Conference Agenda

Community-based tourism (CBT) has long been heralded as a model for sustainable development, fostering local participation and equitable economic benefits. In Kyrgyzstan, women play a crucial role in CBT, managing homestays, coordinating local tourism networks, and ensuring visitor experiences. However, to what extent does this involvement lead to genuine social and cultural empowerment, rather than merely providing an income within existing patriarchal structures?

This paper critically examines the impact of CBT on women in Kyrgyzstan, drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted over three months in 2023. Through interviews with CBT coordinators, tourism entrepreneurs, and development workers, the research uncovers a nuanced picture: while CBT creates vital income-generating opportunities for women, especially those who are widowed, its initial community-driven principles have weakened, and decision-making power has become increasingly centralized. Many women in the sector still face traditional gendered labor divisions, with managerial and guiding roles predominantly occupied by men. Although CBT training programs and workshops promote female entrepreneurship, their broader impact on social and political empowerment remains uncertain.

Furthermore, findings reveal that while some women achieve a form of economic self-sufficiency, their labor conditions can be exploitative, reinforcing rather than transforming traditional gender norms. On the other hand, some examples have shown that women forming closer relationships through working together in CBT, also may positively impact the whole community in terms of social cohesion and mutual aid - aspects of central importance in rural Kyrgyzstan. The study interrogates whether CBT truly fosters inclusive community development or whether it inadvertently reproduces existing hierarchies under the guise of empowerment. In doing so, it contributes to broader discussions on the intersections of gender, tourism, and development, questioning whether CBT’s current trajectory aligns with its foundational principles of equitable and participatory tourism.

By situating Kyrgyzstan’s CBT experience within global critiques of community-based tourism, this research highlights both the promises and limitations of tourism as a vehicle for women’s empowerment.

This policy paper examines how contemporary cities manage diversity in urban public spaces and the key role of policymakers and urban planners in fostering socio-spatial inclusion. The strategies and recommendations proposed derive from more than 15 years of studies, action-research projects, and dialogues within the SSIIM UNESCO Chair on the Social and Spatial Inclusion of International Migrants at the University Iuav of Venice.

Cities have always been hubs of diversity, further intensified by international migration. This has led to a diversification of the demands for public space delving from new ways of using, producing, and reclaiming it (Marconi 2015). Space is crucial for the inclusion of people with a migrant background, reflecting societal and political attitudes toward diversity—ranging from recognition to rejection. This is evident in housing patterns, where segregation fosters socio-spatial exclusion and stigmatisation (Massey and Denton 1988; Wacquant 2004; Marcuse 2005), and in the accessibility of public spaces, where visible and invisible barriers often fuel conflicts and exclude those perceived as outsiders and unwelcome (Sayad 1999; Marconi 2024).

As Madanipour (2019) notes, public spaces are no longer inherently democratic—if they ever were. Growing spatial injustice (Soja 2010; Marcuse et al. 2009) and consumer-driven spaces erode their social value. In hyper-regulated European cities, loitering or gathering without consumption is often seen as disruptive. Migrants, accustomed to more informal uses of public space, bring spatial practices that can clash with host cities’ norms, feeding tensions unless interaction and mutual understanding are actively promoted (Hier 2011).

Urban planning and policy determine whether public spaces become sites of conflict or inclusion. In the “age of Migration” (Castles and Miller 1993), cities have adopted widely different governance models towards increasing diversity (Caponio et. al 2019). Some enforce restrictive, securitized interventions under “law and order,” pushing migrants into invisibility. Others promote equal opportunities, social cohesion, and the right to the city for all (Lefebvre 2002), fostering recognition and belonging through mediation, placemaking, and conflict reduction. Negotiating diversity remains a key challenge (Sandercock 2000; Fincher and Iveson 2008; Marconi and Ostanel 2016), with urban planners and policymakers playing a decisive role in shaping inclusive or exclusionary cities.