A Lesson in Politics
- Emma
- Feb 2, 2016
- 2 min read
Since starting our studys back in October in Barcelona, Catalonian politics has played a key role in contextualising the social struggles of Poblenou. Catalonia is a Spanish autonomous community with a high-level of self-governence, which often distances itself from the rest of Spain. Indeed, an official poll by Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió (CEO) in 2012 determined that 51% of Catalans would vote for an independent Catalonia if there was a referendum, 21.1% would vote against and another 21.1% would not vote.
The Catalonian flag is a common sight in Barcelona. Lots carry a star which indicates the proud support of an independent Catalonia. However, leaving the international city at the weekend for the greater region, it was immediately apparent how many more independence flags were being displayed.
In Girona, the flags for independence were everywhere. Talking to a friend from there about UK university experiences, she described 'Why would I join a Spanish society at University when I am Catalan?' Although I was aware of the desire to distance themselves from Spain, having seen only a gentle simmer of the debate in Barcelona it was surprising to see it so strongly. People in Catalonia believe they pay more taxes to Madrid than they get back in public services and wish to take more control over their region.
As we turn to the programmatic functions and key stakeholders for our individual projects this week, the socio-political context is crucial to developing a scheme which could feasibly function in Poblenou. The political situation affects not only the views, needs, and desires of future users of our site, but the funding of the initial construction and continued maintainence of the council owned portion of the site.
This will become critical to my scheme in particular as I assess the refugee crisis, mortage crisis, and proliferation of multi-national companies due to globalisation. Globalisation questions the very establishment of nations as cities become more important to our identity. Cities are places of people, places of diversity. The contrast between the political climate of Barcelona and Girona illustrates this well.
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