The transformation of Madrid (Spain) from a small town in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula into a global financial, economic and political hub in the Ibero-American context in less than a century is unique in Europe. However, it has attracted little scholarly attention outside the interdisciplinary field of Spanish urban studies. By taking the formerly working-class neighbourhood of Lavapiés in Madrid as case study, and tracing the genealogy of urban policies as analytical lens, this article demonstrates how the construction of Madrid as a global city is historically rooted not only in the rise of neoliberal urbanism in Spain during the 1990s, but also in the creation of a dual city dating back to the mid- sixteenth century. The article concludes by arguing that the construction of so-called Madrid Global City has deep historical, class-based, and ideological roots which should be considered as a mechanism of continuous urban extractivism.

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Madrid,Global city,Lavapiés,Madrid Nuevo Norte,Gentrification,Touristification

• Social and Economic Geography - Social Sciences