El Cabanyal. O papel das dinâmicas sociais nos processos de transformação urbana

Abstract

The present work emerges as a result towards some considerations about the urban and the society that today experiences the urban space. It can be said that the social processes of today have a strong impact on the urban conditions in which they are inserted. The world lives nowadays in a context that produces a social network as a result of the contradiction of the economic, political and cultural systems. The new forms of the urban and the new processes of urban space appropriation emerge as a result of the capitalist system. This system has various consequences in the urban contexts, like a great inequality on rights and on access to a household, as well the lack of transparency in the urban transformation processes. This essay and its study case reflect some of these processes that occur today in the urban context and the political and economic forces that, in a certain way, have the power and dominate the construction of new urban realities and its forms of social appropriation. As a direct consequence of the difficulties of urban regulation systems in a democratic environment, social paradoxes emerge that will influence the social and urban dynamics. The democratic system, that by itself implies a participative character, shows everyday more liabilities between the strong capital influence and, sometimes, the subversion of the political and institutional power, or in favor of some citizen, or against some other, or simply neglecting large sectors of society. This subversion can be observed in the study case, in a legitimation process of a prepotent urban plan, in total neglect of the inhabitants. This transformation of the cities and of the urban spaces is, therefore, an answer to the new forms of organization of the capitalist system and arises as an inevitable 'adjustment' of society towards an unequal distribution of capital and opportunities, for various reasons. These concerns made the present work emerge within the scope of the diverse interventions of the urban project, as a project of direct intervention in everyday life and that has a great impact in society. El Cabanyal, in Valencia, Spain, is the study case that reflects various of this concerns and is example of some relevant practices in this field. Considering that its 'posicion' in an western world regulated by a democratic system, one that promotes the equality purposes, the study of the informal movements and of the participative practices is also posible and relevant. This neighborhood, in the east cost of Spain is distinguished, since its primary phase, as a self built and self sufficient urban space. Despite that, when it becomes a part of the Valencia county, the rights of maintaining its characteristic image and, more important, to housing are then at risk. This threat takes place through expansion and regenerating plans of the city that ignore or underestimate the inhabitants as well as the existent buildings. Knowing that the urban space doesn't live only by its construction or its regeneration programs, we can consider that its history and its memory are built through the real use of space and by everyday life. Thus, the regeneration plans of an urban environment must not be oblivious to its inhabitants, to the actual use of the public space, to the small local business, existing housing and the social practices as a participative and active groups in these plans.