Vol. 16 No. 32 (2025): Communities and possible worlds. Community experiences and practices of resistance in neoliberal rationality
Articles

Alternative Tourism and Platform Cooperativism: The Resistance Practices of Abruzzo’s Community-based Cooperatives

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  • Francesca Belotti,
  • Antonio Opromolla,
  • Fabio Virgilio,
  • Giulia Candeloro,
  • Luciana Mastrolonardo,
  • Stefania Parisi
Francesca Belotti
Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, Italy
Antonio Opromolla
Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, Italy
Fabio Virgilio
CulTurMedia Legacoop, Italy
Giulia Candeloro
Università di Chieti–Pescara, Italy
Luciana Mastrolonardo
Università di Chieti–Pescara, Italy
Stefania Parisi
Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/smp-16161

Published 2025-12-30

Keywords

  • Communities of Resistance,
  • Alternative Tourism,
  • Platform Cooperativism,
  • Digital Tourism,
  • Design Sociology

How to Cite

Belotti, F., Opromolla, A., Virgilio, F., Candeloro, G., Mastrolonardo, L., & Parisi, S. (2025). Alternative Tourism and Platform Cooperativism: The Resistance Practices of Abruzzo’s Community-based Cooperatives. SocietàMutamentoPolitica, 16(32), 143–160. https://doi.org/10.36253/smp-16161

Copyright (c) 2025 Francesca Belotti, Antonio Opromolla, Fabio Virgilio, Giulia Candeloro, Luciana Mastrolonardo, Stefania Parisi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The article presents the results of an action research project carried out in Abruzzo, a region in southern Italy characterized by high socio-economic marginalization. Eight community-based cooperatives active in alternative tourism and local services participated in the co-design of a digital mock-up of a platform that reflects their values and practices. The experience is analyzed as a form of resistance to the “hit-and-run” tourism promoted by mainstream platforms such as AirBnB and Booking. The theoretical framework draws upon studies on the platformization of tourism and the resulting socio-cultural transformations, as well as literature on alternative tourism and platform cooperativism. Inductively, it also integrates studies on community resistance practices and commoning actions. The methodological framework is based on digital co-design as a qualitative research method with a sociological vocation. The results show that the co-designed platform, AbiTerrò, has fostered the formation – albeit complex and not without tensions – of a collective identity among the cooperatives, which have thus positioned themselves as a community of resistance, even in the digital sphere, to the dominant tourism model enabled by mainstream platforms. Compared to the latter, the cooperatives adopt both oppositional and propositional practices and positions, which are immediately translated into the digital design of AbiTerrò.

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