Governance and structuring of public and urban space in Bilbao: analysis of global trends at the local level

Abstract

The phenomenon of deindustrialization, as well as the vertiginous changes dependent on financial capital, produced new trends in the models of organization and production of western cities such as Bilbao. The socio-spatial organization and structuring of the ‘new city’ begins to be a topic of great importance. It is in this sense that the concepts of public and urban space take on greater theoretical relevance. The results obtained through the application of the theory in the case of Bilbao, follow global urban development tendencies. Spatial planning fulfils the strategic functions of a system that dominates urban processes at their convenience. There is a tendency to build aseptic spaces that are closer to the interests of capital than of citizens.