Acts and Stakeholders of the Urban Public Space of Alicante during the Spanish Democratic Transition

Abstract

Urban public space is a place where both the exercise of power and the citizen’s claim has been historically reflected. In Spain, the Franco dictatorship established mechanisms to control public space. During the Spanish Democratic Transition, the will to participate in public affairs and urban social claims would be conducted through the Neighborhood associations. Its main objectives included the creation, urbanization and improvement of public spaces, particularly urban plazas. The most peripheral and immigrant neighborhoods would be the most active areas of these urban claims. The civic recovery of public space would be one of the main social guidelines. In the Town Councils, the full democratization would not come until April 1979, with the first municipal elections. In a short time, the social stakeholder leadership role in the urban scene would be replaced by that of the political stakeholders. All of these acts and stakeholders are studied in the city of Alicante as an historical urban laboratory. The results show the evolution of the involved actors and their attitudes, the unequal fortune of urban solutions and the main reasons for all of this, highlighting the limitations of participatory design, the retraction of citizen consciousness and small-scale urban politics. ©2024 Sergio García-Doménech y Antonio Gómez-Gil.