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Discourses of the City: Policy and Response in Post–Transitional Barcelona
Author(s) -
McDonogh Gary
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
city and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1548-744X
pISSN - 0893-0465
DOI - 10.1525/city.1991.5.1.40
Subject(s) - hegemony , rhetoric , downtown , orthodoxy , democracy , politics , urban planning , sociology , political science , period (music) , public administration , political economy , geography , aesthetics , law , civil engineering , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , engineering
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]