El branding de ciudad: la promoción del modelo Barcelona y su proyección como marca

Abstract

The proposed thesis forms part of the Barcelona model critical analysis frorn a perspective that considers its theoretical formulation and interprets its diffusion, and the role that architecture and tourism play in legitimizing its ¡mage as a brand. The research exam¡nes a novel approach in urban such as city branding .Its central topic is the analysis of the Barcelona case , because it is a city that is among the top tourist destinations and in recent decades has been projected as one of the best cities to live. This is due to the impact of the political, social and urban measures from the eighties and explained as a way of understanding the city under the concept of "Barcelona model". The development ofthe thesis focuses on the one hand, to explain the dynamics of city branding. Its history dates back to the International Exhibitions as the stage where tourism , great urban transformations , iconic architecture and branding brings together for the first time as a concept that aims to identify the industrializad obj ect. It analyzes the context in which branding develops and the dynamics of interurban competition. where the m yth of cultural identity takes center stage for the development of ideologies about democracy and public space. It studies the contextual elements that formulate and legitimize the city as a brand, for which the paradigm is the "I? NY" . Furthermore, this thesis focuses on the particular case of Barcelona since the Spanish Transition, with the Universal Exposition of 1888, the International Exhibition of 1929 and the Intemational Eucharistic Congress in 1952 as a clear background, establishing a " great events logic" related to urban transformation and the projection of the image of this city internationally. The analysis of this case proposes, first, the various meanings of the Barcelona model, from its early theoretical formulations to its multiple interpretations and criticisms that have pointed it out in crisis and directly related to the rise of new practices related with city branding . Due to this , the development of the analysis is divided into two parts : one of the promotion of the Barcelona model as a measure of legitimizing a political project that has its most tangible manifestation in the planning of the city, and the other is about the projection of the Barcelona brand as the result of a sum of good urban practices that have been recognized moving toward management and capitalization of its most iconic cultural elements . Both through the analysis of several campaigns that were spreading from 1980 to 2010. The thesis also summarizes the various moments in Barcelona that promotes citizen complicity and makes a comparison showing the leap to a "externalization" of its branding . Shows its influence in other cities as a model and the importance of adopting the campaign "Barcelona posa't guapa" to protect and project the architectural heritage.