Using more data and more indicators to define the dynamics of the metropolis in the best possible way is one of the great challenges posed by the third Rethink Bcn report. The document, Rethinking the metropolis. Activate the metropolis, collects the contributions of professionals from the business, political, social and cultural sectors to, ultimately, contribute to improving the quality of life of the more than five million inhabitants of the metropolitan area of Barcelona. In this context, the report proposes adaptation to climate change and the fight against social inequality as axes for defining future policies.
The report demonstrates that the number of indicators that establish metropolitan dynamics must be expanded and activated. Manage figures on the evolution of demographics, citizens' income, their movements, their education, their business activity or active cultural entities or registered patents to adjust management and also make visible the potential of the metropolis.
"Technological development puts us in front of a new way of interpreting indicators," said Fèlix Riera, director of the Barcelona Society of Economic and Social Studies for Employment Promotion, during the presentation of the report. The event, introduced by Ciril Rozman, vice president of Aigües de Barcelona, was attended by Ángel Simón, CEO of CriteriaCaixa; Javier Godó, editor of La Vanguardia, and several of the participants in the conferences and articles that have been used to prepare the report. Among them, Llum Delàs, president of the Roure Foundation, to which both Fèlix Riera and the president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre, referred: "To live honestly in an unfairly unequal world, it is essential to put in place a series of mechanisms to that social inequalities are not accentuated", he said.
The report addresses inequality as one of the challenges – along with data management and climate change – to be addressed. “In a time when everything is measured, the only area that detects from the front line the problems that will come is that of the third sector,” said Riera, also referring to Delàs' contributions.
The report establishes two major proposals to activate the metropolis: first, rethink it to promote a broader region, favoring the integration of new municipalities and facilitating their governance and, second, reinforce the public-private relationship, “essential for face new challenges,” Sánchez Llibre insisted. To address social inequality, the president of Foment defended that income from work be higher than that from capital and urged the implementation of “a new social pact so that everyone can have more adequate salaries and address inequality.”
