his article explores this duality through an analysis of the changinghistorical geography of Barcelona`s Raval district, an inner-cityworking-class community and the birthplace of Catalanindustrialization. From the 1920s onwards, elite groups and socialcommentators defined the Raval as Barcelona`s “Chinatown”, an imaginedgeography that continues to influence historical representations of thearea. Through a social history of the Raval, it is argued that the“Chinatown” myth served specific political ends, that it formed part ofa cultural project to impose a slum myth on Barcelona`s most importantand most rebellious working class district. The article concludes withan analysis of how this “moral geography” culminated in far-reachingplans for the moral and physical reordering of the Raval for thebenefit of urban elites.
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