SOCIAL GROUP, 29th April 2011

Today we have been finishing our field work. We split in two groups, three of us went to Mogán old town, and other two went to Arguineguín. In Mogán we interviewed the director of Tahoma Club, a local association which also is the main social group on town. They are doing many activities from dancing parties to theater workshops. Probably the most important thing is we were told about integration of immigrants. They have some of them, from different countries (UK, Germany, Sweden, Danemark, Norway, Portugal, Morocco or Brazil), and what is more important, they are totally integrated. We were told how local people are more interested in them, in their culture, so that helps to complete a full integration in a diverse local society. Also, they are cooperating with other clubs, like Mogán Bonito –situated in Playa de Mogán- or the Norwegian club, in Arguineguín. It is this place where the other two of us went. We were talking with the Norwegian church priest, and it was really helpful to understand how they are organized. There is a whole community of Norwegians living in Arguineguín and places around, many of them due to climate conditions –and usually as a consequence of healthy problems-. They are owners of shops, bar and pubs, and are trying to integrate in local society. That, in turn, could be difficult, because they are so many that if they want to, they can live in their own, without mixing with local culture, for not saying some of them do not know the Spanish language. All of this is already helping us to make the final report and the further presentation which will be most likely tomorrow.

SOCIAL GROUP, 28th April 2011

Today we proceed as yesterday, with a first meeting early in the morning to keep clear our ideas. After this we continued with our field work, so we were driven to municipality of Mogán. We first stopped in Patalavaca looking for the Norwegian community. We found the Norwegian school near Arguineguín, to be precise in Aquamarina neighbourhood. We were told a bit how they are organized and we were suggested to go to Arguineguín for a meeting with the priest of the Norwegian church of Gran Canaria. We did not manage to talk to her today, but we made an appointment for tomorrow. We continued the field work in Mogán, where we spoke with the people from the main social club and officials, municipality workers, in order to get data that could help us to figure Mogán’s social structure for our upcoming presentation. We did not manage to get it, despite we will como tomorrow due to Mogán’s architect is going to give us the ongoing Master Plan. In the social club we got data about why and when this was established, which people are integrated there and how they include immigrants to their social activities. Finally, we had a brief interview with the Social Issues Office, who, among other things, told us how Norwegian community is cooperating with them, with the municipality. The Social Club for old people and the mayor, besides the priest, could not be localized.

SOCIAL GROUP, 27th April 2011

Our group met in the hotel lobby to discuss our feature research. The goal of the day was finding final hypothesis of our research. We went to Mogan where we started collecting data. At first we were in the statistical department of Municipality of Mogan. They gave us data about inhabitants and immigrants to Mogan municipality.

On the base of this data we tried to find how immigrants are integrated in the society of Mogan and surrounding. We were in the cemetery. We did an short visits to Cultural centre, police station, the school of Mogan and Puerto de Mogan.

In the afternoon we discussed about what we find out so far. We finally presented our ideas to our teachers. In next two days will focus on Norwegian community in municipality of Mogan and social life in different clubs.

SOCIAL GROUP, 26th April 2011

Visit to central-east side of Gran Canaria. Tamadaba’s pine forest and dams area.

Today we did a circle trip through central mauntains area of Gran Canaria. The first stops were dedicated to physical geography. From a social geography point of view we saw an cultivated valley with oasis. In the village Tunte we saw a large number of water-accumulating tanks for collecting rain water. In Tunte there were interesting terraces for agriculture.

On our way to Artenara we stopped at the accumulation lake with a dam. The water is used for production of electric energy. The power plant has a unique system of water circulation, that produces more energy. We have discussed issues regarding water distribution on the Islands.

In Artenara we discussed historical economic and identity crises in Spain. We continued to Tamadaba pine forest, where we had a beautiful view on port of Agaete and surrounding area. On the way back to Maspalomas we had a stop in Mogan and Playa de Mogan to get an idea about the research area on which we will be focusing in the incoming days.

SOCIAL GROUP, 25th April 2011

Visit to Maspaloma’s tourist resort, sand dunes and Melonera’s coast.

Today we have seen much more about social geography than the day before. A human geography professor from the university of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been guiding us through the tourist gradient resort of Maspalomas. For that, we have been taught the recent history of south Gran Canaria. It was not until the 30s when the owner, of the almost whole south of the island, the Conde de la Vega Grande, decided to explode agriculturally that territory. It was not till the early 60s when he realized it was better to shift, thus he tried to gain money with the incipient tourism, especially based on a characteristic landscape and on a specific offer, sun and sand. The first tourism settlements had many infrastructural and lack of capital problems. It was not therefore until the end of the decade when this area was developed as a tourist area, specially for Scandinavian company employees. With the 73s oil crisis the tourism developed went down, till the 80s, concretely when in 1986 Spain joined the European Union, bringing money both from the UE and the new tourists. That also attracted people to that place, first from the islands and the others one of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, and more recently from north Africa and Southamerica.

The municipality of San Bartolomé, where we are, had not any node near by the sea, so the urbanization process had not any foundations from which it could develop. Thus the urbanization process started from zero, and all new urban areas were used for tourism use. The main idea nowadays is consequently the spatial social structure, so that we have three clear urban areas. Playa del Inglés is the first area which was developed, being now a gradient tourist resort. At the other side of the sand dunes and the Maspaloma’s golf course we have Melonera’s coast, a new tourism resort developed since the 90s, full of four and five stars hotels. Furthermore, we have El Tablero, a neighbourhood born as a tourist industry and construction workers.

So today we have discussed where exactly we want to do our field work. It seems both interesting the case we have just described, and also Mogán municipality case, where we would be able to see the relation between an old town and the new tourist resort located down the beach. Tomorrow we will most likely visit Mogán in order to decide which option we will choose.

SOCIAL GROUP, 24th April 2011

Visit to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Ferry to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Visit to Bandama’s volcanic caldera.

Today we have been visiting Tenerife’s capital, Santa Cruz. We went on a quick sightseeing, walking around the old town and old port. There it was where later on we took a ferry to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. We travelled to Bandama’s volcanic caldera, where we did not see any social processes at all. The most remarkable fact we saw it was the golf course just near by the amazing caldera. We were taught how the English people who were living in Las Palmas (most of them working on trade or commercial) moved to that part of the island, close to the capital of Gran Canaria but still far from the city. There they built their own houses, most of them easily recognisable due to the characteristic British architecture. There were that English citizens who built this golf course in the 19^th century, being therefore the oldest in Spain. Finally, it is also remarkable how the 75% of the population of the island is living there, so it is here where all infrastructure is concentred too. This is saying how different is Gran Canaria in spatial distribution terms compared to its sister Tenerife.

We have been discussing about the method from how we will approach our future goals. What we are sure now is we want to crumble social structures and where are them located.

SOCIAL GROUP, 23rd of April 2011

Visit to San Cristobal de La Laguna and Anaga Natural Park.

For that two places, the most important for us part took place in La Laguna. First we were sightseeing along the old town, former upper town, which was the rich part of the city and currently World Heritage declared by UNESCO. On the other hand, we were taken to visit the lesser town, a place where poor people settled. The urban development of these neighbourhood was concretely during the 60s and 70s, when many migrants came back to La Laguna moved by the new economic situation, the same one that had made them to move to south America (especially Venezuela and Cuba) twenty years before, due to Franco’s autarchy. So, this place became the main area where immigrants settled.

Since that we have seen today the migration issue and due to we had already discussed about it yesterday, we have been now thinking through how to deal with this topic. Then, we realized is going to be hard to study. Once we reckon immigration is not releasable due to the difficulty to get data and carry out a proper field work in just three days, we decided not to study it itself. Discussing other ideas, we talked about social structure and differences and connections of old towns in midlands and new urban coastal areas within a municipality. Concretely, we have agreed that it is interesting the differences between these towns, not only in economics terms, but in social aspects. In order to develop that field work, we have seen that the municipality of Mogán in south Gran Canaria might be a good example for making that comparison. We will see it live in the upcoming days.