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Abstract

The role of urban communities and localities in the development of citizenship and civil society in Spain is examined. The periods before and after democracy are compared. The focus is on the importance of community-based solidarity for the development of urban social movements before the 1979 local democratic elections and the rise of voluntary associations that followed. Democracy during the transitional period to democracy, which was based on consensus politics, has been translated into greater visibility for formal organizations, such as political parties and trade unions, rather than community-based organizations. During the last decade, civic associations centered on cultural, educational, and leisure activities have rapidly developed. On the one hand, the local expresses more heterogeneous interests of the citizens than of associations. On the other, regional and national politics have acquired prominence. Although local governments remain poorly financed, local politics and identities nevertheless continue to be a significant part of citizen life.

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References

There is an English version of this article in John R. Logan and Todd Swanstrom , Beyond the City Limits: Urban Policy and Economic Restructuring in Comparative Perspective (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990).

2. Albert O. Hirschman has analyzed the privatization of social behavior linked to the frustration of public life in his Shifting Involvements (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982).

3. Current studies of the underclass have stressed that the members of this group are characterized by their lack of involvement in politics. See The New Urban Poverty and the Underclass, ed. Enzo Mingione , special issue of International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (1993).

4. See Robert Nisbet , The Quest for Community (San Francisco: ICS Press, 1990) pp. xxix.

5. See Manuel Castells , The City and the Grassroots (London: Edward Arnold, 1983).

6. Nisbet , Quest for Community.

7. Ralf Dahrendorf , The Modern Social Conflict (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1988), p. 41.

See also Anna Alabart , “Las asociaciones de vecinos: Las conquistas y las facturas,” in VV.AA. Nuestra Utopia, ed. Andrew Mayayo et al. (Barcelona: Ed. Planeta, 1986).

9. I have developed this point in my Ph.D. thesis by comparing three types of urban communities. See Soledad García, “Urbanization, Working Class Organization and Political Movements in Barcelona” (Ph.D. diss., Hull University, 1983).

10.

10. See Chris Pickvance , “The Rise and Fall of Urban Movements and the Role of Comparative Analysis,” Society and Space, vol. 3 (1985).

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11. See Ubaldo Martínez , “El otro desempleo: La economía sumergida,” Cuadernos de Antropología, no. 10 (1989).

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12. For a classical analysis of different rights categories, see T. H. Marshall , Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950).

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13. Herbert Gans , “American Urban Theories and Urban Areas: Some Observations on Contemporary Ecological and Marxist Paradigms,” in Cities in Recession, ed. Ivan Szelenyi (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985), p. 288.

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14. In Spain, failure in formal education is very high in low-income neighborhoods, where a considerable proportion of young people enter training schools rather than secondary educational institutions. About half of them finish the full training program.

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15. Data provided by the Ministry of Interior concerned associations registered.

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16. For a similar analysis, see Hanspeter Kriesi , “New Social Movements and the New Class in the Netherlands,” American Journal of Sociology, 94(5) (1989).

17.

17. This point is developed in Soledad García , “Local Economic Policies and Social Citizenship in Spanish Cities,” Antipode 25(3):191-205 (1993).

Urban Communities and Local Political Participation in Spain

Abstract

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