Jordi Vegas Macias forsvarer sin ph.d.-afhandling
Tourist–resident encounters as practice-based social value co-creation in Copenhagen".
Jordi Vegas Macias forsvarer sin ph.d.-afhandling "The Encounterscape:Tourist–resident encounters as practice-based social value co-creation in Copenhagen".
Forsvaret er offentligt, og alle er velkomne. Forsvaret er planlagt til at vare maksimalt tre timer og vil foregå på engelsk.
Ph.d.-skolen ved Institut for Samfundsvidenskab og Erhverv er vært ved en lille reception efterfølgende.
Vejledere og bedømmelse
Bedømmelsesudvalg:
- Professor Lars Fuglesang, Institut for Samfundsvidenskab og Erhverv, Roskilde Universitet (forperson)
- Professor Erika Andersson Cederholm, Department of Service Studies, Lund University
- Associate Professor Dimitrios Stylidis, Department of Management Science & Technology, Democritus University of Thrace
Ph.d.-vejleder:
- Hovedvejleder: Lektor, Matias Thuen Jørgensen, Institut for Samfundsvidenskab og Erhverv, Roskilde Universitet.
- Bivejleder: Professor MSO, Flemming Sørensen, Institut for Samfundsvidenskab og Erhverv, Roskilde Universitet.
Project description – a short abstract:
This PhD dissertation investigates how encounters between tourists and residents shape the social life of cities. As tourism increasingly takes place in shared urban spaces, such as streets, parks, and mobility systems, these interactions become central to how cities remain liveable, inclusive, and sustainable. While tourism research has traditionally focused on economic impacts and visitor numbers, this study instead examines the lived, day‑to‑day dynamics of how people meet, interact, and make sense of each other.
Using Copenhagen as a case, the dissertation shows that these encounters are not necessarily random but are shaped by a combination of physical environments (e.g., infrastructure), organised experiences (e.g., tourism activities), and strategic communication (e.g., destination campaigns). Drawing on a practice-based perspective, it conceptualizes these dynamics as an “encounterscape”: a network of interconnected situations where social value, such as trust, belonging, or conflict, is continuously produced and negotiated.
By focusing on how these encounters unfold in practice, this research addresses a key gap in examining the social dimension of urban tourism and highlights the importance of interactions as a foundation for more sustainable and socially balanced city destinations.
Conclusions: What are the most important conclusions in the dissertation?
Key highlights:
- Tourist–resident encounters are central moments where the social value of tourism is created, negotiated, or undermined in everyday city life.
- Social value (e.g., trust, belonging, irritation, exclusion) emerges through how well meanings, competences, and material conditions align in practice.
- Encounters are not isolated events but part of a broader “encounterscape” shaped by interaction, enterprise mediation, and institutional framing.
- Everyday infrastructures (such as cycling systems) play a key role in enabling or constraining positive encounters.
- Tourism enterprises can successfully facilitate meaningful interactions, but overly controlled experiences risk becoming artificial or exclusive.
- Destination management organisations frame encounters as responsible and meaningful, but this can also narrow acceptable behaviours and commodify social relations.
- Governance increasingly operates through encouraging “responsible” behaviour among tourists and residents rather than direct control.
- Tourist–resident encounters are inherently ambivalent, capable of both fostering inclusion and producing tension in urban destinations.
Recommendations
The findings suggest that tourism actors should place greater emphasis on how tourists and residents interact in everyday urban life, rather than focusing primarily on growth or visitor numbers.
For destination organisations, this means developing strategies that improve the quality of encounters by fostering mutual understanding and respectful behaviour, while avoiding overly prescriptive messaging that may feel controlling or exclusionary.
Tourism businesses can use these insights to design experiences that encourage meaningful interaction, but without over-structuring them, allowing encounters to remain flexible and authentic. At the same time, urban planners and policymakers can apply the findings by creating infrastructures and public spaces that are easy to navigate, inclusive, and supportive of shared use, helping reduce friction between different city users.
More broadly, the research recommends a shift in tourism management towards shaping the conditions in which encounters take place, such as clear norms, accessible spaces, and supportive communication, rather than trying to control behaviour directly.
This approach can help cities balance tourism development with social sustainability by ensuring that visitors and residents can coexist more comfortably in everyday life.