"Barcelona has talent”. Legitimizing narratives in urban policies for attracting workers: an analysis of the discursive construction of the 22@ district
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1344/sn2024.28.43362Keywords:
legitimizing narrative, Barcelona, 22@, technology districtAbstract
This article examines the legitimizing narratives associated with local economic promotion policies aimed at attracting talent, contrasting them with the motivations and perspectives of these individuals. The combination of theoretical debate with a case study on attraction discourses in Barcelona's 22@ technology district highlights the existing disjunctions between the official perspective and the reality. The legitimizing narrative argues that the technology district represents the maintenance of the productive historical sense of Poblenou and connects with technological workers, the desired subjects within the urban space and associated with an ideal of the city's historical entrepreneurial spirit. However, the perspectives of technological workers challenge this reasoning in two ways. On one hand, local technological workers express disappointment with the disparity between the promises of cutting-edge labour and technology in the official narrative and the resulting urban space. On the other hand, the discourse of internationally attracted workers reveals a contradiction with the official discourse of entrepreneurship and expresses an interest in a recreational dimension.
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