In Barcelona, urban movements have played a great role since the end of the dictatorship of Franco. As George Orwell wrote in his novel Homage to Calatonia (1938) militants of neighborhood associations were key actors of the democratic transition (Andreu 2015).
This paper questions the transformation of urban movements and participatory democracy in Barcelona in the recent context following the 2008 economic crisis. To what extend post-crisis democratic changes may favor democratic expression of citizens? Through the crossed analysis of institutional forms of participation and urban movements, I wish to show the role of the economic context in these transformations more than the new political majority of the municipality (elected in 2015).
This study is based on a particular fieldwork, the neighborhood of Ciutat Meridiana. Historically a working-class area built in the 1970s, located at the edge of city of Barcelona, it welcomes a diverse impoverished population from different migration waves (both national and more recently international). Since the crisis, the different community organizations of the neighborhood have tried to find answers to the problems which are facing the inhabitants (Palomera Zaidel 2014). Our analysis is based on an ethnographic study of the urban movements of the neighborhood.
In a first moment, it seems important to analyze the history of citizen’s participation in Barcelona. At the end of the dictatorship, the associations of neighbors have played a key role in implementing different forms of citizen’s participation as well as developing an urban activism focusing on equality of access to public equipment in all the neighborhoods of the city. The normalization of participative process in the 2000s have largely institutionalized these experiences, sometimes emptying of their democratic goal. (Font, Blanco, et Brugué 2000) Thus, the case study of Ciutat Meridiana belongs in this evolution of the forms of participation.
The economic crisis of 2008 and its political consequences act as a local catalyst in the redefinition of forms of participation. The 15M movement and the development of the PAH (association promoting right to the city) testify of such an evolution. We can see an institutionalization of urban movements (Della Porta 2009) with the creation of the political platform Barcelona en Comù. The dialogue between urban movement and political parties creates new interactions within the Spanish political landscape. These changes are also to be seen within the associations of neighborhoods. For instance, in Ciutat Meridiana, the 15M movement has been the occasion to rethink the functioning of the association and create alliances with other local actors. The economic crisis also impacted a change in the themes of action for the local actors such as expulsions, health and access to food.
However, at a more institutional level, it seems more difficult to find significant changes in forms of participation. The institutional participative processes have not evolved in their functioning or political aims. Moreover, the local actors of Ciutat Meridiana, in 2016, have strongly opposed the participative process of municipal plan Decidim Barcelona by proposing a specific alternative for their neighborhood.
