Latest Challenges of Urban Commerce in Barcelona 

The contribution takes as its starting point an experience of study on urban commerce in Barcelona, conducted over 40 years of continuous research fieldwork, in a perspective of international confrontation which has allowed the field of analysis to be reworked several times. Although the difficulties in studying the subject remain partly the same (starting with the chronic lack of reliable data on commerce and the delay in their publication), the recent changes in retailing and consumption, in their global evolution, induce us to rethink the discipline. Based on these premises, to try to analyse the challenges posed by the evolution of commerce and consumption in Barcelona over the last five years, firstly the role of public agents is addressed, investigating the local and regional framework in which the city’s commercial policies are framed and, secondly, the elements of possible change are examined. Finally, after locating Barcelona’s commerce within the urban economic structure, we present some conclusions that are, in fact, hypotheses for the future, from a critical reflection on the possible trend towards a Retail-Less City, hypothesis which now seems as questionable as unstoppable at many scales. 

Keywords: urban retail, commercial policies, Barcelona, urban economic structure.