The capitals of the states do not need to elaborate city discourses. Normally, political power attracts financiers and large companies, which in turn generate flows of talent and investment around them. Everyone knows the capitals, there is no need to promote them. Most of the political summits are held there, the best museums are found, and the most powerful public media are concentrated.
Some project themselves better than others, of course, but, in general terms, all have incorporated the model of the city in their own condition as the epicenter of political power. This is so in Spain, France and Guinea Conakry. What is not so common is that there are countries where a second city dares to compete with the capital. The cases of the US, Italy and, of course, Spain are relatively rare.
The exceptional Barcelona has always had to explain itself to prevent Madrid from monopolizing everything. On occasions it has even done so with public success (the foreigners who visit it and the self-esteem of the residents) and critics (the story that has been written about it).
What to explain is not literal nor does it have immediate effects. The story of a city is not written while the events or situations that are going to make up that discourse are being developed. It must be remembered that, immediately after the 1992 Games, Barcelona, like the rest of Spain, plunged into an economic crisis. The massive dismissals of the personnel employed in the Olympics had a psychological effect that contributed to the feeling of the end of the stage.
There was talk, even then, of decadence. That was the story. Only over the years could the revitalizing effect of 1992 be perceived, the release of energy and talent on which some of the fortresses that have sustained the city's prestige to this day were to be built.
Neither the most seasoned urban planners nor branding experts can yet label the Barcelona of 2023, which is, like so many cities, in the process of being redefined. But it is not difficult to guess that the projection of the city must be guided in the immediate future by a series of strategic vectors: culture, science, technology, the new urbanism adapted to the climate crisis and critical reflection on the changes revolutionaries that are going to take place very soon thanks to artificial intelligence.
In short, everything points to the configuration of a Barcelona-Catalonia pole that will be defined based on an innovative vocation that will be above average, working in a network with other cities in Spain, Europe and wherever appropriate.
It is to be expected that from here on the recruitment of talent, investment and tourism with a greater inclination for culture than for leisure without added value will intensify.
In this context, it would be of great help if the city itself –beyond its political representatives– was a propagandist for these incipient fortresses. In the specific case of culture, the example would be the promotion of a very promising technological or scientific art scene.
Many of Barcelona's recent achievements have come hand in hand with collaboration between civil society and political groups. Most of the parties have collaborated in one way or another in advances (recruitment of events, implementation of city projects) that lay the foundations of the city of tomorrow. A certain maximalist criticism of Barcelona made with the intention of wearing down a political rival tends to serve, at most, to give arguments to competing cities. It is better to tell your own story than to let someone else write it.
