Suchergebnisse

Discussions about the culture-economy articulation have occurred largely within the confines of economic geography. In addition, much attention has been diverted into caricaturized discussions over the demise of political economy or the invalidity of culturalist arguments. Moving the argument from the inquiry on the ¿nature¿ of the economy itself to the transformation of the role of culture and economy in understanding the production of the urban form from an urban political economy (UPE) this paper focuses on how the challenges posed by the cultural turn have enabled urban political economy to participate constructively in interdisciplinary efforts to reorient political economy in the direction of a critical cultural political economy.

Presentation at: II IAS Annual Research Programme International Conference Session: Governing Regions, Lancaster Setember 17-19 2007 ; Studies on the use of information technology and communication (ICT) to organize the work and its impact on the reconciliation of work and family life yield ambiguous or contradictory results. However, the emergence and spread of wireless ICT are causing dramatic changes in social practices, including relationships between personal life and work. Through interviews, a group of parents in different work situations have considered how to use the potential of mobility, connectivity and flexibility offered by the new ICTs and how such use modulates the involvement of men in their role as parents. In line with work in other countries, preliminary results suggest that the role attributed to ICTs as tools for the Emancipation of gender roles of men by their greater involvement in the material and emotional care of children often depends factors beyond the use of these technologies: personal motivation, attitude and perception of the partner about the man power to be a father, or macro and micro existing political reconciliation in organizations. ; Presentació al: II IAS Annual Research Programme International Conference Session: Governing Regions, Lancaster Setember 17-19 2007 ; Presentación en el: II IAS Annual Research Programme International Conference Session: Governing Regions, Lancaster Setember 17-19 2007

2021 marked the 25th Anniversary of Manuel Castells' The Rise of the Network Society, the first volume of the Information Age trilogy. The Trilogy immediately became one of the most influential works to understand the societal change in the wake of the digital revolution. More than two decades later, many of the emerging processes theorised and analysed in the Trilogy have reached full maturity, if not evolved in unexpected ways. Also, several theoretical and epistemological trends have developed or consolidated in the social sciences that have either been influenced by or challenged the Trilogy position. In this scenario, is the Network Society Theory still relevant for understanding today's digitalised society? How should we develop the Network Society approach now? This special issue aims to answer these questions. In particular, in this collection of papers, we identify three interrelated dimensions: new developments in the evolution or disruption of the Network Society, the articulation between network logics and other spatial forms, and the relation of the Network Society with recurrent topics in Castells' work beyond the Information. The papers are a selection of the contributions to the online workshop The Network Society Today: (Revisiting) the Information Age Trilogy (November 2–30, 2020), in which Prof. Castells also participated. This volume brings together a wide range of established and emerging scholars from a diversity of Social Sciences disciplines with plural theoretically informed papers tackling rich empirical case studies across the world, spanning throughout America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Contributions conclude with a reflection by Manuel Castells on them and his work.

In recent years, the Smart City has become a very popular concept amongst policy makers and urban planners. In a nutshell, the Smart City refers to projects and planning strategies that aim to join up new forms of inclusive and low-carbon economic growth based on the knowledge economy through the deployment of information and communication technologies. However, at the same time as new urban Smart interventions are being designed and applied, insufficient attention has been paid to how these strategies are inserted into the wider political economy and, in particular, the political ecology of urban transformation. Therefore, in this paper we critically explore the implementation of the Smart City, tracing how the environment' and environmental concerns have become an organising principle in Barcelona's Smart City strategy. Through an urban political ecology prism we aim to critically reflect upon the contradictions of the actually existing Smart City in Barcelona and how Smart discourses and practices might be intentionally or unintentionally mobilised in ways that serve to depoliticise urban redevelopment and environmental management. The paper stresses the need to repoliticise the debates on the Smart City and put citizens back at the centre of the urban debate. ; En los últimos años, la ciudad inteligente se ha convertido en un concepto muy popular entre los políticos y planificadores urbanos. En pocas palabras, smart city se refiere a proyectos y estrategias de planificación que apuntan a unir nuevas formas de crecimiento económico inclusivo y bajo en carbono basadas en la economía del conocimiento a través del despliegue de tecnologías de información y comunicación. Sin embargo, al mismo tiempo que se diseñan y aplican nuevas intervenciones urbanas inteligentes, se ha prestado poca atención a cómo estas estrategias se insertan en la economía política más amplia y, en particular, en la ecología política de la transformación urbana. Por lo tanto, en este documento, exploramos críticamente la implementación de smart city, rastreando cómo el medio ambiente y las preocupaciones ambientales se han convertido en un principio de organización en la estrategia de ciudad inteligente de Barcelona. A través de un prisma de ecología política urbana pretendemos reflexionar críticamente sobre las contradicciones de la ciudad inteligente realmente existente en Barcelona y sobre cómo los discursos y las prácticas inteligentes pueden movilizarse de manera intencional o no, de manera tal que despoliticen la reurbanización y la gestión ambiental. El documento enfatiza la necesidad de repolitizar los debates sobre smart city y volver a colocar a los ciudadanos en el centro del debate urbano. ; En els últims anys, la ciutat intel·ligent s'ha convertit en un concepte molt popular entre els polítics i planificadors urbans. En poques paraules, smart city es refereix a projectes i estratègies de planificació que apunten a unir noves formes de creixement econòmic inclusiu i baix en carboni basades en l'economia del coneixement a través del desplegament de tecnologies d'informació i comunicació. No obstant això, al mateix temps que es dissenyen i apliquen noves intervencions urbanes intel·ligents, s'ha prestat poca atenció a com aquestes estratègies s'insereixen en l'economia política més àmplia i, en particular, en l'ecologia política de la transformació urbana. Per tant, en aquest document, vam explorar críticament la implementació d'smart city, rastrejant com el medi ambient i les preocupacions ambientals s'han convertit en un principi d'organització en l'estratègia de ciutat intel·ligent de Barcelona. A través d'un prisma d'ecologia política urbana pretenem reflexionar críticament sobre les contradiccions de la ciutat intel·ligent realment existent a Barcelona i sobre com els discursos i les pràctiques intel·ligents poden mobilitzar-se de manera intencional o no, de tal manera que despolititzen la reurbanització i la gestió ambiental. El document emfatitza la necessitat de repolititzar els debats sobre smart city i tornar a col·locar als ciutadans en el centre del debat urbà.

Spain is at the epicentre of a crisis that threatens the future of the Eurozone. This book explains the deep historical and structural roots of the current crisis in Spain. It analyses the nexus between European circuits of financial capital, urbanisation, and the emergent dynamics of state austerity and popular revolt.

This article contributes to a Marxist understanding of the roots of the contemporary predicament for many societies in which future economic growth is likely to be low and accompanied by mass 'structural' unemployment, increased inequality and further crises of social and political cohesion. It takes Spain as an exemplar of this 'new normal', and argues that the 'irrational rationality' of crisis in capitalism can be seen in successive cycles of crises that have resulted in the present catastrophe in that country, and also—by means of European economic and monetary union—in the delimiting of political opportunities to restore growth on any other basis than through the subordination of social reproduction to the power of money and (increasingly authoritarian) law. The article therefore supports value-theoretical, diachronic analyses of capitalist development that trace the prefiguration of contemporary forms of crisis in the formation and 'resolution' of preceding cycles of overaccumluation and devaluation.

We are the unemployed, the poorly remunerated, the subcontracted, the precarious, the young … we want change and a dignified future. We are fed up with antisocial reforms, those that leave us unemployed, those with which the bankers that have provoked the crisis raise our mortgages or take our homes, those laws that they impose upon us that limit our liberty for the benefit of the powerful. We blame the political economic and economic powers for our precarious situation and we demand a change of direction. ¡Democracia Real YA! website, 2011 Thus explains one of the principal organisations behind the 'movement of the indignant' that has re-awakened popular political consciousness in Spain since 15 May 2011. 1 From its origins in a network of activists utilising new social media to coordinate a series of protest marches in cities across Spain, the '15-M' movement has since staged camp-outs in several main city squares, and in the space of a month mobilised 40,000 protestors in Madrid and 80,000 in Barcelona to march against high unemployment, the policies and conduct of Spain's political class, and to demand 'real democracy NOW!' As an important case of potential interest to Capital & Class readers in its own right, but also as one example of contemporary European mass movements like that of the aganaktismenoi in Greece, this report explains the motives and actions of los indignados, while also contextualising it within a critical materialist analysis of the political economy of Spain since the mid-20th century. It concludes with some open questions about the limits to the movement itself and its demands for real democracy and systemic change.

This article examines the evolution of the 'Barcelona Model' of urban transformation through the lenses of worlding and provincialising urbanism. We trace this evolution from an especially dogmatic worlding vision of the smart city, under a centre-right city council, to its radical repurposing under the auspices of a municipal government led, after May 2015, by the citizens' platform Barcelona en Comú. We pay particular attention to the new council's objectives to harness digital platform technologies to enhance participative democracy, and its agenda to secure technological sovereignty and digital rights for its citizens. While stressing the progressive intent of these aims, we also acknowledge the challenge of going beyond the repurposing of smart technologies so as to engender new and radical forms of subjectivity among citizens themselves; a necessary basis for any urban revolution.

AbstractThe 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.