Uses of Time

Working life is conditioned by an increasing number of results-based demands, and rising levels of competitiveness: employees now have to compete with themselves as well as other people. But the achievement of goals does not always depend on the individual worker, or the efforts she or he may make. It depends increasingly on guidelines that are often decided a long way from the workplace. The new Barcelona Metròpolis dossier analyses these new realities, with the aim of contributing to the debate from a multidisciplinary perspective. Published in issue 131, the subject is introduced in the editorial Repensar l’organització del treball [Rethinking the Organisation of Work] by the magazine’s editor, Milagros Pérez Oliva.

Professor of the sociology of work at the University of Cádiz Sofía Pérez de Guzmán opens the special issue with a reflection on new work cultures. “The idea of the entrepreneurial paradigm as the archetype of the good worker is growing, together with emerging jobs linked to technology and a new kind of moonlighting that seeks to balance vocation and economic sustainability”, she says.

Thomas Coutrot and Coralie Perez, authors of the book Redonner du sens au travail, speak of the Great Resignation Phenomenon, and call for serious consideration of the question of how to make work meaningful again as “an organised activity through which human beings transform the natural and social world, and also themselves”.

Psychologist Dolors Liria speaks of the emotional cost of work in a complex, hyper-demanding and hyper-connected working world, in which feelings of instability and uncertainty are the key constants. “Organisations have a responsibility to promote healthy workplaces”, she says.

Economist Joan Sanchis, author of the book Quatre dies. Treballar menys per viure en un món millor, defends the reduction in working time as a recipe for improving productivity and quality of life, and at the same time helping to create more sustainable and inclusive cities.

For his part, Joan Miquel Verd, director of the Centre for Sociological Studies on Everyday Life and Work (QUIT), focuses his reflections on the precariousness of youth employment, which “is starting to assume contractual forms other than temporary contracts, such as involuntary part-time employment”.

Sociologist Pilar Carrasquer talks about the challenges presented by the labour market from a gender perspective, suggesting the need to consider “the debate on the reduction of the working day from a broader perspective, one that takes into account the distribution of total workload, and the centrality that paid work has always had”.

Pablo Sanz de Miguel and Martí Fernández analyse teleworking experiences and the regulations that different countries have adopted since the Covid-19 pandemic. They say that “Spain has adopted an approach aimed primarily at protecting workers rather than promoting access to this way of working”.

The dossier closes with Manel del Castillo, chair of the Fundació Factor Humà and a staunch advocate of social conscience within companies, which includes the employees’ quest for fulfilment, as they need to have a shared, transcendental purpose.

Also in Barcelona Metròpolis…  

The interviews in this issue explore reflections on the university, research, science and poetry. Writer Toni Pou talks to scientist Laia de Nadal, rector of Pompeu Fabra University, a post she took on just over a year ago. “Being rector means setting aside direct research to some degree, but I think it’s interesting to be part of the decision-making process”, she says. Anna Ballbona interviews Blanca Llum Vidal, who is first and foremost a poet, but is also the author of an epistolary novel and editor of Víctor Català’s short stories. “As a feminist, I’m concerned about the present time, because there are discourses that end up being authoritarian,” she says.

In the ‘Visions Urbanes’ section, there are two articles with a focus on urban planning and the city. Journalist Meritxell M. Pauné analyses the project for the renovation of the Plaça dels Àngels, where “the urban planning debate overlaps with a deeper and more complex reflection on the function of this ‘hard’ square in today’s Ciutat Vella district”. Jesús Méndez talks about the future Ciutadella del Coneixement, Barcelona’s new scientific venture, and takes a look at the spaces within it, in particular the Mercat del Peix research complex, and also the park’s emblematic buildings, such as the Hivernacle greenhouse and the Martorell Exhibition Centre.

Randi Williams, who visited Barcelona to take part in STEAMConf, is the focus of the ‘En Trànsit’ section. A researcher, educator and robotics expert, she studies how to integrate ethics into artificial intelligence (AI) education, and is the founder of the Boston Chapter of Black in Robotics.

The Barcelona en Dades [Barcelona in Figures] section is dedicated to the recent inauguration of the new Barcelona Dades portal. This is discussed by the director of Barcelona City Council’s Municipal Data Office (OMD) Màrius Boada i Pla and the head of the OMD’s Department of Statistics and Data Dissemination and Open Data, María Jesús Calvo, with Oriol Pàmies and Carles Javierre analysing the content by looking at illustrative concrete examples.

This time, the attention of the Debat’s nine experts is focused on Barcelona as the designated World Capital of Architecture 2026. In the culture section you will also find a homage to mark the 100th anniversary of the very first radio broadcast, and in particular the contribution made by women to this century of history, written by Elvira Altés.

In the books section, we highlight Thais Morales’ review of the comic Darrere les Persianes, by Isabel Franc and Rosa Navarro, a graphic history of the lesbian women who have made Barcelona a proud city.  Meanwhile, Joan Subirats talks about España, el pacto y la furia, by Enric Juliana, in which “the chosen observatory, which is at the same time the book’s central protagonist, is Madrid”. The exhibition pages are devoted to Jeff Wall’s Possible Tales. which is on at the Virreina Centre de la Imatge until 13 October.

The magazine closes with the short story Com va morir la tia Cristina (How Aunt Cristina Died), by Enric Gomà. The illustrations for the story, together with the cover and the dossier are by Patricia Cornellana, and the images in the photographic insert La llum de Barcelona, which explores the city through the quality, depth and structure provided by light, are the work of Ignasi Raventós.