The City, Urbanization and Inequality

Abstract

Taking the city and the urban environment as a starting point, this analysis looks at globalization and the inability that states have so far demonstrated to f ind solutions to the political, socioeconomic and ecological problems of our time. The public policy of the “30 glorious years” (1945–1975) in Spain and later neoliberal privatizations paved the way for productive accumulation to be replaced by f inancial accumulation, which, to a large extent, is speculative. Working- and middle- class majorities are disintegrating; broad sectors of society have become atomized and are being subject to increasingly precarious conditions. Inequalities are accentuated, and social class is becoming more diffuse. Is now the time to revive the centralized statism of the post-WWII period? It seems not. From an eminently geographical perspective, this text proposes a reappropriation of the public space of cities to pave the way to a new way of urban life. Local and regional settings offer opportunities to explore alternative forms of production and democracy.