Twenty Years Working with Neighbours. Citizen Participation, Is It Possible? What We Have Learned in 20 Years

Abstract

<jats:p>In 1999, the Governing Council of the Universitat de Barcelona approved the creation of the POLIS Research Center. Later, in 2016, the Center was ratified after passing an assessment of the Catalan Accreditation Agency (AGAUR). The Centre has an interdisciplinary vocation and brings together researchers from different research groups at the University of Barcelona and cooperates with nine European and Ibero-American universities in the fields of Arts, Architecture and Human and Social Sciences. Academically, the Centre has promoted the doctoral program Public Space and Urban Regeneration (1998–2017) and the Master’s Degree in Urban Design: Art, City, Society (since 2007) and the publication of the journal On the w@terfront. The research object of the Centre is the city and its public space and, more specifically, the role of citizens in the production of Public Art and Urban Design. For this reason, the work of the Centre covers the topics related to Urban Regeneration, Sustainability, Urban Governance, Civic Remembrance, Heritage. Throughout its twenty-year history, the Centre has developed a series of projects for citizen participation in various areas of the periphery of Barcelona: River Besòs (municipality of Sant Adrià de Besòs) La Mina neighbourhood (municipality of Sant Adrià de Besòs) and the Barcelona’s neighbourhoods of Baró de Viver and Bon Pastor. A characteristic of the work of the centre has been, and is, the endorsement of citizen participation, through an innovative approach based on enabling the creative empowerment of the neighbours within the framework of Participatory Action Research. This approach is based on a project methodology, as it is understood in various project disciplines from Art to Architecture, from Design to Engineering. This article, associated with the itinerant exhibition “20 years working with neighbours,” reviews the founding project carried out by the Centre, “Social Uses of the River Besòs” (1997–1999), analysing the lessons learned, with the aim of clarifying the research criteria that the Centre follows for the development of citizen participation projects.</jats:p>

Changing the Landscape of the City Outskirts. Bon Pastor (Barcelona)

“…In 2016, we introduced the first works related to the implementation of the "Remembrance Spatial System" into the neighbourhood (Remesar, Crespo, 2017). Later, in 2018, we introduced the vision of the residents (Angosto, 2019;Remesar, 2019c). Since attendees can consult these documents, we will simply provide a few remarks to contextualise the two ongoing subprojects.…”

“…at each of the 13 sites. The QR, Vidi or Beacon artefact connects the 20 To learn more about the work methodology of this process, you can consult (Remesar, 2019a(Remesar, , 2019c. 21 The site is marked with an intervention on the pavement, using the most widespread paving system in Barcelona since the beginning of the 20 th century: the so-called "panots," pieces of 20 x 20 x 5 cm of hydraulic concrete of different forms (Esparza, 2017).…”

Algunos apuntes acerca de la Psicología Ambiental

“…Este es uno de los principios guía del grupo de investigación CER Polis de la Universidad de Barcelona, un grupo interdisciplinar liderado por Antoni Remesar y en el que participan investigadores del ámbito de la escultura y el diseño urbano, en la facultad de Bellas Artes, psicología ambiental, en la facultad de Psicología y Sociología urbana, en la Facultad de Economía, entre otros. Este grupo, especializado en procesos participativos comunitarios e intervenciones artísticas en el espacio público, ha dedicado los últimos 20 años a trabajar en los barrios situados en los márgenes del río Besòs, en Barcelona, facilitando procesos de transformación comunitaria a través del arte (Remesar, 2019;Remesar et al, 2013).…”

La Mujer Construye. ‘Arquitectura Na Periferia’

“…Estos procesos estudiados por las ciencias sociales, son también estratégicos en la a detección de problemas pero habitualmente tan solo terminan en simples procesos de consulta política para la toma de decisiones. En la actualidad el gran desafío de las democracias representativas, tanto consolidadas como emergentes es crear procesos de verdadero empoderamiento de las personas (Remesar, 2019). Pero los procesos de participación no son tarea sencilla, y consumen una gran cantidad de tiempo.…”