Barcelona Metropolis

What future awaits culture in the wake of Covid-19? In the debate presented in this issue, opinions concur in retaining that the problems facing culture go way back and that the health crisis has just brought them to the fore. Digital formats, local audiences and new economic formulae are some of the solutions, although the premise is clear: culture must be defended.

In the interview, Laura Huerga talks about the catalogue of her publishing house Raig Verd, which advocates cultural and linguistic diversity and is committed to human rights. The publisher believes that only the link between readers and booksellers will be able to get the publishing sector to survive the crisis.

Also worth mentioning are three publications in very different fields: Barcelona. Fotògrafes / Fotógrafas [Barcelona. Photographers], by Isabel Segura, the first book that tells the story of the city through the eyes of women, specifically 21 photographers; Cuando la riqueza se codeaba con el hambre [When Wealth Rubbed Shoulders with Hunger], by Paco Villar, an impressive volume that reveals the lights and shadows of a Barcelona that did not want to sleep in the 40s and 50s; and The Cosmopolitan Tradition. A Noble but Flawed Ideal, by Martha Nussbaum, a philosophical approach to the concept of dignity based on the myth of the “citizen of the world”.