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Volume 36.5 September 2012 102238

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research


DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01152.x

The Transformation of the Barcelona


Model: An Analysis of Culture, Urban
Regeneration and Governance
MNICA DEGEN and MARISOL GARCA

Abstract

ijur_1152

1022..1038

Barcelonas redevelopment has been widely celebrated for its apparently successful
combination of cultural strategies with urban regeneration to address social problems.
The Barcelona model has evolved, however, with changing relationships between
urban regeneration, the use of culture and modes of governance. The role of cultural
strategy has shifted from being part of a cultural vernacular with social and political
citizenship at its core to become a functional tool for ensuring social cohesion
and marketing the citys brand. This is linked to a gradual dilution of bottom-up
participatory democracy in governance. Pressures for international competitiveness are
challenging the sustainability of the Barcelona model, while local actors are trying to
ensure social justice at home.

Introduction
Barcelonas urban regeneration has become a prominent example to other cultural
regeneration approaches in the ways that it took an urban design, cultural planning and
creative quarter approach and integrated cultural activity in the redevelopment of areas
alongside other activities in the environmental, social and economic sphere (Evans
2005: 968; see also Urban Taskforce, 1999). While we agree with other academics that
the existence and straightforward application of a unique Barcelona model of city
renewal is questionable, one can identify distinctive features in Barcelonas urban
development since the 1980s (McNeill, 1999; Marshall, 2000; Monclus, 2003; Casellas
and Pallares-Barbera, 2009). The citys innovative mix of cultural activity and urban
regeneration has been underlined by a unique governance style based upon strong citizen
support (Gonzalez and Healey, 2005), which few have dared to challenge.1 The reason
for the lack of criticism is that urban quality and social dignity have been combined in
the renewal of Barcelona with the aim of enhancing social cohesion and a sense of
belonging to the city (see Garca-Ramon and Albet, 2000: 1334).
In this article, rather than focusing on particular areas or projects in the city, we follow
the call from a growing number of academics (Balibrea, 2001; Monclus, 2003; Garca,
2005; Miles, 2005) for a critical evaluation of Barcelonas urban development. To do
this, we do not provide an overall analysis of the construction and implementation of
a model (Borja, 1995; Marshall, 2000; 2004), but limit ourselves to analysing the
transformation of the relationship between urban regeneration approaches, the use of
1

Exceptions are Capel (2005), Delgado (2007) and an array of civic associations such as the
Federation of Neighbourhood Associations or the Civic Platform.

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The cultural transformation of the Barcelona model

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culture and modes of governance in Barcelonas redevelopment since the 1980s.2 We


discuss three aspects of this nexus: first, the changing role of cultural policy and, in
particular, the ways in which culture has been used as a tool to ensure social cohesion
within the citys urban transformation; second, the stability of a particular governance
model amidst an increased internationalization of the city and a decline in democratic
citizens participation in city making; and last, the pressures that are arising from the
citys ambitions to remain competitive in the international context whilst simultaneously
ensuring social justice at home. To examine these issues we start this article by
contextualizing Barcelonas urban transformation within a general framework of urban
regime transformation and cities current practice of combining cultural strategies with
urban regeneration to foster social cohesion. In the second section we review Barcelonas
planning strategies and evaluate the changing role of culture and modes of governance
within the citys urban regeneration. To conclude we outline some of the global pressures
that are starting to destabilize Barcelonas unique ways of making and conceiving the
city.

Urban development, culture and social cohesion


Political elites have tended to transfer practices of urban regeneration from one urban
context to another, forgetting that urban development is a deeply historical and placespecific phenomenon (Moulaert et al., 2007; Turok, 2009). Urban regime analysis has
shown that urban political coalitions show a certain flexibility when it comes to changing
direction in long-term policy orientations (Lauria, 1997; Dowding, 2001). This flexibility
not only occurs at the formal level, in changing laws and government decisions and
procedures, but also in informal practices of governance (Gonzalez and Healey, 2005).
Barcelonas regeneration has to be understood against a governance model that has been
continuously changing according to national shifts in the mode of regulation and within a
framework of intricate multi-scalar governance. As Dowding (2001: 15) has clarified in
the European context, mobilising external resources generally involves a publicprivate
partnership overseen with political and material support by central government. City
leaders bargaining powers with national institutions are equally important in garner[ing]
resources in order to maximize its choices and realize its objectives in the capital
investment process (Kantor and Savitch, 2002: 43). Barcelonas recent renewal is based
upon a governance coalition of this kind formed by governmental institutions and civil
society organizations capable of creating a coherent policy agenda for the modernization
of the city, linking cultural strategies to urban regeneration and thereby ensuring a
redistributive social citizenship.
In recent years culture has become a key driver in urban competition and has been
co-opted to meet the social, economic and political objectives of the city (Zukin, 1995;
Miles and Paddison, 2005). As Bassett et al. (2005) suggest, culture as an anthropological
notion that refers to a way of life has been expanded in contemporary capitalism by
the culturalization of the economy, so that urban policies and redevelopment actively
support the expansion of cultural strategies for a dual effect. First, culture in its widest
sense, from cultural industries to museums or events, is regarded as a crucial pillar of
economic development in the post-industrial city. These strategies are directed as much
towards internal consumers as to attract international investors (Florida, 2003), but do not
2 Our ndings are based on an analysis of policy documents, discussions held during a symposium
at the Centro de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona (CCCB) on 15 May 2008 (see: http://
www.cccb.org/en/noticia?idg=23510), and interviews with key planners, managers and politicians
involved in Barcelonas urban and cultural development. We want to thank Oriol Bohigas, Ricard
Fayos, Juli Esteban, Joan Anton Solans, Jos Acebillo, Monserrat Tort, Emili Garca and Mart Abella
amongst others. We also acknowledge the contribution of Robert W. De Miguel who conducted three
of the interviews in the framework of another project directed by Alan March and Marisol Garca.
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automatically ensure urban competitiveness, as has been argued for the case of Barcelona
(Boddy and Parkinson, 2004: 424). Second, cultural interventions may also be used to
address issues of social inequality. Indeed, as Miles and Paddison (2005) highlight, the
explicit combination of cultural strategies with urban development has become both a
practice and a discourse to address social problems in the city. Thus, culture is not just a
challenge to the ability of cities to combine social justice with economic growth, but also
the source-ground around which the amelioration of such problems can be sought (ibid.:
833). Hence, within cultural planning policy one can observe a marked economic
determinism that assumes that creating a culturally competitive city guarantees social
cohesion. Social cohesion refers in this context to a combination of economic growth
and policies aimed at accommodating social diversity and democracy. Yet such a link is
questionable as in globally competitive cities with a history of implementing cultural
policies, such as London, growth in GDP per head correlates with increasing inequality
in income and poverty (Gordon, 2005: 846). Hence, more nuanced analyses are needed
that evaluate broader aspects of inequality in specific cities (Fainstein, 2001; Miles and
Paddison, 2005).
The limitations of current regeneration practices in European cities and the
exclusionary processes involved in project-oriented or market-led partnerships have been
highlighted extensively (see Geddes, 2000; Imrie and Raco, 2003; Moulaert et al., 2003;
Atkinson and Bridge, 2005). However, we question whether social polarization is the
only outcome. Instead, we identify in the Barcelona case a more complex picture. Here
we have a city that combines approaches to the citys physical transformations with
social democratic policies that espouse local welfare and culture. Hence, the rest of this
article discusses the reasons behind Barcelonas integration of cultural activities in
urban redevelopment and how this is linked to a distributive social welfare agenda.
Finally, we assess whether Barcelonas approach is sustainable within a competitive
global economy.

An overview of Barcelonas redevelopment


Barcelonas modernization since Francos death in 1975 and the democratic local
elections of 1979 has been shaped by three distinctive phases of urban transformation, a
stable governance model and the shifting weight of the private sectors influence in
policy choices (for a diagrammatic overview, see Table 1; see also Monclus, 2003). In
this section we discuss the development of the citys urban regeneration strategies,
paying particular attention to the changing relationship between culture, governance and
urban transformation and the implications for redistributive social citizenship.
Democratic planning and civic design (197985)

The first elements of a specific Barcelona approach to urban regeneration and governance
were put in place during the period of democratic transition. In 1979 the newly elected
socialist City Council rebuilt the city by drawing on strong civic ideals and, in a
conscious political move, involved neighbourhood associations in the design of its
urban policy. This involvement was the result of social and political pressure from
the neighbourhood movement pivotal in the creation of a Barcelona model but
can also be understood against the economic constraints caused by the citys inherited
budget deficit from the Franco era. A unique governance model was created in which
participation became a subject of public policy and in which key actors of civil society
were engaged in the citys urban regeneration (Blakeley, 2005: 159). Barcelonas
urban regeneration programme coincided with a wider programme of democratic
citizenship construction in Spain, which involved the implementation of national welfare
policies favouring education, training and health. The Reconstruction of Barcelona, as
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Table 1 Phases of urban transformation in Barcelona since 1979


Role of Culture

Governance

Inclusivity/Redistribution

Phase 1

Foster democratic urban Catalan


identity and civic pride

Dialogue with
citizens

Provision of collective, public services


such as schools
Provision of new public spaces
(democratization of urban spaces)
Provision of public housing

Phase 2

Architectural expression and


urban pride
Marketing the city for the
Olympic Games
Promoting urban lifestyles

Consensus

Provision of civic centres and libraries


Renovation of museums
Renovation of cultural infrastructure
(e.g. theatres)

Phase 3

Functional tool
Support knowledge economy
and cultural industries

Hegemonic;
top-down
organized
participation

Top-down organized festivals


Promotion of interculturality

it was officially labelled, favoured not only political participation (a persistent demand
from the neighbourhood civic movement), but also provided the opportunity to build a
reinvented local culture and identity, expressed in the design of public spaces for civic
participation (McNeill, 1999). Design was consciously taken up in urban development
policies as a cultural expression of a new freedom, to shape a new urban identity and to
advance a new Barcelona style (Julier, 1996; Narotzky, 2007).
The explicit emphasis on developing public spaces had two motivations: the
promotion of social cohesion, and to answer civic groups demands that spaces should be
created for civic and political participation. Social segregation had been perpetuated in
Barcelonas built landscape since the middle classes moved into Cerdas bourgeois
Ensanche (literally meaning expansion), leaving the working classes in the Old City
and migrant workers in the peripheral neighbourhoods. During the early 1980s these
segregated areas became linked up through the construction of new public spaces. The
democratization of urban space was reinforced by the opening of neighbourhoods to the
rest of the city via public festivals and cultural events. Parks and plazas served to gather
residents from differentiated areas of the city on common ground, enhancing social
cohesion and citizen activities. Gradually, the model of a compact city socially and
spatially segregated between the bourgeois and the proletarian gave way to a greater
social diversity and a more diffuse urban identity organized around Barcelonity and a
discourse of class was replaced with one of municipal citizenship (McNeill, 2003: 83)
to accomplish a modernization project with a common democratic culture (Mascarell,
2007: 90).
From a governance perspective, it was innovative to incorporate the leaders of the
most active neighbourhood associations and their views in the citys governing
coalition (interviews with Ricard Fayos, urban planner and former director of urban
planning, Ajuntament De Barcelona, and Oriol Bohigas, architect, 14 September and 21
July 2009 respectively), a move that led to a conscious attempt to deal with citizens
claims on specific urban issues, such as deficits in education, health services in workingclass neighbourhoods and culture and public spaces in all neighbourhoods. One demand
by these leaders was that citizens participation in the council should be enhanced both
by offering them the possibility of electing local representatives at district level and by
enabling associations to organize referenda on social and cultural issues in the district.
A public debate in the years 197985 on participatory democracy resulted in the
decentralization of technical decision-making to ten districts over the period 198595
(Amoros, 1999; Garca, 2008). Through this move, administrative and political power
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was devolved to these districts. As a result, some districts might be ruled by a party
different from the one governing the city, thereby creating a diffusion of power that
encouraged a consensual political culture. Another important outcome was that citizens
were able to influence urban policies: in working-class neighbourhoods in pursuit of
social justice and in middle-class and elite neighbourhoods so as to enhance cultural
democracy.
It was at this time that the term social cohesion was first introduced into Barcelonas
governance model by the coalition fronted by the charismatic mayor Pascual Maragall.
Influenced by European guidelines, social cohesion was implemented through a
municipal programme that involved the coordination and decentralization of welfare and
social services throughout the city and doubled the welfare budget between 1979 and
1996. We can see how the nebulous term social cohesion (Kearns and Forest, 2001)
was put into practice in Barcelona by introducing policies against social fragmentation
through a deeply territorialized social citizenship. A range of special coordination bodies
were created in a governance model that integrated other local administrations (regional
and provincial) as well as social partners (business and trade unions) and the voluntary
sector. A complex multi-level governance developed to implement programmes in
education, health, social integration services and so on (Truo, 2000: 65). The
effectiveness of this local institutional model needs to be qualified, however, by the fact
that it received multi-scalar financial support from other institutions (regional, national
and European).
The large-scale urban regeneration of Barcelona was based upon the Plan General
Metropolitano (1976), a flexible urban planning device whose main strength lay in
bringing together a plurality of governing bodies in the various tiers of the Greater
Barcelona area. This Plan specifies zoning areas, defines growth limits and the position
of infrastructures and thereby provides a legal framework. Special Plans (PERIS)3 were
implemented at the neighbourhood level, with neighbourhood associations involved in
the redesign of the areas affected. These projects aimed to correct the imbalance of
private housing in favour of public spaces and collective services. The purpose, and to
a large extent the outcome, was to implement social redistribution by improving living
conditions in the public realm with higher-quality public spaces and public services.
These Special Plans went beyond formally engaging citizens in urban regeneration. The
City Council implemented a programme for buying up old industrial land at low prices
in the Old Town and working-class neighbourhoods and using it to build social housing
and collective services as well as to create new public spaces. An enhanced Barcelona
of the neighbourhoods emerged, with citizens associating themselves strongly with
particular neighbourhood identities (interviews with Ricard Fayos, 14 September
2009; and Mart Abella, spokesperson for FOMENT Ciutat Vella, 1 July 2011). While
culture was not explicitly mentioned in policy documents during this first phase, it
helped to foster a collective Catalan identity and democratic citizenship. Culture was
conceived in its broadest sense as improving residents quality of life and to promote
a new sense of place and city pride through the physical redesign of a new Catalan
capital (Associaci Pla Estratgic Barcelona, 1994; Subiros, 1999; Rodrguez Morat,
2008).
The Olympic Games mega-project (198694)

The second period for Barcelonas urban policies started with the citys 1986 nomination
to host the 1992 Olympic Games. While Barcelona had already embarked on its physical
renewal, the Games provided the necessary public (national and regional) resources to
finance the citys large-scale public works projects (Garca, 1993; Garca and Claver,
3 Legal instruments to regulate specic urban areas equivalent to partial plans, usually affecting
complete neighbourhoods.
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2003). For too long the city had been a passageway for tourists heading to the beaches,
and politicians recognized that Barcelonas role as a modern city and tourist attraction
had to be expanded to provide a new economy. By introducing the Plan for Hotels in
1988, the City Council laid the foundations for a future tourist industry (interview with
Jos Acebillo, urban planner, 3 May 2010).
The Olympic project was the catalyst to make the city governments metropolitan
ambitions possible. Not only were infrastructures connecting the city with its
metropolitan hinterland improved, but sports facilities were also constructed to host
sporting events in surrounding municipalities. The Olympic urban project created a
governance dynamic of seeing the city as a whole, and gave impetus to a range of urban
development strategies such as the renovation of the seafront, improved transport and
communication infrastructures, and the distribution of new civic facilities across the city.
In this holistic approach the central city became a collective actor (Le Gals, 2002: 10).
The institutionalization of strategic planning4 and the introduction of marketing as a
major tool for defining the citys global identity in the First Strategic Plan did not erase,
however, the objective of continuing with a policy of making urban competitiveness
compatible with social cohesion. The City Councils planning department guaranteed the
continuity of a public-led urban transformation in which the private sector and related
sectors of civil society (Chamber of Commerce, Barcelona Fair, Business Association)
followed suit. However, it was also during this period that the private sector (commerce,
real-estate developers, savings banks, electricity, gas, telephone and water companies
and hotel owners among others) started to be encouraged to invest in the regeneration of
the waterfront areas (interview with Jos Acebillo, 3 May 2010). Spearheaded by the
Olympics, the City Councils economic department, associated with new investments in
large infrastructure projects, gains political weight and starts to exert a stronger influence
in the strategic planning documents.
The use of urban design to restructure the city and express local culture was intensified
during the Olympics by three specific architectural strategies. First, the selective
conservation of historic buildings in the city centre. Second, the development of flagship
architecture, offering Spanish and international architects the chance to make an imprint
on the city. Both these strategies can be understood as a conscious imagineering of public
spaces in Barcelona in which public art and architecture become an emblematic feature
of urban politics. Particularly remarkable was the monumentalization of the periphery
as well as the city centre, creating a visual urban continuum through standardized
elements of urban design. A third strategy consisted of the opening of the city to the sea.
Drawing on American models of waterfront redevelopment, the old industrial port, Port
Vell, was transformed into a leisure area, and el Passeig Maritim which connects the
working-class area of Barceloneta to the new Olympic Village was built. These physical
transformations in the built environment, led by an explicit emphasis on design, reflect a
conscious politics of stylization of urban culture. The outcome would be a new urban
context for the collective consumption of design . . . [which] promoted new forms of
socialization, of urban lifestyles and cultural consumption (Narotzky, 2007: 201; Degen,
2008).
During the preparation for the Games, culture was given a further vernacular role to
galvanize local support, reflected in the promotion of a Cultural Olympics in which
Barcelonas Olympic Committee committed itself to carry out a city-wide cultural
programme. The programme did not receive much international attention. Its main
purpose was to strengthen Catalan identity and residents civic pride by building and
renovating Barcelonas museums and cultural infrastructure (Subiros, 1999). It was
4 The rst Strategic Plan was approved in 1990, the second in 1994 and the third in 1999. The fourth is
the current Metropolitan Strategic Plan 20052020. The central aim of the rst plan was to
consolidate Barcelona as a European competitive metropolis. In the second plan the objectives
combined competitiveness and social cohesion. In the third plan the aim was to create infrastructures
for a city of knowledge (see http://www.bcn2000.es).
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the starting point for the incorporation of culture within wider urban policies. Local
public expenditure on culture by the City Council grew noticeably between 1985 and
1992, and attendances at theatre and museum exhibitions tripled (Rodrguez Morat,
2008: 52).
The success of the Olympic Games consolidated the strategic planning approach to
the city and the development of a policy formula around which wide civic backing could
be gathered. It consisted of promoting Barcelona as a city of production and consumption
with a high quality of life based on economic redistribution (Borja, 2005: 24). The event
consolidated a synergy between territorial planning and provision of cultural and civic
infrastructure with emphasis on a strong public space culture. To boost key transport,
redevelopment and infrastructure projects consensus was reached among the major
social and economic actors such as the Chamber of Commerce, business and trade union
organizations. Indeed, consensus as to what the city model is and should be, would
become a crucial word in the new holistic governance approach institutionalized through
the Barcelona Strategic Plan(s).
Cultural strategy, publicprivate partnerships
and economic growth (19952008)

We locate the start of Barcelonas most recent period of development in 1995 when the
re-elected political leadership initiated a fresh approach to cultural management in line
with new policies in urban land restructuring, in which market and private sector actors
gained ground. In 1997 Deputy Mayor Joan Clos succeeded Mayor Pascual Maragall. He
gave a stronger impetus to the competitive drive of the city administration. Several
factors pushed Barcelonas politicians to engage with private actors. First, municipal
leaders recognized the need to finance urban redevelopment in order to renovate
an obsolete industrial base in the city and regenerate the local economy (interview
with Ricard Fayos, 14 September, 2009). Second, they consolidated publicprivate
partnerships by integrating the enterprising role of private companies with public
management bodies. This led to the creation of private municipal companies (Raventos,
2000). The success of the Olympic Village construction, Ciutat Vella regeneration and
many other urban interventions organized by these quasi-public corporations in the late
1980s fostered a successful economic culture that is now considered a vital part of the
Barcelona urban regeneration model (ibid.).
It was during this period that the overall planning of the city started to fragment. First,
decision-making processes regarding the planning of public spaces were devolved to the
ten city districts without an overall city plan,5 following the implementation of the
decentralization programme to the districts. Second, large infrastructure and urban
redevelopment projects were from then on to be managed by the newly created public
agency Barcelona Regional.6 Third, the holistic approach to the citys development
disappeared and led to a relaxation of former strict planning regulations, making room
for land speculation7 in areas such as Poblenou, where the 22@ project and Diagonal
Mar development were left to private investors with no civic participation. Why did this
happen?
In the 1990s the economic growth model shifted, giving the construction, tourism and
service sectors a prominent role. As a result Barcelonas (and Catalonias) GDP per head
grew by on average 2.4% per year during the 1990s and 2.8% from 2000 to 2005
almost entirely due to employment growth (Parellada, 2004).8 Today the Barcelona city
5 The powerful Servei de Projectes Urbans loses its inuence from 1995 onwards (Marti, 2004).
6 Barcelona Regional (created in 1993) is a public consultancy with the legal power to engage in
municipal and supra-municipal projects.
7 Introduced by the national Land Acts of 1990 and 1998.
8 GDP growth in Catalonia, as in Spain in general, has been shown to correlate with employment
growth over the years. Employment cycles have been as follows: reduction of employment between
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centre hosts a solid diversified service economy with only small vestiges of traditional
industrial production left. The active working population in the service economy
constitutes as much as 80.5% of total employment in the city with 12.5% of the
remainder employed in industry and 7% in construction (Ajuntament de Barcelona,
2009). Barcelonas centre has specialized in quality services the knowledge economy,
specialized health centres, cultural industries, design, leisure and tourist management
and the metropolitan peripheries have diversified, incorporating services into their local
economies.
Culture and the knowledge economy started to play a prominent role in the citys urban
policies with the private sector playing a key role in funding cultural flagship projects after
the Olympics.9 The citys Second Strategic Plan in 1994 recognized culture for the first
time as an important factor in advancing the city internationally (Rodrguez Morat,
2008). Culture was redefined institutionally in its widest sense to encompass symbolic
production, social dialogue and citizens participation.10 Cultural infrastructures were
considered crucial to attracting conferences, festivals and urban tourism, and emphasis
was given to the promotion of cultural agents such as cultural and civic associations and
the cultural industries, as well as to private sponsors for the citys cultural activities
managed by public administrations. In 1996 a new institutional body, the Institut de
Cultura de Barcelona (ICUB), was born alongside the first cultural strategy for the city.
Yet, it was only in the third Barcelona Strategic Plan, approved in 1999, that culture was
given a specific function in Barcelonas development, namely launching Barcelona as a
knowledge economy. The allocation of this vital role was directly linked to an increase in
public spending on culture. Between 1995 and 2007, the combined expenditure on cultural
activities by the three relevant governments almost tripled (even taking yearly average
inflation of 3.2% into account). Public financing also helped to build a web of consortia and
networks to sustain and ensure continuity in cultural activities. By 2006 Ferran Mascarell,
city councillor and chair of the Culture, Education and Social Welfare Commission, was
able to state:
It is safe to say that today Barcelona is culturally strong and dense, thanks largely to the fact
that it has placed culture at the centre of urban development through cultural policies that are
committed to values, innovation, creativity and co-existence (Mascarell, 2006).

Culture has become deeply intertwined with the citys economy, as the City Council
aims to develop its cultural industries and its position in the cultural economy: in
contemporary capitalism, the culture-generating capabilities of cities are being harnessed
for productive purposes, creating new kinds of localized advantages with major
employment and income-enhancing effects (Scott, 1997: 335). Barcelonas current
Strategic Metropolitan Plan concentrates on a compound of cultural economic sectors,
such as the knowledge economy, health centres and research and social services, cultural
industries and the creative arts, the latter becoming a priority of the Plan (Pla Estratgic
Metropolit de Barcelona, 2005; 2006). Consequently, cultural policies in the city now
revolve around three key themes: intellectual property rights and the promotion of artistic
creation (particularly, audiovisual production and distribution); the right of access to
culture and arts education; and the right to cultural participation, involving the promotion
of intercultural dialogue (CCCB, 2008). Public investment in culture has further served
1977 and 1985; employment growth between 1985 and 1991; economic recession and job reduction
between 1991 and 1994 and economic expansion and employment growth between 1995 and 2006;
a downturn from 2007.
9 The percentage on cultural expenditure went down from 6.0% in 1992 to 4.7% in 1994 but started
to grow again in 1995 (Rodriguez Morato, 2008).
10 Since 1995 a comprehensive civic cultural infrastructure has been promoted that has created civic
centres for all age groups, and public libraries in all of Barcelonas districts.
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to attract considerable private investment, for which there is, however, no definite
estimate11 (interview with Monserrat Tort, ICUB, 23 April, 2009).
Within the last decade Barcelona has been very successful in linking up its place
sensibilities, marshalled around a creative Mediterranean culture, innovation and design,
to become a city increasingly known for its cutting-edge cultural industries, whether in
design, architecture or music. Indeed, some critics have suggested that the city has
created its own unique urban brand since the Olympics (Balibrea, 2004; Muoz, 2008).
What is largely ignored in Barcelonas image making is the many ways in which new
immigration is defining a new cultural sphere. Barcelona as a whole has experienced an
increase in foreign residents from 1.8% to 18.1% between 1996 and 2009. These
movements and settlements by different social groups create new questions in terms of
urban governance and planning, as we discuss in the next section.
To respond to these demographic changes in the city, the Institute of Culture
developed a second Strategic Plan for Culture in 2006 that added three themes to
its economiccultural strategy: the promotion of social cohesion framed around
coexistence; an endorsement of interculturality (as an alternative to multiculturalism);
and the importance of participation in culture (Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, 2006).
The role of culture has shifted from being part of a cultural vernacular, expressive of
place and linked to the development of a renewed Catalan and democratic identity, to
become a functional tool that can be shaped and manipulated to ensure social cohesion
and market the citys brand. Increasingly, notions of social cohesion are framed around
cultural participation, supported by an extensive web of cultural infrastructure in the
city,12 and intercultural dialogue, closely linked to an economic agenda rather than to
welfare infrastructure investments and political participation, as was the case in the
1980s.
When Joan Clos left in 2007 his successor Jordi Hereu was elected on only a 49.6%
turnout the lowest electoral participation during the democratic era. The increasing
abstention of citizens has sent a warning signal to the governing coalition regarding its
legitimacy, and yet the Catalan Socialist Party continued to rule the city until May 2011.
From 2003 the Catalan regional government changed hands from Convergencia I Uni to
a coalition led by the Catalan Socialist Party with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya
(nationalist left) and Initiciativa per Catalunya (eco-socialists), the same government
coalition that runs Barcelonas City Council. This was a significant political change that
has favoured redistributive urban renewal policies, such as the implementation of the Llei
de Barris (see below). Nevertheless the first signs of a fragmentation of Barcelonas
consensus-style governance emerged, because Barcelona started to feel the pressures of
a changing global context: private-led urban redevelopment, suburban sprawl and global
human flows which we shall address next. Social cohesion as a project evolved in
such a way as to accommodate diversity, whereas culture and tourism consolidated as
economic assets.

The main challenges to Barcelonas redevelopment


There is no doubt that Barcelonas spatial geography has been successfully reassembled
in the last two decades, and its development provides some excellent examples of
thoughtful, innovative and democratic governance. However, since the mid-1990s
Barcelonas urban regeneration model has come under intensified pressures that have
increased tensions between the citys aims of global competitiveness and of ensuring
11 Between 1995 and 2007, expenditure by the Ajuntament de Barcelona rose from 1.3 million to 2.4
million; expenditure by the Diputacio de Barcelona from 342,000 to 680,000; and expenditure by
the Generalitat de Catalunya from 9.7 million to 26.7 million.
12 See the city map of cultural infrastructure on the City Council site: http://www.bcn.cat/guia/
welcomec.htm.
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social justice and participatory governance. Critical voices argue in the local press that
cultural refurbishing and tourism have encouraged gentrification in the Old City and
unaffordable housing prices in the periphery (La Vanguardia, 2007; Pellicer, 2008). They
also point out the weakening of an inclusive governance model. In this section we discuss
the pressures that a changing global context is exerting on the Barcelona model.
In 1996 the Spanish general election was won by the conservative Popular Party; in
1998 a new Land Act was passed in the national parliament which allowed further
liberalization of land, giving a clear signal to developers. The same year a large
American developer submitted a project to Barcelona City Council to regenerate the
Diagonal-Mar part of Poblenou, a once industrial area of the city located near the sea,
to build a new mixed-use area of luxury flats, shopping malls, hotels and offices.
Simultaneously the Forum of Cultures,13 a four-month macro-event, was conceived by
the Council. It was decided to host this event in this working-class neighbourhood in
2004 (Majoor, 2008: 172). The Forum project involved developing 214 hectares of land,
to include a sanitation plant and a new convention centre. This mega-project embedded
and reflected the commercial imperatives of a global economy and offered an occasion
to gather further investment to finish the cultural redevelopment of the Barcelona
coastline initiated in the 1990s (Diaz Urueta and Fainstein, 2008). It acted as a catalyst
to develop Barcelonas new knowledge-economy-based district Barcelona @22 in the
area adjacent to the Forum (Casellas and Pallares-Barbera, 2009). The most visible
development of Barcelonas coastline since the Olympics, Diagonal-Mar emerged as a
market initiative, whereas the organization and financing of the Forum area became a
public endeavour.
The outcome of the Diagonal-Mar mega-project was a neighbourhood with exclusive
new housing designed for high-income consumers, promoted by private developers
worldwide. The Forum building and its surrounding empty public spaces are seen as
urban failures (interview 4 August 2009 with Juli Esteban, urban planner). As this was
not an isolated case in Barcelona, an increasing number of critical voices rose from
residents, local papers and academics arguing that Barcelonas urban transformations are
propelled by economic considerations and developers greed rather than civic priorities
(von Heeren, 2002; UTE, 2004; Delgado, 2007; see also La Veu del Carrer14). For many
(Mascarell, 2007; Miles, 2008; Borja, 2010) the Forum and Diagonal-Mar are indicators
of the demise of the Barcelona model in the face of pressure from a neoliberal global
context necessitating increasingly aggressive entrepreneurial urban regeneration, but
also in part the consequence of the success of the prior modernization strategy which
located the city on a international map. The Forum event used culture as a commercial
tool (Miles, 2008) and signalled a breakdown of the internal consensus model between
the governing coalition and citizens, as no civic bodies were included in the design of the
Forums area nor its programme.
The Forums symbolic legacy was a freeing of urban land for developers. As in much
of the rest of Spain, this led to high housing prices out of the reach of the lower middle
classes, especially young people. Prices for new builds rose in Barcelona from 1,433
per square metre in 1996 to 5,918 per square metre in 2008 (at current prices)
(Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2009).15 This factor was further aggravated by the conversion
of many flats into illegal accommodation for short-stay and low-cost tourism. These high
housing costs are pushing young citizens out of the city, which leads us to the second
challenge to the sustainability of Barcelonas model: urban sprawl. While central
13 The idea was loosely derived from a UNESCO initiative which promoted dialogue between cultures
and an engagement with cultural diversity.
14 La Veu del Carrer is the journal produced by the Federation of Neighbourhood Associations, where
critical views on Barcelonas governance and urban development are published by local residents,
social scientists and planners.
15 Adjusting prices for the effects of ination, they will have almost tripled from 2,035 per square
metre to 5,918 per square metre in the period 19962008.
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Barcelona has become increasingly specialized in the service sector, the metropolitan
region exhibits a productive diversification with a high degree of specialization of
production and services. With industrial production and some service infrastructure
located in the metropolitan region as well as a more affordable housing supply, residents
are moving to the peripheries. Most of the cultural regeneration effort has gone into
Barcelona municipality, the visible international face of Barcelona, while the planning of
the outskirts has been more chaotic and has not followed a general plan (Monclus, 2003;
Muoz, 2008). The outcome has been twofold. First, as Muoz (2008) argues, the
planning here has been the antithesis of the early Barcelona model: it is low-density,
fragmented and pays little attention to the quality of public space, leading to the building
of identical housing rows alongside motorways. Secondly, such planning has put
considerable pressure on public transport connecting the urban sprawl with the central
city, a main issue in the current Metropolitan Strategic Plan. Frustrated citizens have
blamed city government as much as central government (responsible for intermunicipal
transport infrastructure).
A third challenge to the consensus governance model comes from Barcelonas
attraction for international global flows: tourism and migration. As cities are increasingly
becoming playgrounds for an ever expanding tourist economy (Sheller and Urry, 2004),
the tensions between different social groups accessing the city increase. Contemporary
tourism is increasingly defined by its de-differentiation from other cultural spheres (Urry,
1990). Going to the theatre or visiting an art gallery are as much local as tourist activities.
Similarly Barcelonas caf culture or nightlife is enjoyed as much by locals as by
outsiders. Local activities mix and blend with the practices of visitors. But, Barcelonas
massive increase in overnight stays from 3.8 million in 1990, to 12.4 million in 2008
(Turisme de Barcelona, 2009) has fostered a range of tensions and contestations around
the uses and meanings of public spaces in the city. In the case of the Old Town, for
example, the right to sleep of local residents has been colliding with tourists right to
enjoy a Mediterranean nightlife (Degen, 2004). The cost of keeping the city clean and
efficient with increasing numbers of visitors is on the rise and even if an open debate has
not taken place, there are individual and collective appeals to the city authorities to
reconsider their expenditure priorities. Some critics argue that tourism policies have been
given priority over more important issues such as welfare and immigration policies by
both the city and regional government (Delgado, 2007). While the transformation of
Barcelonas economy into a service economy has been fruitful so far, it remains to be
seen whether relying on a highly fluctuating tourist market is a viable future (Garca and
Claver, 2003).
While the citys diversified service economy is proving resilient in comparison to
other Spanish cities with a strong tourist sector, new regulations in the labour market
have led to precarious employment relations, which mainly affect young people
and immigrants.16 The increase in poverty in Barcelona coincided with increased
international labour migration (Mercader et al., 2005; Caritas, 2008). Irregular and low
incomes prevent immigrants from accessing quality housing and lead to them living in
overcrowded sublet conditions in the most run-down parts of the inner city as well as in
other neighbourhoods on the periphery (Pareja, 2005; Terrones, 2007). However, the
local welfare system continues to operate in line with a council policy of redistribution
and social cohesion. Immigrants have the incentive to enrol in Barcelonas municipality
as this gives them, independently of their legal status, rights to social services, schooling
and the Catalan health service (a local policy now followed by other municipalities in
Spain). What both these examples show is that the City Council continues to pursue
social cohesion and that this is implemented through social integration and cultural
strategies.
16 Between 1995 and 2009, 85% of the total jobs created in the city were based on temporary
contracts (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2010). Youth unemployment went down from 35.5% in 1995 to
just over 20% in 2007 but is on the increase again (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2009).
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Debates in the press about the deterioration of the social cohesion model have
contributed to the design of new local legislation. Two laws passed in recent years are
salient. The first received general consensus and positive evaluation. The Catalan
parliament17 approved the Neighbourhoods Act (Lley de Barris) in 2004, since when the
Catalan government, in collaboration with city councils, has implemented a wellfinanced programme introducing integrated planning to address social exclusion and
social segregation. Thus as in many other cities the neighbourhood is again
regarded, as in the 1980s period of democratic planning, as an essential building-block
to achieve wider social cohesion and solidarity (Kennett and Forrest, 2006: 713). The
functioning of this programme represents an innovation in multi-scale governance, with
municipalities and regional bodies sharing financing and responsibility. To be granted
resources, the City Council needs to include a participatory scheme in which citizens are
represented by neighbourhood associations. More controversial has been the second law,
the Ordenanza Cvica, introduced in 2005 to regulate the use of public space and street
culture. It aims to improve safety in the streets by penalizing the presence of the
homeless and sex workers, but also by regulating drinking in the street (associated with
large flows of nightlife tourism). This legislation is in tune with the councils emphasis
on social cohesion in the public realm, understood as preserving quality of life and street
security. One of the major criticisms has been its top-down character, as it was introduced
without a debate in the City Council s plenary thanks to the support given to the Mayors
proposed law by the conservative opposition parties (PPC and CiU). Civil society
organizations such as the Federation of Neighbourhood Associations, trade unions,
NGOs and the legal professionals association directly opposed this law, while two
left-wing parties ERC and ICV who are in coalition with the Mayors Catalan
Socialist Party (PSC) expressed strong criticisms (Colomer, 2006: 3).

Conclusion
Barcelonas acclaimed approach to restructuring its urban environment was deeply
rooted in the citys post-dictatorial politics, where governance consensus was achieved
through dialogue between public institutions and citizens, who were organized in
neighbourhood grassroots associations. This unique governance style ensured that
culture was integrated as a vernacular expression into the physical landscape of a
re-emerging city, actively linking the design of public space with a new democratic
culture and social citizenship programmes. As Barcelonas governance style has
gradually transformed and given more prominence to an economic agenda, culture has
been linked to the knowledge economy, tourism and the creative industries (Ribera,
2005: 186194) and culture has become a major economic force. The City Councils
actions have become increasingly concerned with the contentions of the neighbourhood
movement (Blakeley, 2005) and entering into a dialogue with private sector actors, such
as commercial associations, hotel owners, housing constructors, the Chamber of
Commerce and the Barcelona Fair.
Barcelonas case shows how culture has become coopted into the citys redistributive
policy agenda. Since the 1980s public investment has more than doubled in the cultural
sphere and it can be argued that a strong cultural infrastructure has been provided in all
districts of the city, reaching all sectors of the population. From a more cynical point of
view, one can argue that such an investment in the cultural sphere is deeply entrenched
within Barcelonas place-marketing strategies. Finally, we have argued that culture has
been given a legitimizing role to unite an increasingly socially heterogeneous society and
is thus used as a tool to redefine an ambiguous notion of social cohesion. This said, the
17 The government coalition that introduced this law in 2004 was the same coalition that was
governing the City Council at the time.
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Mnica Degen and Marisol Garca

local and regional governing coalitions have not refrained from introducing other
redistributive urban policies, such as the Lley de Barris.
As cities have become more socially fragmented, the existence of organized
neighbourhood associations (and grassroots movements in general) that influence urban
policy has become more precarious, even in cities with a successful history of citizenship
participation such as Barcelona. Nowadays, participatory governance in Barcelona has
become highly institutionalized via a complex web of top-down formalized councils
whose channels of participation have been designed by the City Council (as many as
550 participatory councils generated by the Council were still active in 2010). Yet the
City Council has simultaneously excluded organized civic groups who dissent, such
as squatter groups (Martinez, 2004) or groups that have organized against a specific
urban redevelopment project (for example, artists and local residents in the knowledgeeconomy-fashioned 22@district) (Mart-Costa and Bonet-Mart, 2009). Therefore, the
governance model based on participatory consensus in which the city government is
capable of incorporating citizens pursuit of urban objectives has been gradually
diluted. Several leaders of neighbourhood associations and civil society groups working
on creative strategies against social exclusion in Barcelona argue: nowadays participation
seems to be a catchword for public administrators, while civil society organizations are
suffering low grades of mobilization within their ranks . . . only a very small proportion of
young people employ time in actively participating outside elections in political and civic
associations.[18] There is no room, therefore, for citizens to influence the definition of the
kind of economic development that the city takes (Social Polis, 2008).
As Swyngedouw (2005) has pointed out, the new articulations between state, market
and civil society generate new forms of governance which present problems for
democratic legitimacy. The lesson to learn from Barcelonas way of making and
conceiving the city is that the City Council has always been the key actor in managing
the process of urban change. While it certainly has adopted a more entrepreneurial
approach, the public sector has, so far, always steered the governance and decisionmaking processes of the city. Barcelonas unique governance styles have enabled a
constant renegotiation of how the public and private sector are combined with civil
society involvement to ensure economic redistribution and social cohesion. However,
Barcelonas unique and innovative ways of running a city risk failure when it imposes
a hegemonic consensus model that undermines creative social strategies and political
dissent.
Mnica Degen (Monica.Degen@brunel.ac.uk), School of Social Sciences, Brunel University,
Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK and Marisol Garca (marisolgarcia@ub.edu),
Departamento de Teora Sociolgica, Filosofa del Derecho y Metodologa de las Ciencias
Sociales, Universidad de Barcelona, Avenida Diagonal, 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.

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Rsum
Le ramnagement de Barcelone a t salu pour son alliance apparemment russie de
stratgies culturelles et de rgnration urbaine destine remdier aux problmes
sociaux. Cependant, le modle de Barcelone a volu avec les nouveaux rapports entre
rgnration urbaine, utilisation de la culture et modes de gouvernance. La stratgie
culturelle a chang de rle : de style local culturel nourrissant une citoyennet sociale et
politique, elle est devenue un outil fonctionnel visant assurer la cohsion sociale et
commercialiser la marque de la ville. Cette situation est lie un dclin progressif de
la dmocratie participative ascendante dans la gouvernance. Les tensions cres par la
concurrence internationale remettent en question la prennit du modle de Barcelone,
tandis que les acteurs locaux tentent de garantir la justice sociale sur place.

Note
Correction added online on 10 August 2012 after rst publication on 2 July 2012. Footnotes 17 and 18
were wrongly positioned and one of the footnotes erroneously referred to a 15 million strong
movement instead of the 15May movement. These errors have been corrected in the online version of
the article and in the forthcoming print issue.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 36.5
2012 Urban Research Publications Limited

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