This thesis examines post-socialist urban transformations in Saint Petersburg through the lens of the renovation of Soviet architectural heritage, which reveals the rise of urban authoritarianism. Using a mixed methodology—combining interviews, observation, mapping, statistics, network analysis, and online ethnography—it explores the political, economic, and social forces that have shaped the city since the fall of the USSR. The research highlights the gradual commercialization of the "socialist city," while challenging the dominant narratives of neoliberalization, revealing in particular the clientelist and authoritarian dynamics of urban power at work in the demolition and reconstruction projects of Soviet buildings. The Narvskaya Zastava neighborhood, a former emblematic working-class area, serves as the main case study for analyzing the resulting tensions between heritage preservation and urban transformation. Based on both fieldwork and digital research, the thesis shows that heritage is becoming a strategic space for contesting authoritarianism and forced politicization. Architectural, historical, and legal expertise is mobilized as a political resource by residents, activists, professionals, and, in some cases, representatives of the authorities, revealing the internal flaws and tensions of the authoritarian state. However, the study highlights the plurality of rationales that structure residents' reactions, whether favorable or opposed to renovation projects, and reveals post-socialist social relations that are much more complex than a simple opposition between winners and losers of economic liberalization.

Defense on Friday, January 30, 2026

Year of enrollment: 2020
Doctoral school: VTT – City, Transportation, and Territories

Composition of the jury:

• Béatrice VON HIRSCHHAUSEN, CNRS Research Director, Géographie-cités/Centre Marc Bloch (Rapporteur)
• Martin MÜLLER, University Professor, University of Lausanne (Rapporteur)
• Elsa VIVANT, University Professor, Gustave Eiffel University (Thesis Director)
• Martine DROZDZ, CNRS Researcher, LATTS/Maison française d’Oxford (Co-supervisor)
• Claire CARRIOU, University Professor, University of Paris-Est Créteil (Examiner)
• Lydia COUDROY DE LILLE, University Professor, Lumière Lyon 2 University (Examiner)
• Ozan KARAMAN, CNRS Research Fellow, LATTS (Examiner)
• Perrine POUPIN, CNRS Research Fellow, CRESSON (ENSA Grenoble) (Examiner)

The article Olga Suslova – Post-socialist urban transformations in Saint Petersburg: The advance of urban authoritarianism through urban renewal first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

The thesis analyzes how the "smart city" is becoming institutionalized within French local authorities. It draws on the concepts of local public entrepreneurship, interstices, the circulation of models, and translation. It focuses on three different areas: La Rochelle, a medium-sized city; Paris-Saclay, part of a metropolis; and the Communauté de Communes du Pays Haut Val d'Alzette, a rural area on the border with Luxembourg. Across all three areas, there is a clear quest for existence on the part of the departments in charge of information systems. Their directors, who are effectively local public entrepreneurs, sometimes working with elected officials, play a pivotal role: they take advantage of institutional gaps to experiment locally with socio-technical systems (urban data platforms, digital services) and strive to interest other local actors in these digital innovations, thereby strengthening their own local authority. These initiatives do not arise in a vacuum: national and European funding is essential, as is the presence of various advisors and consultants. These localized projects are thus part of a dynamic and sometimes contested circulation of various public and private models. In all cases, the crystallization process that leads to the commoditization of the "smart city" is the result of a long process of repetition, displacement, and extension.

Defense on Friday, November 28, 2025

Year of enrollment: 2020
Doctoral school: OMI – Organizations, Markets, Institutions

Composition of the jury:

• Gilles Jeannot, University Professor, Ecole nationale des ponts et chaussées, Thesis Director
• Cécile Blatrix, University Professor, Agro-Paris Tech, Rapporteur
• Renaud Epstein, University Professor, Sciences Po Saint Germain en Laye, Rapporteur
• Antoine Courmont, Senior Lecturer, Gustave Eiffel University, Examiner
• Mathieu Vidal, Senior Lecturer, Institut National Universitaire Champollion, Examiner
• Nadia Arab, University Professor, Paris School of Urban Planning, University of Paris Est Créteil, Chair

The article Ismaïl Hamoumi – The institutionalization of the smart city: public entrepreneurs, interstices, and the circulation of models first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

This thesis examines the intertwining of transport infrastructure, spatial planning, and urban imaginaries in the production of metropolitan space, focusing on the case of Greater Paris. It argues that infrastructure is not only a technical artifact, but also a political and discursive instrument through which power, territory, and modernity are negotiated. The imaginaries of planning are understood here as collective visions and symbolic orders endowed with spatial force: they define boundaries, legitimize actions, and influence notions of justice and sustainability. Using discourse analysis, archival research, and field observation, this study traces how Greater Paris planning regimes have mobilized notions of density, compactness, and mobility to promote socio-spatial cohesion. From postwar new towns to the Grand Paris Express (GPE), these strategies have reinterpreted metropolitan integration through the transit-oriented development (TOD) model, while reproducing the persistent hierarchies between Paris and its suburbs. An in-depth case study in Bobigny shows how infrastructure interventions—metro extension, tram reactivation, new transport hubs—materialize these imaginaries while generating territorial tensions and forms of unequal development. A comparative reflection on the metropolitan region of Rome places these dynamics in a European context, highlighting the decisive role of institutional and political frameworks. Thus, justice and sustainability appear as contingent processes, resulting from historically situated struggles around territory and mobility. By highlighting the constitutive role of urban imaginaries in spatial practice, it repositions planning as a field of interpretation—a critical space that reveals both the aspirations and contradictions of contemporary metropolitan futures.

Defense on Monday, December 15, 2025

Year of enrollment: 2021
Doctoral school: VTT—City, Transportation, and Territories

Composition of the jury:

• Greet De Block, University Professor, University of Antwerp, Examiner
• Laurent Devisme, University Professor, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Nantes, Rapporteur
• Xavier Desjardins, University Professor, Sorbonne University, Rapporteur
• Martine Drozdz, CNRS Researcher, Maison Française d'Oxford / CNRS, Examiner
• Massimo Moraglio, Senior Researcher, Technische Universität Berlin, Co-supervisor
• Arnaud Passalacqua, University Professor, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Examiner
• Nathalie Roseau, University Professor, École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Thesis Director

The article Mariana Reis Santos – A Region in Motion: Imaginaries of Planning, Justice, and Mobility Experiences in Greater Paris since the 1960s first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

This thesis questions the role of US universities in the division between fine art and folk art, and more specifically in the qualification and professionalization of artists. This analysis is based on the example of ceramists in the state of Georgia (in the southeastern United States), and my research is primarily based on semi-structured interviews with potters and sculptors, as well as observations of their workplaces. My research suggests a comparative dimension, highlighting the specificities of the cultural field in the United States, at the heart of which are universities.
My thesis takes a socio-historical approach, analyzing the evolution of ceramics in the context of the development of higher education in the 20th century, with the emergence of university folklore studies and art departments. It is organized into three main parts.
The first part is devoted to folk pottery, or artisanal pottery. It traces the settlement of potters in the 18th and 19th centuries in the Georgian countryside, their prosperity within this rural economy, and then their near disappearance in the 20th century. It shows how American universities helped elevate this type of pottery to the status of cultural heritage, while excluding potters who did not meet the criteria for traditional craftsmanship established by folklore specialists.
The second part focuses on the emergence of ceramic artists and their integration into universities. This development highlights the participation of women in the artification of ceramics, which gained momentum with the Arts and Crafts movement in the late 19th century. The first ceramicists joined art departments at the beginning of the 20th century, but the process of institutionalization intensified between 1945 and 1975. This latter period was marked by exponential growth in universities, largely due to a federal desire to democratize higher education. Like many other creators, ceramists working in faculties had to define their roles, outline their profession, and establish the boundaries that had to be crossed to become part of their group. Their integration into the academic world promoted their identification as artists and the recognition of their creations as works of art.
The third part is devoted to an analysis of the current structure of this professional space: with the decline in university budgets from 1975 onwards, becoming an art professor is an ideal achieved by only a privileged minority. These last two chapters seek to shed light on the diversity of positions that exist in this space, which is characterized by both close proximity between actors and fierce competition. Finally, the thesis concludes by outlining the values shared by ceramists, which originate from their common university education. It also shows how universities attract creators, who remain active thanks to campuses and their cultural institutes, staff, and students.

Defense on Monday, November 17, 2025

Year of enrollment: 2018
Doctoral school: OMI – Organizations, Markets, Institutions

Composition of the jury:

• Marc Perrenoud, Senior Lecturer and Researcher, University of Lausanne, Rapporteur
• Frédéric Poulard, University Professor, Paris Cité University, Rapporteur
• Sonia Birocheau, Associate Professor, University of Paris-Est Créteil, Examiner
• Elizabeth Browne, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, United States, Examiner
• Alexandre Mathieu-Fritz, University Professor, Gustave Eiffel University, Examiner
• Corinne Delmas, University Professor, Gustave Eiffel University, Thesis Supervisor
• Flora BAJARD, Research Fellow, CNRS, Co-supervisor

The article Sandrine Zawacki – Ceramists: artists or artisans? The role of universities in positioning creators in the United States first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

By bursting onto the urban scene, the digital revolution and the democratization of smartphones have led to the creation of mobility offers and services. These are provided by new entrants whose model is based primarily on that of platforms. This phenomenon is disrupting the French model of mobility governance and management, which is organized around concessions and structured mainly around the two players: Mobility Organizing Authorities (AOM) and public transport operators. This research focuses on the effects of these disruptions on mobility governance in French cities, with a particular emphasis on the changing role of traditional mobility operators. Conducted in a consulting firm, a subsidiary of a large urban public transport group, this thesis is based on empirical data and draws on approaches from political science and management science to shed light on the trajectories of traditional actors and the reconfiguration of their interactions in a rapidly changing urban public service. The results of this research show that, despite the disruptions caused by the digital revolution and the democratization of smartphones, the French model of governance and management of urban mobility organized under concession is strengthening around the AOM-public transport operators partnership. However, this evolution is leading to transformations in the governance of urban public services, whose management model is becoming hybridized around already familiar contractual practices and new platform-based approaches.

Defense on Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Year of enrollment: 2019
Doctoral school: VTT – City, Transportation, and Territories

Composition of the jury:

• François-Mathieu Poupeau, Director of Research, CNRS, Thesis Supervisor
• Hélène Reigner, University Professor, Aix-Marseille Institute of Urban Planning and Regional Development, Rapporteur
• Maxime Huré, Senior Lecturer, University of Perpignan, Rapporteur
• Antoine Courmont, Senior Lecturer, Gustave Eiffel University, Examiner
• Gilles Pinson, University Professor, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Chair
• Virginie Boutueil, Senior Researcher, Ecole nationale des ponts et chaussées, Examiner
• Doriane Raly, Senior Manager, Kisio, Guest

The article Guillaume Fournier – Urban mobility governance in the smartphone era. Reshaping stakeholder dynamics and platformization of organization first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

This thesis analyzes the development of a very high-speed sociotechnical system (fiber optic network and data centers) and the urban transformations of a West African metropolis by examining the conditions and modalities of "digital urbanism" in Dakar (Senegal). The aim is to understand how digital infrastructure and urban spaces shape each other and to propose an interpretation based on materiality rather than overlooking inert materiality. Drawing on work from urban studies and social approaches to technology inspired by Science and Technology Studies (STS), the study focuses on the sociopolitical, sociotechnical, and territorial dimensions of the deployment of very high-speed broadband infrastructure, which it analyzes on three scales, corresponding to distinct spheres of action and temporalities, and in different types of intra-urban spaces. Using qualitative methodology (interviews, participant observation, mapping), the thesis demonstrates the ambivalent relationship between the privatized development of the ultra-high-speed socio-technical system and socio-spatial inequalities. At the national and metropolitan levels, it highlights the links between urban planning actors and powerful international telecommunications operators, as well as their respective influence on metropolitan digital development in a context marked by neoliberal policies. At the street level, it analyzes the role of network engineers and technicians, highlighting, through a study of construction sites and work "in situ," the role of material contingencies, informality, and sociotechnical "tinkering," but also that of "street" technical expertise, which is essential to the material development of ultra-high-speed infrastructure. The analysis of the governance of deployment, coupled with that of urban materiality and metropolitan socio-spatial developments, has made it possible to characterize a digital urbanism that differs according to urban profiles. However, while emphasizing the decisive influence of telecommunications operators and the insufficient capacity of public authorities to prescribe and regulate, the thesis identifies self-regulatory mechanisms that are sometimes beneficial to the general interest and mechanisms for partial catch-up in certain less "attractive" neighborhoods. These results lead to a nuanced view of the effects of the "privatization" of digital development on urban fragmentation and suggest areas for reflection for the public re-engagement of digital urban planning thinking and practice in Dakar.

Defense on Friday, January 31, 2025

Year of enrollment: 2019
Doctoral school: VTT – City, Transportation, and Territories

Composition of the jury:

• Olivier Coutard, Director of Research, CNRS, Chair of the jury
• Sylvy Jaglin, University Professor, Gustave Eiffel University, Thesis Director and Examiner
• Fanny Lopez, University Professor, ENSA Paris-Malaquais, Examiner and Rapporteur
• Armelle Choplin, University Professor, University of Geneva, Examiner and Rapporteur
• Elisabeth Peyroux, Director of Research, CNRS, Examiner
• Momar Diongue, Senior Lecturer, Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, Examiner

The article Paola Piras – Materiality and governance of the ultra-high-speed sociotechnical system in Dakar (Senegal): strategic vision for digital infrastructure, metropolitan planning, and construction projects first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

Crisis management exercises, inherited from the military world, are now common practice in civil society. In recent history, their number and visibility have increased considerably in the context of the state's response to the 2015 attacks. They are thus one of the main tools used by crisis management organizations to prepare for events that threaten the population. To fulfill this mission, the exercises are designed to be as realistic as possible, with the dual objectives of training and identifying weaknesses in crisis management systems that need to be corrected. However, observation of the exercises organized by the General Secretariat of the Paris Defense and Security Zone—a department of the Prefecture of Police—only allows for partial verification of these objectives. To explain this apparent difficulty, it is necessary to consider the overlap of two missions assigned to the exercises. The first, official mission focuses on protecting the population. The second, latent but priority, is to protect the State, whose legitimacy and very identity – based precisely on the protection of the population – are called into question by the occurrence of crises.

Defense on Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Year of enrollment: 2015
Doctoral school: VTT – City, Transportation, and Territories

Composition of the jury:

• Pascal Ughetto, University Professor, Gustave Eiffel University, Chair of the jury
• Valérie November, Director of Research, CNRS, Thesis Director and Examiner
• Olivier Borraz, Research Director, CNRS, Thesis Director and Examiner
• Myriam Mokhtari Merad, Research Director, CNRS, Examiner and Rapporteur
• Paolo Crivellari, Senior Lecturer, University of Toulouse 3, Examiner and Rapporteur
• Marie-Léandre Gomez, Professor, ESSEC, Examiner

The article Jonathan Fayeton – Crisis management exercises: a test of the state? Or the state's exercise put to the test of crisis management first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

Year of enrollment
: 2018

Doctoral school
: OMI- Organizations, Markets, Institutions

Composition of the jury
Sophie BRETESCHE, Professor of Sociology, HDR, Institut Mines Telecom Atlantique
Martine D’AMOURS, Professor Emeritus, HDR, Laval University, Quebec
Jean-Michel DENIS
, University Professor, Director of ISST (Director)
Yannick FONDEUR, Researcher, LISE-CNAM
Cécile GUILLAUME, Sociologist, Senior Lecturer, HDR, University of Surrey, Great Britain (co-director)
Pascal UGHETTO
, Professor of Sociology, HDR, UGE, LATTS Researcher
Nadège VEZINAT, Professor of Sociology, HDR, University of Paris 8, CRESPPA Researcher (UMR 7217)

The article Elodie Céline Gibault: Freelancers on assignment in banks: Work experiences and career paths of experts first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to produce a quantitative model of energy consumption based on "housing situations" (household-housing relationships), domestic practices, and residential contexts. It is divided into three parts.

First, a review of the literature on the main models in engineering and the humanities identifies the theoretical frameworks for an approach combining households and housing ("housing situation"). The second chapter discusses methods for modeling domestic practices in order to determine the most relevant ones for studying the links between housing situations and residential lifestyles. In the final and third chapter, based on a logistic proportion regression mixture model, a hierarchical model of domestic energy consumption based on housing situations is proposed.

Situated between typological and regression approaches, one of the contributions of this thesis is to propose, within the same method, a typology of housing situations and a regression model. The estimation performance of the results is equivalent to that of the main models but, on the other hand, they have greater explanatory power by associating domestic practices with energy consumption. This method also makes it possible to integrate a segmentation of domestic practices into a model of energy consumption at the housing level. The thesis also has a heuristic dimension. First, it shows the links between housing situations and practices related to equipment, occupancy, and regulation behaviors. In addition, it presents ideal-typical housing situations based on the characteristics of households, dwellings, behaviors, and total domestic energy consumption per person and per square meter. Finally, in terms of future prospects, it paves the way for the development of other interdisciplinary approaches to the transformation of housing situations.

Defense on Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Year of thesis registration

: 2020
Doctoral school

: City, Transportation, and Territories (VTT)

Composition of the jury

:
Marjory Musy, Director of Research, CEREMA, Rapporteur
Fateh Belaïd, Researcher, KAPSARC, Rapporteur
Faïcel Chamroukhi, University Professor, University of Caen, Examiner
Béatrice Roussillon, Senior Lecturer, University of Grenoble-Alpes, Examiner
Jean-Pierre Lévy, Director of Research, CNRS, Thesis Director
Latifa Oukhellou, Director of Research, Gustave Eiffel University, Co-director of thesis

The article Matthias Heinrich: Housing, residents, and energy practices: Integrating housing situations into quantitative modeling of domestic energy consumption first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

Surveillance cameras have been part of our urban and even rural landscapes for several years now. However, these devices have not solved all the problems that led to their deployment in many public spaces. One of the solutions proposed to address this shortcoming of video surveillance is to add automatic detection software to the existing system. These additional components come in various forms: people counting, vehicle type detection, illegal dumping detection, abnormal situation analysis, facial recognition, etc. The first uses of these new forms of video surveillance took place in France, although they are not as widespread as in other countries.

This thesis seeks to provide initial reflections on these new surveillance tools and the context surrounding them by addressing three main aspects. The first of these aspects concerns the scientific developments that contribute to the construction of these new surveillance solutions. The second aspect focuses on the public debate surrounding automated video surveillance and the particular form that this debate takes. The third and final aspect examines the uses, most of which are experimental, that are taking place in France, as well as the objectives and conditions of these uses.

For the first aspect, this work aims to show the particular importance of infrastructure in the success of these artificial intelligence tools. Whether at the development or usage stage, artificial intelligence relies heavily on all the tools and materials mobilized in its operation. Data, networks, and sensors are all filters through which the software's work passes and which impose technical limitations. For the second aspect, the research explored the question of the presentation of these technical solutions, their promotion or criticism, as a problem, in public debates or in economic spaces. It appears that despite widespread criticism in society, economic arguments dominate in official reports. For the third aspect, while there is no consensus on the subject of automated surveillance, the thesis analyzes all the strategies and resources mobilized to build a market for automated video surveillance despite this.

Thesis defense on Thursday, March 28, 2024

Year of enrollment

: 2018

Doctoral School

: Organizations, Markets, Institutions – OMI

Composition of the jury

:
Gilles JEANNOT

, ENPC, Thesis Director
Anne-Cécile DOUILLET, University of Lille, Rapporteur
Sylvain PARASIE, Sciences-Po Paris, Rapporteur
Valérie NOVEMBER

, CNRS, Examiner
Clément MABI, UTC, Examiner

The article Victor Maghin: The blind spots of the smart camera. Scientific filters, confined debate, and a discreet market first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

Mobilizations, materialities, and patrimonialist social forms in Vila Leopoldina (São Paulo).

Thesis supervisor: Sylvy Jaglin
Co-supervisor: Joäo Stte Whitaker Ferreira
Co-supervisor: Ozan Karaman

Since the late 1980s, São Paulo has been a prime testing ground for urban planning instruments. Successive municipal teams from various political backgrounds have implemented vast urban renewal projects, delimiting exceptional perimeters within which specific regulations apply. Flexible building parameters and facilitated private investment are some of the principles intended to leverage the rapid rehabilitation and transformation of land and its uses, as well as the financing of affordable housing. These measures have proven ineffective in countering the immense socio-spatial inequalities that characterize Brazilian cities. On the contrary, they contribute to conflictual situations and the exclusion of part of the population from access to decent housing.  

In 2016, a new urban intervention project (PIU) was proposed to the municipality by a Brazilian multinational company that owns land in the Vila Leopoldina neighborhood in the western part of São Paulo. This urban renewal project immediately sparked a conflict between three groups of actors rooted in the neighborhood: the private company, the historical economic and financial elite, which shapes Brazil's patrimonialist social structure; upper-middle-class residents, a small local elite that has more recently moved into secure high-rise condominiums; and poor communities, excluded from access to decent housing. 

Based on field research in São Paulo and an online analysis of social networks and public consultations, the thesis traces the origins of the conflict and studies the forms of mobilization and their spaces, with a particular focus on built materiality. It hypothesizes that this territorialized conflict around an urban instrument (the PIU) reveals both the social structures of Brazilian society and the patrimonialist urban production characteristic of large cities in Brazil. To demonstrate this, the thesis analyzes and compares the territorialized moral economies of the three groups of actors in conflict. 

Keywords: conflict; urban production; urban materiality; patrimonialism; moral economy; São Paulo.

Defense on Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Year of thesis registration: 2017
Doctoral school: City, Transportation, and Territories (VTT)

Composition of the jury:

• Marie-Hélène Bacqué, Professor, Paris-Ouest University (Rapporteur)
• Agnès Deboulet, Professor, University of Paris 8 (Examiner)
• Ana Fernandes, Professor, Federal University of Bahia (Rapporteur)
• Sylvy Jaglin, Professor, Gustave Eiffel University (Co-supervisor)
• Ozan Karaman, Research Fellow, CNRS (Co-supervisor)
• João Sette Whitaker Ferreira, Professor, University of São Paulo (Co-supervisor)

The article Mathilde Moaty: first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.

Podcast from Ingenius magazine on the thesis (Ecole des Ponts)
: https://ingenius.ecoledesponts.fr/articles/le-deploiement-de-lhydrogene-en-france-et-dans-les-territoires/

Year of enrollment
: 2019
Doctoral school
: City, Transportation, and Territories (VTT)

Members of the jury
Anne-Cécile Douillet, University Professor, CERAPS Rapporteur
Thomas Reverdy, University Professor, PACTE Rapporteur
Annabelle Brisse, Doctor, EIFER until 12/31/2021 then Hynamics Examiner
Alain Nadai, Research Director, CIRED Examiner
François-Mathieu Poupeau
, Research Director, LATTS Thesis Director
Caroline Gallez, Research Director, Gustave Eiffel University Co-Thesis Director

The article Elise Muller: Full speed ahead with hydrogen: the socio-technical trajectory of hydrogen deployment in France between 2010 and 2020 first appeared on LATTS - Laboratory for Territorial and Societal Techniques.