El Choso Habitable: Cultural and Civic Participation against Touristification
El Choso Habitable
Spain
El Choso Habitable is a cycle of dialogue labs, storytelling, and creative actions at Ateneu Roig (Gràcia) to mobilise residents—Canarian diaspora, neighbours, and migrants—around housing and touristification. Through collective mapping and arts-based facilitation, participants co-produce cultural outputs and build alliances between diverse identities from over-touristified territories. The project translates lived experience into civic participation, fostering intercultural resistance and reclaiming local territory through inclusive, artistic, and community-led democratic practices.
Between May and October 2026, El Choso will execute a participatory programme at Ateneu Roig (Gràcia) bridging culture, community-building, and democratic participation to address tourist-driven housing precariousness and gentrification. The methodology consists of: (1) Dialogue & Mapping Labs to document testimonies, map the socio-spatial impacts of short-term rentals, and identify shared political priorities; (2) Creative Workshops (zine/audio/performance) where emerging local artists translate these testimonies into accessible cultural artifacts; (3) Neighbourhood Assemblies with partner collectives (La Perra Andaluza, Asamblea Cultural Galega, migrant groups) to co-facilitate and co-design strategic follow-up actions; and (4) a Public Intervention/Exhibition to amplify these narratives. Key outputs include a large-scale cultural event, a replication toolkit for systemic scaling, and an evaluation report. Up Grants funding will specifically allow El Choso to professionalize facilitation, enhance accessibility for diverse groups, and strengthen communication strategies, enabling the replication of this model across other Canarian diaspora nodes in Spain.