Other jobs and urban conflicts: Old solutions and new organizations in barcelona

Abstract

In Barcelona occurs a paradox: “marginal works”, in a global context of a crisis of central-ity of work, emerge as central in local political discussions, on issues such as land valuation, tourism management, security or migration. In this context, this article addresses the rela-tionships of street worker groups with the institutional regulation of public space and neoliberal urban management policies. The methodology was based on the monitoring and analysis of 4 street activities that dispute the definition of work were carried out: street music, human statues, street sales, and scrap collection. The fieldwork, developed between 2013 and 2016, was based on the participant observation of the public activity of the organizations and their impact on media and social networks; the interpretation and evaluation of urban regulations and legal documents that regulate them; and the interview with collec-tive leaders. This analysis allows us to conclude that urban regulations use a hegemonic model of work, restrictive and exclusive, as a normative framework to determine the appro-priate uses of the street, which contributes to the invisibility of the social relations that occur around these works. This process involves the differentiation between jobs (and workers) that are conducive to the valorization of urban space, and jobs (and workers) persecuted and stigmatized in certain areas of the city, in short, of desirable and undesirable groups in the public space.