‘Málaga for living, not surviving’: Resident perceptions of overtourism, social injustice and urban governance

Research on overtourism has often treated it as an issue of excessive visitor numbers or sustainability shortfalls, giving limited attention to how social injustice and governance failure shape its impacts. This study addresses this gap by examining how overtourism in Málaga, Spain, reorganizes urban life for long-term residents. Guided by social justice theory and critical urban theory, this qualitative research identifies distributive, recognitive, procedural, and restorative harms manifested in housing displacement, cultural loss, exclusion from governance, and failure of repair. The findings show that governance neglect, through weak regulation, tokenistic participation, and lack of accountability, converges with tourism growth to intensify resident precarity. Overtourism thus emerges not as a technical or managerial challenge but as a political process that deepens structural inequalities. By centering resident perspectives, the paper calls for governance approaches that place inclusion, recognition, and repair at the center, offering a justice-oriented roadmap for more liveable urban futures. • Overtourism in Málaga emerges through social injustice and governance failure • Defines overtourism as a political process that redistributes risks and harms • Extends social justice theory with distributive, recognitive, procedural, restorative • Grounds critical urban theory in residents' lived experiences of dispossession • Calls for just, participatory and resident-centered policy reform