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Bars are believed to be major drivers of secular evolution and radial mixing in spiral galaxies through its dynamical interaction with the disc and the halo. Bars are present in around 70% of dic galaxies and they are thought to be key to the rearrangement of material and angular momentum as well as in the building up of the central bulge. I will review our current understanding of how bars affect their hosting galaxies throughout time, placing in this context the Milky Way bar. I will present recent observational results based on integral field spectroscopy of 2D and radial distribution of the stellar and the ionised gas properties of a large sample of galaxies. I will also show some recent observational results on the issues of bar formation and evolution to conclude on the importance of bars in the galaxy makeover. |
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