Do global city urban planning processes address community and reproductive needs? A gender perspective analysis of the 22@barcelona plan

Abstract

This paper examines the community impacts of urban transformation processes undertaken by major international capitals in their efforts to position themselves as global cities. These cities have restructured their urban fabric to strengthen their role as central nodes in global financial networks, but they have relegated the consequences on the everyday lives of local neighbourhood. Existing studies on these urban transformations often fail to incorporate gendered and community-centred perspectives into their analyses. Drawing on the case study of the 22@ plan in Barcelona’s Poblenou neighbourhood, this research employs a qualitative methodology based on mobile focus groups traversing various sections of the affected area. This approach facilitates the emergence of localized evaluations concerning the social and reproductive needs and impacts of everyday life. The findings underscore how the new urban spaces generated by the 22@ Plan, or by any transformation driven by entrepreneurial growth imperatives, lack integration of these critical aspects. The transformed blocks, lacking activity beyond office hours and characterized by fragmented interstitial spaces as well as an absence of services and housing, are perceived as hostile and inhospitable environments.