Abstract
Cities of global leisure face a historical movement of urban neoliberalization that instrumentalizes urban space, subjecting society to the domination of the market and the very institutions that regulate it. In this sense, the political economy of space and critical urban theory support the application of the Lefebvrian method, consisting of spatial analysis in the historical centrality of Barcelona, to reveal an organized system of neoliberal urbicide. This critical category allows the study of the range of urbanistic operations over time through concrete devices and protocols accredited by urbanism consensus that reproduce real estate production relations, promoting spaces of social destruction, injustice, and spatial inequality. The aim is to unveil how urbicide has been produced in Barcelona centrality by the action of capitalist urbanization and urban neoliberalism. The phase of real estate financialized destruction allows us to articulate the critical theoretical elements of urbicide with the idea of the end of the city and the theoretical projection of a scenario of hope for the city through the construction of transformative urban demands around housing and the practice of the de facto right to the city for the production of a radical social space.
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Notes
- 1.
This mental operation considers the projection of virtual objects from the exploration of the possible, in the process of taking hypotheses to the limit, leaving behind the classical operations of induction and deduction, as well as the development of models or the simulation of statements. It consists of elaborating and constructing a virtual theoretical object from information on reality, as well as an issue posed by this reality, assuming a dialectical relationship between the conceptual framework used and empirical observations.
- 2.
The SEMs were corporations with public capital, capital of the citizens represented in the municipalities, regional, autonomous, sectorial, or state governments, as well as companies with entirely public capital that may also be participating in their formation.
- 3.
PROCIVESA’s basic actions in areas of public space and housing by 2002. Public space: 37 new squares and public spaces, 30 existing parks redeveloped, and 12 new roads. Housing: Construction of 2700 new public housing units for the rehousing of families living in buildings affected by the urban development program, release of 24,000 m2 of land, 275 housing units for young people and the elderly, and 286 privately developed affordable housing units.
- 4.
Borja held the position of Deputy Mayor (second on board) in the Barcelona City Council for the PSUC from 1983 to 1995 and Executive Vice President of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona between 1987 and 1991.
- 5.
See: https://www.desokupa.com.
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- 7.
- 8.
See: https://ingobernable.net.
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Jiménez-Pacheco, P. (2023). Neoliberal Urbicide in Barcelona. The Case of Ciutat Vella. In: Carrión Mena, F., Cepeda Pico, P. (eds) Urbicide. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25304-1_43
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