Air transportation has been a common theme in economic geography literature in relation to the analysis of airline routes and flows, the study of international supply chains, location analysis, the impact of airport noise on residential property values and environmental issues (e.g., WILTOX et al. 2007; BURGHOUWT, 2007; LEINBACH and BOWEN, 2004; SEGUÍ and MARTÍNEZ, 2004; GRAHAM, 1995; ESPEY and LOPEZ, 2000; GÁMIR and RAMOS, 2002; TOMKINS et al., 1998; STUTZ, 1986; KARASKA and BRAMHALL, 1960). Meanwhile, economic geography has moved away from traditional economic analysis and has become a more interdisciplinary speciality adopting insights from social, cultural and political sciences (BOSCHMA and FRENKEN, 2006). A relatively recent development in economic geography is the evolutionary approach, which combines different kinds of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, all based on an evolutionary approach (BOSCHMA and FRENKEN, 2007), which borrows the Darwinian concepts of selection, retention (heredity) and variety in order to apply them to social sciences. This approach overcomes static theories and focuses on innovation and technology as elements of self-transformation.

Cerdà and Barcelona: The need for a new city and service provision The objective of this project is to study Cerdà’s Plan of Urban Expansion of Barcelona from 1860; specifically, how and why it was conceived in a unique way in which the provision of services to the population was an important part of it. Ildefonso Cerdà based his expansion proposal on an in-depth socio-statistic study of old Barcelona’s population conditions. High mortality rates of the working class population, and poor health and education conditions pushed Cerdà to design a new type of urban planning, which he defined as “urbanism”, In the proposal of the new city he planned the location of services, such as marketplaces, schools and hospitals. In the first part of this paper we introduce the urban and political preconditions of Barcelona and the statistics on which Cerdà based his contribution. In the second part, we use location theory and Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze the pattern of location and population served by markets and hospitals. In addition, using topographic maps from 1926 and 1975 we study the development of the Expansion up to when it was fully developed. The evolution of the city differed from Cerdà’s proposal, partly due to unexpected increases in population density, built environment and larger building occupation size. Nevertheless, Cerdà’s lay-out of streets and avenues has prevailed.

Since the 1980s, artists have been studied as agents of urban gentrification. Well established theories and case studies have provided numerous evidences of the role of artists as initiators of the gentrification process in working-class neighborhoods. From a productive-side perspective, placing an emphasis on the rent-gap and land development, as well as consumption-side perspective, analyzing the features of individuals, art production and artists have been identified as a source of initial gentrification. Complementary theorizations have studied the second wave of displacement produced by the massive arrival of private capital, which often has affected the artists themselves. The present paper adds to the body of literature than identifies the public sector as another key agent of gentrification. The paper analyzes the role of Barcelona’s public sector in the process of implementing this redevelopment program, and its interaction with artists in the neighborhood. In specific terms, it discusses the case of the Hangar Collective, located in Can Ricart, an old factory building which had been the home of small firms and artist groups. This center was at the heart of the urban struggle to maintain the status of firms and artists in the neighborhood, and to preserve the architectonic structure of the old factory complex. By 2010, once displaced small firms and groups of low-budget artists, only the artist’s association with Hangar, supported by public funds, remained in Can Ricart. Keywords: public policy, gentrification, artist, new economy, Barcelona

The phenomenon of spatially uneven development has always captured the interest of economic geographers, forming one of the foundation stones of the discipline and a major research focus in analyses of both advanced or emerging economies (Hayter and Patchell, 2011; Sheppard et al., 2009). The economic exploitation of localized resources to improve the quality of people’s lives inevitably leads to widening of interregional economic disparities, engendering dynamics, which, over time, change little and are rarely reversed. Interregional disparities simply transform, assume different guises and, at times, shift between places. They never really vanish. And convergence is rare, as investigations of interregional disparities in Europe have shown (Badingera et al., 2004; Martin, 2001) and the USA (Caselli and Coleman, 2001). However, measuring the dynamics of interregional divergence and convergence is both demanding and problematic (Puga, 1999; Rey and Janikas, 2005). Consequently, the dynamics of spatially uneven development remain a major research question with significant and enduring policy relevance.

Abstract: Productive gentrification, deindustrialization and industrial relocation The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical discussion on the definition and identification of the process of productive gentrification. From the discussions of the concept of gentrification, broadly conceptualized and studied in processes taking place in residential areas of central cities, the contribution of this paper focuses on redefining the concept in the production sphere, taking businesses as units of analysis and institutions as agents of change. To illustrate this, the article examines the impact of the 22 @ Barcelona project initiated in 2000 in the neighborhood of Poblenou, Barcelona. The analysis focuses on the study of Can Ricart, analyzing the process of expulsion of the industries of an old textile industrial complex, which by the time of the approved urban renewal plan, it contained 34 small and medium enterprises from various sectors. Keywords: productive gentrification, urban renewal, 22@Barcelona, urban policy.

The study of the distribution of economic activities across space has always been the essence of economic geography, regional economics, and related disciplines. Empirical analyses have provided significant evidence, for example, that especially urbanized regions are very successful in developing innovation and employment (e.g., Wedemeier 2009). A prerequisite for the generation of economic growth is, however, the capability of economic agents to be creative and to develop new ideas. A relational perspective places the analytical focus on the complex nexus of economic relations between actors and structures. It has been argued that changes in the relations between actors and structures foster dynamic transformations in the spatial organization of economic activities (Boggs and Rantisi 2003). Hence, relational economic growth is concerned with the ways in which socio-spatial relations of actors are interlaced with structures and processes of economic change at various geographical scales (Yeung, 2005). Bathelt and Glückler (2003) argued that the relational perspective has three fundamental components: (a) economic actors operate within frameworks of social and institutional relations; (b) economic processes are path-dependent, with future actions constrained to some extent by past decisions; and (c) economic processes can also shaped by agents’ free will, unconstrained by existing development paths. According to Jones (2009, p. 487) recent years “have witnessed a burgeoning of work on 'thinking space relationally'”, even though there seem exists some silence on factors that, for example, constrain, structure, and connect space (see also Sunley 2008).

In this paper we analyze a case study, Cerdà’s Urban Expansion of Barcelona (1860). We reexamine Cerdà’s positioning of marketplaces and hospitals using location theory as well as GIS for data capturing and analysis. In addition, using topographic map-series we study the developments of the Expansion up to now. We study the allocation of services in the urban grid as a way of distributing wellbeing among individuals. The actual evolution of the city through history differed from Cerdà’s proposal, partly due to unexpected increases in population density, built environment and larger building occupation size. Nevertheless, Cerdà’s lay-out of streets and avenues has prevailed. Moreover, later plans of urban expansion and restructuration of the city have been in line with Cerdà’s ideas. Urban planning is an important factor in the determination of quality of life and wellbeing. This paper is concerned with a design of urban environment that seeks better spatial efficiency and social wellbeing. Keywords. Urban planning, location theory, optimization, wellbeing, GIS, Spatial Decisions Support System.

The objective of this paper is to study Cerdà’s Plan of Urban Expansion of Barcelona from 1860; specifically, how and why it was conceived in a unique way in which the provision of services to the population was an important part of it. Ildefonso Cerdà based his expansion proposal on an in-depth socio-statistic study of old Barcelona’s population conditions. High mortality rates of the working class population, and poor health and education conditions pushed Cerdà to design a new type of urban planning, which he defined as “urbanism”, In the proposal of the new city he planned the location of services, such as marketplaces, schools and hospitals. In the first part of this paper we introduce the urban and political preconditions of Barcelona and the statistics on which Cerdà based his contribution. In the second part, we use location theory and Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze the pattern of location and population served by markets and hospitals. In addition, using topographic maps from 1926 and 1975 we study the development of the Expansion up to when it was fully developed. The evolution of the city differed from Cerdà’s proposal, partly due to unexpected increases in population density, built environment and larger building occupation size. Nevertheless, Cerdà’s lay-out of streets and avenues has prevailed. Keywords: urban planning, location theory, optimization, wellbeing, GIS, spatial decisions support system

Airport capacity continues to be one of the air transport issues that creates the most concern. The major environmental constraint for airports is the noise generated by aircraft. Annoyed communities living around airports have become a limiting factor for airport capacity and operability. This paper brings together the existing literature in the fields of airport environmental capacity, non-acoustic factors of noise annoyance, NIMBYism and environmental conflicts. We also analyze the socio-environmental conflict between Barcelona airport and the community of Gavà Mar. This case shows that the lack of trust between parties, the impossibility of predicting noise exposure, the absence of opportunities for civil society to speak and the difficulty of accessing relevant information foster annoyance and mobilization in the communities that live around the airport. In addition, it is shown that, in such a situation, communities’ reactions can evolve to a post-NIMBY stage in which proactive attitudes replace reactive ones. Keywords Airport capacity; NIMBY syndrome; Non-acoustic factors of noise annoyance; Airport policy; Barcelona airport

In the year 2000 it started in Barcelona´s Poblenou neighborhood a strategy of implementation of urban regeneration and economic development under the leadership of the public sector. The implementation of the 22@Barcelona project involves a transformation toward specialization in knowledge-intensive tertiary activity. As a result of new urban planning guidelines, the project has led to a productive process of displacement of traditional activities located in the new technological district. This paper presents a theoretical approach for the identification of the process of “productive gentrification", a concept that helps to interpret the relationships and effects on the productive base of the new economic space. The phenomenon of gentrification has been broadly defined and studied at residential level, especially within the Anglo-Saxon literature. The contribution of this paper focuses on redefining the concept in the field of production, taking business as units of analysis. To this end, we analyze the impact that the 22@Barcelona has generated focusing on the case of the industrial complex of Can Ricart. The urban reform plan implemented under the 22@Barcelona focuses on defining and promoting productive activities for new economy, which has resulted in the relocation of businesses to new metropolitan areas or its closing down. In this sense, the interpretation of the relationship between economic activities and connections of the new urban space can be understood from the productive gentrification concept, which is formulated and discussed in the article. Key words: productive gentrification, urban redevelopment, 22@Barcelona, public policy.

At the beginning of the 21st century the economic activity of the Poblenou (Barcelona) has been transformed and it has been producing deep changes that affect the urban morphology and the behavior of economical and social agents of the neighborhood. This transformation takes place within a political structural frame, which involves an urban reform plan to convert this axis of the city into a new competitive technological and digital cluster. To study and evaluate the urban and economic transformation process of the area, this paper is divided into two parts. First, from a literature review approach, the paper analyzes the concept of knowledge economy and the implications that this productive model has on cities. Second, the paper focuses on the study of the development of the economic space of Poblenou and the implantation of the 22@Barcelona plan in period 2000-2006. Then, the definition and classification of economic knowledge activities is discussed. The analysis demonstrates that the definition of knowledge economy is fuzzy. The concept of knowledge as added value in the production is not easy to measure due to its intangible character; however, knowledge is included in the production process through new technologies and in other economic sectors. Key words: new economy, knowledge economy, urban regeneration, 22@Barcelona.

Despite of historical economic changes, cities have always been the efficient pinpoint of production systems. In this article I postulate that at the first decade of the twenty-first century, the symbolic economy seems the equivalent to what in previous periods were the Fordism or the Flexible Production System. The objective is to analyze how the symbolic economy is formed, how the cultural good is commodified and who demands it. In Barcelona, buildings as the MACBA, designed by Richard Meier, or the AGBAR tower, by Jean Nouvel, are public and private investments, respectively, which constitute two of the global city symbols. The MACBA was specifically designed to be a cultural institution. Otherwise, the AGBAR tower is an office premise. In this article I argue that many of the symbolic elements were not built as such, but they are part of the symbolic economy of a city. Key words: Commodification, symbolic economy, economic geography.

Image creation, visibility and tourism. Growth strategies for the future? The aim of this paper is to analyse how Barcelona’s economic growth since the 1990s has been based on the production of advanced services, in which image creation and tourism have played a key role. In this context, we emphasise the role played by macro-events, such as the 1992 Olympic Games, which have brought about important changes to Barcelona’s economic model, and we highlight the importance of public-private partnerships and strategic planning. Additionally, we analyse the economic impact of tourism upon the city in the period 1990-2010, and we conclude with some reflections on the implications upon public space entailed by this growth strategy. Key words: Barcelona, tourism, economic development, public space, marketing.

En este artículo se distinguen y caracterizan las diferentes tipologías de actividades, estructuras urbanas y sociales que han convivido durante estos dos últimos siglos en el barrio del Poblenou de Barcelona. En este sentido la estructura del artículo incide especialmente en las morfologías resultantes de la nueva economía industrial. En concreto se analiza el proyecto 22@Barcelona (22@Bcn) como elemento que ha definido el espacio urbano de la nueva economía del Poblenou de principios del siglo veintiuno. En segundo lugar se analiza el territorio con los agentes sociales y económicos, y las organizaciones capaces de adaptarse al nuevo escenario. La economía creativa que se podría definir como aquella dónde el mayor énfasis está en la imaginación humana, la innovación y la creatividad, repone en el reconocimiento de que la tecnología es la herramienta que ha permitido el cambio entre la economía industrial y la del conocimiento. Así, se podría decir que la relación entre creación y tecnología se cruzan y constituyen los determinantes competitivos de las nuevas empresas. Finalmente, en tercer lugar se introducen algunos de los principales conflictos de la nueva transformación de la ciudad de Barcelona. Por un lado las distintas velocidades del 22@Bcn dan cómo resultado la reconversión del distrito industrial en tecnológico y, al mismo tiempo, las críticas de los vecinos que aprecian diferencias entre el avance del eje de negocios y el progreso de su entorno social.

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http://www.crcnetbase.com/doi/abs/10.1201/9780203881149.ch4 ABSTRACT: A process of urbanization has developed around the alpine ski resorts and the Natural Protected Areas (NPA). There are also processes of abandonment of settlement populations and mountain cultures by the disappearance of traditional economic activities. This entails a contradiction: the natural features of a territory can facilitate naturbanization, but it can also deteriorate the natural and socioeconomic environment of the territory. Local development, in the mountainous areas of Europe, can be explained by the existence of comparative advantages with regard to urban areas. In the Catalan Pyrenees, the theory of comparative advantage and the use of the territorial embeddedness theory enable us to demonstrate that, in the future, this short term analysis will have to be replaced by longer term analyses that also take into account environmental, social and cultural externalities.

Since the liberalization of the European air transport market large airlines have built hub-and-spoke networks. However, since 2001 a number of European hubs have been torn down by their home based carriers. For example, British Airways at London Gatwick and Air France at Clermont-Ferrand. One of the last examples of network rationalization is the end of hub operations at Barcelona airport by Iberia. Instead, Iberia has been implementing a single hub operation in Madrid-Barajas.The first goal of this paper is to discuss the evolution of the Spanish airline network for the period 2000-2008. With this paper the authors fill a gap in the current scientific literature about the changing the connectivity levels and the competitive position of the Spanish airports and airline networks. Special attention will be given to the recent changes in the role of Madrid and Barcelona. We use the so-called NETSCAN model to quantify connectivity levels of airports and airline networks. Netscan measures the number of direct and indirect (transfer) connections and weighs these connections for their quality in terms of transfer and detour times.The second goal of this paper is to evaluate the competitive position in the air transport market of the Madrid mega-city region and the airport system of the Mediterranean axis (airports of Girona, Barcelona, Reus, Valencia and Alicante). First findings of this ongoing research show that in the Mediterranean axis while direct connectivity to Europe improves thanks to low-cost carriers, direct and indirect connectivity in the intercontinental market decreases dramatically. Descriptors: Airports | Evolution Models |

The current European airport framework presents socio-environmental and territorial conflicts that are difficult to resolve. There is a need for the development of airport infrastructure; but such development can damage the environment and the interests of nearby inhabitants. The technical features of airport infrastructures are not the only elements relevant to increasing air-traffic volume. Enlarging airport capacity will also depend, in the short term, on management of the environmental impact on surrounding areas. This paper deals with the decision-making process involved in airport-planning based on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) model in Catalonia’s airports. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the particular socio-environmental conflict that has taken place in the Municipalities of Gavà and Castelldefels since of the new third runway and the new South Terminal (still under construction) came into operation at Barcelona Airport. Objection to the acoustic pollution caused by aircraft landing and taking off on the third runway forced the airport authority to limit the capacity of the airport. This conflict has been partially resolved through certain work within the airport platform and through important changes to the Traffic Management Advisor. This conflict re-opened the debate concerning the suitability of a planned fourth runway, to be located over the sea, which would not only provide greater airport capacity but would also avoid noise disruption. While this option seems preferable to the political and entrepreneurial groups, others believe it would be more reasonable to solve the issue of airport capacity by extending the two secondary airports in Catalonia. Keywords: Socio-environmental conflicts, airport capacity, Strategic Environmental Assessment, Barcelona Airport, Catalan Airport System, airport development.

Recent social movements have alerted public opinion and political administrations to the safety of the areas surrounding airports and the negative externalities produced by airport developments. From the economic geography perspective this is not a new issue, but due to the increasing importance of enlargements in airport capacity this has become a hot topic for policy makers and academics. Responsible airport development planning would avoid social conflicts and negative externalities in surrounding territories. Traditionally, the planning of airport developments has only focused on elements inside the airport; such as supply and demand forecasts and other aeronautical, engineering and economic variables. But the current airport framework presents new situations that cannot be solved by traditional methods since new and external variables are intrinsic to the decision-making process (Graham and Guyer, 1999). This paper deals with these new variables; in the sense of discussing how the trade-off between enlarging infrastructure and minimizing externalities are important elements in the decision making process regarding difficult-to-resolve incompatible land uses.