Thesis supervisors:
and Ludovic Halbert
While post-war urban development in France was characterized by central government intervention in the land and real estate markets, decentralization has been accompanied by a decline in public land policy initiatives by this actor. Since the 2000s, however, there has been a renewed ambition on the part of public authorities to intervene in land markets, in response in particular to the growing difficulties of access to housing and the problems of land artificialization observed in metropolitan areas. This relative reaffirmation of public land policy in France, underpinned by the rise of specific financing and dedicated organizations such as public land institutions (EPFs), appears counterintuitive in view of the changes taking place in European cities' production systems: growing budgetary pressures, rationalization and privatization of public housing stock, the significant role of private operators in the early stages of development projects, etc.
This thesis explores the apparent tension between, on the one hand, the growing and renewed role of private operators in the production of urban spaces and, on the other hand, the reconstitution of public land action capacity upstream of urban and real estate operations. Focusing on the practices and mechanisms deployed in the Île-de-France region since the 2010s, three avenues of analysis are proposed. First, the thesis examines the gradual restoration of public land action capacity in the Île-de-France region by studying the financial, legal, and regulatory mechanisms, socio-technical instruments, and organizational arrangements that underpin such mechanisms. Second, it examines the implications of this renewed land action on the system of urban space production and on the relationships between private real estate operators and the public actors involved in their regulation. Finally, it explores the ambivalent social and spatial effects of public land action on real estate operations in the Paris region, through an analysis of the sectors, i.e., the coordinated chains of actors, around which this action is structured. In doing so, this work questions the potential contribution of public land action mechanisms to the dynamics of tertiarization and financialization of urban production in the Paris Region.
Keywords
: Land policy, Land control, Land action, Financing circuits, Urban political economy, Digital technologies
The reconfiguration of public land purchase practices in the Paris Region. Circuits of investment, digital technologies, and connections with the urban development industry.
While urban development in France was underpinned by widespread state-led land purchase practices during the post-war era, the decentralization process engaged in the 1980s has been accompanied by a decline in such practices. Since the 2000s, however, there has been a renewed ambition on the part of public authorities to exert direct interference on land markets. Such an ambition has emerged in particular in response to the perceived exacerbation of both housing and environmental crises in metropolitan areas, and has been underpinned by the rise of dedicated tax-funded organizations such as the Établissements Public Fonciers (EPF). This re-emergence of public land purchase practices in France might appear counter-intuitive in view of the widely-documented changes taking place at the same time in the governance of European cities, such as an increase in budget pressures for public authorities, a wide-ranging rationalization and privatization of existing public land, and a growing role of private operators in urban development projects.
Year of enrollment
: 2023
Doctoral School
: City, Transportation, and Territories (VTT)