Social Inequality and Residential Segregation in Spanish Global Cities. the Cases of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia (2001 - 2021)

Over the last three decades, the most populated Spanish cities have experienced significant spatial, social, and economic changes. The new urban economies have played an essential role in the acceleration of such transformations, entailing a range of both positive and negative impacts at the spatial, social, economic, and environmental levels. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of how the advancement of the globalization and deindustrialization processes has encouraged social polarization in the Spanish cities of Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, as well as a significant increase in intra-urban socioeconomic residential segregation.

In particular, the globalization of the three metropolises have strengthened their position in the world hierarchy of global cities, becoming important poles of attraction for multinational companies, investments, tourists and qualified human capital.However, the economic growth of these cities has not been endorsed in the social sphere. The period between 2001 and 2011 is clearly marked by the influence of the economic crisis of 2008. The polarization of the occupational structure, the structural decline of industrial employment and the sharp increase in unemployment then fuelled the increase in social inequality in these cities. The consolidation of the unequal dynamics during the period of expansion that began in 2015 highlights that inequality has become a structural element of the current dynamics of the main Spanish global cities.

The research concludes by arguing that the increase in levels of social inequality and residential segregation reflects the trend towards polarized urban models, which reproduce in urban space the differences observed in the social structure. In this context, the growing contrasts observed between the winning and losing areas and groups of globalization suggest that the main social challenge of global contemporary cities is to be able to move towards economic development, without relegating the disadvantaged groups and spaces from the process of modernization