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Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies

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Urbanism, culture and the post-industrial city: Challenging the 'Barcelona model'
Mari Paz Balibrea

Online publication date: 04 August 2010

To cite this Article Balibrea, Mari Paz(2001) 'Urbanism, culture and the post-industrial city: Challenging the 'Barcelona

model'', Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 2: 2, 187 210 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/14636200120085174 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14636200120085174

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JournalofSpanishCulturalStudies,Vol.2,No.2,2001

Urbanism, culture and the post-industrial city: challenging the Barcelonamodel* MARIPAZBALIBREA
In1999,precedenthasbeenbrokentoawardtheRoyalGoldMedaltoa city:to Barcelona, its government, its citizens and design professionals ofallsorts.Inspiredcityleadership,pursuinganambitiousyetpragmatic urban strategy and the highest design standards, has transformed the citys public realm, immensely expanded its amenities and regenerated itseconomy,providingprideinitsinhabitantsanddelightinitsvisitors. [] Probably nowhere else in the world are there so many recent examples, in large cities and small towns, of a benign and appropriate attitudetowardscreatingacivicsettingforthenextcentury.1 The above quotation comes from a press release by the prestigious Royal InstituteofBritishArchitects(RIBA)upontheawardoftheirGoldMedaltothe cityofBarcelonain1999.Thistextisparadigmaticofthedominantperceptionof thecityasseenfromabroad:astylishandexcitingmetropolis,theperfectcivic sitefortheurbancommunitiesofthetwenty-firstcentury.TheBarcelonamodel hasgainedofficialapprovalandisbeingcopiedonaninternationalscale.Stillin aBritishcontext,itiswell-knownthatBarcelonaisconsideredtobeaprivileged urban reference point by Tony Blairs cabinet. In 1999, the Urban Task Force createdbytheLabourgovernmentand led by Lord RichardRogers produced a plan for the regeneration of ten UK cities based upon the urban programme of Barcelona.TheObserversummarizedtheaimoftheprojectasfollows:Eachof the target cities will be encouraged to sell themselves as exciting and stylish placestoliveandwork,mirroringthesuccessoftheCatalanurbanregeneration. (WintourandThorpe1999).2 Theviewfrominsideisnotmuchdifferent.WhilstintherestofSpainsocial democracy has been showered with criticisms as a result of the corruption and speculationcondonedandfostered duringtheSocialistPartys periodin office, resultingintheirbeingoustedfromgovernmentin1996,themajorityofpeople in Barcelona remain satisfied with the way the local Socialist government has managedthings,particularlywithrespecttoitsurbanandarchitecturalprojects, andcontinuetovotefortheminlocalelections.Despitetheeconomicrecession that followed the 1992 Olympic Games, Barcelona has continued to enjoy an uninterruptedheydayofnationalandinternationalprestige,aswellaspractically unanimous consensus with regard to the quality and beauty of its urban developments and the habitability of a city seen as both Mediterranean and human. Of course, the absence of any notable dissent among the citys people has
1463-6204 print/1469-9818 online/01/020187-24 2001Taylor&FrancisLtd DOI:10.1080/1463620012008517 4

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been brandished as irrefutable proof of the virtue of the urban changes which have been implemented (RIBAs opinion is just one of many examples). For others, however, this consensus is a sign of la interiorizacin entre los ciudadanos de unos criterios que coinciden con los intereses de los poderes econmicosdominantesandtheythereforeconsiderittobeunodelosaspectos ms graves de los procesos polticos y sociales de los ltimos tiempos (Etxezarretaetal.1996:289).Fromanideologicalpointofview,theproduction ofconsensusistheprincipalmeansoflegitimizingdominationandofco-opting potentially critical citizens (Ripalda 1999: 30; Esquirol 1998: 113-30). Any hegemonic ideology will seek to devise for its interpellated subjects a representationofrealitythat,whilefavouringitsowninterests,canatthesame timebepresentedastheonlytruthaboutthatreality.Thisarticlecorrespondingly assumes that the popular consensus on Barcelona needs to be regarded with scepticism and vigilance, particularly in view of increasing social polarization, thegrowthofaperipheralpopulationwhichhasseenitsqualityoflifedeteriorate sincethe1980s,andthemassivespeculationaccompanyingtherestructuringof thecity(Roca1994).InwhatfollowsIwillanalysetheurbanchangesthat,since the early 1980s, have produced the seductive Barcelona of the 1990s. I will additionallydefinesomeofthemajormechanismsthroughwhichtheperception ofthesechangeshasbeenhegemonicallyconstructed,payingparticularattention totheroleplayedbyculture. Myaimis toexposetheideologicaland political underpinningssustainingthisconsensus. Thecityasideologicaltext As soon as we think of urban spaces as texts, and therefore as vehicles of 3 ideology, thenurbanismandtheproductionofconsensusbecomeinterconnected processes. Urban and architectonic development programmes constitute privilegedsiteswithinwhichideologicalinterpellationtakesplace.Togiveshape tothecollectivespherethroughaurbanregenerationprojectistosemanticize(or resemanticize) the former; like every signification process, this is intensely ideological (Ramrez 1992: 173-82). It becomes crucial to know what is being built in the city and how the newly built spaces are endowed with hegemonic meaning,inordertounderstandhowindividualsandcollectivesareideologically interpellatedascitizens.AsGeorgSimmelarguedlongago:Theproductionof spatio-temporalitiesisbothaconstitutiveandfundamentalmomenttothesocial processingeneralaswellasfundamentaltotheestablishmentofvalues(quoted inHarvey1996:246).FredricJamesonspecifies: thebuildinginterpellatesmeitproposesanidentityforme,anidentity that can make me uncomfortable or on the contrary obscenely complacent, that can push me into revolt or acceptance of my antisociality and criminality or on the other hand into subalternity and humility,intotheobedienceofaservantoralower-classcitizen.More thanthat,itinterpellatesmybodyorinterpellatesmebywayofthebody [...].(1997:129)

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Assoonastheycomeintobeing,buildingsandurbanspacessignify.Firstofall, because they change the structure of perception within the everyday urban experience of citizens. Let us take, for example, the recent opening of new avenues and arteries in Barcelona, such as the Rambla del Raval, the Carrer MarinaandtheextensionoftheAvingudaDiagonalandCarrerAragtothesea. In the Casc Antic, the longitudinal demolition of entire blocks of houses was necessarytomakeroomfortheRambladelRaval;inthenorth-easternareasof PobleNouandBesPs,whichhavebeencompletelyredevelopedandrestructured, the changes have followed the closing down of local industries and the revaluation of the land they once occupied. Such spatial changes can generate positive effects for the citizen, such as a new sense of cleanliness and rationalizationproducingprideandsatisfactionwiththecurrentconfigurationof thecity;ornegativeeffectssuchasasenseofalienationanddisplacementatthe lossoftheoriginalhabitat(Terdiman1993:106-47;Benjamin1973).Theresult willdependonthecitizenspreviousrelationshiptothenowtransformedspaces andonthematerialandsymbolicconditionsunderwhichshehasexperiencedthe change, and will also be conditioned by the degree of persuasiveness of the differentdiscoursescirculatingandgivingmeaningtothechanges.Inthecaseof Barcelona, these discourses have overwhelmingly, almost monolithically, been favourabletotheurbanchangesimplementedinthecity. Citizensarenot the onlytargetsinterpellatedin the process of resignifying thecity.Inaccordancewiththelogicofthetouristindustryasweshallsee,a fundamental feature of the citys current economy the entire city turnsinto a lucrative,luxury,funcommoditythatcanberapidlyconsumedbythetourist,a leisurespacecommodifiedrepeatedlyinthepurchaseofaplaneticket,abookon Gaud, tickets for the opera at the Liceu or for a concert at the Palau de la Msica,thebookingofahotelroomorrestauranttable.Ineachandeveryoneof theseactivities,allofthemmarkedbyaneconomictransaction,thehypothetical touristbuysthecityandconstructsaprivateimaginaryofit:onethat,toagreat extent,ispreviouslymanufacturedforherbymultiplelocalandglobalpractices andinterests.Even(orespecially)inthecaseofthoseactivitiesnotinvolvingan immediate act of consumption for example, the following of recommended touristroutessuchaslarutadelModernismethesemanticsandhermeneutics ofspacehavebeenconstructedfortheforeignviewer,andthisconstructionhas necessitated a previous political and economic intervention in the form of the restoration, face-lifting and rehabilitation of buildings, the equipment and staffing of venues, the production of targeted bibliographies, etc. Dean MacCannellarguesthatthetherapeuticqualityofthetouristtripstemsfromthe touristsdesiretocreateatotalityoutofthevisitedspace,onethatsavesherfrom theeverydayfragmented reality surroundingher inthe modern world (1976: 7, 13, 15). Such a totality can be obtained in an alien environment because the touristcanreducethisnewrealitytoaverylimitednumberofexperiences,and itspasttoafewvisitstomuseums.Barcelonaasaleisureandtouristsiteneeds constantly to produce a totalizing and coherent representation/meaning of the city,onethatiseasyandpleasanttoconsumeforthiskindofvisitor.

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Notunrelatedtothislogicofresignification,sometimestheconstructionofa new space responds to an urban reconfiguration in need of new privileged signifiersthatcanbeusedtorepresentthecitysynecdochically.Thisisthecase indemocraticBarcelonawithrespecttoarchitecturalandurbanprojectssuchas theFosterCommunicationToweronMountTibidaboorthePortOlmpicwhere anewleisureareaislocated.Duetothesocialfunctionperformedbythesenew spaces and artefacts, they become the signifiers best suited to symbolize or synthesizethecurrentdominantmeaningofthecityasaMediterraneancentrefor leisure,communicationsandhigh-techindustry(Iwillreturntothispointlater). Today, these sites figure on all tourist routes and their icons appear on every tourist map as well as on every visual representation of Barcelona financed by theCityCouncil,forinstanceintheparadigmaticworkofJavierMariscal. The prominence acquired by these new signifiers in recent years works againstthesymbolicstatuspreviouslyenjoyedbyotherurbanandarchitectonic spacesinthecity,notablythosewhichalludetoitsindustrialpast.Mostofthe landthathasbeenturnedintoservice,leisureorresidentialareassincethe1980s istheresultoftherevaluationofoldindustriallandandthedemolitionoftheold factory buildings previously occupying it. As these disappear en masse, some have been salvaged and refunctionalized in their entirety often as cultural, sometimesasresidentialspaceswhilede-semanticizedfragmentsofothershave been preserved as monuments: for example, the chimneys in the Poble Nou district(oldtextilefactory)ortheParal.leldistrict(formerpowerstation).These fragments not only lose any practical function, but in their new location their socially symbolic potential is also reduced. In theory, such fragments for example, a chimney formerly used to extract fumes have the potential to becomesymbolsofbygonesocio-economicactivity,anallusiontothecityspast. Ordothey?Thesenowmonumentalizedobjectsundoubtedlyrefertothepast, but their spatial recontextualization disconnects them from the local history in which they originated. Isolated in the middle of areas now reconverted into shopping malls, new residential complexes for the middle classes, or luxury officesforbusinessexecutives,theycanonlybeflatandmutecitations,unableto conveyasenseoftheirownhistoricitytothoseignorantoflocalhistory.Indeed, their disposition in space conceals the complexity of an industrial past characterizedbysocialstrugglesandhumanrelationshipsthatwerelivedouton that spot, replacing it with a new configuration of space which promises the absenceofconflictsandequalitythroughconsumptionandthemarket.4 Muchthe same could be argued in the case of those old industrial buildings refunctionalized as cultural spaces. The potential allusion to the past that their merepresenceinvokeshasbeenrestored,aestheticized,totheextentthattheend productlosesits capacitytorefer toamemoryofcapitalistexploitation and of therolethatthisexploitationhasplayedinthecityscurrentprosperity. Undersuchconditions,thearchitecturalquotationofthepast5paradoxically promotes amnesia and an absence of reflection on history. This new monumentality turns the object from the past into an empty shell, a liberated signifier with a highly tenuous and malleable signified attached to it, whose

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quasi-floating character can be easily appropriated both to justify the local governmentsinterestinkeepingthememoryofthecityaliveandtoserveasthe logo of a shopping mall. Thus its re-signification is, at the same time, a desemantization.Those who favourthis de-semanticized conservation-productionresignificationparticipatein,andbenefitfrom,thepoliticsofhistoryimpliedby theconditionsofpossibilityandexistenceofsuchobjectsfromthepast. Finally,thereisalsoapoliticalorideologicaldimensiontoaestheticsthatis relevant to the urban text. Architecture and urbanism are applied arts implementedonlywhenandifthere issufficientcapitalto financetheprojects and sufficient political power to back them. Urban speculation, via the largescale real-estate business, is a classic phenomenon in the history of local corruption sustaining every urban development process. But the production of formandbeautytheterrainoftheaestheticisalsoanintrinsiccomponentof these disciplines as well. The presence of a mutual tension and interchange betweenaestheticandpolitico-economicconsiderationscanneverbeavoidedin thefieldsofurbanismandarchitecture.WhatispeculiartodemocraticBarcelona with respect to this tension is the resignifying of space, which has in turn produced an intensification of the aesthetic component. One example comes immediately to mind: between 1986 and 1999 the city council spent 6,923 million pesetas on its campaign Barcelona posat guapa, intended to promote andsubsidizetheface-liftingofkeybuildingslocatedaroundthecity.According toex-MayorPasqualMaragall,theembellishmentprogrammepromotedthrough theBarcelonaposatguapacampaignconsolidalapercepcindelciudadanodel paisaje pblico como bien comn y pblico, contribuye a la mejora del patrimoniocolectivoy aumenta la comodidad,tranquilidad y sociabilidad en la ciudad (Ajuntament 1992: 6). It should also be added that this campaign has massively benefited the modernist architectural patrimony of the city, mostly locatedintheEixampledistrict(Ajuntament1992:1996).Itisnot coincidental thatthismodernistheritage,dominatedbytheworkofAntoniGaud,hasbecome oneofthepillarsofthecitystouristicculturalprovisionand,moregenerally,of its constructed image and personality. The proliferation of similar restorations, together with a policy of awarding the category of listed building to some of theserestoredproperties(whichmeansthattheyareconsideredpartofthecitys that is, part of a public patrimony), has become an enormously successful politicalstrategy,whichbrilliantlyexploitstheonecommunal,collectiveaspect ofmostofthesebuildings:thefactthattheirfacadescanbeseenfromthepublic spaceofthestreet. TheentireprocessofurbantransformationinBarcelonahasbeencarriedout underthetechnicalsupervisionofagroupofnotablearchitectsandurbanists.To understand the quality and attractiveness of many of the urban projects that nowadays constitute Barcelonas urban space one has to take into account this groups achievements in the pre-Olympic period. But the exceptional media attention that the group has attracted is also a crucial factor in explaining why this quality and attractiveness have become a universal focus of attention, popularizingthedictumthatBarcelonaisthecityofarchitects (Moix 1994a).

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The quantity and quality of the work of these professionals has aroused much admiration for the city, to the point of becoming the only, or at least the privileged,elementbywhichitisjudgedandthus a decisivecomponentofthe citysseductiveappeal.Untilthemid1990s,therehabilitationandface-liftingof entirekeyareascreated new urban spaces andcultural facilities,manyofthem public,whichwithoutfailincludeanarchitecturalprojectbyanamedarchitect. The presence, and convenient marketing, of work in the city by Foster, Meier, Viaplana, Calatrava, Isozaki, Moneo, Miralles et al. intensifies the aesthetic significationoftheseprojects, turning them, by the sametoken,into privileged signifiersofwhatIhavepreviouslydefinedasadesignercity. The constant tributes paid to the citys beauty have helped to distract the attention of visitors and citizens alike from other fundamental, much less satisfactory, issues: employment, housing, public transport, or even the questioning of the same urban projects whose aesthetic value is so intensely praised. One could say, provocatively drawing on Walter Benjamins famous dictum(1969:217-51),thatthemoreaestheticsispoliticallyusedinBarcelona, the more politics is itself aestheticized, so that political consensus and the obedienceofthemassesareachievedbycontinuallyproducingforthemwhatis perceivedasaestheticorartisticgratification.Itisclear,then,thatthecityisan ideologicaltext.Letusmovenowtoamoresystematicanalysisofhowthistext hasbeen(re)writteninkeymodes,howitsformshavebeenfilledwithmeaning, andhowspatialchangeshavehelpedtoshapeapoliticalideologyindemocratic Barcelona. Culture,urbanismandtheproductionofideology Inmyopinion,themostremarkablephenomenonintheprocessofurbanchange thatis,inthemajortransformationsundergonebyBarcelonasurbanfabric/text istheextraordinarybroadeningofthematerialandsymbolicterrainoccupied by culture. The most important changes affecting the social body and the economy have been justified in the name of culture, which becomes their structuralaxis.Byinvokingculture,theideologicalcontinuityoftheconsensus withregardtothecityhasbeenmadepossible.Theconnectionbetweenculture andurbanismisestablishedthroughthelatterscapacitytocreatepublicspace:a 6 public space rhetorically defined as open to all, and therefore as a place of encounter and of the production of collective culture. The new urbanism in Barcelona, at least up until the first half of the 1990s, is characterized by the enormous proliferation of cultural spaces (that is, spaces that house Culture withacapitalC)andpublicspacesofgreatimpactandvisibility:squaresand monuments came first, then museums, theatres, sports complexes, avenues, promenades. The beginning of this trend dates back to the period of the Transicin(Gom1997;Etxezaretaetal.1996;Bohigas1985)duringtheoffice ofSocialistMayorNarcsSerraandPasqualMaragallafterhim;Ishallreferto this in more detail below. The discourse on the need to monumentalize and rehabilitatethecitysoastoserveitscitizens,creatingspacesofidentificationfor the community, and the pressure exercised on political leaders by important

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grassroots residents movementsinorder tomakethingsmove inthis direction areparadigmatictrendsofthisperiod.AsOriolBohigas,theheadoftheSocialist City Councils urban planning department, famously put it, the task was to monumentalizar the outskirts, donant-[lis] els valors significatius de la col.lectivitat,andtorestorethehistoriccentrereversingtheprocessofdeclineit hadsuffered,thushelpingtomillorarlaconscinciacol.lectiva(Bohigas1985: 20). The aim of this urban policy was to produce a greater uniformity in the city in the sense that the residents cultural capital and collective memory would be recognized within each neighbourhood. The homogenization which Bohigasaimedtoachievebyinterveningin the mostsocially deprivedareas of the city was, in reality, an attempt to bridge glaring inequalities and to foster social reconciliation by allocating cultural and symbolic capital in the form of (among other things) monuments and public spaces of socialization and memory.7 Thecontinuitiesandrupturesinthediscourseandimplementationofurban transformation in Barcelona throughout the democratic period must be understood, at least partially, in relation to this earlier stage. The major urban projectsthatwouldfromthemid1980scharacterizeBarcelonasurbanismwere largely justified through a rhetoric which promoted construction as a public servicedesignedtobenefittheeverydayintercourseofcitizens,includingthose mostdisenfranchised.Thelogicandpoliticsbehindtheseearlierprojectswould get lost from view with the exponential escalation, in terms of quantity and quality, of the urban projects that followed. What triggered the change? The extentofthesocialandeconomictransformationsundergonebythecitywerea result of the economic restructuring of the entire Spanish state that was being effectedfromthe1970s onwards.InthecaseofBarcelona,thetransformations basicallyconsistedinthedismantlingofallmanufacturingindustry,whichturned Barcelonaintoyetanotherexampleofwhathasbeengloballycometobeknown asapost-industrialcity.Underthesecircumstances,itbecameimperativetolook forawaytomakethelocaleconomysustainable.Thissignalledthebeginningof ashiftinthecityseconomytowardscleancultureandtechnologyindustries:8a local manifestation of a world-wide process in a global economy where information and entertainment become the driving forces, necessitating the proliferationofsportsinfrastructuresand largecommercialandculturalcentres (Cohen 1998: 110; Harvey 1996: 246; Smith 1996). For those with major economicinterestsinthecity,theurbantransformationrequiredbytheprojects formonumentalizingtheoutskirtsandforregeneratingthehistoriccentrecameat justtherighttime,allowingtheeconomicrecessiontobetackled.Itwasafirst steptowardsthereconfigurationofthecityandthesameeconomicsectorswould exercisepressureinordertomakethetransformationsmoreandmoredramatic (Etxezarreta et al. 1996; Gom 1997). The pressure exercised by big financial groups over local governments or, eventually, the alliance of both translated materiallyintothepromotionofamixedeconomyasthemainwayoffinancing public urban redevelopment. Politicians presented this as the domestication of capitalthroughitsharnessingtotheprioritiesofthewelfarestate(Bohigas1985:

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63), or simply as an inevitable requirement in order to finance the public spending necessary to transform the city.9 From the point of view of private interests this was a very beneficial, if not indispensable, alliance. The creation and improvement of the citys urban facilities and spaces would allow the recapitalizationoftheirindustrialland,devaluedaftertheeconomicrecessionand now very lucratively revalued and recycled; and would help to promote the cultural,technologicalandentertainmentindustriesthatweretobecomethecore oftheneweconomy(Harvey1989:260).PasqualMaragall expressedthis very clearly in 1991: en la competitivitat entre ciutats hi compten tamb, cada cop ms,factorscomelmediambienti lesinfrastructureseducativesi culturals.En sentitestratgicpodremdirquelesciutatssncomempresesquecompeteixen peratreureinversionsiresidents,venentacanvilocalitzacionsavantatjosespera la indstria, el comer i tota mena de serveis(1991: 99). The single most instrumentaleventtriggering,encouragingandjustifyingallofthesenecessary changes was the nomination of Barcelona as a candidate to host the Olympic Games.Iwillcomebacktothis.10 At this precise historical conjuncture the beginning of the 1980s the interestsofgrassrootsresidentsmovementscoincidedwiththoseofbusinessand financial groups and those of local government. All of them, for different reasons,wereinneedofmorepublicspaceandimprovementstothequalityof urbanlife.11Butthehugespatialredefinitionsthatweretobeimplementedinthe cityendedupnegatingtheoriginalplanningprinciples.Thesmallscale,detailed urbanprojectsintendedtorespectandbringdirectbenefittothemostdepressed neighbourhoods and their inhabitants had very little in common with the huge structural transformations required to implement projects such as those of the Vila Olmpica, Poble Nou, Diagonal Mar or Sant Andreu/Sagrera, all of them built in what had previously been industrial and/or working-class areas. Even though the majority of these zonas de nueva centralidad (Ajuntament 1991), labelled as priority targets for urban development, were located in very rundown, marginal zones, the new developments were not aimed at benefiting the existing local population. The extremely lucrative revaluation of the old industrial areas located next to marginal, working-class neighbourhoods wheremostofthenewcultural,sports,entertainment,commercialandresidential facilities were builtwould end up producing precisely what the urbanplanning policy of Oriol Bohigas had wanted to avoid:12 the dislocation of the original neighbourhoods. The proliferation of big shopping malls has accelerated the destruction of the social fabric of small local businesses (Grup de Estudis TerritorialsiUrbans1999)andimpoverishedthequalityandquantityofpublic spaces,infavour of pseudo-public (but infactrestricted and private)consumer locales.Manyinhabitantsoftheseneighbourhoodsortheirchildrenhavedefacto been expelled from their historic communities, unable to afford the escalating pricesofnewresidencesintheirnowimprovedareas,orforcedoutofbuildings expropriated for demolition.13 By working ideologically as a rhetorical instrument for generating consensus and consent on the part of the population,

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the process of monumentalizing the outskirts and of improving public spaces around the city has, paradoxically, facilitated the transition to a situation of progressivegentrification,privatization,andmoreandmorerestrictedaccessto publicspaces. In this new situation, we are witnessing the progressive erosion of the meaningofthetermpublicand,withit,aredefinitionofthespaceoccupiedby culture. This is so, not only because culture is more and more radically commodified and dependent on private producers deciding who has access to their also private spaces of consumption (Rifkin 2000). Culture is also redefined because those representing the public interest local government nowunderstandcultureasakeyindustryforthelocaleconomy,andnotjustas the symbolic realm where ideology is produced or as the realm of aesthetics. AccordingtoPepSubirPs,HeadoftheOlimpiadaCulturalandalsothenDirector oftheCentredeCulturaContempornia(CCCB): En la irreversible configuraci de les grans ciutats com a centres de serveis,laculturahijugaunpaperfonamental.Inoestractanoms de tenir una bona oferta, una cartellera i uns museus de prestigi per al consum interior o turstic; es tracta, tamb i potser sobretot, de tenir permanentment la capacitat de rebre, de reciclar i dexportar idees, sensibilitats, projectes que millorin la qualitat interna de la vida i que qualifiquin la ciutat en la concurrncia internacional. I no hi ha ciutat amb una vida cultural rica que no tingui unes estructures i uns equipaments culturals consolidats en lmbit de la creaci contempornia.(1989:6) According to this interpretation, culture idees, sensibilitats, projectes is a commoditythatneedstobeproducedinacompetitivemarket,forwhichpurpose certain means of production estructures i equipaments culturals are also necessary.PasqualMaragallhimselfpublishedRefentBarcelonain1986:akey book for understanding his governments political vision as well as its specific objectiveoftransformingBarcelonaseconomybygearingittowardsthetourist, technology and culture industries. The then Mayor of Barcelona states that BarcelonahasthecapacitytobecomethenortherncapitaloftheEuropeansouth capital nord del sud europeu14 given its economic strength and its very attractive,Mediterraneanartdeviure:ApartirdelarealitatcomunadePasos Catalans,calanarmsenllenladireccidelNorddelSudeuropeuimossegar en el mercat mundial de la cultura, turisme, inversions econPmiques, etc. Les possibilitatssngrandssimes(1988:95). Thisincorporationofcultureintotheeconomicrealmbecomesanevenmore complex issue when considered alongside that of Catalan nationalismat a time whentheSpanishstatewasdemocratizingandstartingtorecognizetherightsof thehistoricnationalitiescomprisingit.Withinthispropitiousclimate,Barcelona hasbeenabletoconsolidateitself,politicallyandsymbolically,asthecapitalofa Catalannationwithoutastate,inaccordancewithallmodernWesternnationalist projects. Cultural facilities those housing Culture with a capital C have

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played a key role here. The conception of the Museu Nacional dArt de Catalunya,thereconstructionandextensionoftheLiceu,thebuildingofaTeatre NacionaldeCatalunya,ofanewArxiudelaCoronadArag,oroftheAuditori, have been implemented by the autonomous and/or local governments as ideological instruments in the construction of a nineteenth-century-style nationalism.Morespecifically,thesecentreswereconceivedofasspaceswhich wouldorganizeculturefromaboveandstockpiletheculturalcapitalofthelocal elitewhile,atthesametime,educatingthemassesinappreciationofthiscultural heritagessupposedpublicandcommunityvalue(Duncan1991).OtherSpanish citiessuchasMadrid(CentrodeArteReinaSofa),Bilbao(MuseoGuggenheim) andValencia(InstitutValencidArtModern)havehadapolicyofembodying their state politics in one large cultural centre by a big-name architect, the containerbeingasimportantasitscontents.Barcelona,however,haschosento disseminate the politico-symbolic meaning projected by its cultural space in multiplearchitecturalprojects.Ofcourse,asintheothercitiesmentionedthe GuggenheiminBilbaoisperhapsthemostobviousexamplethesecentres,apart fromconsolidatingthenationssymboliccapital,areintegralpartsoftheareas tourist appeal (Walsh 1995) andfunction as spaces where the national heritage can be consumed. They are, as Neil Harris (1990) provocatively calls them, departmentstoresofculture. This superposition of modern nationalism onto a post-industrial economy and a postmodern cultural logic does not always produce the harmonious convergence of interests we have mentioned above. While Catalan nationalist discourse has supported every space which symbolized the intensification of nationalidentityandcollectivememoryinaglobalcontextinwhichthenationstate is being weakened and questioned, not all urban projects in the city have served to consolidate that particular nationalism. The long-standing rivalry betweenthelocalSocialistgovernmentofBarcelona(PSC)andtheautonomous Catalan nationalist government (CiU) over who has most successfully appropriatedthemeaningofBarcelona,andtheirdisputesovertheawardingof culturalfundingandprizes,exemplifytwodifferentresponsestonationalismin postmodernity.IhavereferredearliertotheSocialistMayorPasqualMaragalls projected definition of Barcelona as the capital del Nord del Sud europeu. WithinthesameparagraphhewarnsagainstthedangerofBarcelonabecoming associated with European nationalities de menys entitat que Catalunya or forming part of an internacional de nacionalitats oprimides. By articulating these dangers, Maragall seemsto be dissociating himself from what might be perceivedasaformofnationalistvictimizationoressentialism,makingclearthat nationalist15demands,eventhoughatsomepointsheinvokesCatalunyaandthe PasosCatalansinhisframingofthequestion,arenottoppriorityinhispolitical agenda. This is not at all surprising coming from the local leader of a Spanish politicalparty,thePSOE;butitseemstomethathisanti-nationaliststancehere doesnotobeyacentralistlogicconceivingofSpainasaunitywitharadialcentre inMadrid.16Rather,Iinterpretitasapositioningwithrespecttoanewhistorical conjuncture in which the local urban unit is called upon to have a new

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prominence, one not necessarily subordinate to any national framework be it CatalanorSpanishandthereforedetachedfromitssecular,politicalclaims.In otherwords,Maragallisappealingtoalocal-urbanrhetoricthatmightbecalled nationalist only to the extent that it promotes a discursive interpretation of social, cultural and political practices as characteristic and reinforcing constituentsofcollectiveidentity,whichdetermine whether socialconsensusis reached or not. In this sense, the social-democratic local government has promoted a nationalism for the city-nation with its own organization and imaginary community, but one that ultimately aspires and this is the key differentiating element with respect to earlier or current forms of local patriotism17 to become part of a broader community of cities not marked or limitedbystateand/ornationalborders.Whileitisnotclearfromourhistorical perspectivethatthisformofimaginarycommunityandeconomicframeworkare going to become dominant, we can certainly call it a response to a new postmodern configuration of globalization in which, as the Royal Institute of British Architects reminds us in the above-mentioned text: cities as much as nationsareindirectcompetitionforjobsandinvestment. Cultural facilities such as the Museu dArt Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) or the Centre de Cultura Contempornia de Barcelona (CCCB), regardless of their very different and contentious cultural politics, interpellate community members as citizens of Barcelona, and not necessarily (though the two are not incompatible) as Catalan or Spanish. The CCCB is financed exclusively by the Diputaci and the Ajuntament de Barcelona, and not by the Generalitat de Catalunya or the central government, and it receives a small amountofprivatefunding.AccordingtoJosepRamoneda,theCentresDirector since1989andveryclosetoPSCpoliticalpositions,theCCCBs unprojecte presiditperunaidea.Iaquestaideaslaurbanitatcomaverdaderatradicidel mnmodern(1989:4).Andelsewhere:Elconceptoquedefinenuestroperfiles laciudad.Laciudadcomolugarenelquesedesarrollalamodernidad.Meparece quehallegadoelmomentoindicadoparaunarevisincrticadelamodernidad,y si esta revisin busca forma, la ciudad le ofrece una (Moix 1994b). The connection made here by Ramoneda between modernity and the city is a very familiarandwidelyacceptedone.Butitisatthesametimeawayofemphasizing oneaspectofmodernitythatofservingasaframeworkforurbanizationtothe detriment of another fundamental creature of modernity: nationalism and the emergenceofthenation-state.Ramonedasemphasisfavoursaperceptionofthe cityasaunitaryandindependentunit,ratherthanaspartofanotherentity,and therefore underplays the notion of Barcelona as capital of the Catalan nation without a state. In so doing, he is distancing himself and the Centres cultural politicsandideologyfromanationalistposition. Ontheotherhand,regardlessofhowmuchRamonedainsistsonremainingat alltimeswithinamodernframeofreference,theCCCBprojectfitsanaltogether differenthistoricalcontext.TogetherwiththeMACBA,theCCCBisakeyurban project in the transformation of the city, located right in the centre of the restoredCascAnticandheavilyimplicatedinthepost-industrialshifttowardsa

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serviceeconomyandgentrificationofthecitytowhichwehavereferredearlier. Moreover, the fact that the CCCB is recognized to be an imitation of the PompidouCentreintheMaraisdistrictofParistheBeaubourgofBarcelona indicatesadesireonthepartoftheSocialistgovernmenttoimitatetheirParisian counterparts, not only by converting the Centre into their cultural flagship, but also by striving to make the Catalan city part of the tourist circuit of great culturalcitiesculturalcapitalsofEurope. The MACBA is another, albeit very different, case in point. Under the directionofManuelBorja-Villel,itschiefCurator,ithasalsopractisedapolicy of recognizing, assuming and defining its identity through its location in Barcelona and not Catalunya or Spain but in a resistant and provocative manner. Unlike the CCCB and its institutional policy of raising Barcelonas statustothatofthegreatEuropeancities,theMACBAhaspromotedBarcelonas peripheral, subordinate position in art circles as an opportunity to reflect upon modern art and to rewrite its history and its present from the margins (Frisach 2000).Bethatasitmay,thespectacularRichardMeierbuildingwhichcontains themuseumistheclosestthinginBarcelonatotheGuggenheimphenomenonin Bilbao:aspaceconceivedasatouristattractioninitself. We cannot finish this section without mentioning the event that has been most instrumental in manufacturing consensus between the different, opposing conceptualizations and uses of culture and public space analysed so far: the Olympic Games. Barcelonas Olympic fever understood as the citys collective pride at having been chosen to host the Olympic Games had been brewingsincethe citys selectionfor thisrolein October 1986,and toalesser extent since its nomination as a candidate in 1983. A sporting, cultural and ideological event all in one, the Games succeeded totally in generating local patriotismandconsensus,aswellasinintroducingthecitytotheworldatlarge. The Games were construed as a project by all and for all, an event in which everybodycouldparticipateandfromwhicheveryonewouldbenefitintheform of municipal self-esteem. Their planning and implementation constitute the crucialperiodforsecuringthecityseconomicfutureand,asstatedearlier,mark aqualitativeshifttowardsmajorurbanrestructuringprojects.Onanideological level,theOlympicssuturedthegapthatseparatedtheminimalisturbanpolicyof the first social-democratic government from the maximalist, populist policy of Maragall and his team. Invoking the Olympic games as a pretext, streets were widened, ringroads were built, hotels went up, cultural and sports facilities proliferated.Thepretextwassoeffectivebecauseitappealedtolocalpatriotism: that is, to a collective desire to rise to the occasion, especially important in a country suffering from a historical inferiority complex. The Olympic Games generated a civil fraternity, materially embodied and reinforced in every architectural and urban project, which was perceived as required by the event. Onceagain,thiswasnotauniquephenomenon.Inthepost-industrialcity,spaces ofculturalandsportsconsumptionbecome,inthewordsofHarvey,symbolsof the supposed unity of a class-divided and racially segregated city. Professional sports activities and events like the Los Angeles Olympic Games perform a

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similar function in an otherwise fragmented urban society (1989: 271). More thananyotherevent,theOlympicscontributedtotheconstructionofacollective imaginary of democratic Barcelona for its citizens. Indeed, they made the inhabitants of Barcelona into citizens and, for that reason, they constitute a fundamental patriotic event that even produced its own foot-soldiers (Espada 1995: 138) in the form of voluntarios olmpicos that is, the citizens who volunteeredtoparticipateinorganizingtheGamesinfrastructure. TheendoftheGamesmeanttheendoftheirvastpotentialforpromotingthe city. To replace them, another macro-project has since 1997 been proposed by thelocalgovernment:thatofBarcelona2004:FPrumUniversaldelesCultures. While the Olympic Games provided a great opportunity to redevelop and restructurethecity,theFPrumisbeinginstrumentalizedtocontinuesuchatask, through a project where the centrality of culture in an transnational context is even more obvious. The event is supposed to span the period between the two Catalanholidaysof23April(diadeSantJordi,Catalunyaspatronsaintandalso theDayoftheBook,anobviousassociationwithculture)and24September(dia de la Merc, the patron saint of Barcelona, and the day of the citys fiesta mayor, a popular cultural event). In one of the official brochures, the FPrum projectisdefinedasa: convocatPriaatoteslesculturesdelmnperqufacinsentirlasevaveu, en una gran Festa de la convivncia [...] intent de respondre al desafiament que planteja la mundialitzaci de totes les activitats humanes, des del protagonisme de la societat civil [...] per posar en com tot allP que afavoreixi la solidaritat, els drets humans i un 18 desenvolupamentsostenible. The use of terms such as dialogue, solidarity, human rights, civil society and sustainabledevelopmentplayaprominentroleindefiningafashionablekindof progressiverhetoric which is in fact contradicted and refuted by the increasing inequalitiesthatthefacilitationofthisprojectisgeneratinginthecity.19Theuse of culture as an umbrella word or concept (FPrum Universal de les Cultures) covering all the areas mentioned is significant in itself of the leading role and totalizing meaning that culture is acquiring today. Joan Clos, current Socialist MayorofBarcelona,defendsitspromotionasa thematic replacementin a new context for the World Fairs and Universal Exhibitions characteristic of the twentiethcentury:Lesfiresdelseglehanestatsupermercatsdelatecnologiaper abadocsiconsumidors,perPperalseglequevevolemfPrumsparticipatiusones debatinideesperlapau,lasostenibilitatilacultura(Altai2000:237).Whathas not changed with respect to these modern events is their use by local governments and financial interests as ways of promoting the city and as occasions for restructuring and replanning it. In the case of the FPrum 2004 project,acivilized,humanistproposalfordialogueamongculturesonethatis respectful of difference is needed to justify the urban redevelopment of the BesPsestuaryareaoneofthemostdepressedneighbourhoodsbutalsooneof the most coveted sites in the city with an estimated investment of 170,000

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million pesetas (Ricart y Aroca 1999; Cia 1999). Culture and urban redevelopment,cultureandspatialrestructuringcontinue togohand inhandin Barcelona,continuingtojustifyeachother. Fromcriticalpostmodernitytotherecyclingofmodernity So far, I have focused on a critical analysis of the urban and cultural transformations defining Barcelona in the democratic period, paying particular attention to the discontinuities and changes that, at the level of hegemonic discourses,arepresentedasconsensualcontinuities.Mycontentionhasbeenthat theprofoundspatialchangestakingplaceindemocraticBarcelonaobeythelogic of a progressive post-industrial shift towards a service economy, a process bringing with it the imposition of a certain postmodern hegemony. In the final part of this article I will refer to the politico-philosophical implications of this imposition, which I will also engage from the perspective of urban and spatial considerations. The period of the Spanish Transicin is discursively and hegemonically constructedas,ontheonehand,abreakwiththeFrancoregimeandallformsof politicsderivedfromorassociatedwithit,whicharerepudiatedasanti-modern; and, on the other hand, as a continuation of the spirit and principles of civil resistancetoFrancoism,whichinturnarepresentedasdirectlyinheritedfromthe progressive,democraticmodernitydestroyedattheendoftheSpanishCivilWar in 1939. This representation of history allows the new and not so new hegemonic groups to present themselves as modern and democratic, in radical oppositiontoareactionary,anti-modernFrancoism(Balibrea1999).Thisisvery clear in the case of Barcelonas urbanism in the Transition period. The attacks launchedbylocalurbanists,architectsandpoliticiansontheurbanprojectsofthe porciolista 20periodweremadeinthenameofthenewdemocracyspositionof enlightenedmodernity,andagainsttheunimaginativeobscurantismofporciolista authoritarianism. Residents associations, urbanists and politicians formed alliancesaimedatregeneratingorreconstructingacitythatwouldnowbeantiFrancoist in its social, aesthetic and political principles. And being antiFrancoist, they seemed to imply, it would necessarily become democratic and progressive. Iwishtoargue,however,thattheseattacksonporciolismowerealsoattacks onmodernity.Thecriticismsofadictatorialstate,itscorrespondingarchitecture andurbanism (tenementblocks and indiscriminate growth)implied at the same timeanattackononespecificmodernvisionofreality:thatembodied,inoneof itsmostdeplorableincarnations,byFrancoistporciolismo.Inotherwords,itwas not from a position of re-found modernity that an anti-modern past was being repudiated.Rather,itwasfrombeyondmodernity,frompostmodernityinoneof its most progressive forms, that a perverse Spanish late modernity was being rejected. ToillustratemythesisaboutthepoliticalurbandiscoursesoftheTransition period, I will use a paradigmatic text for definition of the spatial changes that weretotakeplaceindemocraticBarcelona,ReconstruccideBarcelona(1985).

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This book offers an urban, aesthetic, political and economic explanation of Barcelonasreconstruction.Itsauthorwastheinfluentialarchitect,urbanistand intellectual,OriolBohigas,whowouldplayamajorroleintheimplementationof suchchanges.21Bohigasstexttakestheformofacritiqueofmodernityoffered fromtheprivilegedpositionofanintellectualfromtheperipherybutatthesame time extremely well-informed, who charts the results of a short-sighted, selfinterested application of the principles of modernity at the service of a speculativeeconomyinthethroesofexpansionandfast-trackdevelopment.The books critique of the limitations and errors of modernity is, I wish to argue, offeredfromapostmodernposition. From the start of his book, Bohigas states that the operating principle of porciolista urbanism is obsolete, because it is based on unlimited expansion financedbyprivatecapital.Bycontrast,heproposesthereconstructionofwhat isalready there,stimulatedandfinanced by public bodies. He equally rejects the amendments to porciolista speculative urbanism defended by the Plan 22 GeneralMetropolitano(PMG), becausethislatter understands thecity com ungransistemacoherentiracional,enelqualdominaunamenademetafsica de la totalitat(1985: 14) but in reality implies un model ideal de sistematitzacii,pertant,dutopiaregressiva(1985:14),unesdictaduresque dissimulen amb les obres de gran abast i amb la inassequible totalitat les mancances petites i quotidianes de la realitat (1985: 15). Although he recognizes that this urbanism [ha aplicat de forma] ambigua i sovint errada uns conceptes urbanstics que es varen inaugurar com a revolucionaris i transformadors i, a la fi, shan mostrat reaccionaris i sense futur (1985: 22), he mostly goes on to connect this totalizing vision of the city to the dictatorship.Thisisimplicitinhisuseoftheexpressionutoparegresiva,and quite explicit in his observation that: Cal recordar, daltra banda, a quina classei aquinsestamentsafavorien aquellapolticade granssistemesi a qui sacrificava la manca duna adequada atenci als problemes particulars dels barris(1985:15). ItishighlysignificantthatBohigassobjectofattackthroughouthisbookis centrallyconstructedaroundtheconceptoftotality.Heusesthetermtotalityto defineakindofurbanismwhich,besidesbeingpoliticallyanti-democratic,antipopular, anti-human and pro-big private business interests, is also presented as un sistema global apriorsticament racionalitzat i aspticament coherent i incontrovertible (1985: 30). By adding this extra component to his critical definition, Bohigas merges his critique with the critique of totalizing representations that is central to the postmodern rejection of modern metanarratives. Indeed, Bohigass justification of his position and of his proposed changes obeysapostmodernlogicinitsattentiontomarginsandsilencedminorities,as wellasinitsrejectionofgrandutopias.Asanantidotetothemacro-intervention whichhedeems harmful,Bohigasconstantly advocates minimalism and microinterventionsthatdonotaimatradicalstructuralchangeinthenameofautopian blueprint. Thus he advocates el concepte de ciutat com a suma conflictiva de

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trossos reals (1985: 9), des de la pea relativament autPnoma del barri, del sector destructura fsica consolidada (1985: 14), the consideraci del problemesurbansapartirdelesrealitatssectorials(1985:16),andaretornala ideadelcarrer,laplaaieljardurbans(1985:18).Inshort,inoppositiontothe formerurbanismthatispretesamenthomogeniiuniversal(1985:23),Bohigas proposesonethatismltipleiheterogenienlesintencions,enelsmtodesien els instruments (1985: 23); not a urbanisme totalitari i crptic, but rather plenament participat pel ciutad (1985: 23), one that is free per convicci antiutPpicadelesprevisionsinassequiblestemporalmentimetodolPgica(1985: 24). The aim of this new approach is to reconstruct the city from below, by paying attention to the needs of its most humble citizens, dignifying neighbourhoods, avoiding the social segregation produced by big motorways dividingdistricts,andtotallyrespectinghistoricalstreetlayouts. AtonepointinhisargumentBohigasstates: s important adonar-se que aquest nou requeriment es troba suportat alhora per les propostes que sorgeixen de la participaci popular encaminadajademocrticamentsensenecessitatdedemagPgies,perles conclusionsdelsdebatsdevoladaculturalenelcampdelarquitecturai lurbanismeielqueencarasmssignificatiupeldesprestigideles actitudssistemtiquesenelquadredelesmetodologiescientfiquesidel pensamentfilosPficmsprogressius.(1985:14) In the ensuing explanation of what this pensament filosPfic ms progressiu mightbe,Bohigasinsistsonanewattentiontotheindividualandtotheattackon methodbyphilosophersAgnesHellerandPaulK.Feyerabend.23Inotherwords, inordertoexplainandjustifyaprojectthathehimselfdefinesasprogressivein socialandhumanterms,Bohigaslinkscertain tenetsof postmodern philosophy and of postmodern architectural and urban planning theory to the demands of grassroots residents movements that were so politically crucial in Barcelona local politics during the Transicin through to the early 1980s. The key to the early political consensus in democratic Barcelona was the building of this alliancebetweenthepeopleandtheculturalandpolitical elites,betweensocial movementsformedinthestruggleagainstFrancoismandthenewphilosophyand aestheticsinfluencedbypostmodernthought. Veryshortlyafter,however,theoriginalpositionsheldbythispoliticaland cultural front, which can be defined as a critical, progressive form of postmodernity, would be massively neutralized. The rapid, constant implementationofthevariouschanges definedandanalysed inthis article in practice,hegemonicallypresentedasacontinuumproducedadifferentkindof consensus:onederivedfromcomplacencyanddevoidofanygrassrootsorcivil resistance. Once it became hegemonic, this consensus became the political oppositeofwhatithadbeen,totheextentthatitsucceededinco-optingvirtually all forms of civil resistance coming from outside institutions. These would be replacedbywhatJoanRoca(1994:601-4)hascalledtheorquestacinritualde simulacros de participacin. Even more significantly and paradoxically, this

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consensus abandoned its original political critique and its rejection of the excesses of modernity, in order to embrace two fundamental concepts of the modern period, recyclingthemfor its own purposes: the concept of totality, so radicallycritiquedbyBohigas,andtheendofhistory.Thesetwoappropriations constitutethespatio-temporalaxisofthedominantdiscourseonthecitysincethe mid-1980s.Theywereextremelyeffectiveineliminatingthemajorityofvoices of resistance and in making the immense majority of the citys inhabitants embraceconsensus. Therejectionoftotalityasaformofviolenceaimedatimposingafalsekind ofuniversalism,omniscienceandobjectivitywascentraltotransitionaland,asI have argued, postmodern attacks on porciolista modernity and on the Plan General Metropolitano. Paradoxically enough, having frequently been the main target of Socialist criticism in the 1970s, totality became the buzzword of Socialistconsensusfromthemid1980son.Thesamelocalgovernmentthathad opposeditwouldnowimposeitasameansofclingingtopower,bymeansofa totalizing and globalizing discourse and a megalomaniac aesthetics. The philosopherXavierAntichputsitthisway: a las puertas del siglo XXI, parece impropia la antigua pretensin de mirar el mundo bajo el prisma de la totalidad, como si todava fuera posibleorganizarunacultura[enlaquese]pretendeorganizarlotodoal dictado de lo grande, monumental y desmesurado.[...] a pesar del desprestigio de las macroideologas de referencia, en el mundo de la cultura contina perviviendo una determinada forma de hacer a lo grande, propia de un modelo imperial que no es aplicable a lo que debieraesperarsedeunaBarcelonaquehasidobanderaenladefensade laEuropadelasciudades.(1996) DespiteAntichs accurateassessmentofBarcelonas urbanandculturalpolitics sincethemid1980s,Iwouldliketodisagreewithhisrejectionoftotalityasan anachronism. Totality continues to be an indispensable element in the manufacturingofconsensus. From and for the purposes of a position of power, the city must be representedasarationalandorderedunity,onethatisfullyunderstandableand visible. The map is the physical incarnation of this need, and its taxonomic function,operationalsincetheearlymodernperiod,farfrombeinganachronistic hasinfactbeenenhancedthroughuseofthemostsophisticatedtechnologiesof surveillanceand panoptic observation, promising full visibility of their objects. Beside their function as a control mechanism, totalizing visions of the city providethecitizenwithasingle,overallrepresentationofit:animageclaiming toembraceeverything,oreverythingthatmatters,withnoshadows,nofissures, no dissidences, these being represented as an innocuous pluralism. It is interestingthatAntichshouldrefertototalityasaprismthroughwhichtoview theworld,becausetheprovisionofinstrumentsthatenableallcitizenstoseethe city as a totality has been a highly effective way of generating consensus in Barcelona. In the successive publicity campaigns organized by the social-

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democrat City Council since the mid 1980s, global images of the city have proliferated, supplied by the poster artists that the city council attracted and eventually co-opted from the margins oftheundergroundcomics and pop-art scene. Themost paradigmaticfigure here isJavierMariscalbutFlavioMorais, Outumuro, Carmelo Hernando, Stanton have collaborated here as well. These artists,allcomingfromthemargins,havecontributedhugelytotheimplantation ofastandard,popular,totalizingvisionofBarcelona,figuredasacombinationof oldandnewemblematicelements(theSagradaFamiliatogetherwiththeFoster tower), including the newly reconstructed and resemanticized waterfront in a homogeneous, attractive totality excluding all dissonant elements. This is, of course, the ideological trap of the totalizing image: it implicitly denies the existence of what is not made visible: undesirable spaces and subjects, the increasinglytransnationalcircuitofcapital,informationandintereststhatmake thecitypossible. ReferringtothehistoryofportraitsandimagesofBarcelonathatthecityhas 24 beenabletopreserve,AlbertGarcaEspuche statesthatanyrepresentationof the city is always just one representation of it, a vision marked by particular interests:QuiposseixilaImatgedelaciutat,hesays,posseirlaciutat(1995: 18). Here he is referring to those with the power to decide what will become visibleinthecity,whathierarchywillgoverntheorganizationofthevisible,and whatwillberelegatedtoinvisibility.GarcaEspucheisparticularlycarefulwhen describing the relationship between image and power, and when calling the readers attention to what the picture always hides. Global images (those supposedtorepresentthewholeofthecity)coincide,hesays,withtimesofgreat civic unanimity, when it is possible to produce and conceive of a contained, acceptableimageusableaspropagandaforthecitizensatlarge.Heidentifiesas global images those images produced in Barcelona from the mid-sixteenth century through till the end of the eighteenth century. According to Garca Espuche, such global images were not generated again until the time of Maragallismo. Let uscite again the Royal Institute of British Architects press release of June 1999, which corroborates Garca Espuches stress on the embracingoftotality: Barcelona is now more whole in every way, its fabric healed yet threaded through with new open spaces, its historic buildings refurbished yet its facilities expanded and brought up-to-the-minute. Past and present, work and play are happily intermeshed in a new totality that is more than its often splendid parts, and is better connected even to sea and mountains. And yet the character of Barcelona, though changed, is more distinct than ever and ready for theglobalage[...](myemphasis). ForMicheldeCerteau,onthecontrary,theseductivetotalimageisrather: therepresentationofapanopticpower[...]afiction[...]thattransforms thecityscomplexityintoreadabilityandthatfreezesitsopaquemobility

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intoacrystal-cleartext[...]atheoreticalsimulacrum[...]apicture,of which the preconditions for feasibility are forgetfulness and a misunderstandingofprocesses.(1985:128,124) Forgetfulnessandthemisunderstandingofprocessesarealsotantamounttothe end of history, to the extent that they imply a reconciliation with reality (represented without shadows or secrets), la anulacin del hiato entre idealidad y realidad (Esquirol 1998: 10), making obsolete the concept of historyasastruggletotamenatureorasadesire/needforabetterworld,etc. The immediate consequence is a democracy without politics that is, a democracyofconsensusinwhichconfidentandpassivecitizens,mutewith satisfaction,placethemselvesinthehandsofpolticos-gestionarios[paraque] se encarguen de brindar toda la prosperidad, felicidad, paz y estabilidad posibles (Esquirol 1998: 10). The end of history leads to conformism and pragmatism, and it feeds on the arrogant assumption that one is living in the best of cities at the best of times, seducing citizens and visitors alike into believingthatthisisreallythecase. Totalityandtheendofhistory,athrowbacktoaHegelianismtailoredtothe interests of the most conservative form of postmodernism (Ripalda 1999: 18997), can be interpreted as necessary ideologies for the accomplishment of consensus, and they become particularly feasible in times of prosperity and optimal geo-political conjunctures, as it is undoubtedly the case in democratic Barcelona.ThesekindsofappropriationofHegelianismhavebeenoccurringin theFirstWorldsincethetimesofsocial-democraticprosperityfollowingtheend ofWorldWarII,asexpressedintheinfluenceoftheworkofAlexandreKojve and, in a more recent post-Cold War version, that of Francis Fukuyama. Their recurrence in Barcelonas case, following a period when far more progressive premises rejected the most anti-democratic and anti-human elements of modernity, demonstrates the need to understand postmodernity as a historical frameofcontradictorycomplexity.Inordertoanalyseit,acombinedglobaland localapproachisrequired. Notes
*

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I wish to thank Quim Aranda, the Fundaci Tpies and the MadeinBarcelona group, especially NoemCohen,forgivingmeaccesstoinvaluableinformationtodocumentthisarticle. 1 http://store.yahoo.com/award-schemes/ribroygolmed.html 2 SeealsoIrving(1999:5-6)and,inSpanish,Fancelli(1999:12). 3 In calling urban spaces texts, I do not mean that urban spaces constitute a discourse without extra-textual materiality. I mean that circulation in the city is possible only inasmuch as urban spaces are, semiotically speaking, made up of readable signs whose meanings are continuously decoded and negotiated. Phil Cohen (1998: 95-100) rejects this use of the term, arguing that the metaphor of the city as text has historically allowed power structures to control the decoding process, stigmatizing as other anybody considered not to be not properly readable. Without denyingthevalueofthiscritique,Ibelievethatthesemioticanalysisofthecityastextcanstillbe politicallyuseful.Andincallingurbanspacesvehiclesofideology,Idonotmeantoimplyaonedirectional or static process. Different social actors, operating under conditions of inequality, can intervenetomodifythistextortosubvertitsdominantuses(DeCerteau1985:122-45).

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In the words of Manuel Borja (1996: 120): [Aquestes citacions histPriques] ens mostren la reconstruccidelaimatge,perPnoeldrama.[...]Nosolsnoreconeixenelteixithumiurbdela zona,sinquelamaguen.AlsoagainstthispoliticsofamnesiaseeRoca(1994:730-2). 5 Theconceptofanarchitecturalquotationofthepastthatisvoidofanymeaning,alsoknownas historicism,isoneofthecentralfeaturesofpostmodernarchitecture.SeeJameson(1991:18). In amore general sense, the instability and infinite slippage of the signifier with respect to the signifiedisaconstitutivetenetofpost-structuralism.Mycriticismisnotoftheinstabilityofthe sign, but of the uses made of this instability to create a dominant semantic politics in democraticBarcelona. 6 Public space is nominally for all citizens but in practicality access to it is restricted to certain individuals and groups. During the modern period, access to public spaces was determined by gender (since women that is, bourgeois women were supposed mainly to occupy the private sphere), but also by race and social class. According to Fredric Jameson (1997: 129): private (space) issimplywhatinterpellatesme asanintruderwhile theexistence or thewaning of atruly publicspacecanbemeasuredbythedegreetowhichitstillinterpellatesmeasacitizen.Thekey political question here is whether all individuals are really interpellated by public spaces and whethertheyhaveequalfreeaccesstothem.Forahistoryoftheconceptofpublicspace,seeBoyer (1994:7-11). 7 Sculptures by Bryan Hunt, Oldemburg, Pau Gargallo, Tpies, Chillida or Mir are still today dottedacrossperipheralorpopularareassuchasthenorthendoftheTneldelaRovira,Parcdel Clot,CanDrag,ParcdelaCreuetadelColl,HortaoSants.Alsocharacteristicofthearchitecture ofthisfirstSocialistperiodaretheso-calledplazasdurassquaresbuiltonacementgroundand very inexpensive to maintain and furnish and the casales (civic centres) built in every city district. 8 SeetheCityCouncilmanifestoPlaEstratgicBarcelona2000. 9 See Ferran Mascarellswords in Ribalta (1998: 108). Mascarell has been City Council Head of Culture since 1999 and before that was Head of the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona. He is an important figure in the formulation of the Socialists cultural policies. See also Gom (1997) and Etxezarretaetal.(1996). 10 Oriol Bohigas (1989: 125-6) explains in his memoirs that Narcs Serra, first social-democratic Mayorofpost-FrancoBarcelona,hadsincetheearly1980shopedthatthecitywouldbechosenfor the Games because he saw this as aunique opportunity to secure its fast-track restructuring. This was not the first time that abig cultural-entertainment event had been utilized in Barcelona as an excuseforurbantransformationintimesofcrisisandeconomicrecession:theothertwoexamples aretheWorldFairsorganisedbythecityin1888and1929. 11 This coincidence helps explain the process of co-option/institutionalization of the once very belligerentresidentsmovementsthatwouldtakeplaceinthecourseofthe1980s(Roca1994:601). 12 Thoughhehimself,in thesuccessiveinstitutional posts he heldunderMayorsNarcsSerra and Pasqual Maragall,wasveryinstrumentalin producing the opposite of what he had once preached (Bohigas1989:125-35). 13 A number of grassroots groups and organisms whose members are affected by these specific problemshave beenorganizingtodefendcitizens rightsand to minimize the impact that these transformations are having on the citys social fabric and politics. Good examples are the PlataformaCvicaopposingtheProjecteBara2000,andtheFPrumRiberadelBesPs. 14 InwhichheincludedZaragoza,Toulouse,Montpellier,ValenciaandMallorca. 15 I am using the word nationalist here in its most common meaning in the Spanish political context,whereitisappliedtothoseideologieswhosepoliticalpriorityisthedefenceoftherights, howevertheseareunderstood,ofthehistoricnationalitieswithintheSpanishstate.Needlesstosay, partiescoveringthewholespectrumoftheSpanishstate,andspecificallythePSOE,arenotdevoid ofnationalism,Spanishnationalisminthiscase.MypointisthatMaragallsprojectforBarcelona, even though he ultimately belongs to the PSOE, is not fundamentally aligned to a Spanish, and clearlynottoaCatalan,nationalism.

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Whichdoesnotpreventtheirinterestsandobjectivesfromoftencoinciding.Ontheonehand, the nation-state framework has proved very compatible with this politics of facilitating the leading role of cities. What we could call the Spanish state politics of 92 fundamentally promoted three urban enclaves, Seville-Madrid-Barcelona. 34% of the one billion pesetas of publicinvestmentintheOlympicGamescamefromthestate.Ontheotherhand,thestate-wide politicalandeconomiccrisisfollowingthecarefullymarketedboomof1992causedadeclinein the citys prominence, because it signified a de facto halt to subsidies and investments in the most crucial and ambitious projects for the development of post-industrial Barcelona: the expansionofElPratairport,andthebuildingofahighspeedrailroadlineconnectingBarcelona withMadridandFrance(these projectsare only now,in2001,being materialized).Finally,the Catalan autonomous government has also promoted the internationalization of Catalan cultural and economic connections within the framework of the European Community, invoking a historicnationalcommunitywithS.E.France:CatalunyaNordandOccitania.JoanRoca(1994: 607-8) notes the difference between the local (Barcelona) and autonomous governments strategies in this respect, arguing that the City Council proposes a community among cities, whiletheGeneralitatdoessoamongregions. 17 It could be argued that the urbanism and civility invoked by the Socialists in the 1980s has an important precedent in early twentieth-century Noucentiste discourse, particularly in terms of its anti-nationalist (Catalanist) implications, which both share. In this article, I limit myself to highlighting the ways in which the civility invoked in the 1980s was aresponse to contemporary historicalconjunctures. 18 See Barcelona 2004, 10 preguntes sobre el F/ rum (n. d.) on the web page of the FPrum http://www.barcelona2004.org/ which contains more complete and up-to-date information on the FPrum project. From the time of its first formulations by Pasqual Maragall in 1997, the project receivednumerouscriticismsforitslackofspecificityandfocus. 19 AnacutecriticismoftheFPrumprojectandtheeconomicinterestsinvolvedintheredevelopment of the areas where the FPrum is supposed to be located (now a marginal working-class neighbourhood, BesPs-La Mina) can be found in MadeinBarcelona (1999). See also Ricart and Arosa(2000). 20 Jos Mara de Porcioles was Mayor of Barcelona between 1957 and 1973, years of great economic expansion, also known as the aos del desarrollismo, in Barcelona and in the Spanishstate.Urbangrowthinthisperiodwascharacterizedbythelocationofagreatnumberof manufacturing industries in the outskirts of the city and the need to accommodate everincreasing waves of immigrants coming to work in these industries. The result was disproportionate,unplanned,speculativeurbangrowthintheworking-classneighbourhoods and industrialbelts,alongwiththeindiscriminateopeningupofbigroadarteries,withnorespectfor the history of the citys topography. The lack of rigorous urban planning, of concern for the qualityoflifeofthenewpopulations,andofinfrastructures,togetherwiththelackofanyethical considerations in the building of new residential areas, are characteristic of the years of porciolismo . 21 A prominent member ofthe generation of children of the ruling classes who had grown up under Franco and were privileged enough to become dissidents (what would later be called the gauche divine),OriolBohigasjoinedtheranksoftheprogressivecivilresistancetolateFrancoismveryearly inhislife.HewasoneofthefoundingmembersofthearchitecturejournalCAU,apublicationknown, amongotherthings,forbeingextremelycriticalofporciolismo.Bythetimeheheldhisfirstpostonthe SocialistCityCouncil,itisnotanexaggerationtosaythathewasthemostcharismaticandinfluential architect in Catalunya. Bohigas has been Professor at the Escola d Arquitectura de Barcelona since 1971andwasitsDirectorin1977-1980. HehasalsobeenHeadofUrbanAffairsonBarcelonasCity Council 1980-1984 under the first social-democratic Mayor of the Transicin, Narcs Serra; Mayor PasqualMaragallspersonaladvisor;andCityCouncilHeadofCulture1987-1991. 22 The Plan General Metropolitano was the first urban project approved during the Transicin,in 1976;itwaswrittenbyAlbertSerratosaandJoanAntoniSolans.SeeRoca(1994:615-21,627)for acritiqueof Bohigassattack on the PGM in Reconstrucci and from his institutional position of

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power, which helped to minimize the projects impact. According to Roca, Bohigass successful attack opened the door to later deregulation and urban speculation favoured by the socialdemocratic governments. Roca defends the continuation of the PGM as the only existing institutionalwayofcurbingthefrenziedurbandevelopmentofthe1980s. 23 HerehecouldhavementionedCatalanandSpanishphilosophersthatweremuchclosertohim, such as Xavier Rubert de Vents (De la modernidad. Estudio de filosofa crtica, 1980) or FernandoSavater(Panfletocontraeltodo,1978),whichintroducedpostmodernthoughttoSpain. 24 Garca Espuche curated a 1995 exhibition at the Centre de Cultura Contempornia (CCCB) entitledRetratdeBarcelona,devotedpreciselytodifferentimagesofthecityandtoananalysisof theirtransformationsacrossthecenturies.Iamquotinghiswordsfromthetwo-volumecatalogueto theexhibition.

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