Capuccino or Galão? Local Perspectives on Digital Nomadism in Lisbon

Abstract

While existing research has largely focused on examining diverse aspects of digital nomads themselves, the present study uncovers the impacts of a large influx of digital nomads through the lens of Lisbon’s urban fabric. As one of the very few studies to undertake this research direction, interviews were carried out with local residents, businesses and governmental institutions; demonstrations and relevant locales were observed; and media reports and governmental communications were analyzed. In this sense, this paper’s novel contributions concern: the divergent relationship of digital nomads with different types of businesses; contrasting sociocultural impacts for local stakeholders (ranging from positive influences to feelings of identity loss); skepticism over nomads’ economic benefits; as well as a sense of unfairness that fueled digital nomads’ symbolic role in Lisbon’s socioeconomic crisis. Notwithstanding being a single-case research, the findings unearthed in this paper are paradigmatic of a wider universe of cases – comprising the impacts of a large influx of a phenomenon that embodies globalization and neoliberalism (i.e., digital nomadism), on a city afflicted by similar phenomena (in Lisbon’s case, mass tourism and a tech-oriented environment), and whose legal institutions are geared towards capitalizing on them. To assess the paradigmaticity of the present case, critical urban theory is employed, as it precisely theorizes about neoliberal, global phenomena unfolding in the urban spatiality.