Urban planning, gender and the use of public space in a peripherial neighbourhood of Barcelona

The article analyses the use of the Via Julia, public space in Barcelona that is an outstanding example of participatory urban planning in a peripheral working class district from the early 1980s. The research is based on fieldwork carried out in 2000 in order to assess the use and appropriation of this space by the residents of the district. It emerges that there is an intense and almost egalitarian use of this space by men and women of different age groups and a great diversity of activities taking place there. This case of successful remodeling is related to a particular social and political conjuncture in Spain in which urban planners had to negotiate their original plan with very strong social urban movements, in which women played a conspicuous role.