ancient cities

78 Bilbao, Spain
In Bilbao, the museum became a spectacular
worldwide image campaign due not only to a possibly
irreplicable building, but also to local, contextual
economic and political conditions. Far from being
the trigger for and prime mover of revitalization, the
museum postdated it. So far it has not generated
substantial foreign investment in the Basque city, let
alone had sizable positive consequences in the job
market. Bilbao’s relatively good economic performance
in recent years, which so many in the media
attribute to the Guggenheim, began prior to its opening
and was due to both a reasonable regional economic
policy developed by the Basque government
and the positive phase of a long economic cycle,
which came to an end in 2001 and seemed to
rebound by 2004. Continued media attention preserves
the Bilbao effect, but if tourist attendance to
Bilbao starts to decrease (no one can guarantee that
it will keep its current levels) and the architecture
world begins to privilege alternative aesthetics in
design and building, the star of Bilbao might begin to
dim. The real consequences for the Basque city, however,
would be relatively limited, just as the impact of
the Guggenheim success was in the first place. Cities
are complexly determined formations, and a spectacular
media event, even projected on a worldwide
scale, is not enough to shift their fortunes.
If spectacular architecture does not suffice in turning
a struggling urban economy around, how can
cities and regions successfully implement globalization
policies that bring economic benefit to citizens?
Here is where the recent economic globalization of
the city-region in the Basque Country, as it is clearly
seen in patterns of transnational finance and foreign
trade, plays a prominent role. The pillars of this
recent Basque move toward globalization show
themes that were already present in the golden years
of industrial Bilbao: industrialization based on
exports and the reach of the local financial bourgeoisie
and its banks. This recent globalization, therefore,
is hardly a new phenomenon in Bilbao (except,
perhaps, for its scale, scope, and complexity), but
rather a new cycle in a centuries-old tendency by the
city to join global circuits in the world system.
Contemporary Economic Globalization
Bilbao’s contemporary international role and the
city-region’s new economic globalization are based
on the power of its regional foreign trade, which
has found a main partner in the European Union,
with export figures tripling between 1994 and
2004. Part of this foreign trade, which, inter alia,
reveals the Basque Country’s strength as a hightech
manufacturing region, is channeled through
the port of Bilbao—a port managed by the Spanish
government’s agencies and one that continues to
serve its ancient function of linking large segments
of the Spanish economy with the world. Bilbao’s
international role is also based on the flow of transnational
banking deployed by the city’s global
bank, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, mainly in
Latin America. These three important dimensions
of contemporary Basque economic power (trade
globalization, global connectivity via Bilbao’s port,
and financial globalization) demonstrate that present-day
Basque globalization is based on traditional
regional strengths that fostered local links with
global circuits in past historical periods, thus questioning
the alleged radical newness of globalization’s
current phase. Thus, as evidence of historical
continuity and a reminder that globalization is but
a partial factor in a city’s development, Bilbao’s
international role is a product of both the region’s
dependency on global trade and financial networks
and the intricate relationships of the region with
the nation-state.
See also Architecture
Further Readings
Gerardo del Cerro Santamaría
Abadie, A. and J. Gardeazabal. 2001. “The Economic
Costs of Conflict: A Case-Control Study for the
Basque Country.” Working Paper No. 8478, National
Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.
del Cerro Santamaría, Gerardo. 2007. Bilbao: Basque
Pathways to Globalization. London: Elsevier.
Díez Medrano, J. 1995. Divided Nations. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press.
Douglass, W., C. Urza, L. White, and J. Zulaika, eds.
1999. Basque Politics and Nationalism on the Eve of
the Millennium. Reno: University of Nevada, Center
for Basque Studies.
González Ceballos, S. 2005. “The Politics of the
Economic Crisis and Restructuring in the Basque
Country and Spain during the 1980s.” Space and
Polity 9(2):93–112.
Guasch, A. M. and J. Zulaika, eds. 2005. Learning from
the Bilbao Guggenheim. Reno: University of Nevada,
Center for Basque Studies.