Discourses of the City: Policy and Response in Post–Transitional Barcelona

Abstract

Contemporary urban planning in barcelona reflects both a historical process through which the city has been defined and a rapid political evolution since the end of the Franco regime, during which urban interests were debated intensely. This article focuses on the emergence of new discourses about the city in the transitional and the current post‐transitional period of Spanish democracy. It also contrasts hegemonic models, as realized in rhetoric, planning, and construction, with other voices from the Raval, a marginal downtown neighborhood that has become a particular focus of urban renovation. The article argues that analysis of the formation of a new orthodoxy in city planning must be nuanced both by critical readings and by appreciation of alternative values in urban life. [Spain, urban planning, urban space, class conflict]