This research is an approach to the dialectical relations between the neighborhood movement of the Poble-sec and Montjuïc neighborhoods (Barcelona) and the municipal institutions during the left-wing governments of the city (1979-2011). During the late Franco regime and the Transition, the neighborhood movement appeared strongly in Barcelona as well as in the other cities of Catalonia and Spain. In those years, this neighborhood movement became, especially in Barcelona, a first-rate actor to put Franco’s local power on the ropes and achieve democratic change at the municipal level. With the advent of democratic city councils, the dialectical and relational paradigm between the neighborhood movement and municipal institutions changed. The reforms introduced by the democratic council of Barcelona established channels of citizen participation that would convey and channel this dialogue between the organized neighborhood and the municipal government. This research focuses on the analysis and study of these participation bodies – focusing on the Poble-sec and Montjuïc neighborhoods – and on the results that this dialectical relationship had for their evolution and transformation. Through this analysis it is possible to understand how the limitations and shortcomings of these participation regulations, as well as the dynamics that these generate in the neighborhood movement and in the institutions, influence the development and evolution of the city management model and, therefore, in the transformations that Barcelona and its neighborhoods are experiencing. A management model implemented in 1979 with the coming to power of the left forces and which evolves to implode in 2011 when they lose the mayoralty.
