Urban Challenges in Spain and Portugal

Nuria Benach, Andrés Walliser

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781134908974
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

Contemporary cities in the Iberian Peninsula have gone through a period of dramatic changes during the last decade. A period of upward economic indicators and massive urbanization was followed by a tremendous financial crash in 2007 that sank Spanish and Portuguese societies into a profound crisis. That period of massive urbanization has been explained by several factors: the availability of financial capital that was speculatively invested in real-estate, a rather sympathetic land use regulation, and the real or perceived social mobility by most social groups which included housing acquisition enabled by unusual credit facilities. In this book we aim to show several different aspects of this process both in Portugal and Spanish cities, problematizing the economic and social consequences of such a model of urban and economic growth and also presenting some policy and governance outcomes that took place along the last decade.

This book was published as a special issue of Urban Research and Practice.

INTRODUCTION

Urban problems and issues in contemporary Spanish and Portuguese cities

Not long ago, this journal published a special issue on the future of European Cities (Volume 1, issue 3, 2008). It described how the pessimism about the future of cities in the 1970s and 1980s shifted to a more optimistic state of mind in the 1990s and from there it examined some of the expected future trends for the twenty-first century. The ‘collective deprivation’ of the 1970s and 1980s as Hall (1981) put it was followed in the 1990s by a vision where the main aim of urban policies was not only to find new economic bases for those former industrialized cities but to adapt their very urban spaces to global changes and thus to turn cities themselves, no matter their size, into engines of regional economic growth. The collapse of the financial markets in the summer of 2007 froze the growth of urban dynamics of the previous 10 years, which were already beginning to show, on severe symptoms of exhaustion accompanied by a worrying emergence of social conflicts. That issue on the future of urban cities launched in 2008 seemed then to be more appropriate than ever. At the same time and focusing on Europe, its editorial drew the attention to urban trends in the European Union as stated in the 2007 State of European Cities Report. They were widely analysed there (Atkinson 2008), but it is interesting for the purposes of the current issue to note how Spanish and Portuguese dynamics were depicted in that report. Both Spain and Portugal belong to the Southern Europe Large Urban Zone (LUZ) together with Italy, Greece and Cyprus. Analysing the 1995–2000 trends, the report showed that Southern Europe cities grew strongly and said the following on Spain and Portugal:

Spanish cities in particular witnessed strong population growth, at rates far above the average for Spain as a whole. Immigration as well as natural population increase has been driving this population growth. Similarly, Portuguese cities have experienced high levels of foreign immigration, particularly from Portuguese-speaking Africa, Brazil and Eastern Europe. A distinctly different picture emerges for Italy, where population stagnation was the dominant demographic characteristic in Urban Audit cities between 1996 and 2001. (Commission of the European Communities (CEC) 2007, p. iv)

This was effectively the scenario in the second part of the decade for these two countries: increasing foreign immigration rates (often accompanied by natural growth rates) that put a lot of pressure on the old historical neighbourhoods of inner cities (in Spain) and post-war working class areas (in both countries), and simultaneously the voracity of real estate investment capital expressed in huge urban developments along the sea front (related to a buoyant tourist industry) and in the outer rings of metropolitan areas (giving rise to an unlikely Mediterranean urban sprawl pattern). Ten years later, the situation has dramatically changed and the figures of population growth and urban investments show a negative trend. This was partly because of the exhaustion of this model of urban growth and urban renewal, and partly because the severity and depth of the economic crisis that devastated Southern Europe countries. Spain and Portugal were among the most affected, the Greek case apart, and this further illustrated the weakness of a model of economic growth excessively based on speculative construction and low added value services.

The new situation that Spanish and Portuguese cities now face, therefore, is a good reason to reflect on the recent changes as a starting point to think about their possible future. But there are also other reasons, however, for an issue on ‘Iberian’ cities. First, it has to be said that it is that the social and spatial regional dynamics of these countries are rarely analysed by local scholars from these regions in a form that is accessible to the English-speaking community. As it has been noted many times, there is a persistent neglect of work written in languages other than English (Garcia-Ramon 2003). Concerning urban issues, very little is known – in English – about Southern Europe’s urban dynamics, even less about Spain and Portugal – compared for instance to Italy – despite the obsession with the so-called Barcelona model (which we would argue has too often given rise to an endless repetition of clichés more than that to an accurate analysis). Therefore, the opportunity given by the editors of this journal is an excellent chance to contribute to rebalancing the situation.

Second, to put Spain and Portugal side by side is always somewhat challenging. Despite their geographical proximity, they have long and separate histories and there are probably no other two countries in Europe adjacent to each other in that are as isolated from one another in Europe. This applies not only in the way their cities have evolved, but more generally in terms of knowing about each other not only by citizens in general, but by scholars in particular.

If we have a quick look at the historical context of European urbanization and to the acknowledged role of the Mediterranean cities as the ‘cradle of western civilization’, the Iberian cities, despite their crucial role during the long imperialist expansion from the fifteenth until the nineteenth century, have never had a role comparable to the Italian or the Greek cities in the classical era. Even though it has been stated that the modern world largely owes its origins to the Mediterranean cities, both their imperial decadence and the strength of industrial revolution in the northern cities left the Mediterranean cities in a peripheral situation (Giner 2007).

Both countries exhibit differences and parallels, which are worth noting here. The differences that can be seen to the present day in the urban systems of both countries have historical roots that can be traced to imperial times: in Portugal a much more concentrated pattern along the coast and a remarkable macrocephalia in Lisbon compared to a much more balanced urban hierarchy in Spain, a far larger territory. However, it has been argued that from the last decades of the twentieth century (it is worth noting here that both countries ended, through different processes, their respective dictatorships in the mid-1970s) many developments seemed to bring them closer together. At the urban level this was also influenced by the expansion of global urban values and behaviour and their integration in the EU in 1986 (Gaspar 1995).

In the last decades both countries have provided interesting examples of urban rehabilitation of historical centres, of innovative renewal of obsolete former industrial areas, of internationally acclaimed urban proposals and so on. The 1990s was the moment of huge renewal operations (adaptations to perceived global requirements), with a wide use of marketing strategies as a means of legitimation, which meant involving all relevant urban agents and the use of all possible resources: traditional ones like standard planning and more innovative ones related to strategic planning or social participation, mobilizing initiatives in the form of world events such as Olympic games, Expos and so on (Gaspar 1995). It is also worth noting that during this economic growth period, which gave rise to competitive dynamics among cities, also between Spanish and Portuguese ones, there was a remarkable ‘Spanification’ of the Portuguese urbanism, as a result of investments by Spanish banks in Portuguese real estate and also as a result of the influence of Spanish urban design and architecture (Gaspar 1995). However, the questions of how to combine economic impulse and social welfare, urban renewal and to maintain existing social structures has never been adequately solved and many tensions have arisen in recent years. In the long term, the vulnerability and fragility of such a model of urban growth has been very visible, logically aggravated by recent economic difficulties.

This special issue is aimed then to address some of the situations and challenges that both Spanish and Portuguese cities now face as the result of old dynamics and their acceleration in the last decade. Innovative social and policy outcomes are looked at too, as well as the potentialities of the new Mediterranean city model(s) aimed as elsewhere at services (tourist, economic, cultural) and high added value products of a different nature.

First, we would point to the changing urban (planning) regulations that have allowed massive investments in real estate and the rate of urbanization of the territory, never seen before in the case of Spain, and in a more moderate way in the growth of the metropolitan areas of the two main Portuguese cities.

Second, the spatial impacts of what we can call ‘urbanization for leisure’ aimed at tourism or as second (or even third) permanent residences of local residents or European senior citizens, especially along the Mediterranean and South Atlantic coastline. This has dramatically increased the proportion of urbanized land and has contributed to the development of highly dysfunctional urban continuums, a general lack of services, supplies and even of legal definition, regardless of the high environmental burden placed on already vulnerable territories.

Third, the growth of minor urban centres competing for a place in a second urban hierarchy and, overall, an intense urban sprawl in larger cities that put into question the much valued model of the Mediterranean compact city. Market, status and lifestyles (a local suburban ethos culture) among other factors have contributed to the development of extensive polycentric metropolitan areas heavily dependent on communication infrastructures and the use of private transport.

The fourth issue is the question of governance and participation that have emerged after decades of top-down processes of urban transformation. This is the outcome of the impact of new institutional cultures that surreptitiously appeared in the policy design and implementation process, the visions of professionals and practitioners both in and out of the public administration, and in an important way the demands of civil society in an increasing and rather heterogeneous expression of bottom-up demands, that bring together the traditional grassroots movements and non-profit sector, with new tools of mobilization such as communication technologies.

The final factor has been the challenge of creating tools for regeneration and redressing territorial imbalance through strategies already used in other EU countries in the previous decade such as the integrated and area approach programmes. Special mention has to be made of the historical centres that, in periods of intense immigration, had to cope with both densification and overpopulation (Madrid or Barcelona), or conversely as is the case of Lisbon or Porto, of dramatic depopulation. This can be analysed through the recognition of the double dynamics, sometimes even simultaneous, of gentrification and ghettofication.

Seeking to reflect this wider context and the challenges it poses, this special issue contains six articles written by Spanish and Portuguese scholars that aim to explore some of them and so to give an overall perspective of the main dynamics and challenges. Thematically speaking, two articles deal with urban dynamics, two with urban policies and the remaining two have different approaches to the issue of problems and policies for historical centres and deprived areas.

Eugenio Burriel (University of Valencia) analyses the enormous process of urbanization of Spain in recent years that lead to a so-called housing bubble. Despite the economic, social, political and legal factors used to explain it, Burriel goes through some of the consequences that resulted from the process, which he describes as a subversion of public planning.

Arlinda García-Coll (University of Barcelona) considers the residential sprawl process that has started in the 1990s in Spain. Her basic assumption is that it has not been an outcome of a gradual process or some long-term dynamics, as in some other EU countries, but rather an accelerated phenomenon for which territory, institutions and society were not always prepared. The article considers the environmental consequences of urban sprawl in very vulnerable territories and the impact that issues like water or waste management are having, among other questions such as the typologies of building and its impact on the landscape. It is not uncommon to see from an airplane small towns or villages in low-density areas such as Castilla-La Mancha or Murcia, with new grids of streets still unbuilt that are 3 or 4 times the size of the existing built environment.

Governance at the local level has become another challenge since urban growth has become the raison d´etre for many local authorities that benefited from it, but do not have the capacity to manage service and utility provision, or facing the demands of new residents of brand new neighbourhoods often remain unfinished. Finally, García-Coll argues that sprawl is the result not only of development policies or financial market opportunities (i.e. cheap credit), but also of new lifestyles that consider suburban life as highly satisfactory, but which cause a number of problems of different kinds for residents. Some of them have become evident in the aftermath of the economic crisis with highly indebted families and negative equity trends in the real-estate market.

Joao Seixas (University of Lisbon) critically considers the strategic proposals for urban development, focusing on the case of Lisbon, in particular the 2009 Strategic Charter developed for the city. Seixas looks at this particular policy tool that has not yet been implemented as an opportunity to analyse developments from the perspective of the concept of ‘urban govern’. This concept seeks to go beyond others like government, governability or governance by providing a conceptual and transformative tool to understand urban systems, and more specifically Lisbon and its metropolitan region. He uses the research done to design the Charter and the three main vectors defined in it to exemplify this model and provide a thorough analysis of them in terms of a SWOT-like analysis considering the sociocultural capital, administration and networks and participation.

Jose A. Rio Fernandes (University of Porto) discusses area-based initiatives in different areas of Porto over the past decades and highlights how politics matter in terms of defining not only long-term strategies for the city, but also the way to design and implement those ideas. Policy and political culture are also elements present in the evolution of the policy framework of urban regeneration in this city. The articles by Seixas and Blanco et al. partially overlap as both adopt a similar approach. As in the case of Lisbon, although not to quite the same extent in the Spanish cases, the fragmentation of local government in big cities is a key variable to explain the evolution of these policies and the challenges to its implementation.

The remaining two articles deal with regeneration policies of the existing urban fabric. Oriol Nel·lo (Autonomous University of Barcelona, former Secretary for Urban Planning of the Generalitat de Catalunya, regional government of Catalonia) depicts the Catalan Neighbourhoods Act of 2004, a unique case in Spain of an area-based integrated approach that attempted to redress social segregation in deprived urban areas. This policy tool introduced innovative elements into the design, allocation, implementation and evaluation of the programmes. Despite this it has recently been cancelled due to budget cuts and political change in the regional government; this change suggests a turning point in the urban policy in Catalonia and Spain.

Finally, the article by Blanco and Bonet (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and Walliser (Fundación Cirem) focuses on the strategies for regeneration of the historic centres of Barcelona and Madrid from the 1980s until the present day, through case study evidence. The evolution of different programmes in several neighbourhoods in both cities is analysed in the light of governance, participation and their integration, among other variables. Private and institutional stakeholders are studied to assess the evolution of policy and political culture in a twofold comparative strategy: the period of analysis and both cities and its neighbourhoods.

As a whole, the issue aims to contribute to illuminate some of the present challenges and problems of European cities and at the same time to provide a more direct knowledge of the particularities of the Spanish and the Portuguese cases.

References

Atkinson, R., 2008. Introduction to this special issue on the future of European cities. European Research and Practice, 1 (3), 217–221.

CEC (Commission of the European Communities), 2007. State of European cities report. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities, DG Regio.

Garcia-Ramon, M.-D., 2003. Globalization and international geography: the questions of languages and scholarly traditions. Progress in Human Geography, 27 (1), 1–5.

Gaspar, J., 1995. Do urbanismo em Espanha e Portugal. Anales de Geografía de la Universidad Complutense, 15, 351–360.

Giner, S., 2007. Ciudad e historia en la Europa meridional. Algunas reflexiones sociológicas. In: Centros históricos. El corazón que late. Foro Internacional de Arquitectura Córdoba 2004. Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía, 147–183.

Hall, P., ed., 1981. The inner city in context. Aldershot: Gower.

Nuria Benach
Human Geography Department, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
and
Andrés Walliser
Fundación Cirem, Barcelona, Spain
September 2011

Subversion of land-use plans and the housing bubble in Spain

Eugenio L. Burriel

Department of Geography, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

The exceptional rhythm of the construction of residential dwellings in Spain between 1997 and 2006 and its geographical contrasts are explained by a time of economic expansion, a political and social context favourable to unlimited growth and excessive and untempered municipal land-use plans with passive or complicit regional governments. The lack of effective land-use regional plans and the discrediting of municipal land-use plans are a manifestation of a deliberate subversion of public planning to subordinate the public interest to the developer’s demands. This article concludes by presenting a panorama of the disturbing consequences of this urban development model.

1. Introduction

In the last years of the twentieth century and the first years of the twenty-first century, Spain has experienced a frenetic rhythm of urban development, of an intensity and duration, which has no hist...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• 1. Introduction: Urban problems and issues in contemporary Spanish and Portuguese cities
• 2. Subversion of land-use plans and the housing bubble in Spain
• 3. The process of residential sprawl in Spain: Is it really a problem?
• 4. Catalysing governance in a paradoxical city: the Lisbon Strategic Charter and the uncertainties of political empowerment in the Portuguese capital city
• 5. Area-based initiatives and urban dynamics. The case of the Porto city centre
• 6. The five challenges of urban rehabilitation. The Catalan experience
• 7. Urban governance and regeneration policies in historic city centres: Madrid and Barcelona
• 8. Epilogue
• Index