The implementation of the 15-minute city model in Barcelona and the decline of the city’s nightlife industry

Abstract

Through data extraction from different data sources, collation of urban public policies, auto-ethnography and exploratory netnography, this article reveals how the implementation of the 15-minute city model in Barcelona (Spain) – one of the flagship cities for the 15-minute city model in Europe – parallels the decline of the city’s nightlife industry over the past decade, despite the fact that access to culture and leisure is a fundamental pillar of the 15-minute city model. The article ends up by arguing that the implementation of the 15-minute city model in Barcelona could also be seen as enacting a cultural and moral agenda for the promotion of “good leisure”, and, by extension, the “good citizen” in the 15-minute city Barcelona.