeze: Beaches under Socio-Economic and Ecological Pressure” is well aligned with the focus and scope of the ARSS SI. We invite social scientists to submit articles that analytically go beyond the idea of beaches as isolated territories and expose the logic of contemporary socio-economic and ecological pressures at the local, regional, national, or global levels, taking into account forms of beach grabbing and their disputes.

Beach grabbing processes are not something new in our society, nor are the disputes that arise from them. However, since the turn of the 21st century, such processes have attracted more public attention due to growing sociopolitical awareness of issues related to climate change, rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and the coastal squeeze. The United Nations (UN) estimates that 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 km of the coast (UN, 2017) and that 80% of all tourist activities worldwide occur in coastal areas (UN, 2020). One consequence of this increasing occupation of beaches by tourists and residents is the rise in conflicts related to their privatization and commercialization, sparking debates about who owns this increasingly coveted space: all of us (the public)? Markets (profit-oriented organizations)? The “happy few” (wealthy elites)?

Regarding commercial grabbing, examples have become more and more common around the world. A sequence of actions by the Brazilian Federal Public Ministry aimed to demolish beach bars located on several beaches in different regions of the country, including beaches in the cities of Salvador (state of Bahia) (2010), Capão da Canoa (state of Rio Grande do Sul) (2011), Caucaia (state of Ceará) (2013), Aracaju (state of Sergipe) (2014), Lucena (state of Paraíba) (2015), Paraty (state of Rio de Janeiro) (2016), São Luís (state of Maranhão) (2017); Florianópolis (2017) (state of Santa Catarina), Guarujá (2018) (state of São Paulo), Vila Velha (state of Espírito Santo) (2019), Rio de Janeiro (state of Rio de Janeiro) (2023). In Itajaí (state of Santa Catarina) (2016), also in Brazil, a social mobilization by groups of civil society aimed to keep the free access to the beach. On the other side of the world, beach bars on Thailand’s famous Phuket beach were demolished (2019). In 2020, the dispute between a millionaire entrepreneur and the local council over the installation of a seasonal (pop-up) beach bar on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach reached the Australian national media (2020). In European countries, conflicts over excessive commercial concessions on beaches have also been gaining media attention, such as the cases of the social movements Mare Libero (Free Sea) in Italy (2022) and the Towel Revolt in Greece (2023).

In Brazil, there are also disputes resulting from the attempt by large resorts and economic groups to privatize and block beach access, such as the cases of Governador Celso Ramos (state of Santa Catarina) (2019), Boipeba (state of Bahia) (2023), and Japaratinga (state of Alagoas) (2023). In 2014, the state of Bahia, for example, had 12% of its coastline occupied by 66 commercial enterprises such as resorts, condo-resorts, and seaside tourist complexes, many built on account of international investments coming mainly from Portugal and Spain (Silva et al., 2009; Araújo and Vargas, 2013). In the Caribbean, beach access has become a significant issue of public concern as well. With the runaway development since Hurricane Ivan, access to beaches has been curtailed or lost completely on Grand Cayman (2024), whereas in Jamaica, fight for beach access goes to court (2024).

As for private grabbing, in California (USA), conflicts have risen both over the enclosure of beach access by private properties, all along the coastline, particularly in Malibu (2015) and the Bay Area (2024), and over the need for residents to leave their seaside properties due to coastal erosion (managed retreat) (2023). In the opposite direction, we have seen an increase of seaside properties being built in Brazil, especially in the Northeast (famous for its beaches and as a sea, sun, and sand destination). Two recent emblematic cases are highlighted as examples: The city of Barra dos Coqueiros, in the state of Sergipe, where the population grew 66.2% from 2010 to 2022, mainly due to the growing number of beachfront gated communities (2024); and the case of Praia do Forte beach in the state of Bahia, where almost all the available land has been taken to build gated communities (2024).

Commercial and private grabbing lead to gentrification, pushing traditional coastal residents away from the beach, as can be seen in the examples of the new year festivities in São Miguel dos Milagres, in the state of Alagoas (2024), when access to the beaches by the local communities become limited due to the crowds of tourists. Cases have also been registered where there is use of violence to prevent beach access by local communities, such as the example of Barra Grande, in the state of Piauí (2024).

As beaches become more and more disputed as limited spaces, looking at processes of beach grabbing can also reveal other rising conflicts, and how the solution to these conflicts (problems) are more likely to come from human engineering – even if this engineering brings on other environmental problems, like a dog chasing its own tale. In some locations, the problem of beach erosion has given rise to solutions such as beach nourishment; in turn, economic and political disputes arise over the sand as a limited natural resource (Salle, 2022). Regarding the “colonization” of the sea, in addition to the “sea grabbing” by sea cruises and superyachts (Cf. Salle, 2024 on superyachts and the ball of capitalism), technological innovations also lead to other forms of sea appropriation that were previously only imagined in science fiction films, such as the creation of floating cities (2017) and of artificial islands (2021). As Giorgio Rosa’s frustrated dream of building a personal island in the middle of the ocean (2020) comes closer and closer to a possible reality, at least to a happy few, a number of social and environmental issues will certainly follow.

Therefore, this open call invites submissions from social scientists, especially anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists, whose work can contribute to answering the following questions: In the current context of socio-economic and ecological pressure, how does (commercial/private) beach grabbing helps us understand:

  • the legitimacy of access to nature as a common good.

  • the processes of enclosure of and retreat from natural spaces.

  • how moralities and contestations of commerce in natural spaces are built?

  • how elites structure systems of privileges?

  • the construction of natural spaces as “paradises”, and the disputes over who should or can access them.

  • the debates around environmental justice, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion.

These questions are at the heart of the debates carried out by the interdisciplinary network BeachAccess. The formation of the BeachAccess Network is guided by the project “‘The lure of the seaside’ under ecological pressure”, funded by the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH). BeachAccess also runs the blog Des lignes sur le sable – les plages sur le regard des sciences sociales, through which it promotes its activities. This SI is edited by three members of the BeachAccess network, along with Felipe Comunello, a specialist in anthropology and sociology of tourism.

The publication of this SI is an original contribution to the Brazilian social sciences (especially to sociology) and comes at an opportune moment, as PEC 03/2022 (a constitutional amendment) is being discussed in Brazil. The amendment proposes to remove the exclusive ownership of Terrenos de Marinha from the Federal Government, transmitting ownership of part of these lands to Brazilian states and municipalities. It also excludes the mandatory emphyteusis to Terrenos de Marinha, permitting the transfer of ownership of land to private owners. PEC 03/2022 has been widely contested by the public opinion as it is being considered a way to facilitate the privatization of the Brazilian coast (2022).

This SI will consider for evaluation articles that carry out a bibliographical review. However, research that presents empirical data is highly encouraged.

 

Recommended complementary readings:

 

  • BIDET, Jennifer; DEVIENNE, Elsa. Plages, territoires contestés. ARSS. 2017.

  • BRUNO, I; SALLE, G. “Before long there will be nothing but billionaires!” The power of elites over space on the Saint-Tropez peninsula. Socio-Economic Review, v.16, n.02, 2018

  • SARTORE, Marina de Souza; COFFEY, BRIAN. Markets on the edge: Beach kiosk TripAdvisor consumer online reviews as dataset to compare Australian and Brazilian beachfront collective representations. Política & Sociedade (IMPRESSO), v. 18, p. 77-107, 2020.

  • SARTORE, M. S.; PEREIRA, S. A.; RODRIGUES, C. Aracaju beach bars as a contested market: Conflicts and overlaps between market and nature. Ocean and Coastal Management, v. 179, p. 01, 2019.

 

Submission dynamics:

  • Step 1: Submit abstracts of up to 500 words in English by October 30th 2024 by accessing https://periodicos.ufs.br/tomo. The first step is to “Register” (If you are already registered, you can login directly). The second step is to click on “make a submission”.

  • Step 2: Authors with accepted abstracts will be invited to submit a complete article for the special issue through the journal’s submission system, following the journal’s guidelines for authors (https://periodicos.ufs.br/tomo/about/submissions).

  • Step 3: Evaluation of complete articles will follow TOMO’s standard evaluation guidelines (https://periodicos.ufs.br/tomo/avaliacaoporpares). Accepted articles will be published in TOMO in 2025.

 

Timeline:

Up to October 30th, 2024: Submission of abstracts up to 500 words in English through TOMO’s website (Register as an author, then make a submission).

Up to December 15th, 2024: Notification by E-mail of approved abstracts and requests for complete manuscripts from authors, following the journal’s guidelines for authors (https://periodicos.ufs.br/tomo/about/submissions).

Up to March 30th, 2025: Submission of complete manuscripts through the journal’s submission system.

April, May and June, 2025: Reviews of complete manuscripts.

From June 2025 to December 2025: Proofreading and editing of accepted complete manuscripts; Article publication (TOMO adopts the rolling pass publication format for all its publications, including Special Issues. Once the paper is accepted for publication it will follow the editorial steps and will be published online as soon as it is ready for publication).

 

If you have any questions, please send an email to marinass@academico.ufs.br with the heading “Question about the special issue for TOMO”.