Travel imaginaries, excursionist practices and peasant resistance in the tourist production of natural space (Mallorca, 1916–36)

This article analyses the historical production of the Serra de Tramuntana (Mallorca) as both a natural and tourist space between 1916 and 1936. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s concept of the social production of space, and combining environmental history with cultural analysis, it examines how tourist imaginaries, conservation discourses and excursionist practices reshaped a peasant agricultural landscape. Focusing on three key episodes – the Archducal Miramar complex, the activities of the Lo Fémur hiking group, and the Hotel Formentor – the article explores processes of dispossession, social discipline and the imposition of colonial-inflected notions of nature. At the same time, it highlights the everyday forms of peasant resistance and negotiation that limited and transformed tourist projects. By foregrounding local agency and tourists’ own transgressive practices, the study shows how the Tramuntana emerged as a contested and socially produced landscape rather than a passive or pristine natural setting.