‘Anti-tourism, environmentalism, and democratic transition: the making of the biosphere reserve of Menorca, 1964–1993’

This paper examines the struggle over tourism development on the island of Menorca, Spain, leading to its recognition as a Biosphere by the United Nations in 1993. As Mallorca, the largest island of the Balearic archipelago, became saturated with resorts by the mid-1960s, foreign investors began setting their sights on its smaller neighbour. Spain’s authoritarian government generally courted tourism development and rarely enforced environmental regulations or building codes, but local youth activists in Menorca learned how to leverage the administrative process to halt construction, building over time a political coalition able to overcome the influence of development capital. The struggle continued into the post-authoritarian transition to democracy after 1975, a story that highlights an underappreciated element of that process involving the surprising effectiveness of local mobilisations around issues of land use and environment.