The transformation of Madrid (Spain) from a small town in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula into a global financial, economic and political hub in the Ibero-American context in less than a century is unique in Europe. However, it has attracted little scholarly attention outside the interdisciplinary field of Spanish urban studies. By taking the formerly working-class neighbourhood of Lavapiés in Madrid as case study, and tracing the genealogy of urban policies as analytical lens, this article demonstrates how the construction of Madrid as a global city is historically rooted not only in the rise of neoliberal urbanism in Spain during the 1990s, but also in the creation of a dual city dating back to the mid-sixteenth century. The article concludes by arguing that the construction of so-called Madrid Global City has deep historical, class-based, and ideological roots which should be considered as a mechanism of continuous urban extractivism.
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), Grant Agreement No. 101183165.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor REA can be held responsible for them.