Paper short abstract:

This paper will analyze songs from the urban margins (areas in a process of transformation) with the aim of finding some clues as to how urban proposals could benefit from a better understanding of inhabitants' emotions.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will analyze songs from the urban margins, that is areas in the process of transformation, with the aim of showing how planning proposals could benefit from a better understanding of inhabitants' emotions. Such emotions are hardly ever included in debates about urban spatial transformation, as they are considered subjective, irrational and non-negotiable.

Urban margins are defined here as those areas that, no matter their geographical location inside the city, are at the margins of urban economic success. Their present situation and the stressful futures ahead engender a variety of intense emotions, both positive and negative, among people who live there. Such emotions, however, are rarely on the urban experts' agenda as they are seen as subjective, irrational and not debatable to the point that they are only socially permitted outside formal negotiation in the realms, for example, of artistic expression.

As a way of approaching these feelings, I will analyze popular songs created in those margins. Such songs can more freely express sometimes contradictory emotions about places through their musical and poetic language, giving us clues as to how life at the margins is experienced and felt. New proposals for urban transformation could benefit from making human emotion a part of the debate. This analysis of songs from the margins aims to contribute to this dialog.