Tourism Fields, Arenas, and Disputes in the Latin American Urban Context

This study reflects on the theoretical and methodological contributions of the tourism field approach to coastal cities in Latin America, particularly in contexts that address the construction of legitimate spaces of symbolic struggle. The research adopts a systematic literature review, complemented by the analysis of secondary data and the development of an analytical matrix grounded in Bourdieu’s concepts of social field, capital and habitus. The findings suggest that, within the Latin American context, urban tourism constitutes a field of symbolic conflict, revealing social inequalities, logics of domination and potential pathways for social transformation. To examine these dynamics, the study proposes an analytical matrix designed to map and analyse struggles within the tourism field in urban environments. The main limitation of the research lies in the absence of empirical application and in the initial stage of operationalising the proposed analytical matrix. The originality of this work resides in its creative articulation of Bourdieu’s theoretical framework with urban tourism, as well as in the development of a methodological tool adapted to Latin American contexts, with a critical emphasis on symbolic struggles within the tourism field.DOI: https://doi.org/10.54663/2182-9306.2026.SpecialIssueCMTH.111-126