Digital Barcelona: An interdisciplinary urban cultural studies digital project

In: Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, Band 4, Heft 1, S. 195-206

Abstract

Abstract
Barcelona has long been equated with the discourse of urban modernity. Considered a global city – and even a 'top-model' city – the capital of Catalunya invites interested students, scholars and critics to investigate and synthesize various strains of urban discourse. From the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries, themes of city planning, parks and green space, architecture and design, health and medicine, science and electricity, class and migration, and spectacular tourism and gentrification have all been on display for travellers. Readers/viewers interested in cultural production can find no shortage of films and prose publications that engage the city's spatial form. The collaborative 'Digital Barcelona' (2017) project brings these discourses together in an Omeka exhibit and allows viewers to interact with them spatially in a Neatline map. This short-form article explores the potential for social sciences and humanities approaches to combine in a site-focused, interdisciplinary approach to urban culture. At the same time, it also documents the potential of digital projects on cities to involve students and faculty in collaborative research.