Antònia Casellas

Barcelona's Urban Landscape: The Historical Making of a Tourist Product

Barcelona’s urban characteristics and its tourist appeal are not merely outcomes of the Modernist period or a recent dramatic urban transformation but rather the result of a long and tumultuous historic evolution. The present article presents an account of relevant historical, political, economic, and social forces shaping Barcelona’s urban evolution from the medieval times until the 1970s. The urban history of Barcelona illustrates how the landscape of a fashionable city is the result of urban planning in conjunction with many social, economic, and political events that often produce unexpected results.

Homecoming as displacement: An analysis from the perspective of returning social scientists

International mobility is a growing phenomenon in which academicians are highly represented. While studies on transnationalism have widely focused on the mobility of people in terms of migrancy and exile, homecoming has been much less studied. This article contributes to filling this gap by analysing the homecoming experiences of three social scientists who have coincided in a Catalan university. The narrative of their personal trajectories and experiences of return allows for an understanding of homecoming in relation to wider discourses of mobility in the context of globalization. Contrary to dominant beliefs, homecoming is approached not as a return to one’s origins, but as a movement that implies dislocation and displacement and puts the homecomer in a position that is, in important ways, not essentially dissimilar to that of the stranger. The authors argue that the study of homecoming sheds light on certain neglected aspects of contemporary globalization, such as the existential limits to the international mobility of people or the favouring of local attachments over global options combined with the prevalence of cosmopolitan orientations. The article also calls attention to the cultural transfers of returnees to their countries of origin as well as to their world-making activities.

Home Eviction, Grassroots Organisations and Citizen Empowerment in Spain

The Spanish grassroots anti-eviction organization Platform for People Affected by the Mortgage (PAH) illustrates the significance of grassroots organizations in providing responses to the housing crisis. Analyzing the resilient and sophisticated grassroots approaches developed by the PAH despite drastic political opposition, this chapter explores a combination of explanatory factors to scrutinize the achievements of the movement. We argue that the contextual seeds of Barcelona´s grassroots urban movements, the creation of a sophisticated grassroots organizational and territorial structure, the development of a new narrative of housing rights and explanations for the crisis, and the generation of individual empowerment through collective action are key factors to explain the PAH success.

Comercio minorista y peatonalización: evolución y adaptación en la ciudad costera de Malgrat de Mar (Barcelona)

La desaparicion del comercio minorista del centro urbano es uno de los principales problemas que afecta a las ciudades del siglo XXI. El presente trabajo analiza la evolucion de este tipo de comercio en zonas comerciales centrales vinculandolo a los efectos de la peatonalizacion y al cambio de ciclo economico en Malgrat de Mar, una ciudad costera de la provincia de Barcelona. Con una metodologia cualitativa basada en entrevistas semi-estructuradas y el analisis de datos socio-economicos y documentos de planificacion urbanistica se estudian los factores que influyen en el cierre de establecimientos y el cambio de actividades comerciales durante el periodo 2007-2015. Los resultados indican que, contrariamente a la opinion generalizada de la poblacion local, la rehabilitacion urbanistica y la estrategia de peatonalizacion impulsada por el Ayuntamiento han contribuido a mantener la viabilidad de los comercios minoristas. Otros factores positivos identificados son la adaptacion y especializacion de los comercios a los nuevos habitos de consumo.

Social networks as the backbone of women's work in the Catalan Pyrenees

This paper discusses how historically the accumulation of symbolic power by men produced a glass ceiling for women in the Catalan Pyrenees and how women have overcome this constraint by engaging in male-led networks, founding gender balanced networks and developing women-nurtured networks. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews and ethnographic research, the paper investigates the strategies women employed to maintain their involvement in networking activities over a 10-year period. The paper identifies the importance of being connected with horizontal organizations and the empowerment of sharing experiences provided by social bridge agents. The results of this research make a strong case for more inclusive and gender-aware policies in rural areas as a means to promote economic and social viability while empowering women.

Espacios Públicos, Género y Diversidad: Geografías para unas Ciudades Inclusivas [Public spaces, gender and diversity: Geographies for inclusive cities]

The final chapter of the book raises interesting points about leaving the ‘field’ and the ways in which fieldwork engenders relationships with informants. Moore and kosut became intimate not only with bees but also with the beekeepers who allowed the authors to witness their ‘human fragility and vulnerabilities.’ Most importantly, the authors write that the largest ‘finding’ from their research is ‘that we are indeed deeply intimate and interdependent with the bee as a species and the bee as a fellow urban dweller’ (210). They write that they now see bees everywhere. This sort of awakening happens to many who write about animals. once you open your eyes, they are everywhere. They write: ‘we more reflexively observe the nonhuman world from a new “less-human” angle and it’s because of the bees. How did they slip outside of our consciousness for so long?’ (211). in the end, however, the authors argue that the relationship between bees and humans is one way – nonreciprocal. Bees do not need humans but humans take from bees, destroy their habitats and kill them for ‘safety’ (215). while urban beekeepers may attempt to live more sustainably and even possibly atone for this violence toward bees, ultimately this ‘is a form of penance for anthrocentric (sic) behaviors, but it may always be framed in liberal humanistic terms of freedom, oppression, or liberty’ (215). recognizing this, Moore and kosut suggest two options for future relationships with bees: radical disengagement and ethical engagement. indeed vegans already practice the first. The second involves more consideration for bees’ health and well-being. This might include investment in native pollinator gardens and building hive boxes, more strict control of beekeeping standards and honey-taking, and standards for transport to industrial sites, and other measures to increase diversity in agriculture. while there are a few issues with the book (we would like to know more about the bees and other pollinators, for instance), it is well worth reading. it would also be a great book to use to introduce undergraduates to critical animal studies. it is a bit slow going in places, but overall it moves fast enough and touches upon a good balance of ecology, sociology, and human interest. And, it raises such wonderful and important questions about human–bee relationships.

Políticas estatales y transformación urbana: ¿hacia un proceso de gentrificación en Valparaíso, Chile?

This study analyses the transformation of the city of Valparaiso (Chile) from the 2000s, through a mixed methodological approach, linking the characteristics of urban renewal process, agents and policies to the effects in urban morphology resulting from the unesco heritage designation. The analysis identifies the Chilean State as a key player in urban renewal through its leadership role in promoting heritage, tourism, and the ex- pansion of the university market. These growth strategies point to an emerging process of gentrification.

La integración del ferrocarril de alta velocidad en el medio urbano. El caso de Segovia-Guiomar

The arrival of the high-speed train service generates opportunities for dynamisation that particularly affects the local scale. Local scale authorities usually react by deploying planning and management resources to guarantee the best possible integration of new infrastructure in the local environment, striving to make sure that these new elements are coherent with the existing urban fabric and to maximise the level of accessibility generated by its presence. In this article, we examine the measures undertaken in Segovia and associated with the establishment of its new high-speed train station. The fact that the station was located in a peripheral area implies the need to undertake a wide range of measures to manage physical planning and maximise mobility. Municipal and territorial planning highlights the importance of infrastructure and of integrating a station and its immediate surroundings within the wider urban area. This normally entails the development of land through urban planning and additional transport infrastructure. For the present, managing mobility implies structuring the interaction between the railway station and the urban centre by coordinating bus services with train schedules.