"The transformation of the city" has been the last cycle of debates that the Catalunya Europa Foundation has promoted between 2021 and 2022, motivated by the effects of the multiple crises - health, economic, social and climate - and the urgency of seeking transformative solutions.
In this context, there is a growing consensus around social, economic and environmental challenges, and how this global panorama requires public leadership with capacity and international vision, committed to the learning of other metropolises, opportunities generated by innovation, and lead political and economic alliances that ensure transformation.
This also led the Catalunya Europa Foundation to redefine its Re-CITY activity, moving from global reflections to the changes that need to be driven by cities, such as metropolitan Barcelona to adapt to these multiple crises and imagine sustainable solutions for the future.
The transformation of the city has therefore been a cycle of debates that has sought to challenge the whole of society (municipal rulers and technicians, academics, representatives of the economic and social fabric, citizenship), divided into three areas of action through which to make dissemination and dissemination.
1. The Municipalist Days, focused on municipal leaders and technicians, with the aim of reflecting on the main axes of territorial structuring, rethinking and disseminating the main areas of municipal political action from a metropolitan perspective by the hand of their top representatives. In this 2022 have been held 4 municipal days focused specifically on infrastructure:
· New activities, new uses: Strategic planning in cities (11 March): where the relationship between economic activity and land management was discussed, showing that in order to promote and accelerate the former, supramunicipal plans and more flexible, flexible and homogeneous regulations are needed.
· We’re getting on the train! Debate on metropolitan rail infrastructure (27 April): where the debate focused on the opportunities and difficulties of rail projects in the metropolitan area: Cercanías, Metro del Vallès, Metro del Baix Llobregat, etc. as well as their integration into the urban fabric and with other modes of transport.
· We renew the country? The energy transition and the territorial issue (5 October): where the impact of the energy transition was reflected and how to ensure that it is environmentally sustainable, socially just, economically viable and territorially balanced.
2. Debates on Metropolitan Governance, aimed at strengthening local debate, reflection and dissemination of current issues in relation to governance instruments in metropolitan Barcelona, by representatives of public administration, of the social and economic fabric , and academics. In 2022 there were 3 debates on metropolitan governance, in which different topics were addressed:
· Sustainable mobility and air quality (4 May): where the impact of urban mobility on air quality and public health in the metropolitan region of Barcelona was discussed, as well as instruments that can be deployed locally to reduce air pollution.
· The international role of metropolitan Barcelona (1 June): where questions such as the projection of this great Barcelona in the world were addressed, who should lead this process and what specific role administrations should play and how they should coordinate to drive it.
· The transformation of the city with a gender perspective (13 December): addressing the debate from three essential perspectives that shape life in our cities, and that are community security in public space, gender inequalities in health and the pay gap in the workplace.
3. Re-City workshops in action, focused on provoking change and being a transformative agent in collaboration with other equally restless and committed actors with our country and our planet. Specifically, it is aimed at agents of the quadruple helix (business, administration, academia and civil society) to discuss concrete proposals of action of a metropolitan nature, which require collaboration between different actors and that, on the basis of a shared diagnosis, they can be translated into short-term pilot projects. In 2022, two Re-City workshops were held in action, addressing:
· The transition from the current linear economic model to a circular economic model (4 March): demonstrating that the business model must be changed and promoted to be economically viable and well-paid, accompanied by regulations that favour the repair and reuse of resources.
·How to promote sustainable metropolitan mobility on the borders of the Barcelona metropolis (20 May): a geographical area made up of the Maresme, Vallès Occidental, Vallès Oriental, Baix Llobregat, through the creation of a more efficient public transport network.
This series of debates has been organized jointly with the La Caixa Foundation and the Club of Rome, and with the support of the AMB, the Diputación de Barcelona, the Barcelona City Council, the City Council of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and the City Council of Prat de Llobregat.
