Barcelona Plural Economy.
A city at the service of collective needs

The report analyses how Barcelona can move towards a more democratic, sustainable, and territorially rooted economic model. Drawing on more than forty local and international experiences, it proposes strategies to turn the plural economy into a genuine city-wide public policy.

First, it identifies four key axes for democratising the economy: collective ownership, democratic governance, transformative redistribution, and democratic planning. These principles take shape in initiatives that combine public, cooperative, and community management to guarantee basic rights such as housing, energy, and food.

Second, it examines experiences from other territories—such as Hernani Burujabe, Community Wealth Building, and Cooperation Jackson—in order to extract lessons that can be applied to Barcelona. These models show that economic democracy requires its own infrastructures, ethical finance, and stable institutions capable of supporting social and cooperative initiatives over the long term.

Finally, the report proposes a strategy to consolidate the plural economy in three priority areas: food, housing, and energy. It recommends creating public instruments for shared planning and financing, promoting short supply chains and housing cooperatives based on use-value tenure, and expanding citizen-governed energy communities.

Date: 2025

Authors: Observatori Coòpolis (IDRA, La Ciutat Invisible, XES Barcelona)

With the support of: Generalitat de Catalunya

Keywords: economia plural, democràcia econòmica, transició ecosocial, polítiques públiques, Barcelona