Pedro Bravo's 'Antes todo esto era ciudad' critiques urban alienation and calls for collective reimagining

Pedro Bravo's book 'Antes todo esto era ciudad' analyzes how cities have shifted from communal spaces to products driven by financialization and digital migration. Published by Debate, the 304-page essay argues that urban environments now embody individualism and nationalism, leading to physical expulsion, precarity, and widespread disconnection. Bravo identifies housing as a financial asset, public space privatization, and culture's adaptation to rapid consumption as key factors in creating homogenized yet unequal cities globally. The author links daily struggles like housing inaccessibility and touristification to broader political and economic dynamics, framing the city as a mirror of contemporary society. In the second part, Bravo proposes decentralized urban cores, rethinking nature relationships, and new narratives to foster open coexistence, emphasizing hope and resistance against inevitable-seeming trends. The book avoids simplistic solutions, instead urging recognition that urban malaise stems from a revisable model, reclaiming cities as spaces of encounter. Priced at 19.85 euros, it maintains a tone balancing reflection and accessibility, using 'desamor' (disaffection) as an emotional and conceptual axis to describe urban estrangement.