Llibre: Muñoz Ramonet. Retrat d’un home sense imatge, Manuel Risques (ed.)
The prince of the black market

Julio Muñoz Ramonet, the invisible prince of the black market, left his palace on Carrer de Muntaner to the city of Barcelona, along with the extraordinary collection of art that hung...

Houses on the street Carrer de la Font Florida, in the Barcelona neighborhood of Font de la Guatlla. © Arianna Giménez
Who does the reversal of a public land designation affect? The cases of Satalia and Font de la Guatlla

Classed as green areas by the General Metropolitan Plan, the small neighbourhoods of Satalia and Font de la Guatlla have long lived under the threat of expropriation and demolition. In...

Illustration © Eva Vázquez. A group of people form the blade of a palette knife, a plasterer's tool used to apply cement.
Lessons from the crisisSocial innovation: different responses from organized citizens

In the face of the post-crisis neoliberal siren calls, crying out for individual responsibility, civil society has organized itself to provide a collective response to the consequences...

Illustration © Eva Vázquez. Two people are talking. One seems to tell the other about the house of his dreams: one bigger than the one he has.
Lessons from the crisisDisparity drives us further apart: psychological effects of economic inequality

Economic inequality is conducive to individualism. Living in unequal societies makes us more concerned about our social position; the greater the difference, the further the distance...

Illustration © Eva Vázquez. A number of people climb the stairs of a building but cannot keep going because a flight of stairs between two floors has collapsed.
Lessons from the crisisInequality in the age of disconnection

The economic crisis has widened the gaps (labour, generation, gender and fiscal) that contribute to exacerbating inequality. If societies continue to increase these divides and the...

Illustration © Eva Vázquez. Residential neighborhood typical in the United States. There are some well-built houses with a pool while other houses are half-sunken in their pool.
Lessons from the crisisDivides that separate, bridges to be built

Europe’s economic reconstruction in the second half of the 20th century focussed on providing liberal democracies with institutions that would protect citizens’ social rights...

Illustration © Eva Vázquez. A house split into four as if it were a cake and, in the middle, grows a tree full of vultures.
Lessons from the crisisFrom the mortgage scam to the rent scam

A decade after the worst real estate bubble in history burst, access to housing is still one of the major social problems. And it is because states operate as another cog in the...

Illustration © Eva Vázquez. A number of people contemplate a temple with Greek columns. The column on the right is shaped like a dollar symbol.
Lessons from the crisisThere is an alternative, it is progressive capitalism

Is capitalism compatible with democracy and prosperity? The rise in inequalities in the early 21st century has had worrying implications in liberal democracies, which are...

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