Debates

Debates

Precarity and Gentrification: A Feedback Loop

Samuel Stein - 14 April 2015

How do rent hikes and labor precarity conspire to reinforce each other against tenants and workers? Samuel Stein...

Debates

The Right to Public Space

Gregory Smithsimon - 10 March 2015

Many of the commonly defended human rights (freedom of expression, of assembly, of information, of movement, etc.)...

Debates

“Gentrification or ghetto”: making sense of an intellectual impasse

Anne Clerval & Mathieu Van Criekingen & translated by Oliver Waine - 29 January 2015

The debate on the causes, effects and extent of the “gentrification” of working-class neighbourhoods in the central...

Debates

Interrupting Inequality: Crisis and Opportunity in Low-Income Housing Policy

Susan Saegert - 26 January 2015

Inequality in the United States is deeply rooted in issues of property ownership, wealth, race and class....

Debates

Is rurality a thing of the past?

Philippe Dubourg & translated by Oliver Waine - 8 January 2015

In the era of globalisation and metropolisation, is rurality an old-fashioned concept, a thing of the past? The...

Debates

The Age of the Renter

Tony Roshan Samara - 5 January 2015

Not all Americans own their home. In fact, more and more of them rent it. More and more of them also end up paying a...

Debates

The Violence of Sustainable Urbanity

Erik Swyngedouw - 10 November 2014

If Nature is an ideological construction that separates us from the environment, the contemporary search for...

Debates

Finance as a New Terrain for Progressive Urban Politics

Desiree Fields - 6 November 2014

Since the foreclosure crisis, inequalities have only deepened in the US, with most wealth accruing to the 1%. Desiree...

Debates

Using heritage status to combat segregation: the case of French housing estates

Marc Bertier & Hervé Marchal & Jean-Marc Stébé & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 October 2014

Challenging the idea that demolishing housing estates is all it takes to eradicate the social problems with which...

Debates

What role for urban farming?

Laure Le Gall & translated by Oliver Waine - 17 September 2014

While the benefits of farming activities in large West African cities are starting to be recognised within the...

Debates

Preparing for a protest vote?

Rémi Lefebvre & translated by Oliver Waine - 18 June 2014

Between 2008 and 2014, the French Socialist Party was, more than ever before, a party of “local politicians”. Here,...

Debates

The new banks of the Seine: all for the best, or just another Woody Allen set?

Mathieu Flonneau & translated by Oliver Waine - 21 May 2014

June 2013 saw the completion of a project to transform the riverside expressway on the Left Bank of the Seine in...

Debates

The Localism Act in London: institutionalising urban divisions

Justinien Tribillon - 16 April 2014

By decentralising planning powers to local communities, the British Conservative government claims that they are...

Debates

The poetry of the urban landscape

Émeline Bailly & translated by Oliver Waine - 9 October 2013

The ideal of “nature in the city” is a key characteristic of many urban projects. Émeline Bailly shows that the...

Debates

The grandeur and decadence of the suburbs

Violaine Girard & Jean Rivière & translated by Oliver Waine - 18 September 2013

Periurban areas emerged in the 2000s as “new” spaces indicative of recent changes in French society – the weakening...

Debates

Will local-government reform in London involve or abandon its citizens?

Martine Drozdz & translated by Oliver Waine - 3 July 2013

While the current financial crisis has compromised local authorities’ ability to deliver municipal services, the...

Debates

The Negotiated Urbanism of Grand Paris Express

Lara Belkind - 12 June 2013

In the fragmented context of Paris’s metropolitan and regional politics, the Grand Pari(s) design consultation and...

Debates

Identity checks and the law

Nathalie Ferré & translated by Oliver Waine - 24 April 2013

In France, the issue of identity checks is at the heart of the thorny debate on how to ensure better relations...

Debates

When agriculture meets the city…

André Torre & Lise Bourdeau-Lepage & translated by Oliver Waine - 10 April 2013

In this article, André Torre and Lise Bourdeau-Lepage consider the role of nature in the city through the prism of...

Debates

Jobs and geography: can the “functional hypercentrality” of Paris be an asset for the surrounding region?

Lise Bourdeau-Lepage & Élisabeth Tovar & translated by Oliver Waine - 20 February 2013

In a context of increasing competition among global cities, is it possible that Paris’s key asset is the spatial...

Debates

Do local politicians represent the people? A sociological portrait

Michel Koebel & translated by Oliver Waine - 28 November 2012

France’s 500,000 local councillors are regularly presented as the most popular elected officials and those closest to...

Debates

Rent control: a miracle solution to the housing crisis?

Jean Bosvieux & translated by Oliver Waine - 21 November 2012

The sharp rise in housing costs in France since the end of the 1990s has generated much debate on the subject of rent...

Debates

Participation and housing policies: a century-old phenomenon

Marie-Hélène Bacqué & Claire Carriou & translated by Oliver Waine - 24 October 2012

The recent renewed interest in participatory housing experiments is, in fact, linked to a much longer history that...

Debates

Social housing in Europe: the end of an era?

Noémie Houard & translated by Oliver Waine - 26 September 2012

Although there is no single European model for social housing, there are nevertheless a number of common trends and...

Debates

The digital city: challenges for the future

Serge Wachter & translated by Oliver Waine - 16 May 2012

What is the impact of digital technology on the city and its architecture? Serge Wachter analyses the way in which...

Debates

Organic school meals: what remains of the pioneer spirit?

Leïla Kebir & translated by Oliver Waine - 9 May 2012

The concept of “organic canteens” has proved remarkably successful, buoyed by the Grenelle de l’Environnement (the...

Debates

From Vélib’ to Autolib’: private corporations’ involvement in urban mobility policy

Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine - 25 April 2012

In December 2011 – four years after the launch of Vélib’ – Paris inaugurated Autolib’, the largest system of...

Debates

Water, sanitation, energy, waste: the dawn of the network-free city?

Sylvain Petitet & translated by Oliver Waine - 18 April 2012

Negative externalities, changes in society and technological innovation all call into question the industrial model...

Debates

Local food: a concrete Utopia

Christian Deverre & Jean-Baptiste Traversac & translated by Oliver Waine - 15 February 2012

Roland Vidal recently invited us to look beyond short food-supply chains and rethink local links between cities and...

Debates

The risk of nuclear accident: a territorial approach

Ambroise Pascal & translated by Oliver Waine - 1 February 2012

How many people live in the vicinity of French nuclear power stations? Recent events – notably in Japan, but also in...

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