https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3353-8969
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ABSTRACT
Citizen participation in Barcelona has undergone a gradual process of institutionalisation that has accelerated over the last ten years. Today, participatory governance in areas such as urban planning and the management of social spaces is a hallmark of the city. However, citizen participation is only now beginning to occur in cultural heritage and comes with certain limitations. Through three diachronic case studies, this article explores the architecture of participation in Barcelona and its contribution to cultural heritage management. It analyses the role of cultural heritage as an actor in participatory processes and explores the degree of citizen participation in cultural heritage management. Our findings reveal that there is no participation in heritage itself, but there is participation in issues in relation to cultural heritage. This leads us to reflect on the lack of a true participatory turn in cultural heritage management.
Acknowledgement
We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Marina Gassol, activist and politician at Ciutat Vella, for her commitment to the neighbourhood.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Fung, “Putting the public back into governance”; Bekemans, “Citizens’ participation and participatory governance in the EU.”
2. Pateman, “Participatory democracy revisited”; Baiocchi, “Participation, activism, and politicsParticipation, activism, and politics.”
3. Arnstein, “A ladder of citizen participation.”
4. Baiocchi and Ganuza, “Participatory budgeting as if emancipation mattered.”
5. Carr, “Public input/elite privilege”; Rico-Motos et al., “Expertise and participatory governance.”
6. Cortés-Vázquez, Jiménez-Esquinas, and Sánchez-Carretero, “Heritage and participatory governance.”
7. Freire, Pedagogia do oprimido.
8. Layton Who Needs the Past?; Posnansky, “Toward an archaeology of the black diaspora”; Ucko, “Foreword”; Byrne, “Western hegemony in archaeological heritage management”; Conkey and Gero, “Programme to practice”; Arnold-Scham, “The archaeology of the disenfranchised”; Smith Uses of Heritage.
9. see, Tully, “Community archaeology”; Pyburn, “Archaeology by, for, and about the public,”; “Engaged archaeology”; Johnston and Marwood, “Action heritage”; Smith and Waterton, Heritage, Communities and Archaeology; McGhee, “Participatory Action Research and archaeology”; Atalay, Community-based Archaeology; Chevalier and Buckles, Handbook for Participatory Action Research, Planning and Evaluation; Rivolta et al., Multivocalidad: y activaciones patrimoniales en arqueología.
10. Saurugger, “The social construction of the participatory turn.”
11. see, Glass and Newig, “Governance for achieving the sustainable development goals”; Deacon and Smeets, “Authenticity, value and community involvement in heritage management under the world heritage and intangible heritage conventions.”
12. Adell et al., Between Imagined Communities and Communities of Practice; Neal, “Heritage and participation”; Sánchez-Carretero et al., El imperativo de la participación en la gestión patrimonial; Bortolotto et al., “Proving participation”; Colomer, “Exploring participatory heritage governance after the EU Faro Convention.”
13. Pastor Pérez et al., “Democratising heritage values.”
14. Jiménez-Esquinas and Quintero-Morón, “Participación en patrimonio”; Sánchez-Carretero and Roura-Expósito, “Participación.”
15. Baiocchi and Ganuza, “Participatory budgeting as if emancipation mattered”; Callahan, “Citizen participation”; Colomer, “Exploring participatory heritage governance after the EU Faro Convention.”
16. Arnstein, “A ladder of citizen participation.”
17. Kurtz et al., “Blogs as elusive ethnographic texts.”
18. Musante, “Participant observation”; see also Pastor-Pérez, Conservación arqueológica social; Pastor-Pérez and Ruiz Martínez, “La participación como tarea de lo cotidiano”; Pastor-Pérez and Ruiz-Martínez, “Analysing heritage and participation in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona.”
19. Launched in 2016, the repository (https://www.decidim.barcelona/) is a platform that provides digital services for participatory processes to debate, contrast and compile proposals from the Barcelona City Council. As such, it is used to gather and organise all information, records, processes, initiatives, bodies and channels for citizen participation stipulated by the 2022 regulation and make them available to the public. See also Charnock, March, and Ribera-Fumaz, “From smart to rebel city?”
20. Andreu-Acebal and Huertas-Claveria, Barcelona en lluita; Calavita and Ferrer, “Behind Barcelona’s success story.”
21. Borja, “The city, democracy and governability”; Subirós, Estratègies culturals i renovació urbana.
22. Marshall, Transforming Barcelona; Balibrea, The Global Cultural Capital.
23. Rodriguez-Morató, “La reinvención de la política cultural a escala local”; Sánchez-Belando, Rius-Ulldemolins, and Zarlenga, “¿Ciudad creativa y ciudad sostenible?”
24. Capel, El modelo Barcelona; Delgado, La ciudad mentirosa; Blanco, “Does a ‘Barcelona Model’ Really Exist?”; Degen and García, “The transformation of the ‘Barcelona model.”
25. Charnock, Purcell, and Ribera-Fumaz, “¡Indígnate!.”
26. Feenstra and Tormey, “From social mobilisation to institutional politics.”
27. Blanco, Gomà, and Subirats, “El nuevo municipalismo”; Thompson, “What’s so new about New Municipalism?”
28. Angel, “New municipalism and the state,” 524.
29. Eizaguirre, Pradel-Miquel, and García, “Citizenship practices and democratic governance.”
30. The district councils were no longer found in the 2002 regulation on participation, leaving only the City Council and sectoral councils (2002 Barcelona City Council). The neighbourhood councils were reinstated as one of the municipal channels for citizen participation in 2017–2022.
31. The participation regulations approved in 2017 were annulled by the High Court of Catalonia in October 2019 (Judgment no. 874/2019). This led to the creation of an amended regulation in 2022. As such, several white documents were created between 2017 and 2022. includes those relevant here.
32. Miró i Alaix, ”El Servei d’Arqueologia de Barcelona, un servei municipal per fer conèixer l’arqueologia i el patrimoni al ciutadà.” Miró i Alaix ”La Muralla Romana en el marc del Pla Barcino La Muralla Romana en el marc del Pla Barcino”
34. See https://delspeixos.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/breu-recordatori-de-la-campanya-i-el-proces-de-participacio/ (accessed March 20, 2023).
35. As described in 2020 by Josep Llinàs, architect in charge: https://afasiaarchzine.com/2020/11/josep-llinas-placa-carme-simo-barcelona/ (accessed March 25, 2023).
36. See https://vivimaqui.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/statement/ (accessed 26/03/2023).
37. See https://vivimaqui.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/article-imprescindible-per-el-debat-sobre-els-usos-del-solar/ (accessed March 26, 2023).
38. Fontova La Model de Barcelona.
40. All documentation related to the participatory process, including the expert reports, is available on Decidim.Barcelona: https://www.decidim.barcelona/processes/lamodel. See also https://www.lacol.coop/projectes/proces-participacio-model/
41. Model Urbà Pla Director de la Model Citation2019.
42. The winning project ‘Model, Batega’ is available at https://www.lamodel.barcelona/ca/model-batega
43. CitationPastor-Pérez and Colomer, “Dissecting symbolic participation in cultural heritage.”
44. Harvey, “The Right to the City.”
45. Ramos-Ruiz, Llinàs, and Miró i Alaix, “La muralla romana en el marc del Pla Barcino”, 238).
46. Arnstein, “A ladder of citizen participation.”
47. Barcelona government measure Heritage City. http://hdl.handle.net/11703/125079
48. See https://www.decidim.barcelona/assemblies/taula-patrimoni/f/5254/?locale=ca (accessed May 29, 2023).
49. See https://www.barcelona.cat/culturaviva/ca/projecte/memoria-viva?viewMode=full (accessed May 29, 2023).
50. see, Colomer, “Stones, Books and Flags.”
51. Carr, “Public input/elite privilege.”