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This paper assesses the legacy of Catalan engineer-planner Ildefons Cerdà. It highlights his 1859 plan for Barcelona and his 1867 text The General Theory of Urbanisation. It exposes elements of the theory, methods, and plan of this planning pioneer; and situates them in the context of the times, and in the context of the emergence of the modern urban planning movement. The paper also indicates the importance of the Cerdà plan for planning in Barcelona over the twentieth century. Lastly, it discusses its relevance for the twenty-first century, in which network urbanism and system integration are critical watchwords for planning progress and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Taking one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Barcelona as a paradigmatic case, the aim of this paper is to explore the ways in which contestation organised by sublocal grassroots movements in the context of the current urban crisis operates, both in terms of content and form of protest. Our thesis is that resident mobilisation in the neighbourhood of Ciutat Meridiana is expressive of a new cycle of (urban) social mobilisations in Spanish cities. In such mobilisations, more or less spontaneous initiatives which emerged to counteract the effects of the crisis at the community level are simultaneously serving as platforms for reciprocity and political contestation. Establishing a dialogue with the literature on social innovation, in this paper we claim that these micro-local urban practices are linked to broader social movements and thus play a fundamental role in the political empowerment of citizens living in highly segregated and vulnerable urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the limits of the creative city hypothesis. It discusses the ways in which creative-based urban regeneration strategies, rather than stimulating art production practices, hampers them. The paper analyses the discursive and urban conflicts between the art community in Poblenou -- a deindustrialised and now bohemian district in Barcelona -- and the 22@Barcelona Plan, a large-scale, government-led urban intervention aimed at the conversion of Poblenou into a 'creative cluster'. The paper argues that the Plan, in spite of its discourse, destroys art spaces, forces the relocation of artists and transforms the cultural landscape of the neighbourhood. The paper also contests the mainstream scholarship on the creative city by showing how artists, far from being mere gentrifiers, are politically engaged neighbourhood agents. Finally, the paper outlines some key policy recommendations regarding the implementation of more sustainable creative-based urban regeneration strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Imago Mundi is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2005 Barcelona passed an Ordinance to ‘promote and guarantee peaceful coexistence in the city’. This put an end to five months of a political race against the clock. In those weeks, incivility made it to the government’s political agenda and the proposal was drawn up, discussed, amended and finally passed, generating a heated political debate, capturing the attention of the media and articulating a change of course in the government’s approach to community safety and urban disorder. This paper traces back the political and policy process of the Barcelona Ordinance in the context of the literature on the subject, looking at how civility and incivility were defined in this particular local context, but in light of similar processes of ‘defining up’ of deviancy elsewhere. It ends by highlighting the similarities and differences between similar processes in different countries, the policy transfer mechanisms and the active role played by cities in defining the urban security agenda in and beyond the urban sphere between the 1990s and the 2000s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years many post-industrial cities have implemented ambitious re-imaging strategies to appeal to a variety of external audiences. This paper identifies a conceptual framework within which the effects of these initiatives on tourists' images can be understood. The framework contends that re-imaging can affect different city image components through the connotations and synecdochical images generated. The value of this framework is then illustrated by its application to the re-imaging initiatives adopted by Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. This case study reveals that the mechanisms identified in the framework are useful ways of explaining how city images are modified. It also suggests that the pursuit of image change through these processes has important implications for the general direction and outcomes of wider regeneration objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free, open-source participatory platforms like Decidim or Consul were designed by the 15M' citizen activists in Spain. Initially implemented in Barcelona and Madrid, these platforms are spread in many countries. Castells has not examined the institutionalization of the 15M's offspring, and thus we aim to contribute by studying the rollout of the Decidim platform in Catalan municipalities. We examine its disruptive potential along three democratic dimensions: transparency, participation and deliberation. Our study combines in-depth interviews and an online questionnaire administered to public officials in charge of the platform and analyses the levels of participation on the platform. The research shows elements of managerial continuity: the most valued goals are transparency, organisation of information and the collection of citizen proposals, rather than deliberation and transfer of sovereignty towards citizens. However, the platform forces administrations to consider individual citizens' inputs, increases citizens' proposals and initiatives, and brings in new participant publics. Furthermore, democratic innovation is being pushed ahead by a networkof activists and technological experts that continuously improve the platform and function as a counter-power (Castells, 2015, 2016). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tributary streams or torrents form runoff axes that are unique to the Mediterranean. They have contributed to the formation and growth of some cities. The approach in this paper is to investigate the importance of the streams in the process of urbanization in Barcelona, as well as interventions in these urban axes as public spaces. The study was conducted in two phases. The: first was a literature review and an analysis old maps obtained in the Historical Archive of Barcelona City. AHCB with satellite photographs and current mapping in CAD format obtained from the Cartographic Institut of Catalonia ICC. The second phase studied the characteristics of the Ramblas as emblematic streets for their design characteristics as public spaces, and from an empirical study based on the observation through field visits. The work concludes by recognizing the contribution of urban interventions carried out in the Ramblas to become one of the most emblematic streets of Barcelona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines sound level meter errors when measuring direct fly-over aircraft noise in presence of background noise. Since the meter is unable to separate aircraft noise from background noise, an array of 12 microphones is used to measure direct aircraft noise avoiding the effect of the ground reflections and urban background noise. Using this technique, aircraft noise can be separated from the background noise providing a reference value of the aircraft sound pressure level for the sound level meter measurement. Measurement is carried out using both a sound level meter and the array in an urban environment with high background noise level near Barcelona Airport. Finally, the experimental measurement errors of the sound meter are within 1dB of the theoretical values. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A good knowledge of the hydraulic behaviour of an urban catchment and its surface drainage system is an essential requirement to guarantee traffic and pedestrian safety. In many cases, inlets have been situated according to spatial density criteria. Indeed a more rational location of inlets on urban catchments must be defined according to an accurate analysis of the relationship between street flow and inlet hydraulic efficiency. Moreover we lack specific hazard criteria in terms of the maximum acceptable flow depths and velocities on the streets that do not cause problems to pedestrians. In this paper the results of two different experimental campaigns are presented. The first was carried out to evaluate inlet hydraulic efficiency; the second was carried out to address the pedestrian stability in urban flood conditions, whose aim was to propose new hazard criteria. On the basis of the experimental results, a methodology was developed to assess flood hazard in urban areas during storm events. If a refined topographic representation of urban areas is available, a two-dimensional numerical simulation of urban flooding can be performed using complete shallow water equations. According to this approach a numerical application for flood hazard assessment in a street of Barcelona is shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper provides an analysis of human mobility data in an urban area using the amount of available bikes in the stations of the community bicycle program Bicing in Barcelona. Based on data sampled from the operator’s website, it is possible to detect temporal and geographic mobility patterns within the city. These patterns are applied to predict the number of available bikes for any station some minutes/hours ahead. The predictions could be used to improve the bicycle program and the information given to the users via the Bicing website. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One of the most controversial ideas in the debate on urban sustainability is that urban sprawl causes problems of ecological stress. This widespread assumption has been tested by measuring the ecological footprint left by commuters in the 163 municipalities of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (BMR). This paper explores the determinants of the ecological footprint of commuting municipal variability by using the following regressors: population density, accessibility, average household income, and job ratio. The results confirm that urban form appears as the main determinant of ecological footprint variation among the municipalities of BMR. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Travel behavior of the present generation of youths is being increasingly explored due to their relevance in shaping future accessibility needs and mobility habits. The present study offers an original perspective on this topic by identifying territorial disparities that emerge in youth mobility patterns in rural and urban areas. Unlike most previous research, we propose taking a global view on mobility by analyzing all trip purposes and transportation modes. This is conducted by analyzing a comprehensive mobility survey in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, which provides data on mobility engagement, trip purposes, modal split, travel times and territorial differences. In general, youngsters account for larger daily travel times than older adults, present a higher attachment to public transportation and walk less on a daily basis. These differences are enhanced in rural territories, where while older adults overcome accessibility issues with higher use of the private vehicle, youngsters are more likely to invest larger travel times on transit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the single institution of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB) is a recent creation, some form of institutional cooperation among most of the metropolitan municipalities has been functioning over the past 40 years. However, despite the ample evidence about municipal and national patterns of identification in Catalonia, no data about political orientations or patterns of identity toward the metropolitan area among the metropolitan population have been gathered so far. Using new survey data we explore two main features of metropolitan identification among the Barcelona metropolitan population. First, we analyze the relationship between place of residence and metropolitan identification. Second, we explore the shaping of the orientations of citizens regarding the governance structure of the MAB, with particular interest in the central role of the city of Barcelona. Results underscore the role of the core city and the effects of residential mobility in shaping both metropolitan identity and governance orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The turn towards the knowledge-based economy and creative strategies to enhance urban competitiveness within it has been well documented. Yet too little has been said to date about the transformation of land use for new productive activities, and the contradictions inherent to this process. Our case study is Barcelona, an erstwhile 'model' for urban regeneration which has sought to transform itself into a global knowledge city since 2000. Through the lens of Marxian value theory, and Harvey's writing on urban monopoly rents especially, we show how the 22@ Barcelona project - conceived with received wisdom about the determinants of urban knowledge-based competitiveness in mind - amounted to an exercise in the capture of monopoly rents, driven by the compulsion of public sector institutions, financiers and developers to pursue rental profit-maximizing opportunities through the mobilization of land as a financial asset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When working-class localities in developed countries are in question, social fragmentation is often analyzed along ethnic lines. Instead, this article claims that it is more critically fruitful to explore fragmentation in terms of people's relations with the state and different forms of capital. It does this by considering housing in Spain as a key resource that connects state policies both with the forms of reproduction and (dis)organization of the disadvantaged, and with the development of real estate and finance capital. First, it unfolds the historical formation of the Spanish 'homeownership culture' and the construction-finance complex. Second, starting from an in-depth ethnography of a peripheral neighborhood in Barcelona, it emphasizes the embeddedness of recent financialization in the livelihood strategies of poor households. Finally, it shows how the process led to a commodification and erosion of those social relations on which it partially depended, thereby exposing problems for class reproduction and fracture lines among the urban poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous measurements of surface mixed layer (SML), decoupled residual/convective layer (DRCL) and aerosol backscatter coefficient were performed within the Barcelona (Spain) boundary layer from September to October 2010 (30 days) in the framework of the SAPUSS (Solving Aerosol Problems by Using Synergistic Strategies) field campaign. Two near-infrared ceilometers (Jenoptik CHM15K), vertically and horizontally probing (only vertical profiles are herein discussed), were deployed. Ceilometer-based DRCLs (1761±363m a.g.l.) averaged over the campaign duration were twice as high as the mean SML (904±273m a.g.l.). Both DRCL and SML showed a marked SML diurnal cycle. Ceilometer data were compared with potential temperature profiles measured by daily radiosounding (twice a day, midnight and midday) to interpret the boundary layer structure in the coastal urban area of Barcelona. The overall agreement (R² = 0.80) between the ceilometer-retrieved and radiosounding-based SML heights (h) revealed overestimation of the SML by the ceilometer (Δh =145±145 m). After separating the data in accordance with different atmospheric scenarios, the lowest SML (736±183 m) and DRCL (1573±428 m) were recorded during warm North African (NAF) advected air mass. By contrast, higher SML and DRCL were observed during stagnant Regional (REG) (911±234m and 1769±314 m, respectively) and cold Atlantic (ATL) (965±222m and 1878±290 m, respectively) air masses. In addition to being the lowest, the SML during the NAF scenario frequently showed a flat upper boundary throughout the day possibly because of the strong winds from the Mediterranean Sea limiting the midday SML convective growth. The mean backscatter coefficients were calculated at two selected heights representative of middle and top SML portions, i.e. ^500 = 0.59±0.45Mm-1 sr-1 and 800 = 0.87±0.68Mm-1 sr-1 at 500m and 800m a.g.l., respectively. The highest backscatter coefficients were observed during NAF (β500 = 0.77±0.57Mm-1 sr-1) when compared with ATL (β500 = 0.51±0.44Mm-1 sr-1) and REG (β500 = 0.64±0.39Mm-1 sr-1). The relationship between the vertical change in backscatter coefficient and atmospheric stability (∂θ/∂z) was investigated in the first 3000m a.g.l., aiming to study how the unstable, stable or neutral atmospheric conditions of the atmosphere alter the distribution of aerosol backscatter with height over Barcelona. A positive correlation between unstable conditions and enhanced backscatter and vice versa was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution elaborates on the role of local governments in the implementation of EU anti-discrimination policy by taking as an example the work of Barcelona's Office for Non-Discrimination (OND) and its practice in dealing with issues of race and ethnic origin. First, the OND is presented as a local counterpart of state equality bodies. Second, in order to make a more solid argument around the incorporation of cities into EU anti-racial discrimination policy, the OND's broad and intersectional approach to race discrimination as part of migrant human rights is discussed, as well as the way in which the OND performs legal assistance. Based on these findings and drawing on concepts of governance and subsidiarity, the last part of the article reflects more generally on the position and added value of cities in a multi-level system of implementation of the EU racial anti-discrimination policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution addresses human rights in the city of Barcelona, analysing the treatment and outcome of migration-related complaints to the Office for Non-Discrimination (OND), a municipal service in Barcelona. The city provides both the level and the unit of analysis of the complaints to the OND. The OND has dealt with a variety of migration-related legal issues by using the human rights framework flexibly and providing different types of solutions in relation to two main constraints: the status of the migrants and the systemic and hidden nature of discrimination affecting them. The contribution suggests ways beyond those provided for by the law in which cities can support (migrant) human rights through an institution like the OND. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to focus on the especially interesting area of South Europe and to present and points out the strategic development process, in one of the most representative examples of its successful implementation, which is the city of Barcelona. Barcelona, which in the last 20 years, managed to increase its competitiveness becoming one of the most attractive investment destinations on international level. The city?s economic dynamism, its strategic position in the South of Europe and a clearly-consolidated international projection have turned the economic area of Barcelona into an international platform of economic activities, a driving force behind development in Southern Europe, especially oriented towards new, emergent, competitive and international sectors with an uninterrupted growth of their foreign markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of the present study was to describe the use of prescribed and non prescribed medicines in a non-institutionalised population older than 15 years of an urban area during the year 2000, in terms of age and gender, social class, employment status and type of Primary Health Care. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Information came from the 2000 Barcelona Health Interview Survey. The indicators used were the prevalence of use of prescribed and non-prescribed medicines in the two weeks prior to the interview. Descriptive analyses, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out. Results: More women than men took medicines (75.8% vs. 60% respectively). The prevalence of use of prescribed medicines increased with age while the prevalence of non-prescribed use decreased. These age differences are smaller among those with poor perceived health. In terms of social class, a higher percentage of men with good health in the more advantaged classes took non-prescribed medicines compared with disadvantaged classes (38.7% vs 31.8%). In contrast, among the group with poor health, more people from the more advantaged classes took prescribed medicines, compared with disadvantaged classes (51.4% vs 33.3%). A higher proportion of people who were either retired, unemployed or students, with good health, used prescribed medicines. Conclusion: This study shows that beside health needs, there are social determinants affecting medicine consumption in the city of Barcelona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the urban and economic revitalisation of a traditional industrial working-class neighbourhood into a knowledge-based economic district. It explores why and how this new district is the result of an assertive public policy led by Barcelona's city council and implemented by a quasi-public agency. The project represents the most important urban-growth strategy in the city at the turn of the century and also exemplifies the advantages and shortcomings of many of the policy elements that have contributed to the radical transformation of Barcelona in recent decades. The article further highlights methodological challenges regarding the conceptualisation and operationalisation of new economic activities and it discusses the spatial and uncertain economic consequences of this ambitious approach by the local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the role of the second cities of Hamburg, Germany and Barcelona, Spain in the in the building of their nation's autonomy, culture and law in the late nineteenth century. In Spain, by contrast, autonomous principalities were brought together by the different project of enforced state-building: Castile expanded its power and influence over Spain's other territories. As a result, the duchy of Catalonia lost its independence, with the last remaining autonomous political institutions being abolished by the Bourbons in the eighteenth century. Post-independence Catalonia retained elements of its separate civic and legal traditions well into and beyond the nineteenth century. In the case of Hamburg, it was the city's medieval status as a Free Hanseatic City that could be invoked to bolster contemporary claims to economic autonomy. Yet the Hanseatic trope not only legitimated particularist aspirations, it also tallied with themes in the official discourse of empire. The establishment of the free port was a result less of political than of economic unification in Germany. In a paradoxical twist, the status of the law in the quest for Catalan autonomy resulted from Catalonia's having lost its political independence earlier than the city-state of Hamburg. After 1716, Catalan civil or foral law was celebrated as the remaining institutional manifestation of Catalan identity, which had implications for the development of federalism in Spain in general. In 1851, a process of national codification began that, as in the German case, threatened regional legal autonomy.

This article deals with women's use of public space and sense of place in El Raval, a neighbourhood located in the historical center of Barcelona. Attention will be paid to discover to what degree the existence of a quality public space fosters the creation of socially meaningful places, thus contributing to the construction of women's sense of place and urban identities. A qualitative approach, based on direct observation and in-depth interviews with women living in the neighbourhood, has allowed us to capture the main aspects of the building of a sense of place and belonging, that is the use of public space and facilities, the attitude towards living in the neighbourhood, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of two studies recently carried out on the supply and demand for business services, the fundamental aim of this article is to analyse business service location strategies in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (BMR) and to demonstrate the existence of tendencies similar to those in other developed urban areas. Three conclusions clearly emerge: a growing and progressive externalisation of business services; the tendency towards the urban concentration of these services, especially the most innovative and strategic ones; and the need for a high degree of co-operation between business service customers and suppliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]