Rethinking the catalan territory: towards a catalan and metropolitan bicapital?

Abstract

Since years, the territorial debate on the territorial organization of Catalonia and the Barcelona Metropolitan Region has moved between two types of thoughts that are formulated as two opposing options. On the one hand, the firm commitment to the system of Catalan cities, and on the other hand, the Barcelona metropolitan phenomenon. The first territorial option presents a global view that covers the whole of Catalan territory and it is its urban base; while the second one, is seen as a question that is generated from the macrocephalia of the capital city of Barcelona as well as the urban fact that will define the territorial model of whole Catalan territory. In this article, this issue is studied by analyzing firstly from a theoretical perspective, the process of consolidation of the current Catalan and metropolitan territory from the beginning on this territorial dichotomy arises: the Regional Planning 1932 and the Territorial Division 1936 until the approval of the current Barcelona Metropolitan Territorial Plan in April 2010. Then, by doing an empirical analysis of population growth at the scale of municipalities and counties for the last thirty years, with the urban hierarchy that its implies, it is reviewed from a critical point of view, the territorial model that the Barcelona Metropolitan Territorial Plan recommends as a optimal to achieve the objectives of environmental sustainability, economic efficiency and social cohesion. The empirical results show a significant demographic growth and a strengthening of the urban hierarchy in Vallès cities and therefore the county Vallès Occidental in respect of the Catalan and metropolitan territory. Consequently, this urban dynamic can lead to a third option in this territorial debate: from a system of city of metropolitan cities and a Catalan monocapital (Barcelona) to a territorial model of system of city of metropolitan cities and a Catalan Bicapital (Barcelona-Vallès emerging city).