The activities of the City Chair at École des Ponts ParisTech (2012-2014), in partnership with the French Development Agency, Suez Environnement, and GDF Suez, are structured around three main research programs and the coordination of corresponding international networks:
The formation of large cities with more than 5 million inhabitants and very large cities—XXL cities with more than 10 million inhabitants—is an entirely new phenomenon in history. These dense, built-up areas, which concentrate all resources like giant attractors and display extremes of opulence and poverty, raise questions for us in more ways than one.
Fields for the "Mediterranean Cities" program: Istanbul, Beirut, Cairo, Algiers, Barcelona, Rome
Large companies (public or private) are among the major players in the production and management of cities, but they remain little studied. Public policy trends and organizational sociology have primarily focused on the state and other public actors. Economists and their vision of optimal exchange through markets have tended to represent companies as "point" actors without depth. Our goal is to introduce studies on companies as a genre among others in the social sciences.
This involves working on "green" technologies and the implementation of a (positive) urban future that is beginning to take shape: the sustainable city. Since the 19th century, the development of cities has been inseparable from that of their technical networks. These networks have been organized based on a common model found in several technical systems and in all cities around the world, regardless of political regime or level of development: a single, reticulated network, organized as a monopoly and aimed at universal service. Will this organization be modified due to new technologies or pressure from the needs of emerging countries?
Fields for the "Green Cities" program (as part of the ongoing ANR SYRACUSE): Suzhou SIP, Singapore, Kawasaki, Windhoek, Delhi, Lima, Stockholm, Geneva, Rotterdam, Vancouver
The City Chair is also completing work on significant operations in the water sector: "What are the key players in the water sector doing?"
Website: http://www.enpc.fr/node/7931