City Governance, Participatory Democracy, and Cultural Heritage in Barcelona, 1986–2022

Abstract

ABSTRACT Citizen participation in Barcelona has undergone a gradual process of institutionalisation that has accelerated over the last ten years. Today, participatory governance in areas such as urban planning and the management of social spaces is a hallmark of the city. However, citizen participation is only now beginning to occur in cultural heritage and comes with certain limitations. Through three diachronic case studies, this article explores the architecture of participation in Barcelona and its contribution to cultural heritage management. It analyses the role of cultural heritage as an actor in participatory processes and explores the degree of citizen participation in cultural heritage management. Our findings reveal that there is no participation in heritage itself, but there is participation in issues in relation to cultural heritage. This leads us to reflect on the lack of a true participatory turn in cultural heritage management.