Every summer, millions of people flock to Italy's coasts in search of sun, relaxation, and respite. Behind that postcard image, however, lies the labor of tired bodies, wasted time, and frayed relationships. During the summer of 2025, we conducted ethnographic research along the Campania coast, inside a small business that rents beach equipment and takes tourists on boat trips, to explore this hidden side of tourism. Let's explore together what really happens behind a beach umbrella, starting with a concept we're introducing for this occasion: the " extractivism of bodies ." This expression originated to describe the exploitation of mines and natural resources, and we use it here to refer to people, not raw materials.
A small reality, not a large beach
Before delving into the details, a clarification is necessary. We're not talking about a large, organized beach resort, with umbrellas lined up and a structured company behind it. The company we're observing is a microorganization that has been operating for years on a public beach on the Amalfi Coast, renting equipment and taking swimmers by boat to coves accessible only by sea. It's a deeply rooted, family-run business, far removed from the practices of large, mass-market beach resorts. This is precisely why this case is interesting: it shows how certain extractive dynamics don't just affect large tourism companies, but can also affect smaller businesses.
When other people's free time becomes our waiting
The precariousness of seasonal work isn't just about short-term contracts or economic uncertainty. It's also about time. Those who work in these contexts often remain constantly available, with their boats ready in the water and their bodies waiting for a call that can come at any moment. This wait is never truly free, because it remains work-oriented. Further complicating matters is the instability of the rules governing beach concessions, with extensions, appeals, and new regulations that have emerged in recent years, culminating in the 2024 decree that further extended the expiration of existing concessions. This situation makes planning for the future difficult, not only for businesses, but also for those who work there every day.
The body as the first working tool
Fieldwork reveals how the body is the true productive infrastructure of this work. Carrying equipment across the sand, spending hours under the sun, standing between embarkations and disembarks: these are tasks that are repeated every day, often without sufficient breaks to eat or even rest. Over time, this toil leaves its mark. Stories of illness, joint pain, vision problems, and heart problems often recur in the stories collected from workers, experienced almost as a natural part of the job. Added to this is the increasingly intense heat, which, according to international research, is now one of the main risks for those working outdoors. The point, for this writer, is not that the climate alone creates exploitation, but that it makes it more visible and more burdensome to bear.
Always smile: the struggle of relationships
Then there's another type of work, less visible but equally demanding: that of building relationships. Managing requests, easing tensions, remaining polite even when customers are rude or disrespectful. An episode recounted in the research is emblematic: a group of tourists moves the same beach umbrella three times, without considering that someone else takes care of it from morning to night. Small gestures that, repeated over time, make the workers feel almost invisible, reduced to a simple function at the customer's service. But it's not all devaluation. In another passage from the field diary, a young child draws a heart with his hands towards a worker, who responds with a faint smile. A small gesture, but one capable of momentarily restoring dignity and recognition to those who normally remain in the background.
Same sea, different worlds
One of the most striking insights from the research concerns the inequality that permeates the same body of water. As one of the study participants writes, in the same sea, without barriers other than social ones, coexist those who spend fifteen euros for a day at the beach and those who, in the same day, spend an amount equivalent to a mortgage that others will spend a lifetime to repay. The sea, in short, is not a neutral space. It is pervaded by what sociologist John Urry (2002) has called the tourist gaze : a socially organized way of experiencing holidays, which distributes different roles between those who consume the experience and those who make it possible by working.
Not just exploitation: connections and resistance
However, it would be reductive to describe this world solely through the lens of exploitation. The research also reveals a fragile working community , made up of daily cooperation, shared breakfasts, and bonds that go beyond the simple professional relationship. One participant describes himself as one of the losers in Verga's novels (2014), but at the same time continues to cultivate projects and desires for change. The sea, for those who work there, remains an ambivalent place: it consumes the body, but at the same time defines identity and restores a sense of belonging that is difficult to abandon.
Looking at the sea with different eyes
Restoring visibility to those who work behind the scenes of beach tourism means learning to look at the sea differently. Not only as a space for recreation, but also as a place where very real inequalities are created and reproduced. The next time someone books a sun lounger or boards a boat to reach a secluded beach, perhaps it's worth remembering that behind that lightness lies a body that works, a time that isn't entirely theirs, and relationships that must be built day after day, often in silence.
Francesco Di Mauro and Immacolata Stefanini
References
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- Gudynas, E. (2009). This urgent thesis about the new extractionism. In Extractivismo, politics and society. CAAP/CLAES.
- Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
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- International Labor Organization (2019). Working on a warmer planet: The effect of heat stress on productivity and decent work. ILO.
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- Urry, J. (2002). The tourist gaze (2nd ed.). Wise.
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