Title: The role of foreign-owned businesses in the revitalisation of historic centres in three Catalan towns

Authors: Pau Serra Del Pozo

Addresses: Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Cr. Immaculada 22, 08017-Barcelona, Spain; Servei de Convivència, Diversitat i Participació Ciutadana, Diputació de Barcelona, Pg. de la Vall d'Hebron, 171, 08035 Barcelona, Spain

Abstract: Some derelict historical neighbourhoods in Barcelona, in Lleida and in Tortosa experienced the foreclosures of many native-owned small businesses in the early 1990s. The same areas witnessed a rather sudden upsurge of foreign immigrant-owned businesses since the late 1990s. Using scarce but valuable unpublished retail censuses data of the historic centres of the three towns, this paper contends that foreign entrepreneurs do contribute to urban regeneration there, through the creation of new small retail and service businesses. The paper concentrates on el Raval, a neighbourhood in the historical centre of Barcelona, where recently created foreign-owned businesses were keeping up with retail and services in the midst of the Spanish economic crisis. These types of businesses are not panacea, since many could still break out of its limited mode. Yet urban planners from the Government of Catalonia and from local governments could rely more on the stamina of foreign entrepreneurs.

Keywords: Catalan towns; foreign-owned businesses; urban revitalisation; historic neighbourhoods.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.085430

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.31 No.4, pp.534 - 556

Received: 17 Feb 2016
Accepted: 02 May 2016
Published online: 26 Jul 2017 *

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