Urban regeneration and 'resistance of place': Foregrounding time and experience

Abstract

Time and experience lie at the heart of urban life. However while extensive research on the social implications of the spatial transformation of urban landscapes has been undertaken since the 1980s, the discussion of the impact manifold temporalities and sensory experiences might have in shaping or constraining the physical and social change of a neighbourhood have been limited. Existing research has a tendency to focus on a specific period in time within the remaking of a neighbourhood and draws conclusions on the impact of the regeneration from this window in time. By drawing on a longitudinal ethnographic study of the regeneration of el Raval, Barcelona from 1996 to now, the aim of this article is to start interrogating how a focus on temporality and experience produce interruptions of power in contemporary urban regeneration processes leading to what I define as a ‘resistance of place’. While there have been attempts to regenerate el Raval since the early 20th century, most dramatically during the last 20 years to create Barcelona’s new cultural quarter, the neighbourhood has not been gentrified and developed as expected by the council. I argue that while elements of control, discipline and gentrification are certainly part of global contemporary regeneration strategies, temporal and experiential dynamics destabilise their full implementation so that they are only partial in their imposition.