Re-imaginar el centro para cambiar la vida: Ciutat Vella como obra del habitar a través del pensamiento de Henri Lefebvre

In the framework of his doctoral research on “human radical space” as a theoretical and critical proposal to overcome the transition to urban post-neoliberalism, the author wonders whether it is appropriate to follow the way of rehabilitation of the old town to recover life, or if there would be another urban principles that allow to reinvent the historical space to change the course of the relations towards a new social life. In this sense, the complete theory of social space and critique of everyday life of Henri Lefebvre is a beacon that illuminates that port. It starts from a critical frame that consists of a statistical review up to the present to introduce the process of urban neoliberalization and crisis of centrality in Barcelona. Thus, Lefebvre’s ideas allow the author: to order the analysis of the urban phenomenon and restore the level of dwelling; to place in the middle, the relation of two essential Lefebvrian projects –the evolution of the critique of everyday life translated into social space-time– and finally, expose an essay that problematizes and reveals the possibilities of a new space in the historical centre. The conjunctions articulate an emancipatory discourse of a concrete urban reality in the old towns of the contemporary city.