Crisis of the social and emergence of sociality in the new scenarios of identity. The San Francisco district of Bilbao

Abstract

The San Francisco district in Bilbao (Spain) is undergoing a deep process of urban transformation in which there is a convergence of different dynamics —economic (property speculation), social (appearance of associations and social movements) and political (rehabilitation plans). In order to explain this transformation, we test two hypotheses in the article: gentrification and the crisis of the social institutions (politics, religion and work) that traditionally articulated society. To counterbalance the shortcomings of the two hypotheses we redefine them as mere “conditions of possibility” of the emergence of new forms of sociality, the depoliticisation of signifieds and the production of new spaces. San Francisco constitutes a variable cronotope that provokes a blurring in sociological configurations and in social norms and sanctions.

Keywords

• sociality
• gentrification
• social change
• urban space
• institutional crisis