Concealed productions of structural violence: a cultural flagship in post-authoritarian Spain

ABSTRACT This article contributes to examinations of structural violence and flagship architectural projects. Neoliberal urbanism contributes to European urban stakeholders’ efforts to increasingly become entrepreneurial forces, generating intense competition investment and tourism. There is a multitude of marketing initiatives, but the inclusion of cultural flagship projects is notably prevalent, particularly after the exemplary success of the Guggenheim Museum that served as a model for the ‘Cidade da Cultura’ (CdC) cultural museum in the Spanish city, Santiago de Compostela. While the claim to promote culture and tourism is a common assertion, this project is highly political in nature. This article demonstrates that the allure of progress via the production of a ‘modern’ urban cultural icon obscured the structural violence of the project. Indeed, flagship architectural projects can be employed as a mechanism of exclusion. I argue that the CdC is best understood by attending to how the project concealed the production of political structural violence (i.e., economic and autocratic governance). In this case, public was excluded at the expense of an elite few CdC stakeholders’ funding priorities to attempt to forge a project for their own benefit.