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.
The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements
strengthened, IMF conditionality reformed, and World Bank, IDA and other official development assistance expanded. These are all well-known remedies, but it is important that they have been endorsed by a representative North-South group. The group also favours the establishment of a multilateral forum to discuss trade, money, finance and macroeconomic policies, and the inter-relationships between them. 'The IMF, World Bank, GATT and UNCTAD should jointly service a body functioning somewhat like the IMF's advisory Interim Committee, eventually evolving into the analogue of the decision-making Council authorised in the IMF's Second Amendment' (paragraph 7.36). This, says the report with somewhat less realism than usual, 'must not be or be seen to be an extension of the jurisdiction of the IMF into trade policy issues' (ibid). The report leaves it to be understood that the Bretton Woods system of weighted voting would apply, and it is this that would determine the character of the new mechanism, regardless of whether or not IMF jurisdiction were expanded. While there is a case for saying that any international institution possessing such extensive powers would have to be subject to weighted voting, the Bretton Woods weighting is so one-sided as to limit the incentive for the major powers to take the views of the Third World fully into account. Thus, a concentration of authority of the magnitude envisaged in the report could conceivably represent a step backwards for world trade and development. On the other hand, the group is to be commended for raising this problem, and there is probably no solution to it that would satisfy everybody.
Urban planning in a changing world : the twentieth century experience
1. Learning from Planning's Histories. 2.The Centenary of Modern Planning. 3. Re-Examining the International Diffusion of Planning. 4. Quasi Utopias: Perfect Cities in an Imperfect World. 5. Learning from Twentieth Century Urban Design Paradigms: Lessons for the Early Twenty-First Century. 6. Rethinking the Significance of the City Beautiful Idea. 7. The Neighbour Paradigm: From Garden Cities to Gated Communities. 8. Planning for Social Betterment: From Standard of Living to Quality of Life. 9. The Paradoxes of Anti-Sprawl Reform. 10. Motor Vehicles and the Inner City. 11. Planning and Heritage: Towards Integration. 12. Open Space, Urban Planning and the Evolution of the Green City. 13. Diversity, Difference and the Multi-Layered City. 14. Global City Regions: Planning and Policy Dilemmas in the Neo-Liberal World. 15. Is Planning History? Index.