The Barcelona study trip report is online!

The students of the MASTER GOVERNING ECOLOGICAL TRANSITIONS IN EUROPEAN CITIES realised a collective inquiry following their study trip to Barcelona in March.

The trip consisted of a five-day stay in the city in an effort to answer the question of how to combine a radical agenda for sustainability and a radical agenda for social justice.

The students met with various actors from different fields, including those working at private institutions, current or former representatives of public institutions and city networks, civilians, associations, and academic experts. Listening to these actors shed light on the complex governance dynamics involved in shaping sustainability and social justice within Barcelona. After synthesizing all knowledge gained through these meetings and field visits, the students concluded that the main challenges faced by Barcelona encompass water, energy, housing, and the political and infrastructural legacies of the Olympics.

The following report will dive deeper into each of these topics and provide by first placing Barcelona into a historical context and later, describing each of the above challenges and how they are governed by actors with competing interests. As cities around the world grapple with the governance of the ecological transition, the challenges faced by Barcelona provide hope for cooperation, social equity, and ecological resilient cities.

Read the report

>See the facebook album of the trip