Los años de la discordia

Cities are simultaneously the object and cause of conflict. It cannot be otherwise considering that there are disparate material and symbolic interests in it. The elitist city project elaborated by the City Council for years, first as a Model, then as a Brand, found, however, numerous resistances when it came to being reflected in space. From the most notorious, and almost mythical, role of neighborhood associations during the 1970s and early 1980s, to the various assemblies, platforms and groups that appeared in the heat of 15M, they managed to put those dynamics in check considered alien to their most immediate interests. The years of discord refers, precisely, to the second of those moments, in which, within the framework of the adjustments carried out by the governing municipal team during the Great Recession, the city once again manifested the contradictions that its design entails. and construction ignoring the demands of the popular classes. In Barcelona, as in other global cities, the tension between the antagonistic visions of the urban model of the elites and the popular classes is revealed.