**4. Citizen Movements and Social Innovation: Two Key Factors for the Recovery of Neighborhoods**

In Spain, neighborhood communities have become the mechanism to combat vulnerability and the lack of social cohesion. They are the nexus between the search for a democratic state guaranteeing basic rights on the one hand and the continuous reinvention of social life on the other [53]. They are the loci and drivers of social innovation aimed at improving the neighborhood environment and recovering the sense of a lost neighborhood, turning public spaces and abandoned buildings into self-managed meeting places. Consequently, a multiplicity of structures to govern/manage neighborhoods has emerged, in collaboration with the local administration, which has increasingly given greater importance to initiatives that encourage the revitalization of the urban environment arising from civil society [40,53]. Its success has been conditioned by the level of citizen mobilization, the degree of awareness and empowerment of neighbors, as well as their ability to learn. The result is that neighborhoods have become laboratories in which to test all kinds of innovative actions that result in dynamics of urban and social improvement.

But what does social innovation consist of? Depending on the discipline from which their interpretations are approached, they range from management, where social innovation is understood more as a product than a process [54] to which they have a more systematic approach, contemplating aspects such as the network of actors, the type of relationship and interdependence with public administrations, the overlapping of the territory and other contextual factors (social, cultural, political) as well as the objectives, the type of process and its social effects [55]. Another point of view is that which links social innovation to creative citizen practices that are carried out in neighborhoods and cities, conceived from social movements (community or civil platforms), considering that the welfare state has deteriorated and therefore there is an insufficient response capacity to meet the collective and individual needs of the community. Among them, we can highlight the following points:


and Intermediae, an experimental space devoted to socially engaged artistic practices approached from the angle of research and cultural innovation.


**Figure 1.** Los Madriles Map.

**Figure 2.** (**a**) Urban garden; (**b**) initiative in public space with the project *This is not a site*.

In the following sections, we will approach the regenerative effect that street art has had on urban spaces and later focus on the study of *Las Meninas de Canido* initiative and the impact it has had on the degraded Canido neighborhood.

### **5. The Urban Recovery of Degraded Neighborhoods: The E**ff**ect of Street Art**

When talking about the impact of artistic performances in urban spaces, we must consider two key concepts: public art and urban art (also known as street art). Although both are developed in a common space, they differ in that public art is considered a legal artistic manifestation, insofar as it is part of the urbanization plans of the local administration and has a heritage character and is cared for; While urban art is performed by artists anonymously, it is considered illegal and has an ephemeral character [57]. Despite this, it is considered free and open access art [58].

However, some authors consider certain nuances between the concept of urban art and street art. They consider that the first is linked to the art of graffiti, as an artistic expression that generally contains a political or social criticism charge in its origins and associated with the imagery of vandalism, illegality, and protest, while street art, known as Postgrafiti, has a more artistic load, and its technique is more respectful than graffiti when choosing materials and support. Among its most used techniques are murals, stencils, stickers, and posters, some of which are commissioned [59,60].

In any case, in this article, we do not intend to respond to the difference between these expressions or to debate whether graffiti is an artistic movement or not. What is intended is to highlight how an artistic activity such as murals or graffiti has become fashionable in recent years and is a common practice in those parts of the city most physically degraded. Thus, culture becomes a catalyst that triggers the reuse of abandoned spaces and the creation of new urban scenes; it can be a source of urban revitalization and social inclusion. Like a human body patterned with tattoos [61], degraded sectors are commonly covered with inscriptions that are already part of the urban imaginary [62]. Then, an aestheticization of everyday life is produced [63], in which images acquire a new and central role in the society of consumption. However, there is a debate about the contributions of the culture and public art industry for urban restructuring and regeneration [64]. There is a paradox that, on the one hand, urban art is considered a measure that contributes to the improvement of public space and, consequently, the quality of life of residents. In addition, it favors citizen empowerment, the strengthening of the neighboring identity—as it tries to adapt to the social and historical context of the neighborhood—and social commitment by questioning, discussing, or giving effective aesthetic responses to the needs of citizens [65]. Nevertheless, the fact that urban art moves between the allowed, the regulated, and the illegal cannot be ignored. Sometimes, it is accepted, even being conserved and promoted; in others, however, it is criminalized and prohibited.

However, there is no doubt about the number of festivals, publications, and urban art galleries that have arisen in different cities, in which the participation of local administrations is increasing, reaching directly to encourage the realization of these practices in concrete spaces in the city, with a clear objective: to commercialize art as an advertisement for tourism. However, there are some practices in which these cultural productions revert to the benefit of the community, the neighborhood, or the city.

Cases like *The Bushwick Collective* in New York (Figure 3) are true outdoor art galleries, which have transformed a shady industrial neighborhood into a vibrant tourist destination. It has attracted numerous street, local, national, and international artists and thousands of street art fans since its first mural in 2011 [66].

**Figure 3.** Murals of Bushwick Collective in New York.

Another similar initiative is Wynwood Walls, conceived in 2009 in Miami. The aim of the artist who had the idea was to look for something big to transform the Wynwood district, an area full of windowless warehouses, whose facades would soon become giant canvases in which to show the best street art. Since its inception, the Wynwood Walls program has had more than 50 artists representing 16 countries and has covered more than 80,000 square feet of walls. The New York Times, BBC News, Vanity Fair, and Forbes have included Wynwood in their list of the most modern neighborhoods in the United States [67].
