La Diada marks the beginning of spring. It is a national festival that forms one of the most important cultural events in the calendar. It dominates newspapers and television headlines every year. But on this 23rd of April, in these deserted times, St. Jordi is not here.
Read MoreIf this is how capitalistic societies work — with people constantly being productive, striving to occupy their time, almost ashamed when they have nothing to do — quarantine measures have suddenly and abruptly broken everyone’s routines
Read MoreDuring a health crisis, not everyone has the right to stay home. This concerns not only the most essential workers (i.e. doctors, sanitary operators and supermarket assistants), but, also, all those workers who are the real producers of the city, the ones that assure its growth and functioning.
Read MoreUrban lifestyles in Spain may have compounded the viral impact on the country. And they don’t seem likely to change once this is all over. So what solutions are out there?
Read MoreThis is what the deserted city reveals to us, uninhabited in its streets and squares, where no open space belongs to us anymore: to satisfy always and only the private means to confine everyone to their own positions and origins; to give oxygen to the public, to the open space, the means in which we learn to meet others.
Read MoreSmall groups in Oxford, largely on social media, have fostered a model and space for building social capital while indoors — one that could (and should) be replicated in urban neighborhoods everywhere, as infection and death tolls rise.
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