A longer life, social and economic changes that tear the social fabric and a more individualistic culture are the seeds of a new phenomenon: loneliness amidst the crowd. We need to respond to those who already suffer it; to be sensitive to certain social changes that may bring isolation and overburdening.

In recent years, property values have climbed more than the purchasing power of the people of Barcelona faced with renting or buying accommodation. The glaring gap between valuation and prosperity can only be closed if welfare and equality are valued as social assets.

The job of politicians and urban planners is to detect urban pathologies and solve them. The remodelling of La Rambla is an opportunity for an exercise in administrative therapy (on a small scale) that encourages citizens to believe that they have plenty to say and something to do to improve their surroundings in a non-defensive way.

Barcelona holds a special place in the imaginations of Italians, who see it as an almost-perfect city. However, behind this image lies a reality that can prove tough for many of them.

We are not afraid, but we cannot ignore the wound that the attack on 17 August left in the city, and very noticeably in La Rambla, a boulevard that, now more than ever, must be recovered for the citizens who felt expelled from it.

The Gender Justice Plan for the period 2016-2020, drawn up by the Department for Life Span, Feminism and LGBTI Persons, plots the route towards building a city where women have a voice and participate in decision-making; where domestic tasks and care-giving are distributed more fairly; where the poverty and deprivation that women currently face, are dispelled: in short, a city where no woman has to be afraid of going home alone at night.

Transvestitism and brazen homosexuality reigned supreme on Carrer del Cid. So, too, did treachery, dishonesty and the broken, questionable condition of the people. The owner of La Criolla, who presided over a bar that would turn from a seedy joint into a hotspot, started by playing dirty and ended up worse off.

There are many hidden layers of Barcelona. In this issue we speak about urban wildlife, we endeavour to portray the many resident-led movements that have arisen in districts such and the historical importance of the women leaders of residents’ and workers’ movements. We talk about the rescue of family photo archives and albums and we discover what Barcelona smells like.

The right to the city is not about the right to live in one, which is obviously anyone’s right, but about the ability of those who already form part of the urban fabric to access basic services and a shared public space.

The pacifist response must come from the people, but it must also be global and it is here that the role of cities will become ever more significant. Violence will not only be instigated between nations in conflict but also from within our major urban centres.

After almost thirty years of uninterrupted publication, Barcelona Metròpolis is coming out with its 100th issue. For more than three decades it has endeavoured to explain the city to Barcelonians and to the world at large.

According to the census, more than three hundred languages are now spoken in the country whose capital city is Babelona. While this linguistic richness constitutes a major social and economic asset, it is also a cultural asset existing within the fragile balance of a particular ecosystem.

The debate about public space in the city is just as lively as ever, or maybe even more so. Ultimately, it is about finding collective solutions where the public and the authorities work together. Making a city from people.

For centuries, Barcelona has been committed to the book sector and intends to continue to uphold this commitment, now as a UNESCO City of Literature. This issue addresses all the realities that define what literature means to Barcelona, and seeks to explore the reasons why it aspires to the UNESCO title.

The confluence of hospital and university research has combined with the creation of new centres of investigation that have built a new strategic sector for Barcelona, which, sooner or later, will have a real impact both on the economy and the quality of life of its inhabitants.

Tourism brings in 15% of Barcelona’s GDP. Being such a powerful sector of the economy, it inevitably has a significant impact on the life of the city, particularly as it spans so many different spheres.

Participation is vital for structuring the transformation of the city. And the educating city is the basis of all new forms of participation.

It is not enough for a city to be highly self-sufficient if it doesn’t belong to a network that enables it to establish universal protocols. After all, connected self-sufficiency offers greater protection against global collapse.

Often we tend to think of tourists as gregarious little ants that only want to follow the usual routes round Gothic and Modernist Barcelona, but the reality is that lots of them are curious enough to lose themselves in the city, exploring neighbourhoods far from the centre and nooks and crannies that are hard to find in the guidebooks. And they discover marvels we no longer know how to appreciate.

Technologica lintelligence, which only makes sense if it benefits people and makes life easier, is only part of the intelligence we need.

The American writer Raymond Carver has a short story entitled “What We Talk About When We Talk about Love”. In this new issue of Barcelona Metròpolis we pose a similar question: what do we talk about when we talk about

The Tercentenary of the 11 September 1714, a crucial date that constituted a watershed in Barcelona’s history, is almost upon us. ‘Barcelona Metròpolis’ is also revisiting the events of 1714, its gaze set on the past, present and future.

With this spring issue, ‘Barcelona Metròpolis’ magazine has reached the first year of a new age. As the school year draws to a close, this time we focus our sights on education to weigh up one of the city’s most active and strategic sectors.

We are on the threshold of a new economy based on the ability to connect people and build communities, an area in which Barcelona excels. A new paradigm of productivity is now ineluctably bringing out new collaborations in a world in which information and all the goods that go with it are circulating at breakneck speed.

This year is the twentieth anniversary of the Barcelona Olympic Games. That event boosted the transformation of the city. The benefits went beyond a mere facelift,

‘Barcelona Metròpolis’ is entering a new era with a renewed purpose: to show the city the way it really is; a capital that pushes and pulls, that leads the country and journeys alongside it, that gets its energy from it but also puts its critical mass at the service of that country, unconditionally.

Barcelona has unintentionally become one of the world’s leading cities when it comes to emotional education. I say unintentionally because it has never explicitly set itself this goal, although it has given its support to many groups that have. For