The Power of Neighbourhoods. Bottom-Up Governance and Urban Planning in a Working-Class District of Barcelona, Nou Barris

It has been shown that the spaces most threatened by the COVID-19 health crisis were cities, due to their high population density and levels of labour or tourist mobility. However, they are also the places with the highest human, material and social capital and from where cures and alternatives can arise (Nel·lo in La ciudad y la plaga, en Eldiario.es, 2020). The most hopeful scenarios are based on community organisation and on the accumulation of many successful historical experiences (Observatorio Metropolitano de Madrid, Diez and Col·lectiu Víric, L’aposta municipalista. De les bullangues a les lluites actuals pels municipis lliures a Catalunya. Virus Editorial, Barcelona, 2015). This case study of the city of Barcelona conducts a review of: (1) the theoretical aspects referring to democratic radicalism, (2) governance and the government system, and (3) its applicability to urban planning and then (4) it describes how the case study is applied to the neighbourhood scale in Barcelona and specifically (5) the neighbourhood movement of the district of Nou Barris.