Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The Production of Space

From a world history perspective, the most noticeable trend in the history of the late 19th century was the domination of Europeans over Non­Europeans. This domination took many forms ranging from economic penetration to outright annexation. No area of the globe, however remote from Europe, was free of European merchants, adventurers, explorers or western missionaries. Was colonialism good for either the imperialist or the peoples of the globe who found themselves subjects of one empire or another? A few decades ago, the answer would have been a resounding no. Now, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the more or less widespread discrediting of Marxist and Leninist analysis, and the end of the Cold War, political scientists and historians seem willing to take a more positive look at Nineteenth Century Imperialism. One noted current historian, Niall Ferguson has argued that the British Empire probably accomplished more positive good for the world than the last generation of historians, poisoned by Marxism, could or would concede. Ferguson has argued that the British Empire was a \" liberal \" empire that upheld international law, kept the seas open and free, and ultimately benefited everyone by ensuring the free flow of trade. In other words, Ferguson would find little reason to contradict the young Winston Churchill's assertion that the aim of British imperialism was to: give peace to warring tribes, to administer justice where all was violence, to strike the chains off the slave, to draw the richness from the soil, to place the earliest seeds of commerce and learning, to increase in whole peoples their capacities for pleasure and diminish their chances of pain. It should come as no surprise that Ferguson regards the United States current position in the world as the natural successor to the British Empire and that the greatest danger the U.S. represents is that the world will not get enough American Imperialism because U.S. leaders often have short attention spans and tend to pull back troops when intervention becomes unpopular. It will be very interesting to check back into the debate on Imperialism about ten years from now and see how Niall Ferguson's point of view has fared! The other great school of thought about Imperialism is, of course, Marxist. For example, Marxist historians like E.J. Hobsbawm argue that if we look at the l9th century as a great competition for the world's wealth and …

The New Imperialism

The Limits to Capital

Social Justice and the City

In this paper, I explore the impacts of holiday rentals in the historic centre of Barcelona. The intention is to contribute towards a conceptualisation of this unexplored phenomenon with the aim of...

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Holiday rentals: the new gentrification battlefront

The Barcelona Gothic Quarter was re-constructed in the twentieth century. Although theoretically historic monuments refer back to past epochs, in many cases they were produced recently. In Barcelona, medieval buildings were restored in a gothic style, while other historic buildings and facades were moved stone-by-stone into the area and ordinary residential houses were removed and replaced by seemingly historic buildings. As a result, the new Gothic Quarter seems to be a space which is completely medieval but was actually re-built between 1927 and 1970. This re-creation was meant both as an example of the invention of tradition in the context of Catalan nationalism and as a way to promote the city through spectacular historic monuments, irrespective of whether they were materially authentic. In this context, this article focuses on the second phase of this process, in the commoditisation of heritage alongside city marketing, stressing the relationship between the touristic promotion and the production of urban space. It also examines the principal reconstructions in the neighbourhood and how this process of changing a residential area into a space for tourist consumption were the first signs of gentrification in Barcelona.

/pdf/the-invention-of-the-barcelona-gothic-quarter-2azb082q8r.pdf

The invention of the Barcelona Gothic Quarter

This research explores the socio-spatial impact of tourism in a central neighbourhood of Barcelona. Tourism is a significant cause of neighbourhood change in several places but research on the impact of urban tourism remains scarce. The research argues that a process of tourism gentrification is taking place. From a political economy perspective, the dissertation combines demographic analyses with ethnographic fieldwork and reveals that tourism leads to different forms of displacement. In addition, the research relates neighbourhood change driven by tourism with leisure migration. By doing so, it sheds light on understanding a growing process of transnational gentrification. By putting into conversation gentrification and tourism, the dissertation contributes to both strands of research. Firstly, it points to a geography of tourism gentrification that has been overlooked by research. This provides an alternative understanding of gentrification that differs from conceptualisations originating from the Anglo-Saxon world. Secondly, it shows why the leisure industry in cities should be understood as an example of accumulation by dispossession. In this regard, the research suggests the need to place tourism at the centre of critical urban theory. 

The demographic findings show (i) that lifestyle migrants represent the main group of gentrifiers in the area of the case study; and (ii) that the neighbourhood experiences a process of population flight led by the out-migration of Catalan-Spanish residents. The ethnographic fieldwork reveals that population flight results from a process of tourism-driven displacement and an unmistakable change in land use involving the conversion of residential space into a tourist district. Displacement is linked to the growth of holiday rentals and hotels as well as to daily disruptions caused by tourism. Tourism makes residential life increasingly unpleasant. The research identifies a process of place-based displacement in which the impact of tourism is experienced as a sense of expulsion from the place rather than as a process of spatial dislocation.

Struggling with the leisure class: tourism, gentrification and displacement

El Barrio Gotico de Barcelona fue construido en las decadas centrales del siglo XX. De hecho, su nombre tambien es una creacion moderna, ya que tradicionalmente el espacio era conocido como barrio de la Catedral. Aunque en teoria los monumentos historicos nos remiten a epocas pasadas, en muchos casos han sido fabricados recientemente, tanto en su forma como en su funcion social. La medievalizacion del centro historico de Barcelona transformo fisicamente el barrio institucional de la ciudad, dotandolo de nuevos significados simbolicos y de una apariencia antigua que hasta entonces no poseia. Si desde mediados del siglo XIX Barcelona comenzo a adaptarse a las necesidades del nuevo sistema productivo, su transformacion no solo afecto a la nueva ciudad extramuros que proyectaria Cerda, sino que al mismo tiempo iniciaria la modificacion del viejo nucleo que hasta 1854 habia estado amurallado, y que pocos anos mas tarde comenzaria a ser llamado ciutat vella. La burguesia industrial, ante la necesidad de circulacion, control e higiene destruiria el trazado urbano medieval y todos los edificios historicos que alli se encontraban, pero ante la necesidad de signos de identificacion colectiva comenzaria a planificar la exhibicion de su propia historia. Este proceso se inicio con la construccion de la fachada de la Catedral entre 1887 y 1912, y concluiria con la monumentalizacion historicista de todo el barrio que la rodea, aproximadamente entre 1927 y 1970. Pero si en un principio la monumentalizacion de la ciudad historica fue un proyecto de la burguesia local con el fin de exhibir la arquitectura nacional catalana, en la practica las obras solo pudieron justificarse por los ingresos que generaria el nuevo turismo urbano, el cual gusta de contemplar edificios de apariencia antiguos, sean o no originales. Por lo tanto, la tesis analiza el uso politico del pasado y su posterior conversion en una mercancia cualquiera, enmarcando el analisis dentro del llamado marketing urbano, cuyo objetivo es crear marcas con las ciudades para posicionarse en el mercado internacional que compite por la atraccion de inversiones y turistas. En este sentido, para atraer visitantes se requiere un espacio seguro y cautivador, en donde los conflictos sociales, si existen, deben estar escondidos. Tanto la apertura de la via Layetana como la construccion del Barrio Gotico supusieron operaciones de higiene urbana y social, encaminadas a revalorizar una zona degradada. Por un lado, la sustitucion de viviendas populares por entidades financieras, oficinas, hoteles y restaurantes junto a un barrio de apariencia medieval, provoco el desplazamiento de los habitantes tradicionales que no pudieron pagar el nuevo valor del suelo, siendo sustituidos por una incipiente clase media. Pero por otro lado, en una ciudad industrial y con un importante movimiento obrero como lo era Barcelona, el monumento o la creacion de espacios monumentales fueron pensados como una manera de potenciar el orgullo civico. Si en el lugar de memoria se comparten significados, es decir, es la creacion de un punto de encuentro para una comunidad cualquiera y que toma como referencia un pasado supuestamente comun, al mismo tiempo el lugar suele fomentar un vinculo puramente emocional, de manera que el ciudadano lo perciba como propio y presuma de ello. Es un sistema de gobernabilidad basado en valores compartidos, utilizado por el poder con el fin de impulsar la creencia de que el desarrollo de la ciudad beneficia a todos sus habitantes. En terminos de gestion urbana contemporanea se conoce como patriotismo civico, de manera que si el ciudadano estima a su ciudad tanto como a su patria aceptara mas facilmente trabajar por ella.

El Barrio Gótico de Barcelona : planificación del pasado e imagen de marca

El Barrio Gotico de Barcelona fue construido en las decadas centrales del siglo XX. De hecho, su nombre tambien es una creacion moderna, ya que tradicionalmente el espacio era conocido como barrio de la Catedral. Aunque en teoria los monumentos historicos nos remiten a epocas pasadas, en muchos casos han sido fabricados recientemente. La medievalizacion del centro historico de Barcelona transformo fisicamente el barrio institucional de la ciudad, dotandolo de nuevos significados simbolicos y de una apariencia antigua que hasta entonces no poseia. Pero si en un principio la monumentalizacion de la ciudad historica fue un proyecto de la burguesia local con el fin de exhibir la arquitectura nacional catalana, en la practica las obras solo pudieron justificarse por los ingresos que generaria el nuevo turismo urbano, el cual gusta de contemplar edificios de apariencia antiguos, sean o no originales. Por lo tanto, el texto analiza el uso politico del pasado y su posterior conversion en una mercancia cualquiera, enmarcando el analisis dentro del llamado «marketing urbano», cuyo objetivo es crear marcas con las ciudades para posicionarse en el mercado internacional que compite por la atraccion de inversiones y turistas.

Agustín Cócola Gant

Papers

Holiday rentals: the new gentrification battlefront

The invention of the Barcelona Gothic Quarter

Struggling with the leisure class: tourism, gentrification and displacement

El Barrio Gótico de Barcelona : planificación del pasado e imagen de marca

El Barrio Gótico de Barcelona. De símbolo nacional a parque temático.