3.2.2. What Are the Social Characteristics of the City during the Crisis?

I could say that the social characteristics of the city during the crisis are those of a living and committed city.

According to Edward Soja, urban tensions are among the most explosive in the world in social terms and pose the greatest political challenges [33]. This is how he identified the episodes of racial violence in the United States and they also fit in with the urban manifestations of the so-called "Arab Spring."

There is no doubt that these events are far from the conflict arising from the economic crisis in Spain and its urban repercussions. However, there is some truth in Soya's maxim if we take into account the emergence of certain movements of reaction from the so-called civil society to the evictions due to the non-payment of mortgage loans. The first Platform for People Affected by Mortgages was created in Barcelona in 2009 [34], since the legal framework had been designed to guarantee that banks would collect the debts, while leaving unprotected those people with mortgages who, for reasons such as unemployment or rising fees, were unable to pay.

The Platforms of People Affected by Mortgages, which define themselves as places of meeting, help, and action for those affected, as well as for people who are in solidarity with this reality, have multiplied throughout Spain and developed different campaigns. Among these the STOP EVICTION campaign stands out, in which they are calling for action because, according to their own declarations: "We will not allow any more evictions! We will not let the bank throw us out of our homes!" With a clear urban identity, the movement of the outraged or 15–M was also born, revealing Harvey's maxim that "there is something political in the city air struggling to be expressed" [35] (p. 117).

In this case, the citizens' movement was formed as a result of the demonstration on 15 May 2011, convened by various groups that promoted a series of peaceful protests with the intention of defending a more participatory democracy [36]. It was a movement that generated a public debate on the representativeness of political institutions, electoral rules, dation in payment, transparency in the remuneration of high officials and corruption.

Emerging from the impoverishment created by the economic crisis of the preceding years and from the low expectations of young people, the malaise expressed by its supporters found its main tools of expression in the Internet and social networks. These channels of communication guaranteed its echo throughout the world, with more or less massive demonstrations in London, Paris, Brussels, Rome, Lisbon, Washington, New York, Berlin, Frankfurt, Tel Aviv, Rabat, Wellington, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo, etc., in a transnational process that was not alien to the activism that launched a criticism of political power and protested against the consequences of the functioning of markets and banks, against cuts, or against precariousness in employment.

#### *3.3. The Capitalist Restructuring of the Spanish City after the Economic Crisis*

The political reactions to the 2008 crisis, after an initial moment of denial of the situation, arose from 2010 onwards, when the first measures were taken, focusing exclusively on bank restructuring through the merger of savings banks and their conversion into private banks. Two years later, Bankia and Catalunya Bank were nationalized and SAREB was created, a company aimed at absorbing the toxic assets of the new banks [37]. In other words, through public debt, the losses of the financial institutions were transferred to a semi-public bank, guaranteeing the solvency of the companies through the financial rescue of their toxic assets, but without establishing measures that addressed the problem from the perspective of those affected. Therefore, the issue of abusive floor clauses in mortgages was not resolved; the dation in payment, i.e., the handing over of the mortgaged property in exchange for the cancellation of the debt, was ignored; and the daily drama of evictions, which affected a significant part of the population, was not addressed. For the government, the problem was reduced to the elimination of toxic assets from the financial system, ignoring the growing social unrest that was taking place, until a European ruling was issued in 2017 that forced banks to make the floor clauses totally retroactive.

To these trends we must add the fact that, as of 2013, the progressive sale of these assets began in addition to the recovery of real estate activity (investment, construction, sales, prices) and also the granting of mortgages, while the rental market was reactivated and a policy of attracting international investors began through the granting of tax benefits and the elimination of bureaucratic barriers [38]. New operators appeared, such as the SOCIMIs (Sociedades Anónimas Cotizadas de Inversión Inmobiliaria), which, as listed real estate investment companies, have as their main activity the acquisition, promotion, and rehabilitation of urban assets for lease in a context of im-proved profitability prospects. In addition, investment funds, the so-called vulture funds, took over part of the assets of SAREB and the other financial institutions at more than advantageous prices, through instruments such as the Real Estate Management Companies [39].

This internationalization of home ownership through a policy that ensured a favorable benefit for large international investors, powerful economic agents, and financial institutions was the final step in its financialization and is the necessary requirement for understanding that it has gone from a model of accumulation to one of accumulation by dispossession and subsequent repossession. In other words, the idea already expressed by Neil Smith that neoliberalism turns cities into centers of production for the global economy [40] increasingly eliminates the functions of social reproduction and uses them as a test bed for the new entrepreneurship; a facet of hardcore capitalism that accentuates the process of the commodification of the city is fulfilled.

Two other factors have added to this panorama of the internationalization of housing and are having a great impact on the property market and, therefore, on the restructuring of the city after the crisis. I am referring to the so-called Golden Visa and the so-called collaborative or platform or network economy.

Law 14/2013, of 27 September, on the support for entrepreneurs and their internationalization, established a special residence visa for investors, commonly known as the Golden Visa, which allows any large investor in real estate (worth EUR 500,000 or more) to live for one year in the entire national territory and includes a work permit [41]. The Golden Visa also permits the holder to bring his or her family members to Spain.

Since this program was launched, the number of permits has been increasing year by year. In total, 8061 of these visas were granted in 2019 [42] and, according to data from the Ministry of Labour, Migrations and Social Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, at the top of the list of foreigners who decide to invest in Spain and, in exchange, obtain a work and residence permit, are Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian, Iranian, American, Mexican, Venezuelan, Indian, Brazilian, etc., citizens who choose, preferably, properties in Madrid, Barcelona, and Málaga in absolute terms, and in the Mediterranean provinces and the two archipelagos in relative terms (Figure 5).

**Figure 5.** Housing buyers according to their nationality (%) by Spanish provinces in 2019. Source: Association of Property Registrars of Spain [43]. Author's elaboration.

Chinese investments are well-known in our country and are some of the most solid. So much so, that many real estate agencies have a unique division for this Asian country. In fact, until 2018, some Chinese citizens had managed to invest up to EUR 821 million in Spain in exchange for more than 1200 residence permits, a third of the total granted. They were followed by Russians and Ukrainians, two of the traditional nationalities who acquire, above all, homes on the Mediterranean coast.

Finally, the presence of large Venezuelan fortunes in the Spanish real estate market shot up in 2017 and 2018, due to the political and economic situation the Latin American country was going through, with purchases of luxury properties that are generally paid in cash and reach up to EUR 30 million. Although these fortunes have always been interested in Spain, as evidenced by the fact that Novagalicia Banco was awarded by the FROB (Fondo de Reestructuración Ordenada Bancaria) to the Venezuelan group Banesco in 2013 [44], for the last three or four years there has been a sharp increase in Venezuelan buyers and investors, especially in Madrid's Golden Mile, in the heart of the Salamanca district. As a result of these real estate investments by non-EU foreigners and foreigners from European Union countries, Spain was leading the southern European real estate recuperation in 2017 [45]. Thus, Figure 6, which represents the evolution (by quarters) of the housing prices and of the housing acquisitions by foreigners between 2014 and 2019, allows us to appreciate that in the generalized increase in housing prices due to the Spanish economic recovery, the sustained evolution of foreign investment has also favorably contributed.

**Figure 6.** Evolution (by quarters) of the housing prices and of the housing acquisitions by foreigners. Sources: Tinsa, appraisal company approved by the Bank of Spain [46]. Association of Property Registrars. Real Estate Registry Statistics [43]. Author's elaboration.

The second factor I mentioned is that of the collaborative economy. As we all know, this is a new business model which, by means of Web platforms, allows services to be exchanged for money, taking a commission. The platform that best exemplifies this philosophy in relation to our interests is Airbnb. It was originally created in San Francisco, in 2008, to rent homes with an inflatable mattress and breakfast (air bed and breakfast) to guests who were passing through the city, which gave the company its name.

The development of this platform, as a start-up, attracted the attention of a business financier and several investment funds, which injected large sums of capital into it. As a result, the initiative landed in every tourist place on Earth and the company became one of the eight global giants in technology, so other similar companies supported the initiative, such as Home Away or Booking Home.

The rental of housing for tourist uses as an activity of this cool economy has had a negative impact on the housing market, as it remove from the offer many of the properties that were intended for permanent residential use, since it is a more lucrative business than the traditional rental one. This, in turn, implies processes of displacement and social elitization in city centers as well as an increase in second homes, as opposed to traditional neighborhoods. Consequently, while the number of tourist dwellings has increased, especially in the coastal provinces and in the two archipelagos, there has also been a high number of evictions, as depicted in Figure 7, so that both variables show a non-parametric correlation (Spearman = 0.785).

According to Ian Brossat [49], this new platform capitalism represents an advance that even the best dreams of neoliberalism 20 years ago did not foreshadow, since, although it began by putting people who needed accommodation in contact with others who could provide it, it included economic exchange and turned collaboration into transaction, externalizing costs and risks and basing this economic activity on deregulation.

The above processes have been recognized in the whole of southern Europe, where critical urban scholarship has made large use of gentrification, touristification, and financialization to explain the impacts of crisis, austerity, and subsequent economic rebound driven by the real estate and tourist sectors [50].

3.3.1. Which Signs of Urban Restructuring Characterize These Moments of Repossession?

Signs of urban restructuring include a process of strengthening tertiary specialization, urban recentralization, and residential and tourist gentrification.

The analysis of the territorial dynamics in Spain based on the microdata of the Residential Variation Statistics carried out by Otero et al. [51] showed that the cities have recovered a clear leadership in the post-crisis stage. Therefore, from the point of view of flows, they have been much more attractive than peri-urban, ex-urban and rural areas. That is to say, the suburban and counter-urban scenarios, and the revitalization of the so-called empty or emptied Spain, which acquired a certain prominence during the period of prosperity, have shown great volatility. Therefore, as opposed to the years of suburbanization and transformation of metropolitan areas, we are today witnessing a stage of "return to the compact city" or, at least, this was the case until the pandemic appeared. Hence, our gaze is

directed at the dynamics, tensions, and conflicts that are taking place in the central spaces of Spanish cities.

In recent years, the process of residential elitization that has affected urban centers has been accompanied by an increase in dispossession and repossession. If in the toughest years of the crisis, evictions for unpaid mortgage payments were concentrated in areas of recent urbanization, in the residential peripheries of most cities, evictions for non-payment of rent have been common in urban centers. According to Domínguez et al. [52], although it is true that the development of tourist housing is not a direct factor in eviction in general terms, there is a territorial relationship between the presence of this form of tourism and the loss of property ownership and use.

There is no doubt, therefore, that the tourist gentrification that was activated in the post-economic crisis is impacting on the housing market of the compact city, given the increase in rent and the price of property owned, which makes it inaccessible to the lower income segments of the population to purchase or rent. In addition to these changes related to housing, there are also transformations in commerce, and a phenomenon of urban artificialization, due to the effects of tourism.

Cities tend to offer an image of homogeneity, which is identified with a place for tourist visits, with the aim of satisfying the interests of those visitors, while at the same time consolidating itself as a space-museum in which it is possible to enjoy what makes it peculiar or different in the eyes of the tourist. Thus, for example, the central supply markets are losing customers to the supermarkets, so they are reinvented as gourmet spaces, while at the same time being the object of guided tours with the sole purpose of providing tourists with a photograph of the local products that they take with their mobile phones.

In this scenario, it should be remembered that the ex novo tourist developments gave rise to urban tourist forms that were different from urban entities. However, the transformative potential that tourism is exercising today in consolidated cities makes the boundary between tourist and urban spaces much more blurred, as well as the very conception of what we understand by the term "city".

Finally, these trends of urban restructuring in recent times, in line with the so-called third globalization, are causing a great challenge from the perspective of scale, given that the forces of internationalization of real estate capital, whether of investment companies, the fortunes of individuals mobilized in the search for niches of stability, or online business platforms, are contrasted with a municipal management that has to resolve the local interests of multiple actors: neighbors, small traders, owners of conventional tourist establishments, etc., which is a difficult undertaking for public servants when they want to look after the interests of citizens.

3.3.2. Which Social Transformations Are Taking Place in This Incipient Post-Crisis Period? Are We Capable of Recognizing Them?

The right to the city, defined by Henri Lefebvre [53] as the right of urban dwellers to build, decide, and create the city, and to make it a privileged space of anti-capitalist struggle, loses force in times of what Ulrich Beck defined as the risk society [54] and Zygmunt Bauman called liquid modernity [55], that is, in moments of vulnerability as well as of fluidity, hybridization and flexibility. Could the post-crisis urban society be defined as a liquid citizenship? Is this interpretation sufficient to describe the society of the Late-Capitalist City or of the third globalization?

I believe that the answers to these questions are not simple, because as I pointed out earlier, while we are moving toward devaluation and revaluation, we are also moving toward equalization and differentiation. There is no doubt that we are living in times of temporariness, to which the deterioration of the labor market, the loss of employment or increase in unemployment, the precariousness of work and temporariness, the spread of discontinuous labor trajectories, marked by chronic insecurity, low income, and the absence of prospects for improvement have definitely contributed.

This is compounded by the wage devaluation caused by the labor market reform of 2012 [56], which leads to a lack of social protection, a situation of vulnerability that is inherent in the neoliberal mode of regulation. However, citizens are also anxious about novelties and incessant changes, and so they see tourists multiplying in cities, becoming themselves urban tourists from other cities; grouping themselves according to diverse interests and demands, of identity, gender, lifestyles; and coexisting in societies where mobility and immigration are resumed, diversified, and intensified, until the moment of the pandemic.

The capacity for adaptation and flexibility in the face of new situations also hides resistance and acts of demonstration, promoted by protest platforms that fight for the right to housing, demanding legislation for holiday homes, for the construction of social housing, for the regulation of the rental market, and for the penalization of owners of empty houses.

The interests of the different platforms are mixed in such a way that those who lead the demands for the right to housing, also demand improvements in pensions, another of the distinctive signs of the city of our times, the city of demographic aging; or they form part of groups that demand urban measures to make cities more sustainable, from the point of view of greenhouse gas emissions or of mobility.

It can be said that the result of all this is complexity and lack of definition, since this capacity to respond, this collective will to shape the city, is affected by the resistance of capital and its spokespersons, making it increasingly difficult to develop the necessary political strategy to invoke dignity through a pact between humanity and technology, in what have come to be called the human-centered smart cities [57].

As Méndez pointed out [58], the great challenge of the present will involve promoting structural change by building cities that are more intelligent in terms of their economic base, their socio-labor structure, and their public management; but also, cities that are more livable by reducing problems of exclusion, improving the quality of the built space, and reducing their ecological footprint. Only in this way, according to the Global Platform for the Right to the City [59], will we citizens become actors building a more dignified city together.

#### **4. Conclusions. The Uncertain Future of the Spanish City in Times of Pandemic**

The reflections that guided this study were affected by an unexpected pandemic expansion that has modified our perception of the world and our habits of life, and whose urban impact we are still unable to evaluate. In this context we must express the following questions: Have cities and their neighborhoods been punished with the same epidemic and socioeconomic intensity? What will the Spanish cities' next generation be like in an era where physical contact between people is restricted? Will there be notable changes in the socioeconomic structure that guides urban evolution? I believe we are in a position to answer these questions negatively, as the images of the so-called "hunger queues" speak for themselves. This was already expressed by Ana Fani A. Carlos [60] when she said that the virus is deepening the social crisis in an unequal way. This unequal dimension is related not only to the contagion, but also to the economic, social, political, and institutional substrate that in some places accentuated the destructive capacity of the pandemic and its consequences, while in others it found greater defenses against its impacts [61].

There is no doubt that COVID-19 has reached planetary dimensions because, in a globalized world, preventing transmission seems impossible. For this reason, we must reflect on environmental conditions, density factors, the age composition of the population, mobility, productive structures, and city government, but we are still a long way from providing a reasonable interpretation of these questions. However, despite this lack of knowledge and the widespread crisis that the pandemic has caused, there are some positive changes, which should be highlighted. From a socioeconomic point of view, it is worth mentioning the generalization in the use of information and communication technologies. The distance working model, distance training, and online commerce have been reinforced in addition to other services, such as the health service itself, which has also adopted

new forms of provision. Business digitalization has increased, and the production and marketing activities of certain local businesses have been strengthened, particularly in the agro-food sector.

From a socio-political point of view, there has been empowerment of the public sector, given that there has been a growing control in the management of daily life by central, regional, and local government authorities. At the same time, cooperation has been consolidated, as demonstrated by the agreements reached within the European Union, health coordination initiatives between autonomous communities and other urban governance actions. From an environmental point of view: gas emissions and pollution have been reduced; proposals to promote sustainable tourism have multiplied and local tourism has been strengthened; but there has been a decrease in the use of public transport, with some revitalization of the private car and of bicycles and skateboards.

From an urban point of view, there is a new tendency to oppose the strategies to rein-force compact cities. These last were defended before the pandemic, trying to avoid urban expansion and land occupation in the peripheries. Nonetheless, in the current times most citizens show a preference for suburban areas and small urban centers identified as being safer spaces. Finally, from the point of view of housing, some legislative initiatives have been developed to curb the tendency toward foreclosures and evictions in times of unemployment and social vulnerability.

The above transformations characterize these times of pandemic, but it is difficult to predict whether they will continue in the future. I am confident that, on the postpandemic horizon, the positive circumstances can become an opportunity to face the challenges in the transition of Spanish cities toward intelligent urban planning models, especially regarding energy and environmental issues. Nevertheless, we must not forget the disparate inequality of the pandemic effects, geographical evidence that we will have to study in depth, following the advice of Iván Serrano et al. [62] when they paraphrased Chesterton [63], pointing out that geography has, more than ever, the task of thinking with a perspective beyond immediacy and drawing up a common agenda in which we consider what's wrong with the world.

**Funding:** This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)/the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities–State Research Agency (AEI) under R&D Project "Housing and international mobility in cities of the Canary Islands. The emergence of new forms of urban inequality" (RTI2018-093296-B-C21).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Raw data are publicly available.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.
