Does a ‘Barcelona Model’ Really Exist? Periods, Territories and Actors in the Process of Urban Transformation
Abstract The so-called ‘Barcelona Model’ of urban regeneration is known world-wide as a ‘success story’. Amongst the most frequently mentioned features of this ‘model’ are: the use of major events – such as the Olympic Games – as catalysts for great urban regeneration; the adoption of a relational mode of urban governance based on the collaboration between different tiers of government, public and private bodies; the political and administrative decentralisation and the participation of the citizenship. However, the ‘Barcelona Model’ has also received strong criticism from certain segments of the city's academic elite and several local social movements. This article calls into question the mere existence of one ‘Barcelona Model’. It highlights how the main strategies of urban public policy have changed in different periods. It illustrates that, territorially speaking, the strategies of urban regeneration have also been very varied. Eventually, it shows that the networks of urban actors involved in processes of urban change have been significantly diverse. Some learning elements for the analysis of urban regeneration are highlighted at the end of the article.
Governing European Cities: Social Fragmentation, Social Exclusion and Urban Governance
Governing European Cities: Social Fragmentation, Social Exclusion and Urban Governance, Hans Thor Andersen and Ronald van Kempen (eds), Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001, 357 pp., £45 (h/b) Governing European Cities adds to the growing literature on changes in the governing of European cities triggered by the progressive internationalisation of the economy and the rapid diversification of social and cultural life. Its main focus is on the increasing degree of social fragmentation and social exclusion that seems to accompany those processes and more specifically on how new forms of governing implied by the concept of 'governance' have dealt with those problems. As with many books of this kind, the argument is developed through an initial discussion of the concepts of 'social fragmentation', 'social exclusion', 'social cohesion' and 'governance', followed by a number of case studies across Europe showing how those concepts are manifested in, and relate to, actual processes 'on the ground', as well as what lessons can be learned from them. The core of the book is based on findings of EU funded research. The wide range of national contexts reflected in the case studies provides a broad view of processes of social fragmentation/ exclusion, of the impacts on them of 'governance', as well as how theory-on processes of fragmentation and exclusion, but also on how to create and delivery policies to counteract them-can provide explanations to the variety of empirical practices and experiences encountered in Europe. Because of its dual theory-case studies structure, the book could be explored from two different angles. The first is the theoretical discussion on the concepts that underpin the whole book. The first Rve chapters set the theoretical stage that should frame the discussion in the subsequent case study discussions. They examine issues such as why social fragmentation might be on the increase and how this relates to evolving forms of governing cities, especially the by now familiar idea of 'governance'. They look also at which new phenomena might be expressed by the notions of fragmentation and exclusion, as opposed to those described by the more traditional concept of poverty which underpinned welfare state policies in the post-war period. As the book is concerned with local specificity, Chapter 3 dwells on the 'context' of a place, its history, institutions, culture, and so forth, the complex balance of global and local determinants embedded in that context, and how these places-peci fic factors might shape the outcome of social processes occurring, and therefore the outcomes of the relationship between fragmentation, exclusion and governance. The last chapter in this section brings in the idea of partnership, the blurring of the distinction between the public sphere and the private sphere in policy conception and delivery, and sets the scene for the case studies. The viewpoints put forward in those chapters is not necessarily original, and in many regards the book covers the same ground and repeats a formula adopted by a number of other books discussing similar subject matter. …
Urban Change and the European Left: Tales from the New Barcelona
Urban Change and the European Left looks at the way politicians and critics use the city to ground their political messages. The book explores local narratives of urban change through ethnography, biography, travelogue, and social history. Drawing on novels, architectural commentaries, urban plans, political speeches, history and autobiography, Urban Change and the European Left provides accounts of public art, architecture, grassroots struggles, battles for control of the 1992 Olympics, and the city and Catalan identity.