Prácticas económicas alternativas de escala local en espacios urbanos: el caso de Zaragoza

Urban Farm DB summary

Since the 2008 crisis, alternative economic practices to the dominant system have proliferated, especially in urban areas where new social movements have taken stronger root. This study examines Zaragoza, Spain, governed in the previous legislative term by a new-left coalition, one of the so-called "councils of change." It selected practices operating at the local scale through unconventional procedures: community urban gardens, agroecological consumption markets and groups, community currencies (time banks, barter markets, and social currency), and self-managed social centers. A qualitative methodology combined semi-structured interviews with closed questionnaires and participant observation. These practices were found dispersed across the urban space and linked to urban social movements and local politics. The study concludes that their impact is limited in quantitative terms, but that they hold broad transformative potential owing to the characteristics of their practitioners and the support of local administration.