Leopold LUCAS is Lecturer in Geography at Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale. After a PhD in Université de Lausanne (his thesis was looking for the ways tourists are inhabiting Los Angeles), he did a PostDoc at University College of London (thanks to a grant from the Swiss National Science Fundation) and was after that fixed-term lecturer at University of Lausanne. His research focus on two main axes: 1) An investigation of individual practices, to understand the use of skills in the ways people cope with space. 2) An analysis of the urbanity of places, i.e. how spaces are inhabited in urban ways, particularly through tourism dynamics.
The smartphone has infused our lifestyles to become a ubiquitous actant. As a true spatial technology, it has also transformed how individuals cope with space. But what meaning do we give to this object? How do its uses change our lives? What does it make us do (or not do)? These are the research questions at the heart of Nicolas Nova’s book. [...]
This paper offers a discussion about the integration of the « techniques of the body » within a geography of action. The main idea is to define « skills » as the mastery of body techniques. We argue that this mastery gives individuals a capacity of adaptation to cope with space they do not know yet. More precisely, the article discusses the relevance of Marcel Mauss’ proposition, especially in the light of the reading established by Tim Ingold. This [...]
This short paper argues against the perspective that considers cities’ touristic areas as « bubbles ». Indeed, a large part of research tends to present these areas as enclaves, almost heterotopias ; this point of view implies that tourism goes against local communities by producing ruptures and discontinuities in cities. However, serious consideration shows the limits of such conceptualization, hypothesises that tourism increases the urbanity of cities (by expanding the density and diversity of societal realities that are co-present, [...]
