Reassembling Lesseps Square, Rethinking Barcelona

A More-than-Human Approach

Bibliographic Data

ID4383422
AuthorsBrais Estévez (0000-0002-1151-0714, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume43
Issue6
Pages1123-1147
Publication date2019-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-1317 • E-ISSN: 1468-2427
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-2427.12767
OpenAlexW2952359353
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited42

This article discusses the great paradox of the planning of public spaces in Barcelona. While for years the city's residents, politicians and experts have been steeped in democratizing, participatory discourses, the interminable controversies almost all the council's initiatives in the streets and squares of Barcelona have aroused are evidence of a clear short-circuit. Somehow this participatory-democratic consensus has run up against a collective discord which, in my view, indicates the incapacity of the current channels and mechanisms of citizen participation to truly give shape to a more democratic city, one which does not block dissent or stand in the way of the possible. I discuss this short-circuit through a case study, the Lesseps Square controversy, including a methodological and epistemological debate which, in order to study how the square was reassembled in practice after the participatory remodeling process, puts forward an actor-network-theory-inspired approach to the study of public space. I argue that Barcelona, a city whose public institutions are deeply committed to creating channels for residents to participate in public processes, is at the same time enacting a closure of its public spaces. My contention here is that the urban environment is already distributed (in Rancière's sense) before it is given over to participation, and that this prevents the emergence of a (more-than-human)demosthat could redistribute public space by taking account of innumerable unrepresented parties

Citizen journalism · Democracy · Dissent · Economics · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Public participation · Public relations · Public space · Public sphere · Sociology · Computer Science · Critical Theory and Political Philosophy · Engineering · Law · Public Administration · Public Spaces through Art · Urban Planning and Governance