Globalization of the urban real estate market, which was originally local, has generated new capital flows worldwide that have reinforced the secondary circuit. Barcelona has not been immune to this process, at least since Spain's integration into the European Union in 1986. Many legal changes in foreign investment regulations have been introduced in Spain, especially in the housing market. The latest major investments in real estate have been made by former socialist countries, notably the People's Republic of China and Russia, which both belong to the BRICS group. Chinese localization strategies have been more concentrated. With this theoretical background, the aim of the paper is to analyze the strategies of these recent appropriations of Barcelona's residential space, in the framework of other economic Chinese investments and in competition with other Mediterranean ports. The main conclusion of this study is related to the definition of Barcelona's Chinatown, its changing location, and processes of social differentiation.

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This article tries to imagine the possible future retail-less city and its sustainability, combining some theoretical approaches with the initial data obtained from an analysis of Barcelona and Catalonia. The retail-less city is based on the idea of a city in which all the brick-and-mortar stores have closed as a consequence of the growing virtualization of retail. The hypothesis is based on the contemporary theory of planetary urbanization and its implications for the popular relationship between retail and the city. First, the study analyzes the relative weakness of the current retail theories and the spread of certain terms that have not succeeded in becoming real concepts. Second, the research attempt to find a possible definition of the retail-less city based on the increase of brick-and-mortar store and bank branch closures in Barcelona and Catalonia. Then, it explores some alternatives in urban policies and planning, using examples from Barcelona. Finally, the conclusion returns to the contemporary theories on globalization and planetary urbanization.

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