From NIMBYsm to the 15M: A Decade of Urban Conflicts in Barcelona and Valencia

The first decade of the 21st century was a period of economic and demographic expansion and impressive urban development in Spain's big cities, including Barcelona and Valencia. This growth came along with a great effort to develop new territorial, sectoral and urban plans which would direct it, but which were not always successful. Nevertheless, these planning endeavors were not without critiques from social agents. In fact, throughout that decade we observed a growing distrust towards the institutional forms of citizen representation, and the ways and procedures of urban governance and spatial planning. This paper shows some important results of a systematic analysis based on print-media of urban conflicts related to land-use changes that emerged during a critical time period in two Spanish metropolitan areas: Barcelona and Valencia. The aim of this paper is to compare the evolution of urban conflicts in both cities that occurred between 2002 and 2012, from the point of view of social movements and their activists. The analysis of conflict activity between both cities gives interesting clues about where and why conflicts emerge and adds some pertinent reflections on the increasing problems of metropolitan governance in Spanish cities. During the mentioned period a deep transformation was witnessed in the types of conflicts that tend to emerge in these cities: from the reactive and isolated not in my back yard-like campaigns to broader protest movements like the 15 movement in the 2010s. The new movements appear to be participating actively in land-use or locational conflicts, but in fact reach far beyond these specific plans. They criticize not only the specific plans, but use this criticism to launch broader critiques of how their city is ruled and for whom.