La Llei de la Plusvàlua Urbanitzadora i la Urbanització marginal a Sant Andreu de Palomar, Barcelona

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to enhance our understanding of the urban planning decisions taken for the urbanization of the Sant Andreu de Palomar neighborhood of Barcelona. The research looks at both the context for the planning process and the negative consequences that this has had on the neighborhood. The research hypothesis assess that planning inequalities of Sant Andreu are the result of capitalist system imbalances, in which urban planning operates. The thesis adapts Karl Popper hypothetic-deductive model, which allows the analysis of specific problems critically contrasting theories. Following Marx’s general law of capitalist accumulation, the thesis argues that deficiencies in Sant Andreu’s urban planning are an inherent part of the imbalances implicit in the capitalist system, within the political economy critic to urban planning. The empirical analysis develops through three complementary stages, aimed at: 1) deepening our understanding of the problem, 2) exploring the causes and 3) analyzing its consequences in Sant Andreu. The research identifies that planning outcomes are conditioned by three interconnected factors: 1) institutionalized unequal competition to exercise the right to the space, which also reflects existing urban inequalities; 2) urban planning practice that accepts the privatization of urban land surplus and is aimed at managing, rather than eliminating inequality; and 3) the legitimacy of the private appropriation of the urban land surplus as a necessary tool for stimulating capital accumulation. I conclude that urban planning facilitates the accumulation of private gains to facilitate capitalism endurance, causing a widespread, unstable and unequal urbanization process, removed from a comprehensive planning practice that could guide and streamline planning activities. This is identified as a general rule of urban planning_x000D_ that the thesis conceptualizes as «the capital gain law of urban land development», and is identified as a variant of the Marx´s general law. The implementation of this law is evident in the deficiencies of San Andreu’s urban planning process, which I argue is part of a wider problem linked to processes of dispossession of capital, unequal accumulation of wealth and overexploitation of resources and people.

Date of Award	31 Mar 2017
Original language	Catalan
Supervisor	Antònia Casellas (Director)