Debates

Debates

Towers of Power

Jean-Marie Huriot & translated by Oliver Waine - 25 January 2012

Following on from Manuel Appert’s contribution, Jean-Marie Huriot discusses what is at stake in the skyscraper race....

Debates

Shale Gas: Local Democracy vs Central Government

Pascal Terrasse & translated by Oliver Waine - 18 January 2012

Without local consultation, the French government has granted permission for the exploration of shale gas plays...

Debates

Why isn’t there enough housing in France?

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Oliver Waine - 11 January 2012

The idea that France is experiencing a serious housing deficit, requiring a massive home-building policy is the...

Debates

The difficulties of housing the Chinese “sandwich class”

Jie Chen & Bernard Vorms & translated by Oliver Waine - 21 December 2011

In China, young people from the middle classes are said to belong to a “sandwich class”: they do not have enough...

Debates

Skyline policy: the Shard and London’s high-rise debate

Manuel Appert & translated by Oliver Waine - 14 December 2011

At a time when major cities are racing to build higher than ever, and when the construction of skyscrapers in France...

Debates

Kanal İstanbul: a “crazy project” serving political ambitions

Yoann Morvan & translated by Oliver Waine - 7 December 2011

The current proliferation of mega-projects in the Istanbul metropolitan area is both undeniable and impressive. The...

Debates

Is rising home ownership bad for employment?

Jean Bosvieux & Bernard Coloos & translated by Oliver Waine - 9 November 2011

Homeowners everywhere are less mobile than tenants. However, does home ownership have a negative effect on...

Debates

The desirable city or the sustainable city: what is the role of green spaces?

Jean-François Guet & translated by Birdwell Institute - 2 November 2011

While green spaces are in great demand among city-dwellers, their presence alone is not enough to make the city...

Debates

Participatory democracy in large-scale contexts: citizen participation in urban planning in Paris and Córdoba

Héloïse Nez & translated by Oliver Waine - 19 October 2011

Participatory urban planning often comes up against the question of scale, with local councillors accepting to...

Debates

The Fantastical Accounts of Grand Paris

Frédéric Léonhardt & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 28 September 2011

After four years of ongoing debate, the French government’s Grand Paris scheme has spawned a large-scale mass transit...

Debates

Integrating the train into the city: some thoughts from Spain

Luis Santos y Ganges & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 21 September 2011

Are inner-city railways condemned to form boundaries or barriers within the city? Based on a critique of the...

Debates

Designing protests in urban public space

Tali Hatuka - 14 September 2011

Social and political protests in urban public spaces are multiplying in cities all around the world. Tali Hatuka...

Debates

New Orleans as a Rust Belt City?

Robert J. S. Ross - 6 July 2011

New Orleans needs to recover not only from the 2005 catastrophic flooding of Katrina, but also from a much more...

Debates

For a Critique of the Liberal Foundations of American Cities

David Imbroscio - 29 June 2011

Profoundly touched by the consequences of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, David Imbroscio seeks concrete political...

Debates

Who cares about care? Health care rationalization and the demise of a public hospital after Katrina

Anne M. Lovell - 8 June 2011

Charity Hospital served the poor and uninsured in one of the US’s unhealthiest cities. Though repaired after Katrina,...

Debates

Bienville’s Dilemma: New Orleans Between Site and Situation

Richard Campanella - 25 May 2011

Ever since its founding at the mouth of the Mississippi river, New Orleans is the result of a delicate compromise...

Debates

The (mis)measurement of periurbanization

Anne Lambert & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 11 May 2011

(Peri)urban sprawl is unanimously decried as a cause for economic, environmental and social concern. And yet defining...

Debates

The Wealth of Local Currencies

Sophie Donzel & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 27 April 2011

Following up on Smaïn Laacher’s essay on Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS), Sophie Donzel, deputy mayor of...

Debates

Access to home-ownership: what are the effects of the economic crisis?

Bernard Vorms & translated by Oliver Waine - 20 April 2011

A 70% home-ownership rate? This is the stated objective of the reform that has recently come into effect in France,...

Debates

The Handicaps of Handicapped Housing

Catherine Carpentier & Emmanuelle Colboc & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 13 April 2011

Since February 2005, all new and renovated housing in France has to meet standards of accessibility for the disabled....

Debates

Suburbanization as a Project

Martin Vanier & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 6 April 2011

Experts and policies fail to recognize the contradictions that urban sprawl creates and rarely go beyond directives....

Debates

Homosexual City, Homophobic Banlieue?

Éric Fassin & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 9 March 2011

Is homophobia prevalent in social housing projects? Is sexual orientation the new divide between civilizations? Éric...

Debates

Housing: for an act III of the decentralization process

Patrice Lanco & translated by Michael Stokes - 18 February 2011

Although housing has not been concerned before now by decentralization, the contrasted realities of local markets...

Debates

The city is sustainable development

Jacques Lévy & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 9 February 2011

After unraveling the divergent conceptions of the relationship between “nature” and “society” that underlie the...

Debates

Building cities without young urban planners?

Jean-Philippe Gallardo & translated by Claudio Cambon - 2 February 2011

The National Collective of Young Urban Planners (CNJU) is sounding the alarm bell about the discrimination that...

Debates

Why Build New Housing?

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 28 January 2011

Can building more houses solve the housing problem? Jean-Claude Driant shows that a simple quantitative approach does...

Debates

“Roma Villages” or the Reinvention of Cités de Transit

Olivier Legros & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 3 January 2011

In France, many Bulgarian and Romanian Roma migrants are being deported back to their home country. Certain selected...

Debates

Grand Huit, big gamble, big problem

Jean-Pierre Orfeuil & translated by Michael Stokes - 22 December 2010

The secretary of State for the development of Paris and its region, Christian Blanc, left office in July 2010. He...

Debates

The New French Ghettos

Hervé Marchal & Jean-Marc Stébé & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 16 December 2010

Are housing projects in France – particularly the French slums euphemistically termed Zones Urbaines Sensibles (ZUS...

Debates

The Virtues and Vices of the Growth of Homeownership

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 24 November 2010

Why is it necessary to become a homeowner? Jean-Claude Driant examines the arguments for and against policies that...

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