27. Centre For Urbanism Studies (CEU). 1972-1977

The Centre for Urbanism Studies (CEU) was created at the beginning of 1972. A small number of people gathered together under this name for the purpose of debating urban policy issues, producing critical documents that presented an alternative to the urban planning under the Francoist regime, and supporting urban social movements. It was never legalized as an organization. The founders were a group of young professionals (Jordi Borja, Marçal Tarragó, Lluís Brau, etc.) who had been dismissed from the Barcelona City Council at the end of 1971 following the publication of the work, of which they were the principal authors, “La Gran Barcelona”, first in Construcción, Arquitectura, Urbanismo (CAU, 1971), the magazine of the Technical Architects’ Association, and later as a book. This publication, one of the first comprehensive criticisms of Barcelona’s urban policy, had a significant impact, and was even picked up by the media. It was a report on Barcelona’s urban planning, based on rigorous urban, demographic and socio-economic documentation and drawing on a democratic, left-wing political position in support of social movements and citizen movements. 

The CEU was founded amid an atmosphere of organizations, professionals and journals that were questioning the urban planning in Barcelona. But it proposed going one step further: it was not only a question of developing a critical perspective on the situation, but of intervening more directly in the struggles of the new movements that were beginning to organize to make demands regarding urban planning, public spaces, urban transport, and social facilities for neighbourhoods. 

The core founders of the CEU – Jordi Borja (sociologist and geographer), Lluís Brau (architect), Carles Teixidor (architect) and Marçal Tarragó (economist) – had professional ties to Bandera Roja. Later, beginning in 1974, when Bandera Roja joined the United Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC), other professionals were brought in, many of them coming from the PSUC or with ties to it: Ricard Boix, Quim Clusa, Pau Verrié, Joan Alemany, Albert Broggi, Manuel Herce, Alfons Rodríguez Bayraguet, etc. From the outset, there were many other collaborators, professionals who studied social movements or were direct participants in them. 

The CEU was headquartered on the top floor of the building at carrer de Santa Anna, 11, very close to La Rambla. Jordi Borja had received a grant from the Juan March Foundation to carry out a study on housing in the urban periphery, which made it possible for him to rent a space and pay a professional to act as a “technical secretary”, Ricard Boix. At first, none of the members of the CEU were remunerated for their work; later, a professional secretary and an administrator could be brought in. 

The activities of the CEU were defined and developed according to three basic axes: 

The first axis was the critical analysis of urban policy, the living conditions of the population and, simultaneously, the elaboration of alternative proposals and support for citizen demands. It was expressed in articles, reports and debates among professionals or in small groups of left-wing militants, and through different a-legal or directly illegal roles. The members of the CEU published in newspapers and legal journals under the pseudonym “Alexandre” or under the authors’ real names both in Spain and abroad (France, Italy, England, Latin America), where they also participated directly in meetings, seminars and colloquia. 

The second axis was the relationship with neighbourhood associations and neighbourhood committees, as well as with certain professional associations or democratic collectives of professionals (architects, surveyors, social workers, young lawyers, economics, social sciences and branches of the humanities). Journalists like Huertas Clavería, Rafael Prades, Manuel Campo Vidal, and many others, made a significant contribution by providing information and by publishing articles of social criticism, legitimizing citizen demands and supporting social activists. 

The third axis involved ties to and exchange of ideas with political organizations – mainly Bandera Roja and the PSUC – but also with socialist, left-wing, or progressive Christian groups, trade unions (CCOO) and democratic groups associated with in community centres or cultural entities. This axis was weak in the early years due to the fact that the anti-Franco political parties did not place much importance on neighbourhood struggles.  Political leaders and activists prioritized the labour movement and the movements of university students and intellectuals. From the beginning of the CEU, Bandera Roja – and a short time later the PSUC – valued and fostered citizen movements. From 1975, after they had merged into single organization, they began to defend the need for democratic municipal elections at a time when the dictatorship still maintained its capability for repression. 

In the early years of the CEU (1972-75), priority was given to its relationship with the nascent neighbourhood movements. Support was provided for their leaders, along with critical reflections on urban policies and especially on the role of city councils, the last level of the government, but in the closest proximity to citizens. The group published articles in the magazines of various professional associations (architects, surveyors, industrial engineers) and in the newspapers Tele-Express and Diario de Barcelona, (in the latter with a weekly article under the pseudonym “Alexandre”). Members also wrote in general magazines such as Cuadernos para el Diálogo  (which published a monographic issue dedicated to urban social movements, developed by the CEU). But, above all, ties were forged with neighbourhood associations and various collectives in the city’s neighbourhoods,  who were given support in the form of technical and political arguments; in return, valuable lessons were learned from their leaders, social activists and grassroots political militants. One day a week, at dusk, in the basement of the Architects’ Associations, young architects and some members of the CEU, who often participated as speakers, met to discuss urban policy. The Urbanistic Information Office (OIU) at the Architects’ Association, the Technical Architects’ Association, and the Barcelona Urbanism Laboratory (LUB), were entities that organized important critical debates, published articles and organized meetings to debate the urban policies of the moment. Directly or indirectly, these entities, meetings and professionals were also major players in the urban movements of the time. Certain university departments oriented students of sociology, urban geography and other fields to do university work, and, at the same time, they became involved in the life and struggles of the neighbourhoods. 

The members of the CEU worked in political institutions  (City Council, Provincial Council, Metropolitan Corporation), in professional associations, in private professional firms and in university departments. They were generally involved in or related to political or social organizations, neighbourhood organizations or neighbourhood associations. They maintained connections with professionals working in the emerging social movements (journalists, social workers, heads of professional associations, etc.). The CEU was not strictly a political or technical or social group, but it was all those things at once. 

In the period spanning 1975 to 1977, the Congress of Catalan Culture took place in Catalonia, an extensive debate process in which thousands of citizens participated. One of its areas, the Territorial Planning section, received active participation from professionals from the CEU, who contributed with presentations and interventions in the debates. 

From 1975, and especially during 1976 and 1977, studies and debates were launched aimed at preparing the municipal programmes. The first element was an extensive report for the central committee of the PSUC (1976) presented by Jordi Borja, head of municipal policy for that party. The discussion was later expanded with the participation of more than a dozen collaborators, which resulted in the publication of the book Por una política municipal democrática [In Defence of Democratic Municipal Politics] (Borja, Tarragó, Boix, 1977). At the end of 1977, the debate on the need for active participation in the education of democratic candidates for local elections , given the new political context, led to the Centre for Urbanism Studies (CEU) to become the Centre for Urbanistic, Municipal and Territorial Studies (CEUMT).

Joan Alemany and Pau Verrié: “CEU-CEUMT (1972-1982). Moviments socials, polítiques urbanes, ajuntaments democràtics”, Barcelona Quaderns d’Història, no. 27, Barcelona 2021, pp. 189-193.