Contentious Hotspots: Ecotourism and the Restructuring of Place at the Biosphere Reserve Ria Celestun (Yucatan, Mexico)

Abstract

Tourism mobilities, conservation, and development planning are central social processes in the restructuring of places. This paper will argue that this is especially manifest in Biosphere Reserves where global agendas are spatially articulated through the creation of ‘contentious hotspots’ or ‘heated spots’, that is, sites within the local in which global mobilities are condensed and constantly at play through the performance of disruptive practices. The paper draws evidence from the ethnographical account of two disputes at the Biosphere Reserve Ria Celestun (Yucatan, Mexico) where tourism mobilities and conservation planning have established the ria and the beach as those contentious hotspots where mobilities are concentrated, space and resources are appropriated, and locals and institutions fight to stay still.