Double peripheries: homelessness on the edge of the city of Barcelona: the case of Poblenou

Abstract

This research questions the nature of a periphery based on a doubly peripheral case study (regarding both territorial and social aspects): a non-central neighbourhood in Barcelona in which much homelessness is concentrated. In recent decades, the Poblenou neighbourhood in the Sant Martí district has been affected by the global dynamics of neoliberal urban transformation with the aim of redefining the industrial periphery (22@ Plan (2000), Forum (2004), Superblocks (2016) and Green Hubs (2021)). This is in addition to previous efforts to do away with the slums that characterised the area during the first half of the 20th century. Decades later, homelessness replaced the historic slum dwellings of this neighbourhood with a nomadic, precarious and invisible condition of life, thereby turning into the contemporary expression of the tradition of slums that were censored as a source of conflict. Therefore, this paper states the hypothesis that homelessness has traces and latencies of the district’s peripheral nature and makes them evident, despite attempts to create new centrality. Identifying correlations between destitution and new urban “regeneration” plans for the area is consequently proposed. In addition, the meaning of the term “periphery” is broadened by presenting homelessness as another type of spatial periphery, but this time one that is rootless, dynamic and much larger. To analyse where these two realities meet, the spatial practices and ways of living of homeless people in the neighbourhood are examined based on a bibliographic study and field work, which consists of conducting semi-structured interviews and recording observational data. Accompanied by the concepts of invisibility, dispossession and the right to the city, this paper raises questions such as power relations and borders, the tension between centrality and marginality, and between self-sufficiency and interdependence. Ultimately, it is about drilling down into the meaning of the periphery and its contemporary multiple voices.