Barcelona has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, and at the same time one of the highest life expectancies. This has significant social and economic - as well as demographic - consequences. Today, the fall in the birth rate, increased life expectancy, and changes in family structure are making a review of public policies essential.
At the root of the fertility crisis lie social factors that condition the decision to have children. Job insecurity and difficulties in accessing housing explain why young people are becoming independent later in life, and this in turn influences the decision to have children. For many women, the optimum period to have children from a biological point of view coincides with the most demanding time in terms of professional career consolidation. These and other conditioning factors result in delaying having children until an age when fertility is declining, meaning that many women end up not having children at all, or having fewer than they would have liked. The fertility crisis and family diversity is the theme of the dossier in issue 129 of Barcelona Metròpolis magazine. As the magazine’s editor, Milagros Pérez Oliva explains, these and other conditioning factors affect the composition and evolution of family structures, and the great public policy challenge is to facilitate full integration of this family diversity.
Consequences and alternatives
Six experts explain how this crisis is impacting on society, the consequences it has, and the alternatives. In his article, Pau Miret discusses the demographic impact of the fertility crisis in the Barcelona metropolitan area, and points out that the ageing of the population is not in fact pushing us towards the point of collapse as is often believed.
Following the model of the Nordic countries, Elisa Stinus argues that action is needed in four areas: the period of development between birth and three years of age, promotion of schools as key to work/ family life balance and guaranteeing opportunities, the role of companies in terms of flexible working hours, and the importance of the role of the community, as the void left by the disappearance of the extended family must be filled at community level.
Social anthropologist Diana Marre stresses the need to recognise and integrate diverse families; such families have always existed, but they are now visible, accepted and recognised, and this gives their members rights.
Itxasne Atanes talks about the emotional roots of the fertility crisis, and points out that the mind-body disconnect in today’s society makes it difficult to understand the real needs of human beings, which include having children.
In her article, anthropologist and political scientist Christel Keller refers to the disappearance of the extended family, the difficulties involved in parenting and the emergence of new spaces for the exchange of knowledge, resources and care tasks.
Professor of constitutional law Octavio Salazar closes issue 129’s dossier by presenting a redefinition of parenthood, one that is bringing about hopeful changes, but that also raises questions. He asks why men are rewarded for taking on responsibilities that women have always assumed without any value being assigned to them.
Interviewees of international renown
Sculptor Jaume Plensa and film director Juan Antonio Bayona are two of the internationally renowned artists interviewed in this issue of Barcelona Metròpolis. Plensa explains to journalist Aina Mercader how he conceives his works in relation to the space they will occupy, and how he approaches the creative process, and Bayona, interviewed by Violeta Kovacsics at the Sitges Film Festival where he presented his latest film La sociedad de la nieve, talks about how he got into the world of film with the support of his teacher Lluís Rey, and how he manages the fit between his personal life and the motion picture industry.
In the “Urban Visions” section, Tim Marshall, emeritus professor of planning at Oxford Brookes University, talks about how he sees the expansion of the Barcelona History Museum (MUHBA), which is celebrating its 80th anniversary by intensifying its interest in contemporary Barcelona, growing its network and strengthening its online presence.
The second article in this section addresses a very different subject: the challenge to reduce textile waste and reuse clothes in Barcelona. Clara Mallart explains how overproduction and overconsumption of clothing is one of the most significant and visible environmental impacts of this industry.
Writer and winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature Abdulrazak Gurnah is featured in the “In Transit” section in a profile written by journalist Núria Juanico, who explains that the characters in the Tanzanian author’s novels are about ordinary people suffering from culture shock and the feelings of alienation and loneliness that affect Africans forced to flee to Europe in order to survive.
In issue 129 of Barcelona Metròpolis, “Barcelona in Figures” takes on the challenge of presenting a graphic representation of what the people of Barcelona are like; how they live and what they think. It has been possible to produce this ‘snapshot’ – created by journalist Oriol Pàmies and graphic designer Carles Javierre Kohan – thanks to a survey carried out by Barcelona Municipal Services based on 6,000 interviews with adults.
Culture Folder
“Education is a collective task”, says journalist Lara Bonilla at the beginning of the “Debate” section of the Culture Folder, which seeks to provide answers to the question “Who educates our children?”. To do so, she put it to nine experts from fields as diverse as gaming, advertising, porn cinema, the media and education.
In the “Trends” section, lawyer and intellectual property expert Enric Enrich, analyses a hot topic: the legal challenges posed by disruptive technologies in the field of intellectual property, image rights and the protection of privacy and personal data.
La Barcelona de Pilar Aymerich is also concerned with images and personal data as well as feelings. This book of memoirs by the photographer from Barcelona is based on 239 striking images, fragments of the history of the city itself and of its inhabitants.
The city is also the central theme in Roses de Foc de Barcelona, where Andreu Farràs discusses the great explosions of violence in the Catalan capital during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
This issue of the Cultural Folder comes to an end with an exhibition of ceramics by Mallorcan artist Miquel Barceló at La Pedrera, where pieces created between 1995 and the present day are on display.
In the photographic insert, Roc Isern presents Barcelona as an elegant interplay of shapes and urban pathways where the most emblematic parts of the city become a work of art. And the final pages of the magazine enable readers to discover the short story “El no-res a Barcelona” by Lluís-Anton Baulenas.