Urban policies in Spain: Transformations and challenges in a crisis era

Abstract

This paper examines the main transformations of urban policies in Spain and the challenges they have to face in a context of crisis and structural shift like the current one. Prior to this analysis, it presents and discusses briefly the notion of urban policies ―relatively unknown in our country. Later on, the expansion of urban policy agendas in Spain is observed, as well as the shifts of governance modes in the frame of an institutional context that, nonetheless, is very resilient to change ―a fact that has generated important unbalances and tensions in the development of these types of policies. The current economic crisis poses three kinds of threats to local governments and urban policies: recentralization, retrenchment of urban policy agendas, and the consolidation of technocratic forms of governance. The paper takes an opposing stance to such tendencies, arguing that cities’ resilience will depend on the deepening of decentralisation and the democratic radicalization of urban governance.