Cities After...

In this podcast, Prof. Robles-Duran's attempt is to revise and follow on the urbanization of shock therapy, a topic that he first wrote about in 2011 for a book titled "Urban Asymmetries: Studies and Project on Neoliberal Urbanization" and later expanded on in an essay he wrote for the 2014 edition of the Tirana Contemporary Art Biennial. Ten years later, the topic is more relevant than ever, especially, as the shock of the pandemic becomes normalized and absorbed by capitalist forces. Looking at the evolution of the urbanization of shock therapy might allow us to foresee the coming urban transformations and thus, be more prepared and organized to resist and counteract them.

In todays episode, Prof. Robles-Duran continues to discuss the social, spatial and environmental effects of mass tourism by focusing on Barcelona, one of the worlds top tourist destinations and the first major city that developed important strategic policy to fight the predatory global tourism industry. For this discussion, he is joined by two very important personalities from Barcelona’s municipal government and urban social movements alike. 

In this episode, Prof. Robles-Duran talks about the startling urban and socio-environmental consequences of mass tourism before, during and after the pandemic. He emphasizes four key contradictions: 1) The global privatization of local cultures; 2) Labor, Technology and Digitalization; 3) Alienation in The production of Infinite spectacles; 4) Environmental needs and its Destruction.

In today's podcast, Prof. Robles-Duran will continue to discuss Post-pandemic urbanization trends by taking a deep dive in the speculative global rent markets and their exacerbating social ills. For help with this, he is joined by Dr. Jaime Palomera from Barcelona’s radical research cooperative La Hidra who will help focus a conversation on a striking report that they published two months ago titled “The Social Impacts of the Rental Market”, done in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Barcelona and the Institute of Government and Public Policy at the University of Barcelona.

This podcast will be the first of four episodes where, together with future guests, Prof. Robles-Duran will slowly adopt the city of Barcelona as a sample to think through some of the tendencies of a post-pandemic neoliberal urbanization. He will do so by looking at three trending development drivers, the production of urban spectacle, the burdens of rental housing, and the limitless expansion of mass tourism.

In this episode, Prof. Robles-Duran is joined by the famed Marxist Urban Theorist Andy Merrifield to have a conversation about inter-urban competition, the socio-spatial consequences of late neoliberalism and the pervasive privatization of urban societies.

In this episode, Prof. Robles-Duran is joined by Palin Tan, Professor of Sociology, Art, Architecture History to talk the outmoded talks about the outmoded forms of knowledge that architecture and related urban design disciplines uphold.

In this episode, Prof. Robles-Durán talks about the outmoded forms of knowledge that architecture and related urban design disciplines uphold, as global populations face ever-growing social and environmental urgencies in their cities.

In this episode, Prof. Robles-Duran is joined by Leilani Farha, a Canadian human rights lawyer and Global Director of The Shift, to talk about the effects of the pandemic on housing markets.