CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Rivera Blanco, Carla |
|---|---|
| Title | We Don't Leave: The Right To Stay Put In A Barcelona Neighborhood |
| Summary | This thesis is an exploration of the fight to stay put in Barcelona. Despite the discourse of the right to the city and the right to housing have become popular in recent years, forced displacement is largely normalized. Relocation is generally offered as a dignified solution by private companies and institutions, and many accept to leave their houses without resistance. This shows an overarching lack of reflection on the importance of local embeddedness for personal wellbeing and political activity. That is, on the centrality of countering forced mobility to enable the practice of Henri Lefebvre’s understanding of the right to the city. Located in the neighborhood of Sant Andreu, the case of the houses of Pons i Gallarza provides an opportunity for addressing this gap. After three years of intense social struggle against a real-estate company who wanted to force them away, the neighbors have managed to stay under the motto ‘No Marxem’ (We Don’t Leave). Their success makes it a relevant case for conceptualizing the actual fight in the face of gentrification, not only in an overtly antagonistic way but also through a critical engagement with the politics of the everyday. Thus, based on analytic ethnography, informal conversations, and eight semi-structured interviews, this thesis contributes to the scholarship about both the right to the city and the right to housing by placing the right to stay put at the center of current debates. Not only theoretically, but also in a practical way. |
| Supervisor | Sopranzetti, Claudio; Monterescu, Daniel |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/rivera-blanco_carla.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University