Movement in materiality and time, making visible the diversity and tensions between the agentsin public spaces. A sociocultural analysis of the uses and meanings of a cultural asset. The Plaza Mayor of Madrid

Abstract

This article reconstructs the dynamics of a cultural asset in the city of Madrid in order to record the uses and meanings that are built in its daily life. This is the case of the Plaza Mayor, which has been the scene of events and demonstrations since its beginnings and which currently configures diverse identities as a product of social, urban, economic, political, tourist and architectural changes.

In the form of a descriptive narrative, the ultimate goal is to generate knowledge that allows us to understand the symbolic organization of the square. Methodological work was carried out with observations, analysis of documents and informal conversations. As a result, it was possible to identify a set of social inequalities resulting from an increase in visitors, from the gentrification process itself, from the erosion in the quality of life of those who live there, which were shaping a square with other relational logics. These results were analyzed from a socio-anthropological perspective.