About us
Barcelona Metròpolis takes on a new era with a new format, a new design and a new digital space. Our experience up to now has been positive, but we’d like to reorient our content and strengthen its reflective aspect. The new Barcelona Metròpolis wants to be a tool for promoting and stimulating citizen debate on the big questions affecting our future. We want to help provoke thought, and in doing so encourage citizens to help make the decisions that affect their lives.
Proper democratic deliberation requires both time and knowledge. In the confusion and post-truth politics of the present, it isn’t information that’s lacking. Sometimes, there’s even too much of it—but information doesn’t always equal knowledge. To understand the complexity of these fast, turbulent times, we need spaces for careful reflection, for thoughts to be slow-cooked, where citizens can form their own free, judicious opinions.
We know that the future will be decided in cities. Barcelona has shown that it has the creativity and the strength it needs to be a metropolis open to the world. However, for the same reason, it also suffers from the harmful effects of a globalization that often places the interests of certain segregated minorities before those of the community. We want to contribute to the debate on how to build both city and citizenship, and how to improve the quality of our democracy.
Editor
Barcelona City Council
Editing and production
Editing and Publication Council. Gerardo Pisarello Prados, president
Communications Management. Águeda Bañón, director
Editorial Services Management. Núria Costa Galobart, director
Management
Milagros Pérez Oliva
Editorial coordination
Marga Pont Algueró
Editorial board
Marc Andreu
Journalist and historian. He collaborates with the newspaper El País, the magazines L’Avenç, Sàpiens and Carrer and the digital communication channel Crític.
Águeda Bañón
Communications manager for the Barcelona City Council.
Sara Berbel
Municipal General Manager of the Barcelona City Council. President of the BCN Formació Professional Foundation. She has been General director of Barcelona Activa and director of Economic Policy and Local Development for the Barcelona City Council.
Ismael Blanco
Expert in urban policy at the Institute of Government and Public Policy (IGOP) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).
David Bravo
Architect. Collaborates with the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, CCCB) in the development of the European Prize for Urban Public Space. Advisor on strategies against gentrification at the Barcelona City Council.
Judit Carrera
Political scientist. Director of the CCCB.
Najat El Hachmi
Writer and columnist.
Sonia Fuertes
Comissioner for Social Action of the Barcelona City Council. She has been president of the Entitats Catalanes d’Acció Social (Catalan Entities for Social Action, ECAS) and vice president of the Taula del Tercer Sector Social de Catalunya (Roundtable on the Social Third Sector of Catalonia).
Mayo Fuster Morell
Director of research on the collaborative economy at the UOC’s Internet Interdisciplinary Institute. Affiliate professor at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Marina Garcés
Philosopher and essayist. Professor at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). Promoter of Espai en Blanc.
Óscar Guayabero
Designer, editor and curator. DHUB collaborator.
Ismael Peña López
General director of Citizen Participation for the Government of Catalonia. Professor of Law Studies and Political Science at the UOC.
Sara Moreno Colom
Vice rector for Students and Employability at the UAB. Professor of Sociology at the UAB.
Milagros Pérez Oliva
Director of Barcelona Metròpolis. Member of the editorial team for El País newspaper.
Marga Pont Algueró
Editorial coordinator of Barcelona Metròpolis.
Bernat Puigtobella
Director and editor of Núvol magazine. Cultural coordinator of Barcelona Metròpolis.
Genís Roca
President of RocaSalvatella, support for the digitalization of large businesses and organizations.
Joan Manel Tresserras
Holds a doctorate in Information Sciences from the UAB. Head of the Department of Media, Communication and Culture at the UAB. President of the Josep Irla Foundation.