Masterminds of Culture

Abstract

This chapter concludes the study of local government discourses by focusing on the figure of Ferran Mascarell, arguably the most important intellectual and policy-maker in the area of culture in Barcelona’s democratic era. We focus here first on Barcelona’s Institute of Culture, founded under the auspices and direction of Mascarell himself in 1995, and reflecting his own understanding of the role of culture in the city. The study concludes with an analysis of his book Barcelona y la modernidad. La ciudad como proyecto de cultura (Barcelona and Modernity. The City as Cultural Project), where the author provides a historical overview of such a role. We argue that Mascarell’s interpretation of the Barcelona citizen past and present is paradigmatic of the transition from social-democratic to neoliberal views of urban culture and life. Contrary to other accounts of neoliberalism whereby the subordination of life to market rationality is accompanied by the abandonment of ethics, Mascarell’s insistence on holding on to social-democratic values translates, in neoliberal fashion, into an aim of making capitalist profit from the presentation of the human as a moral subject. Rather than letting go of moral values, cultural rights, and the celebration of community, such a rationale requires a cultivation of them as assets to be capitalized in the marketing and branding of the city