Street Performance, Public Space, and the Boundaries of Urban Desirability: The Case of Living Statues in Barcelona

Abstract

How do cities determine who has the right to station themselves in iconic public spaces? This article explores this question by analyzing the evolution of Barcelona's approach to regulating street performance, with a particular focus on regulations pertaining to ‘living statues’. Although most buskers have been expelled from the Ramblas, one of the city's most emblematic walkways, living statues remain permitted on the promenade. This, I argue, is due to the general embrace of statues as part of local tradition and their integration within city‐branding campaigns, as well as their own organizing and boundary work. As the image Barcelona seeks to cultivate has changed, however, the right of statues to station themselves in public space has become ever more tenuous. My findings speak to broader questions regarding how cities determine the boundaries of ‘urban desirability’, as well as why and how such boundaries change over time. They also elucidate the strategies that groups located at the margins employ in attempting to position themselves favorably in relation to such boundaries. More generally, they highlight how current approaches to analyzing urban inclusion and exclusion may benefit from a more sustained engagement with the burgeoning social scientific literature on symbolic boundaries.

Effects of urban street trees on human thermal comfort and physiological indices: a case study in Changchun city, China

“…Urban streets are the most numerous and visible public space in cities (Astor 2019). In well-developed cities, streets can comprise more than 80% of public spaces (Araldi and Fusco 2019;Astor 2019).…”

“…Urban streets are the most numerous and visible public space in cities (Astor 2019). In well-developed cities, streets can comprise more than 80% of public spaces (Araldi and Fusco 2019;Astor 2019). Streets are importance places for activities such as walking, sitting, cycling, and doing business for people of all ages (Jin et al 2019).…”

Effect of Street Performance (Busking) on the Environmental Perception of Public Space

“…Literature regarding street performance has concentrated on the history of street performance ( Campbell, 1981 ; Cohen and Greenwood, 1981 ; M. Smith, 1996 ), case studies of the street performances in specific locations ( Prato, 1984 ; Harrison-Pepper, 1990 ; Tanenbaum, 1995 ; Marina, 2018 ), and life stories of street performers ( Moore, 1974 ; Press and McNamara, 1975 ; Condos, 1976 ; Palmquist, 1984 ; Gomes, 2000 ; Rebeiro Gruhl, 2017 ). Others have studied street performance from the economic ( Kushner and Brooks, 2000 ), legal and legislative ( McNamara and Quilter, 2016 ; Juricich, 2017 ), urban design and policy ( Astor, 2019 ; Clua et al, 2020 ), and spectator experience ( Ho and Au, 2018 ; Ho et al, 2020 ) perspectives. Last but not least, there is the discourse that street performance can enhance people’s experience of public space ( Simpson, 2011 ; Doughty and Lagerqvist, 2016 ; Doubleday, 2018 ), and that is of interest to the current paper.…”

Differentiating busking from begging: A psychological approach

“…“Street performance/street performer” is more familiar among American texts [ 1 , 2 ] whereas “busking/busker” is more familiar among British texts [ 3 , 4 ]. But over the years in the literature, it becomes increasingly common that the two phrases are used interchangeably [ 5 – 15 ]. We follow this convention in the present work.…”

“…Plentiful attention has been paid to the history of street performance [ 1 , 3 , 39 ], individual accounts and life stories of street performers [ 14 , 40 , 41 ], and case studies of the street performances in specific cultural contexts [ 2 , 12 , 42 ]. Others have studied street performance from the economic [ 11 ], legislative [ 13 ], urban design [ 5 , 7 ], and spectator experience [ 43 – 45 ] perspectives. Our fundamental interest is in the relation of street performance with public space [ 8 , 9 , 15 , 25 ].…”