smart cities and open governments (it in transit #33)

Smart Cities And Open Governments

Smart Cities And Open Governments issue #33 - December 2014

What we currently consider as ‘the city’ is a cultural image based on the heritage of the foundational 19th century urbanism. That was a former urbanism deeply involved with the idea of urban density. Going hand in hand with the reinforcement of this compact city structure, the second half of the 20th Century brought a general spread of urban sprawl trends in all cities worldwide.

Thus, the dispersion through the territory of residential settlements and economic activities began to give rise to an urbanization not particularly adapted to the famous metaphor of the oil slick. In the 1990s, a whole series of oil slicks presented a pattern of settlements characterised by the urban dispersion: the low-density city or the ex-urbia are among the images with which urban planners had been trying to define the emergence of alternative urban forms that shunned concentration and largely contradicted the image of the dense compact city.

The intensification of the dynamics of urban sprawl embraced not just residential uses but a widespread cloning of the characteristic urban uses of the land and activities of the concentrated city, adapted, however, to the regional scale. Thus, economic activities and commercial or leisure services occupied new areas far from the city and its immediate suburbs;

Both dimensions of the urban –the traditional compact city and the sprawl urban developments– coexist today in our 21st century urban world facing the new challenge defined by the global process of digitalization of society.

Thus, it is true that our societies are becoming digitalised but this is because the information and telecommunication technologies revolution has mainly taken place in the urban arena. In plain words, the well-known places of the city hosting urban life –the architectural setting, the topological elements like streets and squares and the vibrant public urban spaces– are currently transformed on the basis of this new digital revolution.

This process of urban digitalization has been commonly simplified with the idea of the ‘smart city’.

It could be argued that the cities have historically become ‘smart’ before due to the fact of the introduction of new technological networks and devices. The implementation of the sewage systems in the late 19th Century metropolises or the mobility revolution represented by the car and the highway during the 20th Century worldwide are good examples of how cities have change completely their structure and dimension because of new technological developments.

However, the global process of urban digitalization to which the ‘smart city’ idea is referred shows new trends and possibilities for the future evolution of cities that are extraordinary relevant. They clearly underline how electricity and the digital world play a main role today –in the same way that water did it in regard with past civilizations– conforming a whole architectural and visual order which shapes and explains the built urban and metropolitan environments in which we are living in.

In this sense, cities becoming ‘smart’ deal with new exciting opportunities of change and transformation that can be summarised in three main challenges:

1. The ‘low-carbon’ challenge:

Urban available data clearly show the environmental crisis affecting cities at the present moment. The so-called low-carbon challenge reflects new urban requirements which have also been emphasized by the uprising climate-proof vision of urban planning and design. In this sense, the sustainable performing profile of the urban form relays on issues such as the optimization of resources or the energy efficiency of the city that can be effectively digitally managed.

2. The ‘monitoring’ challenge:

The capability to manage big data and the new technical possibilities for updating information on the urban issues in real time are clearly offering real opportunities for the improvement of urban diagnosis and the design of much more effective urban strategies. In this sense, the proposal of new urban policies able to digitally monitor the process of urban management represents a real opportunity for adding creativity and innovation to the process of urban planning.

3. The ‘open government’ challenge:

The ‘smart city’ idea is not simply based on the growing number of connected citizens and the increasing availability of digital systems and devices. Furthermore, the whole smart urban challenge is defined by the

Francesc Muñoz. Director of the Urbanization’s Observatory (UAB).

seven communities, one languageeurocatalan newsletter

EDITORIAL

new possibilities for approaching a brand new digitalized urban world in which domestic devices, buildings or neighbourhoods can be consider as informational servers and drivers. In this sense, urban governance proposals not merely based on the citizens’ digital participation but on the real possibilities that digital technology offers for sharing the management of the city with the citizens are currently possible.

Integrating these different challenges in a global new vision for the city and the urban life should be the main ambition of the smart city schemes much more than the simple promotion of the new digital networks and devices themselves. In this sense, moving from the ‘digital city’ idea to the ‘digital citizenship’ ambition is currently defining the boundaries for the future success or the failure of the smart city idea.

Ten Reasons Why Barcelona is a Smart City


Barcelona is the first city in the Spanish State coined a “Smart City” and is named the fifth overall in Europe in 2013 ahead of Paris, Stockholm, and London. And with all the noise about the Mobile World Congress this week (with Mark Zuckerberg as a keynote speaker), Barcelona is the epicenter of technology and innovation.

But, it’s not necessarily technology that makes a city “Smart”.

According to Boyd Cohen, a famed urban and climate strategist, a Smart City ranks high based on these six “Smart” indicators: Smart Economy, Smart Environment, Smart Government, Smart Mobility, Smart Living, and Smart People. Its citizens live in a vibrant culture with an open government trying to improve green living spaces, and it makes wise investments in the future.

Let’s look at a few things that make Barcelona a Smart City:

01. Its stellar bus transit system.Barcelona’s transport system, Transports Metropolitan de Barcelona (TMB) recently debuted a new orthogonal bus network (horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines), making it faster, easier to use, and more frequent, among other features. Its goal is for the traveler to make one transfer between any two points in Barcelona in 95% of its journeys.

The bus system also has urban sustainable mobility, reducing emissions with hybrid buses. (In fact, when it stops, you can’t even hear the motor.) One of the cleanest surface public transport fleets in Europe, it also has smart bus shelters using solar panels and screens provides waiting times. Three interactive bus shelters are already installed, which has a touchscreen and USB ports.

02. Its bicycle sharing system, Bicing.

With 6,000 bicycles circulating, Bicing is a sustainable and economical form of transport, designed for citizens to travel short distances without consuming any energy.

You pay an annual fee, get a Bicing card, scan it at any of the 400 stations, check out a bike, then check it back in at the station closest to your destination. Most stations are located by other public transport stops or public parking. Recently, the new Bicing app became available for users to check out real-time availability at stations, making it easier to plan a route if one station has unavailable bikes or parking spaces.

03. Its installation of smart parking spaces.Using light and metal detectors, sensors detect if a parking spot or loading area is occupied. These street sensors help motorists find parking, but they also provide data about parking patterns, helping officials improve management of urban mobility.

Drivers can get real-time information on their smartphone to best locate a free parking space using ApparkB so they don’t have to go in circles. See more of smart parking in this video of Sant Cugat, an outside town of Barcelona that has already integrated parking sensors into the infrastructure: http://vimeo.com/32661217

04. Its pneumatic waste management system.Many ‘barris’ don’t have to see (and smell) overflowing and oversized trash bins. These compact drop-off containers have a subterranean vacuum network through the pipes, sucking up trash below the ground. This automated waste collection system decreases noise pollution made by trash trucks (at 11:15pm in our ‘barri’) and keeps the public space and stench clear.

In the Poblenou and Sant Cugat neighborhoods, sensors on rubbish and recycling bins have also been tested. Through radio frequency and WiFi, the sensor gives data to a central system, detecting the trash level. Sanitation workers can then plan the optimal route and times to collect it. [The company that makes the sensors, Urbiotica, has a booth in Hall 4 of Mobile World Congress 2014.]

05. Its installation of smart lighting.More efficient lighting using LED technology is being installed in Barcelona to reduce cost and pollution.

These lights optimize energy and use a smart function: it activates when detecting motion, but also gathers environmental information, humidity, temperature, pollution, and noise. Already installed in several places such as the Born neighborhood, we can expect 3,360 lights on 160 streets to be finished by 2015.

06. Its use of renewable and more effective energy systems.

Do you think about where your hot water comes from? With seven hours of sunshine a day, Barcelona has taken advantage of the ample solar energy. Barcelona Energy and the Barcelona City Council implemented a sustainable energy initiative, making Barcelona the first city to require to use solar water heaters in 2006.

Vilaweb


FURTHER READING

In 2000, the Barcelona Solar Thermal Ordinance also regulated all new large buildings such as hotels, hospitals, gyms, or swimming pools to produce their own domestic hot water, lowering emissions. This ordinance is the first of its type to be executed in a European city, and other cities have followed suit.

What about heating and air conditioning? Already in use in 78 buildings and is expected to expand, the Districlima heating and cooling system produces green energy “equivalent to planting 548,000 trees, or nearly 4 times the number of trees in Barcelona.” The heating uses steam from the incineration of urban waste and the cooling uses seawater for refrigerating, producing less fossil energy consumption and carbon emissions.

You may have seen this interesting sea-facing structure by the Forum in Barcelona. As one of the largest photovoltaic installations in Europe, this solar panel produces 550,000 Kw/h a year, which can generate power to over 160,000 households. This provides homes and businesses sustainable energy, reducing emissions equivalent to 440 tons of carbon dioxide. More solar panels are being installed in the city.

Check out this interesting video of ways that renewable energy is being used and spread across Barcelona: http://ves.cat/maGZ

07. It’s the Mobile World Capital.In 2011, Barcelona beat out 29 other cities as the Mobile World Capital from 2012 until 2018. Barcelona was an attractive candidate because of its conference and exhibition facilities, tourism and transportation infrastructure, and its commitment to extending the reach of mobility locally and nationally.

Last year, over 72,000 people attended the Mobile World Congress, the massive international telecommunications event. Supposedly, the grand four-day affair has created more than 7,000 temporary jobs and added a whopping 350 million euros of extra spending to the local economy. And that’s good news for the people.

08. Its urban mobility through apps.The Ajuntament de Barcelona recently rolled out some interesting and helpful new urban mobility projects, connecting its citizens using some attractive and snazzy apps. Other than Bicing and apparkB, here’s a rundown of some useful apps:

- TMB Virtual. Getting around through public transport is made easy. Point your smartphone’s camera in any direction, and “bus stop signs, lines and the distance to them in metres will appear on the screen, superimposed on real-world images. If you turn your phone sideways, it becomes a compass and each stop is shown as an arrow pointing in the direction to take”.

- Trànsit - If you’re a driver and you want to navigate the city effectively, Trànsit helps you find the best route. You can also look at real-time traffic updates through the municipal traffic cameras.

- Mapa Tricentenari - Not really an app to help navigate the city, this is a fun app for history geeks. Commemorating the Tricentenari, 300 years after the War of the Spanish Succession on September 11, 1714, thisaugmented reality app uses a map of Barcelona on Passeig Lluís Companys. Point your camera at any of the numbered places, and information of Barcelona in 1714 appears. I can’t wait to do this. the Tricentenari, 300 years after the War of the Spanish Succession on September 11, 1714, thisaugmented reality app uses a map of Barcelona on Passeig Lluís Companys. Point your camera at any of the numbered places, and information of Barcelona in 1714 appears. I can’t wait to do this: http://ves.cat/maG1

And there are so many more helpful apps by the Barcelona City Council for locals and tourists.

09. Participatory citizens and transparent government.Administrators are providing resources to make living in Barcelona more accessible, effective, and democratic for its citizens:

- Bústia Ciutadana - Citizens can make complaints, file reports of city problems such as a broken street light, or make suggestions. Data is sent to a central location, and officials respond to the the user promptly. Watch this video: http://ves.cat/maG2

- IDBCN - This app enables citizens to digitally identify themselves remotely. They can get a Barcelona residence certificate, check their register details, or even locate their towed vehicle.

- Open Data BCN - This is public information that is available for everybody to reuse it however they like. Citizens, businesses, and other institutions can use the info such as election results, population, public facilities, or economy to generate new services instead of starting from scratch.

For example, according to a Microsoft Case Study of Barcelona, they can mine open data regarding Barcelona’s citywide festival, La Mercè — find out how people moved, their interests, or entertainment venues. Then they can use this data to improve the logistics for future ‘festes’.

More on Barcelona eGovernment here: http://ves.cat/maG-

10. 22@ (vint-i-dos arroba), Barcelona’s Innovation DistrictLast but not least, 22@, the districte de la innovació (innovation district) was approved in 2001, and it’s a daring and experimental project of urban planning and entrepreneurialism.

22@ is a regeneration project: the use of refurbished buildings in a neglected part Poblenou, a former industrial hub. Municipal leaders are engaging the private sector — companies, universities, research, and communities work in close proximity in clusters in these buildings to accelerate the pace of knowledge sharing and quickens innovation. They’re also creating subsidized housing and green spaces.

nterestingly, they’ve created the Barcelona Urban Lab, a public space where companies can pilot test their products that will improve city living,such as the parking and rubbish bin sensors mentioned above.

22@ is proven to be successful because of its sustainability — the five clusters are all united by green infrastructure. Also, from 2000 to 2007, 1,000 new companies and 31,000 new employees were working, an

impressive amount of growth in a short period of time. Now, other international cities like Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, and Boston have followed Barcelona’s lead.

------------

Barcelona’s not a perfect city. But with an overall aging population and an economic recession, local government has found ways to create jobs and improve the quality of daily life for its residents and visitors.

Barcelona, now let’s find ways to get rid of dog poop and minor theft. Who’s with me?

Sources:

Barcelona Activa: Barcelona Smart City Tour (http://ves.cat/maG_) El Economista: Barcelona, la apuesta de una ciudad ‘smart city (http://ves.cat/maHa) El Periodico: Barcelona Smart City (http://ves.cat/maHb)Sourceable: The World’s Smartest Cities (http://ves.cat/maHc)Sustainable Cities Collective: Case Study 22@ Barcelona Districtc (http://ves.cat/maHd)Fast Company: Barcelona: A Smart Model City for the Planet (http://ves.cat/maHe) A Geek’s Tour of Barcelona

------------

Cisco and Schneider invest €37 million in smart city innovation centers located in an old Barcelona factory


An old factory in the 22@ technological and business district of Barcelona, named Ca l’Alier, will be transformed into an innovation center focusing on Smart Cities. The French multinational Schneider Electric and the American networking giant Cisco Systems will invest €6 million in the building’s renovation in order to set up their new research centers. The two companies then plan to invest a total of €37 million in the centers over the course of the next 5 years. Barcelona´s City Council will also occupy a part of therenovated building for offices for its new Institute of Technology for the Habitat (BIT Habitat). The new research centers are expected to open in the summer of 2016 and to create 160 jobs. The renovation of the Ca l’Alier factory will be the first step towards the creation of the Smart City Campus, a space in which Barcelona City Council hopes to attract companies, universities, entrepreneurs and research centres associated with ICT, ecology and urban-planning. This will be located in the 22@ technological district, a developing business area in Barcelona´s formerly industrial neighborhood of Poblenou, known as the Catalan Manchester. According to the City Council, companies suchas Suez, Philips and Telefónica are already on board.

The 6 million euros that it will cost to renovate Ca l’Alier will be covered by the two multinational companies who will then rent the space from Barcelona City Council. Cisco Systems will establish a Centre for Innovation and Demonstration, which will be linked to the company´s project ‘The Internet of Everything’, as well as research into Smart Cities, namely cities which combine digital technology and intelligent design to create economically successful, sustainable towns to live and work. Cisco will sign a 15-year lease on the building and assume €5.6 million of the remodeling cost. Meanwhile, Schneider Electric will donate €726,000 towards the renovation works as well as covering the cost of setting up solutions for an efficient energy management of the building, an estimated €600,000. The French company plans to establish a Centre of Excellence in Smart Cities in Ca l’Alier for a minimum of 9 years.

The two companies have also announced that they will invest a further €37 million in the project over the course of the next five years, €22 million from Cisco Systems and €15 million from Schneider Electric.

The Smart City Campus

In addition to the research and innovation centers of both of the multinational companies, as well as the BIT Habitat offices, Ca l’Alier will have a reserved space for technology start-ups that are not yet defined. This is the first part of the wider initiative of the Smart City Campus, a space in which Barcelona City Council hopes to attract companies, universities, entrepreneurs and research centers associated with ICT, ecology and urban-planning.

Barcelona’s Deputy Mayor for Urban Habitat, Antoni Vives, has stated that the Smart City Campus will collaborate with companies such as the technology giant, Philips, the electric utility company, GDF Suez Cofely or the Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider, Telefónica.

22@ business district, an international technological hub

Cisco’s Senior Vice President for Latin America, Jordi Botifoll, and Schneider Electric’s Executive Vice President for Operations, Julio Rodriquez, justified their choice of Barcelona as the location for their new innovation centers for the city´s “leadership” and “world guidance” which it has demonstrated through such a “unique” project as 22@.

22@ is a project which was approved by Barcelona City Council in 2000 and aims to transform two hundred hectares of Poblenou’s former industrial land, formally known as the ́ Catalan Manchester´ for its 19th century industrial buildings and brick factories, into an innovative district offering modern spaces for “knowledge-based activities”. The 22@ model is already being applied to other areas of Barcelona, as well as in cities abroad, and has been described as a benchmark in urban, economic and social transformation by both experts in town planning and in information society economy.

Part of the “revolution of the 21st Century”

The City Council plans to launch the administrative procedure to start construction on Ca l’Alier this September, so that renovation works can begin in early 2015. According to the plans, the renovation will be completed between spring and summer of 2016. When presenting the project in the building of Ca l’Alier, the Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias, stated that the initiative was part of the “revolution of the 21st century” in which new technology can be used to meet “the needs of the people”.

The Mayor also stressed that a project such as this represents “the transformation of the city” to make it more sustainable andaccessible for its citizens. He went on to justify public-private cooperation as an essential way to “generate the economic activity”needed for social welfare.

Vilaweb


FURTHER READING

The renovation of the Ca l’Alier factory will be the first step towards the creation of the Smart City Campus

In addition to the renovation of the building, which, according to Trias, is in a “disastrous” state, Ca l’Alier will be remodeled along more self-sufficient and environmentally friendly lines, and the necessary energy resources will be generated through solar and wind technology.

First published in Vilaweb.cat

Ugo Valenti: ‘Barcelona is the global loudspeaker and a hub of smart technologies’


From the 18 until the 20 of November, Barcelona hosted the Smart City Expo World Congres at the Fira de Barcelona exhibition centre. It was the 4th edition and the most international to date, with 400 cities participating from 5 continents. Altogether there was a 50% increase in the number of exhibitors, and a 33% rise in that of cities represented. These included: Berlin and Munich in Germany, Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco from the USA, Copenhagen (Denmark), Dublin (Ireland), Glasgow and London (UK), Melbourne (Australia), Milan and Rome (Italy), Ahmedabab and New Delhi (India), Paris (France) and Toronto (Canada). Ugo Valenti, the congress’ director, explains in this interview how Barcelona has become a leader in the smart cities sector.

—Over 10.000 attended this year’s Smart City Expo World Congress, how did you reach so many people?

—This year’s attendance is the result of four years of hard working and also the outreach of the smart city concept, an idea that only some cities knew about in 2011 and is widely embraced today by city governments all over the planet. The world as we know it has to change if we want it to become sustainable and the best way to achieve this change, the only way to do it is through cities. The public and private sectors know it, thinkers and experts are well aware of this and Fira de Barcelona and the Smart City Expo World Congress were lucky enough to see the importance of urban transformation and worked very hard to become the world leading event in this field.

—What were the congress highlights?

—The Congress had many key moments but I feel that this year’s keynotes with Parag Khanna, Kengo Kuma, Alex Steffen and Deyan Sudjic were insightful and thought provoking for all of us. I must say though that having to choose only a few names among the 400 speakers who took part in this year’s conference program is not only difficult but possibly unfair.

–Can you give us an example that explains the importance of the meeting?

You only need to look at the numbers: 400 cities from the five continents attended with 41 official delegations from different countries and 40 different mayors.

—How can innovation help cities in developing countries?

—Innovation as a concept is key in developing countries. Many people think that smarts cities are all about technology and indeed technology is a key element in the smart city equation. However, developing countries benefit not only of new technology but also of existing solutions and technology applied in a way that no one thought about before and that is precisely what innovation is all about: Finding new ways to solve old problems either with new or old tools.

—Why has Barcelona became such a leader in the smart cities sector?

—Barcelona is a leader in the smart city sector because we’re determined to be the leaders. The city and its representatives are fully committed not only in the transformation of the city itself but also in a self-appointed duty of being the global loudspeaker and a hub of smart technologies, a place where cities come from all over the world to share knowledge, promote and design new projects and partner with other cities and private companies.

—How can the city keep the leadership?

—Keeping up the hard work and an open mind.

First published in Vilaweb.

Vilaweb


FURTHER READING

Interview with the director of the Smart City Expo World Congress

Heirs and heiresses of the Mancomunitat’s municipalism


One hundred years ago, on April 6th 1914, after more than two centuries without any institution that represented the Catalans since the Nova Planta Decree, one of the most significant periods of the history of Catalonia began; the creation of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, or the Catalan Commonwealth. It was the first Catalan institution that had the objective of modernizing the Catalan nation and laying the foundations of the new political Catalanism.

The aim was to build a modern country with the fundamental objective of ensuring that all citizens had access to services, no matter where they lived. This was the ideal of the President of the Catalan Commonwealth, Enric Prat de la Riba. Thanks to his determination and perseverance to build alliances between the different political forces, he achieved unified political action despite a diversity of ideologies, which allowed him to make a historic request to the central government in Spain: he called for a federation of the diputacions, or provincial councils, the initial foundation of a real State structure.

Even though he did not have all the devolved powers that would allow him to offer basic services, Enric Prat de la Riba believed that all citizens of Catalonia had to live in equal conditions regardless of where they resided. This obsession brought him to think that not a single town hall could be without the services of a police force, a school, a library, a telephone and a road.

It was necessary to create a structure that could answer the needs of the citizens. It would be an institution that would go beyond tax control and tax collection. Catalonia needed an organism that worked to offer a quality education policy, which brought the country’s social policy up to the level of European countries that were more developed than Spain. It would be an organism that worked so that Catalonia could become a cultured and powerful country and, above all, so that all citizens could be well communicated. Over the years, the Catalan Commonwealth achieved its goal; some 200 towns were no longer isolated, 400 kilometers of roads were built, the telephone was brought to almost 400 municipalities, and the Biblioteca de Catalunya (the Library of Catalonia) was built.

One hundred years later, as mayors we are the heirs and heiresses to his municipalism. We are aware of the goals and challenges of Prat de la Riba. We are aware that his legacy has been key for establishing the foundations of what today is the municipal world and the functions that are carried out there. The town halls are the citizenry’s front door to the administration. We channel their requests and this is why we have worked hard to provide answers to their needs and concerns. We are the locally elected who, with limited resources, face all kinds of disasters to ensure that our neighbors can live and have all the necessary services with the quality that they deserve. That is our reason for being. We don’t want to shy away from this responsibility that the citizens have entrusted to us by way of the ballot box.

As mayors we know quite well that we will not let Prat de la Riba’s legacy be lost due to the dictates that come from the offices of the Spain’s capital. These dictates have been made with the objective of recentralizing and rolling over the services that took years to achieve for our citizens. If the unity of political Catalanism around a single institution, as was the case with the Catalan Commonwealth, seemed a mere chimera 100 years ago, let us not cower before one law. The mayors of Catalonia do not want to ask permission to offer services to their citizens. At the time, Prat de la Riba knew quite well that taking away powers and having the central government offer services that had been previously offered by the local town halls in full operation could only create a multitude of problems. Prat de la Riba also knew that the local mayors would be the ones who knew better than anyone how to meet the needs of the citizenry.

This added value should have us to see that we have a promising future that has to allow us to continue modernizing towns and cities. The locally elected like us have the objective of walking alongside the citizenry in order to achieve greater well-being. As Prat de la Riba once said: “To have the town halls is to also have Catalonia. Renewing the life of municipal corporations, freeing them from the slavery of old politics, bringing in the spring of our renaissance that livens and fertilizes and regenerates, it is to renew and free and fertilize all of Catalonia.”

First published in Ara’s newspaper.

Miquel Buch, President of the Council of Local Governments of Catalonia (Ara’s newspaper)


OPINION

One hundred years of the Catalan Mancomunitat


This year we celebrate not only the three hundred years of the Catalan defeat to the Castilian troops of Philip V, but we also commemorate the centenary of the birth of the Catalan Commonwealth (Mancomunitat), the most important and serious attempt to recover the national identity of the Catalan people, its language, culture, political and legal personality, and the popular initiative of the Catalans. That attempt of political Catalanism managed – despite its political and economic precariousness – not only to give a strong boost to the dimmed awareness of the Catalans, but also an extremely notable achievement of objectives that were extraordinarily important during that period and that continue to be so today. The Catalan Commonwealth was short-lived, as the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera repealed it in 1924.

Despite its repeal, political Catalanism had managed to sow the fertile and powerful seed that despite the unfortunate vicissitudes from 1924 until today, which include the coup d’état of general Franco (a few years after Macià had managed to recover the Generalitat of Catalonia during the Second Republic); the 40 years of fascist dictatorship and the 35 years of a system of autonomous communities that has seen increasing limitations regarding devolved powers and finances. Today (a time when the Castilian bellicose and dictatorial instinct cannot force another coup d’état), that fertile seed of the Catalan Commonwealth is growing once again among Catalan citizens, which was made evident in the demonstration on September 11th in 2012, and in the Catalan Way of 2013, which shook up Spanish nationalism so much that even today it still hasn’t reacted in a civilized manner. They have only known how to increase their phobia, the insults and the visceral contempt that they have always felt about us, all the while passing laws in which Rajoy and the PP Government, with the complicity of the PSOE, are showing us their rather peculiar kind of affection. (?) The financial stranglehold that Montoro ruthlessly executes, the Wert law that seeks to destroy the cornerstone of our language and culture, the new hydrological plan for the Ebro river, are only a handful of examples of this.

The debate in the Spanish Parliament this past April 8th, where it was necessary to give a response to the proposition for a law that would allow the calling of a consultative referendum of Catalans, highlighted the existing concomitance between the two Spanish majority parties (PP/PSOE) and their legal obfuscation, that only had the support of the reactionary UPyD of Rosa Díez and the Foro Astúrias of Álvarez Cascos. The rest of the political forces in the Parliament not only voted in favor of the Catalan proposal, they also took apart all of the incoherent arguments of Rajoy and Rubalcaba, unmasking their clear hypocrisy and their absolute lack of political will and their incapacity to be democratic.

Because the “No” of the Spanish Parliament had been expected, it does not have to make us change our course in the slightest. The most positive factor, however, is that it has revealed to the international community the low democratic level of Rajoy’s government, but also that, behind their Biblical threats, what they want is to hide that they are terrified of losing Catalonia’s large economic contribution. This process will continue to be complicated and not without pitfalls and difficulties that Rajoy will place in our path, although there is a slight possibility that he may offer us a carrot (although it would be much later and much more stingy than the one suggested by the father of the Constitution, Herrero Rodríguez de Miñón, the day after the debate.)

First published in El Punt Avui’s newspaper: http://ves.cat/maJf

Photo by Jordi Soler.

Jaume Rocabert i Cabruja (El Punt Avui)


OPINION

They are terrified of losing the large catalan economic contribution

One period ends and a new one begins. From nation to State


“We are at a critical juncture for Catalan political life: one period of the Mancomunitat [the Catalan Commonwealth] ends, and a new one begins. We are concluding the period that begins with the fall of Barcelona, with the Nueva Planta Decree, with the suppression of the Consell de Cent [the Council of the One Hundred] and of the Generalitat [the Catalan Government]; and we begin another that is the tomorrow, the future, and is unknown. But this tomorrow, this future, this unknown about the awareness of our right and our strength and the direction of the universal currents, which are not yet tomorrow but that are creating it, ensure us that it will be triumphant for Catalonia and in close fellowship with other Hispanic peoples.”

This is how Enric Prat de la Riba began his inaugural address as president of Mancomunitat [the Catalan Commonwealth] on April 6th, 1914. Next Sunday will mark the 100-year anniversary of what we could consider the first contemporary attempt to give Catalonia a certain degree of autonomy after the suppression of the Catalan constitutions and the parliament in the time of the Habsburgs.

It was not exactly an autonomy as it is understood today, because the Commonwealth regime was based on uniting, under a single administration, all of the powers of the old diputaciones or provincial councils, and not based on a federal or con-federal reorganization of the State. The Spanish state during that period continued to be unitary and centralized since the Catalan Commonwealth was fed, essentially, from the transfers of powers from the provincial councils, which in addition were extremely slow.

But what is important about this first paragraph of the speech by Prat de la Riba is that the appeal to 1714 is minimal, historical, referential, and moves on immediately to the present, which was what had always interested Prat de la Riba since he abandoned the Romanticism that he himself had encouraged in the Bases de Manresa of 1892. In this sense, Prat was a modern man, whose Catalanism was democratic, nationalistic and conservative, but in no case whatsoever reactionary.

In 1914, Prat did not answer the call of history; he answered the call of politics, which is very different. The vision that he encouraged, together with a large group of professionals and intellectuals of different ideologies, was that the Catalonia of progress would have to expand across thousands of kilometers of roads, telephone cables and railroads that would transport goods and people, and at the same time it would enrich itself spiritually if it trained the population in all fields of knowledge and also in the practical skills of trades. Hospitals, libraries, schools, workshops, academies, museums and many more sprang up throughout Catalonia. As a Catalanist, Prat de la Riba became a great defender of social public policies, something rather unusual for a conservative.

Following Prat de la Riba’s theory, Catalonia was the nation and Spain was the State. His autonomist aspiration did not aim to break anything or separate anyone, as it is clear if we re-read the last sentence of the transcribed paragraph above when he is referring to what the Catalan Commonwealth meant: “it will be triumphant for Catalonia and in close fellowship with other Hispanic peoples.”

The problem was that the Spanish oligarchy that controlled the levers of the administration in Madrid was not capable of believing that this kind of proposal did not threaten the unity of the State, and that quite the opposite, it sought to regenerate it. “Regeneration” Catalanism, which has continued to our present day but is now in the process of going extinct, was born at that time.

That oligarchy that dominated the Spanish state eventually dismantled the Catalan Commonwealth and in 1923 it imposed the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera with the incomprehensible collaboration of Catalan governmental sectors, led by the second president of the Catalan Commonwealth, the architect Josep Puig i Caldafalch.

The State used the social turmoil that greatly frightened the Catalanist conservatism to bring an end to what could be called the “prodigious decade” of Catalan history just when the European continent was plunged into barbarism. The naïveté of the moderates of that moment was as blind as it was irresponsible.

If you will allow me to reference myself, beginning next Monday I will be in the bookstores with the book Pàtria i Progrès. La Mancomunitat de Catalunya 1914-1924 [Homeland and Progress. The Commonwealth of Catalonia 1914-1924], which I wrote together with the historian Aurora Madaula.

This book explains this and much more through figures such as Prat de la Riba, Eugeni d’Ors, Pompeu Fabra, Isidre Lloret, Cebrià de Montoliu, Rafael Campalans and Esteve Terradas. The prologue is by Francesc-Marc Álvaro, whose first sentence, which I agree with one hundred percent, is an excellent synthesis of what has been the history of this country: “The Catalans of today are more the children of 1914 than of 1714.” The rise of the pro-sovereignty movement is better understood as such than an appeal to the martyrs of three hundred years ago.

Indeed. After 100 years of trying the same thing Prat did to ensure “this close fellowship with the Hispanic peoples,” today moderate Catalanism, which in many respects is less conservative than in the past, intends to end the Pratian dichotomy between nation and State.

Agustí Colomines (Economia Digital)


OPINION

Barcelona, 4th of April 2014

The Catalanists who are natural heirs of Prat know for Prat’s vision to be able to develop in our world today, the Spanish state cannot be permanently against it. The State and the nation must unite in the same perspective and be under a single political body.

The moderates of today are less nationalistic than Prat and, in exchange, give free rein to pro-sovereignty because, weary of battling against the Spanish state, they have reached the conclusion that to be present in the globalized world it is necessary to have the power to decide of a State of their own.

First published in Economia Digital.

Barcelona: the capital of Catalonia


In the past, Barcelona was involved in intense international activity aimed at strengthening and structur- ing the international municipal movement, particularly during Mayor Maragall ’s terms in office. The most visible result of these efforts was the creation of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), which are based in and led by Barcelona. Simultaneously, beginning with the 1992 Olympics, the Barcelona brand has generated an international appeal that has clearly positioned the city as a leading global asset which is often sought after as a partner in diverse activities and collaborations on a global basis.

There is a need to carefully analyse and evaluate the benefits which the city obtains from this state of affairs, and the subsequent costs in terms of time and money. In doing so we can give the correct focus to the city’s interests, especially in terms of the international networks of which Barcelona is a member, in order to determine where to place an emphasis and where political involvement is required. The council must also ensure that it seeks the participation of everyone involved in the city. Barcelona has significant international assets, which can combine with and strengthen more strictly institutional actions.

The aim of the new city government, therefore, should be to develop innovative initiatives in the international arena and to apply new methods to initiatives which are currently under-performing. In the field of international relations, for example, which is not the direct responsibility of the city council or one of its obligations, the criterion of profitability of actions must be taken into account, with an emphasis on continuity in the actions being undertaken.

Furthermore, Barcelona’s international activities ought not to be separated from the fact that it is the capital of Catalonia. Barcelona is nowadays our country’s most important international asset, and the development of its potential should take into account its role as the capital, both in functional terms (e.g. investments, tourism potential, infrastructure and logistics) and the promotion of its own identity, language and culture. In this sense Barcelona’s international image ought to form a part of these efforts.This new philosophy in terms of the city’s international projection results in the establishment of certain priorities. During the current term in office we work on the following areas and activities:

Capital of the Mediterranean

Barcelona sees its role as the capital of the Mediterranean as fundamental to its identity and has certain arguments that support such a goal. The municipal government’s actions in this area are aimed at the institutional level, firstly giving active support to the Permanent Secretariat of the Unió per la Mediterrània (the Union for the Mediterranean, UpM), which is working to present a strategic project of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation as one of the UpM’s areas of operation. The city council also participates in the creation of a Centre for Mediation in Mediterranean Conflicts and supports the creation and location in Barcelona of the Mediterranean Court of Arbitration. Barcelona needs to consolidate its position as the diplomatic capital of the Mediterranean.

Being the capital also involves exporting the city model by strengthening bilateral ties with Mediterranean cities such as Casablanca, Tunis, Istanbul and Tel Aviv, and providing a model for countries undergoing political transition.

Finally, a capital needs to be built in terms of infrastructure and its ability to attract investment. The development of the port, the airport and Zona Franca (a logistics and industrial area) should be targeted at strengthening Barcelona’s potential as the logistical capital of the Mediterranean, by spearheading initiatives such as the connection of European cities via a railway corridor.

Although it goes beyond the Mediterranean dimension, making Barcelona a city of reference in the Jewish world is also a priority. This can be carried out by building on the important historical legacy that exists in our city, strengthening ties with the Jewish community, correcting errors made in the past and fostering business, cultural, scientific and educational relationships. A key element in this objective is the opening of a Jewish cultural centre in Barcelona with a clear historical perspective, but very much focused on current and future relationships.

A leading European city

Barcelona must actively work towards building a transf rontier space in the north-western Mediterranean, led by Catalonia. With our city’s economic, demographic, cultural and logistical potential, we can be ambitious in defining a network of cities to work in close collaboration in order to contribute to a territorial partnership which goes beyond political boundaries. What in the past has often been done in opposi- tion to Catalonia, must now take place in the context of the country’s strategy. Moreover, as I shall outline below, Bar- celona must work on a regular basis with the major European cities.

Our city has been recognized in Eu- rope as a model of innovation. Last July Mayor Trias was invited to

Joaquim Llimona. Catalan Internationa View.


IN DEPTH

participate in the European Commission’s high level working group on ‘Smart Cities’. This recognition is in sharp contrast with Barcelona’s exclusion from the Committee of the Regions, the result of a pact between the PP and the PSOE within the Federación Española de Mu- nicipios y Provincias (Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces).Barcelona needs to focus its Euro- pean policies on having more influence in the European Union’s programs, through being an active partner in new initiatives created by the EU to develop a new European regional policy. Cities

First published in Catalan International View.

Political Catalanism. La ‘Lliga’ [The League], ‘Solidaritat Catalana’ [Catalan Solidarity], the ‘Mancomunitat’


In 1901 the Regionalist League appeared on the Catalan and Spanish political panorama: this was a formation which did not have to wait to bring out its first political returns, since in that same year it acquired four deputies at the elections to the Courts with the candidatures of Bartomeu Robert, Albert Rusiñol, Sebastià Torres and Lluís Domènech Montaner, who were also known as the ‘four presidents’.

Republicanism also brought on an important transformation, especially due to the arrival of the polemical Alejandro Lerroux, who had not yet shown his anti-Catalanism. Lerroux centred his attempts in re-vindicating the obtaining of the eight hour working day and the Sunday rest day. The apparition of Lerroux did not only signal a political confrontation between the ‘lligaires’ [supporters of the League] and the ‘lerrouxistes’ [supporters of Lerroux], but also the differentiation of the type of electorate of each of them, both on a social and ideological note.

As a result of a series of social conflicts, 1902 began with a strike in the metallurgical sector which developed into a general strike. This was an event that, at all times, was under the control of the working class movement, because Barcelonan anarchism was going through an important crisis due to the terrorist acts which had taken place at the end of the previous century. Notably, this incident harmed Lerroux, because he did not yet completely control his political funding which, because it had not managed to encompass the whole of Catalan society was capitalised by working class syndicalism, and the League.

For the Regionalist League, this was not the only obstacle, since the most left wing sector of the party was irked by the incorporation of some catholic sectors, as seen during the visit of Alphonse XIII to Barcelona in 1904. In the formation, their were those in favour of boycotting the programmed events, and those who wanted to make the most of the King’s visit to state to him a series of demands for Catalonia. Finally, Francesc Cambó read a discourse in Catalan, in front of the King, although acknowledging the monarchy, where he introduced the needs and rights of Catalonia. The act forced a series of leaders to abandon the party, who then created the ‘Centre Nacionalista Republicà’ [Nationalist Republican Centre] in 1907.

Meanwhile, Lerroux had already obtained control over a new republicanism which was basically built upon anti-clericalism, anti-Catalanism and demagogy. In order to be able to realise his political ambition, he took special care in two aspects which apportioned to him a grand popular and political success: propaganda and the creation of the ‘Casa del Pueblo’, which were buildings where various services to the party sympathisers were offered.

In 1905, the League recuperated political credit thanks to the obtaining of some positive results in the municipal elections, which they celebrated by organising an act known as the ‘Banquet de la Victòria’ [Banquet of Victory]. Following this event, the Catalan supporters’ humorous, weekly, publication, ‘Cu-Cut!’, published a joke which totally discredited the military class. The reaction of the soldiers was too excessive: some three-hundred soldiers burst into, and destroyed the editor’s office of the weekly publication ‘Cu-Cut!’ and the newspaper of the League ‘La Veu de Catalunya’, as well as bringing-down all those citizens who crossed their path.

The Catalan political formation unanimously condemned the events, with the exception of Lerroux, and they demanded the appropriate action for the occurrance. The Spanish government did not punish those responsible and, in exchange, suspended the weekly and the newspaper for a few days and introduced the ‘Llei de Jurisdiccions’ [Law of Jurisdictions], according to which, from that moment onwards, all crimes of political opinion against the army and Spanish symbols could pass through military jurisdiction. So the army became judge and party.

This situation implied that at the end of January 1906, the ‘Comitè Executiu de Solidaritat Catalana’ [Executive Committee of Catalan Solidarity] was formed, which was created by the Regionalist League, The National Republican Centre, the independent republicans, ‘Unió Catalanista’, the federal republicans, the ‘Unión Republicana’ and the Carlists. The liberals, the conservatives and the ‘lerrouxistes’ and those who were in favour of the monarchic dynasty, remained to one side.

The first great triumph of Catalan Solidarity occurred at the elections to the Courts on April 21st 1907, where they won 32 of the 36 electoral districts, which apportioned 41 deputies to its formation. The victory of Solidarity gave rise to the start of Lerroux’s political decline.

The complementary elections for Barcelona took place at the end of 1908. The different party opinions which formed Solidarity and the evident and marked leadership of the League complicated the future of the formation. These were discrepancies which favoured Lerroux’s new formation, the ‘Partido Republicano Radical’ [Radical Republican Party]. The defeat of Solidarity became more notorious in the municipal elections of 1909, when the distinct political formations which composed Solidarity went forward separately, signifying the end of this ephemeras formation.

The tragic events which occurred throughout the Tragic Week and the aforementioned dissolution allowed the League to design the project of the Mancomunity of deputations and, at the same time, reinforce their political hegemony. The principal author of this new project was the lawyer and president of the Diputació Provincial of

Culturcat - Generalitat de Catalunya


OUR CULTURE OUR HISTORY

Barcelona, Enric Prat de la Riba. To make this proposal feasible, the four presidents of the Catalan deputations gathered, in 1911, to redact the reports and definitive bases of the project. The only absence was Lerroux’s formation.

In May 1912, the head of the liberal Government, José Canalejas, presented the project of law of the Mancomunitats Provincials, which was very disputed and criticised by the sectors that sympathised more with the Spanish cause. Five months later it was approved by 171 votes in favour and 42 against, but while the project was going through, Canalejas was murdered and the process was halted.

In spite of this unexpected obstacle, the project was approved because the new head of government, Eduardo Dato, needed the votes of the League to enable him take charge of his post. On March 26th 1914 the royal decree which approved the Statute by which the Mancomunitat de Catalunya was ruled, was signed, although it was not constituted until April 6th 1914. The first president was Enric Prat de la Riba, who held the post until his death, in 1917, when his place was occupied by Josep Puig Cadafalch, who was also a member of the Regionalist League.

In spite of the limitation of resources and the restriction of certain areas which the law attributed to it, together with its short life (1914-1923/25), the Mancomunitat’s task was quite remarkable, especially in the all important fields of culture, teaching and public works.

We must point out the encouragement given to the ‘Institut d’Estudis Catalans’ [Institute of Catalan Studies], which was created in 1907, and to the ‘Biblioteca de Catalunya’ [Library of Catalonia]. Institutions were set up for the training of teachers, the creating of ‘Laboratoris de Psicologia i Pedagogia’ [Laboratories of Psychology and Pedagogy], the improvement of the ‘Escola Industrial’ [Industrial School], ‘Escola del Treball’ [School of Work] and the ‘Escola d’Administració Local’ [Local Administration School]; the creation of the ‘Escola Catalana d’Art Dramàtic’ [Catalan School of Dramatic Art], ‘Escola Superior de Bells Oficis’ [Higher School of Fine Crafts], ‘Institut d’Orientació Professional’ [Institute of Professional Orientation], ‘Escola d’Alts Estudis Comercials’ [School of High Commercial Studies], ‘Escola d’Infermeres’ [Nursing School] and the ‘Escola de Gènere’ [Knitting School] in Canet de Mar.

Notably, amongst others, the Mancomunitat also fell upon the improvement of provincial roads and tracks, the establishment of a telephonic network, the unfolding of the Catalan language in Catalan Administration, by means of the official publications and the teaching centres it created, the encouragement of the numbers of experimental camps, the amplification of its meteorological services, the creation of the zoo-technical school and the organizing of new gynaecological and nervous illnesses’ clinics.

The pronouncement of the Captain General of Catalonia Miguel Primo de Rivera on September 13th 1923 implied that president Puig Cadafalch was replaced in his post by General Carlos de Losada, who occupied the presidency of the Mancomunitat until January 1924, when he was substituted by the monarchic cacique, president of ‘Unión Monárquica Nacional’ [National Monarchic Union] and Count of Egara, Alfons Sala Argemí. In spite of the political differences, he wanted to proceed with some of the projects which his two successors had begun. However, the intentions of Primo de Rivera were radically different and in 1925 he dissolved the Mancomunitat.

First published in Culturcat.

ISSN: 2014-9093 | Legal deposit: B. 2198-2013