The employment in the historical center of Barcelona: the residents of la Cera street

Abstract

The different labour categories are reflected in the social and economical differentiation of the urban residential space. People employed in low-qualified jobs have been the traditional residents of the downgraded historical centers. Howewer, the gentrification process taking place in these centers since the three last decades involves the presence of qualified workers. In the historical center of Barcelona, the neighbourhood called el Raval grew by the inmigration, when the city was getting industrialised. The residents’ employment in one of its streets was characteristic of a working-class neighbourhood in 1930. The present-day employment is varied and it reflects different qualification levels, but the incipient gentrification process in the street doesn’t allow to consider a significative presence of qualified professionals, the protagonists of this process.