Can Batlló Community Centre - Barcelona
Description
\By Marina Pera and Sonia Bussu:
"Can Batlló is a community centre run by a local grassroots organisation that brings together anti-capitalist movements, neighbourhood associations and local activists. Its organisation is based on horizontal governance and deliberation. It comprises various committees, each working on different projects to respond to the diverse interests and needs within the community. These committees come together every 15 days in an assembly of around 70 people. The centre has become a symbol of insurgent urbanism (Martí-Costa & Dalmau-Torva, 2013).
The establishment of Can Batlló as a community centre dates back to 2011, as a result of several decades of social struggles led by neighbourhood associations reclaiming this space for cultural and community projects. In 2011, neighbours and grassroots organisations started a campaign to demand the transfer of the old warehouses to neighbourhood groups. After threatening to occupy buildings, grassroots organisations finally forced the conservative mayor Xavier Trias to transfer the asset, despite the agreement being temporary and legally precarious. The community organisation established to manage Can Batlló demanded a better transfer agreement and investment to improve the dilapidated buildings. However, it was not until 2018, under the BeC administration, that a committee involving state and civil society actors was created to work on a long-term transfer agreement.
In 2019 this committee calculated the socio-economic returns that community projects such as Can Batlló could generate. Normally, in asset-transfers from public to private organisations, economic returns are calculated based on the monetary benefits generated. In the case of Can Batlló, social return on the activities was measured in the hours spent by volunteers and the nature of the projects carried out. This calculation served to visualise the social value of these projects in economic terms and was used to approve the 30-year lease of the buildings with the possibility of a 20-year extension (Forné & Castro, 2022)."