Last Thursday, May 14, AmicsUAB resumed its Dinners Among Friends ("Sopars Entre Amics") series with a gathering held at the Via Granados restaurant in Barcelona, focused on the challenges of coexistence and civic behaviour in cities. The session brought together 13 participants from the fields of security, public management and other sectors linked to community life.
The guest speaker was Montserrat Surroca Comas, Commissioner for Coexistence at Barcelona City Council, who explained the reform process behind the city’s new Coexistence Ordinance, recently approved after extensive negotiation and broad political and social consensus. The event was introduced by UAB Vice-Rector for Communication, Virginia Luzón.
During the dinner, participants discussed some of the main challenges related to coexistence in public spaces, including noise, inappropriate use of shared spaces, graffiti, street drinking gatherings and uncivil behaviour involving pets. The discussion also addressed the difficulty of regulating these issues solely at the municipal level and the need to move towards a more metropolitan and coordinated approach to coexistence.
The speaker also shared data on the implementation of the ordinance and discussed the debates surrounding sanctions, their effectiveness and the limitations of punitive models. In the discussion that followed, special emphasis was placed on the importance of education, shared values and mutual respect as essential tools for building more respectful and cohesive public spaces.
With this session, AmicsUAB revives a format designed to foster spaces for reflection and debate in a close and participatory environment, connecting knowledge, current affairs and social commitment. The association is already working on future editions of the Dinners Among Friends series, focusing on current and relevant topics for professionals linked to universities, public management and the business world.
