1st Edition

Urban Change and the European Left Tales from the New Barcelona

By Donald McNeill Copyright 1999

    Urban Change and the European Left looks at the way politicians and critics use the city to ground their political messages.
    The book explores local narratives of urban change through ethnography, biography, travelogue, and social history. Drawing on novels, architectural commentaries, urban plans, political speeches, history and autobiography, Urban Change and the European Left provides accounts of public art, architecture, grassroots struggles, battles for control of the 1992 Olympics, and the city and Catalan identity.

    Introduction The New Barcelona, The city and the European Left, Urban reportage 1 A rough guide to the New Barcelona 2 Red heritage: Manuel Vázquez Montalbán as socialist flâneur 3 Battles for Barcelona 4 The gospel according to Pasqual: mayor Maragall’s new urban realism 5 Manuel Castells in the Eurocity 6 Designer socialism: the politics of architecture and public Space 7 Progressive futures?

    Biography

    Donald McNeill is a lecturer in Geography at the University of Strathclyde.