La organización de los juegos olímpicos como elemento de configuración de regímenes urbanos: Barcelona 1992 como estudio de caso

The games were an opportunity for Spain to show to the world as a modern, wealthy and democratic country of Western Europe, that successfully accomplished 15 years of political transition and dealt with identity issues. But the games also were a window of opportunity for the complete “reinvention” of Barcelona at all levels (political, economical, social and urbanistic) and laid the foundations for the development of the city in the next decades. This research argues that this process of “reinvention of the city” can be explained for three factors: 1) A policy coalition involving key economic and social actors under the leadership of Barcelona‟s Major, which led to a new urban regime. 2) An intergovernmental game that privileged the cooperation between the federal and urban government, as well as the international sports institutions 3) An understanding of the Olympic infrastructures not only as a guarantee for the success of the event, but as the starting point for a new model of urban and identity development regarding to the XXI siècle. The main objective of the research is to analyze the possible application of urban regime approach to different local government systems of the US by analyzing a case study, Barcelona...