Barcelona is seen as one of the world’s most livable cities. Ranked particularly high for its renowned cultural scene, lifestyle, architecture, outdoor parks and beaches, it is also Europe’s third most progressive city for start-ups. Supporting alternative modes of work through its Workation program, it is also attracting entrepreneurs with the digital nomad’s visa. However, it is also a city that suffers from unaffordable housing, uncontrolled tourism, noise pollution and over density. It has a high cost of living, has experienced gentrification and has pockets of social deprivation. In such contradictions and paradoxes, it is a microcosm of cities the world over – a place where notions of ‘livability’ are far from consistent.

How Barcelona, or any other city, responds to this situation is complicated, and often contested. For architects and urbanists, affordable housing may be a question of planning. For sociologists, improvements to the built city are community concerns. For health professionals, air pollution relates to public wellbeing. For environmental activists, urban density is a resource issue. For cultural theorists, the arts and tourism are matters of heritage. For the business sector they are issues of finance. For engineers, transport may be a question of infrastructure. For residents, it’s a question of equity and access.

Using the city of Barcelona as an example then, this conference explores how cross-disciplinary readings of cities the world over shed light on what makes the places we inhabit ‘livable’. It welcomes debates around community participation; research projects on design and planning; investigations into urban infrastructure and case studies on smart cities. It seeks critiques on accessibility and social justice, examinations of local and migrant cultures, and studies of transport, urban heritage, public health…. and more.