As cities worldwide grapple with deepening inequalities, environmental pressures, and the impacts of global tourism, Barcelona has emerged as a leading example of embedding care ethics into urban governance. This paper examines Barcelona’s evolving approach to care-informed city planning, with a focus on its feminist urban planning strategies and governance innovations that prioritize social sustainability, inclusion, and community wellbeing.

Drawing on recent fieldwork, policy analysis, and collaboration with local organizations this study explores how Barcelona operationalizes care ethics to address the entangled challenges of urban resilience and sustainable tourism development. Initiatives such as the “Ciutat Cuidadora” (Caring City) program and the Superblock (Superilles) strategy offer concrete examples of how care principles are integrated into urban design, mobility, and governance frameworks. These initiatives aim to improve the quality of everyday life for residents, enhance gender equity, and foster inclusive participation, particularly for women, caregivers, and vulnerable groups.

The paper highlights Barcelona’s balancing act between maintaining its status as a global tourist destination and safeguarding the rights and wellbeing of its local communities. By embedding care into urban governance and planning, Barcelona offers an innovative governance model that advances Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11): making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. However, challenges remain regarding the institutionalization of care ethics in the face of economic and political pressures.

This case study contributes to debates on urban governance and care by providing insights into the transformative potential of care-based frameworks for cities navigating complex socio-economic and environmental transitions. It offers lessons for policymakers and practitioners seeking to integrate ethics of care into sustainable urban and tourism governance.

Um nachhaltige Lösungen für aktuelle Herausforderungen rund um multiple Care-Krisen zu entwickeln, braucht es die aktive Mitgestaltung und vielfältigen Perspektiven unterschiedlicher Beteiligter. Care-Räte sind ein zukunftsweisendes Instrument, um relevante Akteur*innen auf lokaler, regionaler, nationaler und supra-nationaler Ebene zusammen zu bringen und gemeinsam Lösungen für die vielfältigen vorhandenen Herausforderungen (fehlende Nahversorgung, Mobilitäts-Probleme, Überlastung pflegender Angehörige, Einsamkeit, Demokratieverdrossenheit, soziale Spaltung u.v.m.). Durch die Einbeziehung vieler unterschiedlicher Gruppen werden Sichtbarkeit und Anerkennung vielfältiger Beiträge zur Gemeinschaft gefördert, neue Kontakte und Netzwerke aufgebaut und sozialer Zusammenhalt.
gestärkt werden.

In einen Care-Rat gezielt mit einbezogen werden - neben Expert*innen, Aktivist*innen und Entscheidungsträger*innen dabei auch Akteur*innen, die eine oft unsichtbare, aber wichtige Rolle rund ums gute Miteinander spielen: engagierte Nachbar*innen, Bewohner*innen mit vielen Kontakten, Personen, die beruflich vieles "mitbekommen“ (Friseur*innen, Busfahrer*innen, Gastronom*innen, Lehrer*innen u.v.m.).

Im Rahmen der Konferenz würde ich gerne einen Care-Rat zu Care-Räten umsetzen. Nach einer kurzen Einführung zu Theorie, Methode und Umsetzungs-Erfahrungen soll die Methode "Care-Rat" unmittelbar erlebbar gemacht und miteinander beraten werden, inwiefern Care-Räte zur Bewältigung der Herausforderungen multipler Care-Krisen beitragen können.

The interconnectedness between the crisis of care and the ecological crisis has been well-documented (Floro 2012; Turquet et al. 2021). Advancing climate change is already impacting the quality of life and the provision of basic care services (Turquet et al. 2021; The Care Collective 2020). The necessity for a combined analysis of social and environmental issues is increasingly apparent (Sorlin 2014; Haraway 2016, 2016b; Bernacchi 2021; Serafini 2021; Nelson, Power 2018). Caring extends beyond human interactions, and 'an ethical reorganization of human-nonhuman relations is vital' (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017).

In this paper, I extend the notion of care, conceptualized as the fundamental infrastructure that allows for the daily reproduction of human life (Duffy 2005, 2011; Duffy, Armenia, and Stacey 2015) to encompass environmental components. In the augmented understanding of care, there is room for human care for humans, the human habitat, and the ecosystem, as well as nonhuman care in the form of ecosystem services. Human habitats located on coastal wetlands such as Venice (Italy) reveal how care is performed simultaneously in, for, and of the lagoon (Barausse, Rosinska 2025). The Venice Lagoon, the largest Mediterranean lagoon, is a shallow body of water with an average depth of around 1 meter, strongly interconnected with the human history of Venice. The lagoon is home to a dwindling and aging human population, with Venice being a city affected by over-tourism. The lagoon itself contains ecologically valuable habitats such as salt marshes, mudflats, and seagrass meadows, which are under immediate threat from climate change, coastal erosion, pollution, and eutrophication.

In this paper, I analyze various urban activism initiatives as 'caring for the city' (Dlabaja 2021) and for the environment. Examples include the No Grande Navi campaign, Poveglia per tutti, the history of the Vogalonga, and efforts to institutionalize one of the rowing centers (remiera). In these initiatives, caring for the heritage, the present-day population, and the environment intertwine and make the urge for joint social and environmental analysis and action ever more salient.