contents 124

DossierAn uncertain future

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco
An uncertain futureThe future is not set in stone

Crises are occurring one after the other and the turmoil they cause is hitting us harder and harder. People are beginning to realise that the wellbeing we enjoy may be in jeopardy.

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureWho cares about the world? On the power of responsibility

Singer and Harari discuss how individual responsibility towards others and the planet should be exercised. To accomplish collective goals such as the fight against poverty or animal...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureWhich future for democratic politics

We are up against a crisis of neoliberal hegemony that could pave the way for authoritarian governments, but that can also present the opportunity to restore and strengthen democratic...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureOur crisis of democracy

The beginning of the 21st century presents us with challenges that force democracies to improve. New challenges, both global and those specific of each area, such as Southern...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureDemocracy, sovereignty and territory: Squaring the circle

How do democracy, sovereignty and territory relate to one another? The ownership and exercise of sovereignty make...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureLess when it was most needed: the energy crisis

In the midst of a changing world made more complicated by climate change, we must abandon the suicidal idea of perpetual growth on a finite planet and start talking about degrowth,...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureThe irrelevance of truth

History has shown that power owes less to knowledge and the defence of truth than to the actual possibility of shaping and imposing a discourse. The real problem of our time is...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureWho writes the rules of the capitalist game?

The capitalist game is about employing a social resource – the legal system – for private gain. It is played in the service of private actors, but the decisive actors are not the players...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain future'Ok, doomer'. Climate anxiety and imaginaries of collapse

The collective expression of fear turns individual anxiety into collective paralysis, and, as far as the climate crisis is concerned, this is the fastest and surest road to disaster....

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureAnother form of city

Today’s city no longer offers the necessary living conditions for most of its inhabitants, as a result of a production model designed to make people productive, but that renders care...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureSmart, sustainable and ethical cities

Artificial intelligence systems will become more and more affordable, will become a key decision-making factor and will facilitate the management of urban complexity. The major challenge...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
An uncertain futureAnimals in the city, do I want them there?

Cities cannot just belong to “us”. We need animals. Their presence forces us to sharpen our senses other than hearing...

Other contents

Retrat de Carla Simón. © Ferran Forné
“I think that the fear of death is what brings me to make films”

Carla Simón

In Estiu 1993 (Summer 1993), Carla Simón fictionalised her experience of being adopted by her aunt and uncle when she was six years old, following the death of her parents from...

Barcelona Metròpolis 124 - Un futur incert
Digital technologies, the new driving force behind Barcelona’s economy

Thanks to the confirmation in July of the city as the permanent home of the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona is enhancing its appeal as a development hub for the technology...

 © Frederic Camallonga
The world leader in audiovisuals also chooses Barcelona. Mike Blackman

Mike Blackman is a cosmopolitan executive, a fine speaker and an even better public relations person. He has brought Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), the world’s largest...

Il·lustració. © Susana Blasco / Descalza
Triumph

Today the moon is winking at me and looks like a balloon dangling from the Arc de Triomf, making Avinguda Lluís Companys seem emptier and unreal. I quicken my...

Visitants fullejant els llibres exposats a un estand de la 40a edició de Comic Barcelona. © Edu Bayer
Barcelona, capital of comics. Who’s (still) afraid of manga?

We have had access to manga publications for more than thirty years. More and more international publishers are launching new comic collections in general and...

Retrat d'Antoni Vila Casas © Flaminia Pelazzi
“The spirit of patronage has been very much lost, and that saddens me”

Antoni Vila Casas

Antoni Vila Casas (Barcelona, 1930) has long donated part of his fortune to philanthropic projects. The foundation he set up has two directions: in the social-health-related...

Recorregut amb pilotes gegants creat per l’artista Albert Gusi en col·laboració amb el Centre Cívic de Navas i l’Associació de Memòria Històrica del barri. © Albert Gusi
Redesigning the city’s cultural fabric

In 2021, Barcelona City Council adopted a Cultural Rights Plan designed to strengthen social cohesion through the recognition of the right to cultural practices, and to promote...

Guixetes per recollir comandes fetes a Amazon a l’estació de plaça Catalunya dels Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat. © Dani Codina
Amazon, the super-termite

Fulfillment: America in the Shadow of Amazon is the result of a decade of research by journalist Alec MacGillis on the effects brought about by the...

El periodista Josep Maria Huertas intenta el 1997 travessar el carrer de Lisboa enfangat, al barri de la Clota. © Pepe Encinas
'Cròniques del fang'. When journalists wandered the streets

Through the book Cròniques del fang [Mud Chronicles], Jaume Fabre pays a fitting tribute to the journalist Josep Maria Huertas Claveria and the journalism named after...

Imatge d'una maqueta d'un cervell fet amb filferros a l'exposició Cervell(s) al CCCB. © Martí E. Berenguer
A fascinating journey into the brain

Despite having the most intricate map of the brain to date, how it works continues to generate many philosophical and scientific mysteries. The exhibition Brain(s) invites us to...

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