Analysing the role of citizens in urban regeneration: bottom-linked initiatives in Barcelona

Abstract

This article analyses recent urban regeneration projects in Barcelona, focusing especially on the role of bottom-up practices and their consideration and inclusion in new policies n for the development of urban regeneration. In a context of social and political mobilisation against austerity, the combination of these two elements gives rise to the emergence of bottom-linked practices and new policy instruments. Our comparison of two case studies in Barcelona shows that a process of experimentation for broadening urban regeneration is underway, but also that it is far from being consolidated and that it is not without its own contradictions.