Open-ended urbanisms: Space-making processes in the protest encampment of the Indignados movement in Barcelona

Abstract

This article studies the spontaneous and organic processes involved in the physical planning of protest encampments. Drawing from ethnographic work in the context of the Indignados Movement in Barcelona, it analyzes the spatial evolution and transformation of the Plaza Catalunya encampment in 2011. The encampments evolved in parallel to the conversations and questions that originated them online and off-line. Thus, it particularly examines the notions of open planning (that is, open-source and open-ended decision-making processes) and urban laboratories that the fieldwork indicates were tested in the space of the encampment. The objective is to understand how urban space can be planned through non-hierarchical space-making processes and without a homogeneous overarching structure. This article situates in a larger discussion about alternative space-making processes such as insurgent, tactical planning, as well as in the recent conversations about open-source cities.