The caring city? A critical reflection on Barcelona’s municipal experiments in care and the commons

Angelina Kussy, David Palomera and Daniel Silver
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Angelina Kussy: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
David Palomera: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Daniel Silver: University of Manchester, UK

Urban Studies, 2023, vol. 60, issue 11, 2036-2053

Abstract: There is an urgent need to develop a coherent political strategy to address the current crisis of care. Allocation of care through the market or the state leads to a care and democratic deficit. Organising care on the logic of the commons provides an alternative paradigm rooted in democracy and solidarity. Municipalism aims to build institutions to enable the commons; it represents a political strategy for the crisis of care at scale. In this paper we explore Barcelona en Comu ’s experiments in care to build upon what has been termed ‘care; municipalism’. Our case study focuses on domestic care work as a domain that reflects the core inequalities of the crisis. Through our analysis we have identified three key features of care municipalism: firstly, a feminist narrative of care; secondly, new forms of organising care and thirdly, building social infrastructures. The paper closes with a reflection on the limitations of Barcelona en Comu ’s experiments in care from a perspective of the commons, before outlining a future research agenda to contribute towards more caring cities.

Keywords: care commons; care crisis; care democracy; care municipalism; domestic work; social care; social reproduction; æŠ¤ç †å…¬å…±èµ„æº; æŠ¤ç †å ±æœº; æŠ¤ç †æ°‘ä¸»; æŠ¤ç †åœ°æ–¹è‡ªæ²»ä¸»ä¹‰; 家庭工作; ç¤¾ä¼šæŠ¤ç †; ç¤¾ä¼šå† ç”Ÿäº§ (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:11:p:2036-2053

DOI: 10.1177/00420980221134191

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