The transformation of the urban economic space of the Barcelona’s Trafalgar Garment District, 1916 - 2017

Citation:

VICENTE-SALAR, R., Pallares-Barbera, M. & Vera-Martin, A., 2018. The transformation of the urban economic space of the Barcelona’s Trafalgar Garment District, 1916 - 2017. In 2018 Annual Meeting AAG. New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans, Louisiana: Association of American Geographers Meeting, pp. 1-20.
The transformation of the urban economic space of the Barcelona’s Trafalgar Garment District, 1916 - 2017

Abstract:

The aim of the communication is to analyze the factors that have driven the deep economic transformation of the Barcelona’s Trafalgar Garment District (TGD) along the 20th century. In the first half of the century, textile headquarters and warehouses concentrated in the TGD. Since 1950s until the end of the century, wholesaling traders and sewing workshops also concentrated in the district. Thus, the TGD became an urban textile cluster. Currently, the TGD is not devoted anymore to textile activities, but to higher value-added ones as knowledge-based, creative and cultural firms and tourism. This economic transformation has two causes. First, from 1970s to 2000s, the textile industry faced different economic crisis entailing firm’s closures or reorganizations. The oil crisis, the Asiatic competition and the entrance of Spain in the European Union (1986) caused that the Catalonian textile industry faded. The lack of innovation in the value chain produced a decrease in its competitiveness. Second, since 2000s, Barcelona became a first-order global city triggering the attraction of new economy and lodging firms. The 22@Barcelona (2000) was the most important project to turn Barcelona into a knowledge-based city. The shift of Barcelona toward an innovative and entrepreneurial city attracted high competitive big and small-and-medium enterprises changing the economic configuration of some inner urban areas. These two main aspects led the change of the TGD’s urban economic space. Therefore, the economic transformation of the TGD is based on market-led processes, being the role of the local government scant.

Trafalgar Garment District. Barcelona: Trafalgar Garment District. Barcelona
Last updated on 06/27/2018