Jane Jacobs Walks Barcelona

Jane’s Walks are urban walks organized to recognize the legacy and contributions of urban activist Jane Jacobs. Jane’s walks are a community tool to reclaim the everyday life of the neighborhoods. We walk through the neighborhood making different stops and building a collective story about the struggles and resistance; the social and political genealogy; the problems and victories; and ultimately, about what people’s everyday lives look like, their experiences, desires and needs in the neighborhood.

In 2007, Jane’s Walks began to be held in cities in North America and later other cities around the world have joined this initiative. Every year, during the first weekend in May, Jane’s walks are organized in more than 500 cities around the world.

Jane’s Walks are intended to recognize the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) whose writings advocated for community-centered city design and construction. Although she did not study urban planning, her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” published in 1961 provided groundbreaking ideas about how cities work, how they evolve and how they fail, ideas that are still relevant and influential in architecture, urban planning, politics and activism.

Jane Jacobs wrote about the importance of density and vitality in cities, through what she called “the dance of the sidewalks,” that is, the dance between neighbors and those walking through the neighborhood, essential elements for public space to enjoy vitality.

The walks seek to offer a people-centered approach to the local culture, social history and urban issues of the neighborhood. Jane Jacobs fervently defended that people who live in a neighborhood are the ones who best understand how it works and that their knowledge is necessary to improve and strengthen it.

Col·lectiu Punt 6 has been organizing Jane’s Walks in Barcelona since 2011. Every year we choose a neighborhood and organize the itinerary and content with people, associations and social movements in the area.

• 2011 – Santa Caterina i la Ribera
• 2012 – Porta
• 2013 – Poble Sec
• 2014 – Sants
• 2015 – La Mina
• 2016 – Santa Coloma de Gramenet
• 2017 – La Marina
• 2018 – La Verneda i la Pau
• 2019 – Baró de Viver
• 2021 – El Clot i la Salut. Dos recorridos
• 2022 – El Raval
• 2023 – Fort Pienc
• 2024 – Parc i La Llacuna del Poblenou

Advocating for urban vitality and people’s embodied knowledge are only part of Jane Jacobs legacy that has influenced our work and our way of understanding the city from a feminist urban planning perspective.

“The dance of the sidewalks of a good city is never repeated from one place to another, and in all places it is always filled with new improvisations”  (Jane Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961)