Neoliberal Urbicide in Barcelona. The Case of Ciutat Vella

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.