The commodification of housing and urban planning in Barcelona

© 2018 Presses Universitaires du Mirail. All rights reserved. The appropriation and commodification of the urban space is being used as one of the main mechanisms to overcome the economic crisis. These processes imply transformations that affect many areas of urban life. As a result, housing, local shops or public space are incorporated into the tourist business as commodities of use or exchange. Barcelona, among other tourist cities, experiences a "rent bubble" that has its genesis, mainly, in debt, evictions, the disembarkation of speculative capital, changes in the tenure regime and tourist rental housing. This situation of social conflict has been denounced by the citizen mobilization, which has been accused of "turismophobia". The local administration has initiated a process of regulation though urban and tourist planning, to alleviate some of its drawbacks such as the shortage of rental housing or tourist saturation.