¿Espacio de consumo o consumo del espacio? El caso de Palo Alto Market, Barcelona

Las ciudades han pasado de ser el escenario privilegiado para la reproducción social, a convertirse en verdaderos espacios de y para el consumo. Las políticas neoliberales han empujado a ciudades como Barcelona a dejar atrás su pasado industrial y abrazar un proceso de terciarización que supone una potente metamorfosis local, no solo en su carácter productivo, sino también en su entramado urbano. Los antiguos mercados de abasto, así como otros de nueva creación, se muestran como auténticos epicentros de estas prácticas mercantilizadas, deviniendo centros de consumo y de ocio. Palo Alto Market, en el barrio barcelonés del Poblenou, se caracteriza por su apuesta por la sofisticación, así como por su inigualable emplazamiento. Sin embargo, tras una apariencia cargada de potentes recursos simbólicos que lo hacen único en la ciudad, podrían esconderse prácticas y relaciones de dominación, además de actuar como vanguardia en las transformaciones socio-espaciales de su entorno más inmediato.Cities have gone from being the privileged scenario for social reproduction, to become spaces of and for consumption per excellence. Neoliberal policies have been pushing cities like Barcelona to leave behind its industrial past and embrace a process of terciarization, which has generated a potent local metamorphosis, not only in its productive nature, but also in its urban fabric. The ancient food markets and other newly created are shown as real epicentres of these commodified practices, becoming centres of consumption and leisure. Palo Alto Market, in the Barcelona’s neighbourhood of Poblenou, is characterized by its commitment to sophistication, as well as its great setting. However, the powerful symbolic resources that make it unique in the city could hide practices and relationships permeated by domination. Furthermore, Palo Alto Market could be acting as a vanguard in the socio-spatial transformations that its immediate surroundings are witnessing

Palaeoenvironmental changes in southern Patagonia during the Late-glacial and the Holocene: implications for forest establishment and climate reconstructions

Three continuous terrestrial high-resolution palaeoenvironmental records for the Late-glacial and the Holocene have been reconstructed for different ecosystems in Fuego-Patagonia on a longitudinal transect at latitude 53°S. The records describe the nature and extent of environmental and climatic changes inferred from palynological evidence supported by lithostratigraphy, tephrochronology and radiocarbon dating. The environmental changes recorded at the three sites displays a significant degree of synchrony in response to similar large-scale climatic changes. Clear stratigraphical evidence alongside the pollen record indicates a shift to warmer interstadial conditions between c. 14,800 Cal yr BP and 14,400 Cal yrs BP. During the period coeval with ACR the vegetation was dominated by cold resistant dry land herbs such as Poaceae, Asteraceae (Suf. Asteroideae) and Acaena, by c. 13,200 Cal yr BP the vegetation changed from the dominance of cold resistant dry land herbs towards more mesic conditions and the expansion of steppe dominated by Poaceae with patches of Nothofagus forest. The establishment of the forest and an eastward shift of the forest-steppe ecotone by c. 12,500 Cal yr BP from which a gradual shift from colder to warmer conditions and the relatively stronger influences of the SSWs is inferred. The sequence of Late-glacial environmental changes places Fuego-Patagonia within the new palaeoecological data provided by this study includes “the earliest” evidence for the establishment of subantarctic Nothofagus forest during the LGIT in Fuego-Patagonia. During the Early-Holocene two major phases of Nothofagus forest expansion were registered between c. 11,700 - 10,500 Cal yr BP and c. 9,500 - 8,200 Cal yr BP. These intervals of expansion of Nothofagus forest are separated by an interval of forest contraction in response to lower effective moisture between c. 10,500 - 9,500 Cal yr BP. An intense arid phase is inferred between c. 8,250 Cal yr BP and 6,800 Cal yr BP and probably leading to an increase in the amount of dry fuel available during the mid-Holocene in Fuego-Patagonia leading to the highest fire activity promoted by very weak SSWs at this time. The later Holocene was characterised by an increase in humidity and an inferred intensification of the SSWs

The short summer of tourismphobia. Social movements and urban conflict in the neighborhood of Poblenou, Barcelona

L’any 2017 podria ser considerat, a Barcelona, com l’any de la turismefòbia. Els canvis socials i econòmics viscuts per la ciutat durant les darreres dècades s›han vist acompanyats per l’aparició de tot un entramat de moviments socials íntimament lligats a aquestes transformacions, així com als seus impactes. Al barri del Poblenou, el diagnòstic realitzat per #EnsPlantem, Veïns en Perill d’Extinció, apunta a la turistificació com un dels seus principals reptes. Mitjançant una aproximació etnogràfica de dos anys al voltant d’aquesta plataforma, el present article pretén mostrar el paper exercit per aquest tipus de moviments davant de l’aplicació de polítiques urbanes contemporànies de tall neoliberal vinculades al turisme.The year 2017 could be considered, in Barcelona, as the year of tourismphobia. The social and economic changes experienced by the city during the last decades have been accompanied by a complex network of social movements closely linked to these transformations, as well as their impacts. In the neighborhood of Poblenou, the diagnosis made by #EnsPlantem, Neighbors in Danger of Extinction, points to the touristification as one of its main challenges. Through an ethnographic approach of two years around this platform, this article aims to show the role played by this type of movements around the application of neoliberal contemporary urban policies linked to tourism

A geological model for the management of subsurface data in the urban environment of Barcelona and surrounding area

The overdevelopment of cities since the industrial revolution has shown the need to incorporate a sound geological knowledge in the management of required subsurface infrastructures and in the assessment of increasingly needed groundwater resources. Additionally, the scarcity of outcrops and the technical difficulty to conduct underground exploration in urban areas highlights the importance of implementing efficient management plans that deal with the legacy of heterogeneous subsurface information. To deal with these difficulties, a methodology has been proposed to integrate all the available spatio-temporal data into a comprehensive spatial database and a set of tools that facilitates the analysis and processing of the existing and newly added data for the city of Barcelona (NE Spain). Here we present the resulting actual subsurface 3-D geological model that incorporates and articulates all the information stored in the database. The methodology applied to Barcelona benefited from a good collaboration between administrative bodies and researchers that enabled the realization of a comprehensive geological database despite logistic difficulties. Currently, the public administration and also private sectors both benefit from the geological understanding acquired in the city of Barcelona, for example, when preparing the hydrogeological models used in groundwater assessment plans. The methodology further facilitates the continuous incorporation of new data in the implementation and sustainable management of urban groundwater, and also contributes to significantly reducing the costs of new infrastructures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Formación interdisciplinar de educación para el desarrollo dirigida a docentes de titulaciones científico-técnicas en un entorno virtual de aprendizaje

Desde 2001, ISF se ha planteado como estrateg ia prioritaria para la promoción de la educación para el desarrollo en la universi dad, la formación del profesorado de carreras científico-técnicas. El objeti vo general es la promoción de la tecnología para el desarrollo humano en los estudios de i ngeniería (Pérez-Foguet et al., 2005). La estrategia planteada se concretó en el año 2003 con el cu rso semipresencial “Educando en Tecnología para el Desarro llo”, de 84h de duración y en el que participaron un total de 61 profesores unive rsitarios (Boni et al., 2004). En el 2004, se realizó un taller presencial de 12h titulado “La educación en valores en el ámbito de los estudios técnicos: el reto del Espaci o Europeo de Educación Superior”. Tras estas dos experiencias, se ha realiza do durante el primer semestre del 2005-06, el curso interuniversitario semipresencial “La universidad, instru mento de solidaridad. La enseñanza-aprendizaje para el desarrollo humano sostenible en los estudios científico-técnicos” , de 125 horas de duración (5 ECTS ) y acreditado por los Institutos de Ciencias de la Educación de las siguien tes Universidades: UPM, UPV, UAB, UB y UPC. En este artículo se analizará esta acción formativa desde dos perspectivas: valorando su relación con el nuevo Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior y considerando las posibilidades que ofrece una comunidad virtua l de aprendizaje formada por expertos y docentes universitarios.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The Parkinson's disease protein LRRK2 impairs proteasome substrate clearance without affecting proteasome catalytic activity.

Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) mutations are the most common known cause of Parkinson's disease (PD). The clinical features of LRRK2 PD are indistinguishable from idiopathic PD, with accumulation of α-synuclein and/or tau and/or ubiquitin in intraneuronal aggregates. This suggests that LRRK2 is a key to understanding the aetiology of the disorder. Although loss-of-function does not appear to be the mechanism causing PD in LRRK2 patients, it is not clear how this protein mediates toxicity. In this study, we report that LRRK2 overexpression in cells and in vivo impairs the activity of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, and that this accounts for the accumulation of diverse substrates with LRRK2 overexpression. We show that this is not mediated by large LRRK2 aggregates or sequestration of ubiquitin to the aggregates. Importantly, such abnormalities are not seen with overexpression of the related protein LRRK1. Our data suggest that LRRK2 inhibits the clearance of proteasome substrates upstream of proteasome catalytic activity, favouring the accumulation of proteins and aggregate formation. Thus, we provide a molecular link between LRRK2, the most common known cause of PD, and its previously described phenotype of protein accumulation