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Social Innovation, a concept that can be traced back to the nineteenth century, has been increasingly used since the 1980s within urban and regional development scholarship to challenge the one side emphasis on technological or managerial change. There is an accumulated body of theoretical and empirical research with emphasis on the social element as well as on the political potential of social innovation .

Whereas the economic importance of culture enjoys considerable attention in the urban literature, the "cultural turn" is emerging in urban political studies in an uneven fashion. Can Tocqueville Karaoke? Global Contrast of Citizen Participation, the Arts and Development is a welcome contribution, providing a series of comparisons of citizens' democratic participation associated with the arts and cultural activities in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. The book, in three sections, includes studies carried out over the years by local teams in different cities of the world. It combines qualitative and quantitative sources andmethods with detailed tables, graphs, and maps. .

The role of urban communities and localities in the development of citizenship and civil society in Spain is examined. The periods before and after democracy are compared. The focus is on the importance of community-based solidarity for the development of urban social movements before the 1979 local democratic elections and the rise of voluntary associations that followed. Democracy during the transitional period to democracy, which was based on consensus politics, has been translated into greater visibility for formal organizations, such as political parties and trade unions, rather than community-based organizations. During the last decade, civic associations centered on cultural, educational, and leisure activities have rapidly developed. On the one hand, the local expresses more heterogeneous interests of the citizens than of associations. On the other, regional and national politics have acquired prominence. Although local governments remain poorly financed, local politics and identities nevertheless continue to be a significant part of citizen life.

This paper analysed the aftermath of the bursting of the housing bubble in Spain, which has left thousands of families without homes and indebted for life. In the first of two parts, we look at contextually specific interactions between state regulation and market-oriented projects in Spain. This country is a salient case in which an economic recession and a debt crisis follow upon a long period of growth characterized by a housing bubble and a particular urban growth model. In this part, we argue that the central government has played a key role in framing fiscal incentives for housing ownership, and local and regional administrations have engaged in short-term forms of inter-spatial competition for public and private resources, place marketing and regulatory under-cutting in order to attract investment. In the second part, the paper examined the urban social movement 'Platform of Mortgage Victims' that, after starting in Barcelona, has spread to many other cities. The movement has created innovative strategies for housing accessibility and public and private governance in the housing market. These strategies include innovations at the local level and at national and European institutional levels. In this part, we argue that social movements like the one we study are socially innovative when they aim at responding to social needs not met by the market and the state institutions. At the same time with their activism, they transform the debate in the public sphere while prompting institutions to introduce new governance mechanisms and policy outcomes

Spanish cities have suffered increasing social inequality after the 2008 economic crisis and austerity policies. However, harshening social conditions have also led to 'acts of citizenship'. Against the background of Marshallian and Tocquevillean takes on citizenship and civil society this paper analyses the emergence of the political confluence that gained office in the municipal elections of May 2015 in Barcelona incorporating citizens' organisations and advocacy groups. Barcelona en Comú claims a radical change in policy orientation with a renewed citizenship agenda. We argue that this is an example of urban citizenship that requires historical contextualisation. We see continuities and discontinuities between the current local governance model and agenda and the democratic local governance model established during the 1980s when civil society provided significant input. However, it is a challenge to implement an urban citizenship agenda in a globalised city with resources controlled elsewhere.

Culture and creativity make two contributions to sustainability in cities: (1) Economic impact, related to the economy and the marketing of the city, involving consumers, jobs, creative clusters, technology, mobility, infrastructures and (2) urban regeneration concerned with social cohesion, socially creative initiatives and local citizenship with sustainability objectives. We provide a critical appraisal of the first and concentrate on the second. The paper focuses on how collective actors are capable of creating new spaces for public debate and daily practices that reinforce community life and citizenship. In some cities creation of spaces for cultural creativity has been the result of 'bottom-linked' innovation. Two examples are examined in two peripheral districts of Barcelona. These are: Ateneu Popular de 9 Barris(AP9B) and Fabra i Coats. Both are currently managed by a hybrid partnership between public administration and civil society organizations. The 'bottom-linked' approach to social innovation recognizes the centrality of initiatives taken by those immediately concerned, and also stresses the need for institutions that enable and sustain such initiatives through sound, regulated and lasting practices and through clear citizen rights, guaranteed by the functioning of the democratic state (Pradel, García, & Eizaguirre, 2013)

Setenta y nueve son los ministros que integran el poder ejecutivo de este ebullente y tumultuoso período. La nota más destacable que ofrece el estudio de la carrera ministerial es que en dicha época -un momento de insuperable variedad política e ideológica, la más resaltada de toda nuestra historia política- imprime una gran homogeneidad al ejercicio del poder en su estadio supremo. ; There are sixty-nine ministers making up the executive power in this seething and tumultuous period. The most outstanding note resulting from the study of the ministerial career in that period -a moment of a political and ideological variety never exceeded, in fact, the most outstanding one in all our political history- gives a great homogeneity to the execution of power in its supreme stage.

This work was supported by grants from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad-Spain and the European Union (FP7-Microenvimet). The Instituto Universitario de Oncología is supported by Obra Social Cajastur-Asturias and Acción Transversal del Cáncer-RTICC, Spain. S.C. was supported by a fellowship from CONACYT; C.L.-O. is an Investigator of the Botin Foundation.