The Politics of Neighbouring: Migration, Proximity and Planning in Madrid's Barrios

El barrio, the Spanish neighbourhood, has been mobilised by contemporary social movements in Madrid. El barrio provides an open framework that puts neighbours, both citizens and non-citizens, in contact via the spaces of everyday life. In this thesis, I draw on Henri Lefebvre’s thinking to elaborate a spatial history of modes of political belonging grounded in el barrio. I illustrate how contemporary mobilisations echo and differ from earlier battles. El barrio is simultaneously a space where dominant notions of citizenship are grounded and where grassroots alternatives emerge. Historical perspective gained contributes a more nuanced understanding of contemporary mobilisations.