Barcelona Field Class

Year 3 – ENVS 350

In this 30-credit, Year 3 BA Human Geography and L7K4 BA Geography and Planning field class, we examine Barcelona, a world city which regularly appears in lists of the Top 20 world cities based on economic performance. We compare the city to Liverpool, a smaller city by now well known to students, but which is in many ways similar to Barcelona. Both cities are ports, are international in outlook, and have gone through processes of urban decline and regeneration over the past 30 years. Both are now at the forefront of ‘culture-led’ regeneration practices. By undertaking a comparison of the two cities, students are able to contrast and learn from each city to ask critical questions about their past and their future prospects.

Students undertake a group-based project, but supplement this through individual assessments examining a variety of issues. Past group projects have included: port and waterfront developments and their relative successes or failures; the impacts and challenges of austerity policies in both cities; critical investigations of culture-led regeneration policies; grassroots politics and social movements, and; tourism and place marketing as a motor for economic development.