Abstract
This chapter aims to epitomize some of the hidden dimensions of the cities, which in fact is a suggestion of the different processes required for their scientific analysis. The starting point is the various experiences in urban research, mainly in the case of Barcelona. From there, the path continues to the presentation of a set of different and complex variables, isolated due to the analysis’ requirements but nevertheless considering relevant relationships between them. Firstly, the urban forms and planning are discussed. Secondly, all environmental aspects; important underground city; structures of land property; dynamics of the urban economy; domestic spaces and everyday life; urban segregation, both social and ethnical; urban marginal life; and political power are discussed. Finally, as a conclusive reflection, the debate on the limits of the cities is presented.
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Notes
- 1.
One of the consequences of this real invisibility is the great difficulty with which common people read and understand city plans, both in traditional, paper versions as well as in their digital form.
- 2.
The last corrections of this chapter were made during the terrible pandemic of Covid-19, which has dramatically ruptured our ordinary life.
- 3.
The most famous are probably the Roman Christian catacombs.
- 4.
Many other Roman cities have their cloaca system, like Naples, where it is a tourist site; the same goes for Barcelona and its 19th century sewer system.
- 5.
In this regard, Sarajevo was one of the study case cities (Carreras and Moreno 2007).
- 6.
The concept corresponds to the old methodological debate of the 1950s around the basic and non-basic urban economic functions (Alexander 1954).
- 7.
Alfred Hitchcock’s (1899–1980) film Rear Window from 1954, based on the short novel of Cornell Woolrich (1903–1968) It Had to Be Murder, dramatically remarks this paradox between domestic and public life.
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Carreras, C. (2021). Hidden Urban Geographies: The Case of Barcelona. In: Krevs, M. (eds) Hidden Geographies. Key Challenges in Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74590-5_13
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