Situating Sitges as a specifically affluent and "middle-class" location representing a particular form of "lifestyle migration," this rich and detailed study explores how the experiences of British migrants re-inscribe culturally specific understandings of the relationship between space, place, culture and identity. What ultimately emerges is an account of the complex structural constraints of identity, as British migrants find themselves stuck within the stereotype of badly-behaved Brits Abroad and entangled in highly conservative conceptualisations of gender and sexuality, that leave them unable to live the kind of cosmopolitan lifestyles that they so purposefully sought.
This is a fascinating study suitable for researchers in gender and sexuality studies, tourism, sociology, and anthropology.
Laura Dixon is a social anthropologist and the programme leader of Events Management at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Her research to date focuses on recognition, cosmopolitanism, gender, and sexuality amongst privileged British "lifestyle migrants" in the tourist town of Sitges, in Spain. She is currently working on exploring ideas of temporality and spatialisation in relation to Britons who have recently returned from Spain to the UK.