The Barcelona Metropolitan Region: from non-existence to fame

Abstract

A lot of attention is currently paid to the success or failure of European cities in terms of competitiveness. Barcelona is usually viewed as a successful city, performing well in terms of its business indicators and considered as an international cultural reference and an attractive location for creative and knowledge workers. Some authors attribute this success to the good job that the city has done in promoting the Barcelona brand. On the contrary, others highlight the importance of the joint effort that institutions, policies and actors have put forward in embracing coherent long-term objectives for the development of the city. Both arguments will be discussed in this paper as well as the challenges and opportunities that the city is facing today in terms of its future development.