To embrace the country through its culture

Culture has ceased to be a mere complement and has become a structural necessity for our society. In a context of accelerated change like the one we are experiencing, marked by uncertainty and the fragility of life trajectories, what education and healthcare have done for decades—guaranteeing opportunities, security, and shared progress—is now insufficient if it is not accompanied by elements that make us feel connected, that give meaning to those who give meaning to things. And it is in this context that culture, with its resources and activities, can significantly help us. This function of giving meaning and articulating unfolds in different spheres. In education, the digital revolution and the breakdown of traditional frameworks mean that schools can no longer limit themselves to transmitting standardized knowledge; they must contribute to forming individuals capable of adapting, working with others, embracing diversity, and critically interpreting the reality that surrounds them. The ability to imagine, create, and combine languages ​​and experiences is as relevant today as mastery of academic content, and it is here that culture—in the form of arts, youth practices, and digital languages—ceases to be peripheral and becomes central. The same is true in health, where urban studies show consistent correlations between educational level, cultural participation, and indicators of well-being and life expectancy. Culture also provides narratives, symbols, and shared spaces in experiences of inclusion and community, allowing people to recognize themselves as part of a "we," beyond the divisions of class, origin, or age.

Therefore, when we speak of culture, we must do so in a general and cross-cutting sense. We are not only dealing with the "high culture" preserved by large institutions, but with a set of practices, knowledge, and languages ​​that permeate daily life: music and youth styles that reconfigure the relationship between school and adolescence; digital cultures that shift the axis of transmission from adults to young people; Neighborhood or village cultures that resist the commodification of the city and reclaim the right to place.

Embracing culture as a cross-cutting element implies rethinking public policies beyond rigid compartmentalization. The combination of education and culture is key to addressing the challenges of work, innovation, and coexistence in highly heterogeneous societies. Educational policies, designed for a relatively homogeneous mass democracy, now clash with more fragmented trajectories, multiple identities, and demands for personalization, while cultural policies carry the burden of having often been considered secondary and frequently disconnected from policies that seek to strengthen inclusion. The Barris a Barcelona initiative highlights its significance.

In this context, the idea of ​​the educating city—which will soon have a global event in Granollers—offers a useful framework, also for Catalonia as a whole. Understanding the city, town, or village as an educational space means acknowledging that education is not limited to what happens in school: the city itself becomes a curriculum, with its hidden corners, routes, facilities, festivals, and conflicts that educate as much as, or even more than, formal academic content. This conception compels us to rethink the municipality as a central, not subsidiary, educational and cultural actor, capable of integrating urban planning, education, culture, health, and social policies based on proximity. Catalonia has a significant foundation for moving in this direction: an extensive network of public libraries, auditoriums, theaters, civic centers, municipal music schools, cultural centers, and community centers, spread across large cities, medium-sized cities, and small towns. The challenge we now face is no longer so much the quantity of facilities as their integration into a cultural strategy that seeks collaboration and alliances with other policies and spaces. Experiences with local educational plans, community-based initiatives, and programs linking cultural facilities and educational centers—from libraries to artist residencies in schools—point to an approach that many Catalan municipalities have been exploring, often with limited resources but abundant creativity. The remaining step is to transform this constellation of experiences into a national policy that understands cultural facilities as a vital infrastructure for building community, and not merely as venues for activities. This means strengthening the participatory and deliberative dimension so that citizens are not only users but also co-producers of cultural life.