Created in 2012, the "Inventing Greater Paris" collective was formed around the scientific organization of a series of four annual symposiums (from 2013 to 2016) dedicated to the history of Greater Paris development in the 20th century, illuminated by international perspectives. The collective brings together researchers who use history to understand the modalities and challenges of metropolitan construction. It brings together specialists in the history of development, urban planning, and architecture, as well as urban, social, and institutional history and urban metabolism. Launched in 2017, the collective's website is a place for publishing the work contributed to the Inventing Greater Paris program, a portal for hosting future research, and a guide to historical resources. It is intended for a wide audience, including stakeholders and specialists. In 2018, the Inventing Greater Paris collective was formed as a Transversal Group of the Labex Futurs Urbains (University of Paris Est) and, as such, receives state aid from the Program for Investments in the Future.
The research program of the "Inventing Greater Paris" transversal group now has three objectives:
- To develop an overview of research on the history of Greater Paris and comparisons with other metropolises.
- To encourage new scientific questions on urban and metropolitan history,
- To compile an inventory of sources and memories related to the history of this metropolis.
Method
With this in mind, the scientific project of the newly created cross-disciplinary group is structured around several areas of work:
- A bi-monthly research seminar dedicated to epistemological questions at the crossroads of disciplines that examine the history of urban planning. This seminar is supplemented by one or two more open study days.
- Research projects carried out by dedicated teams; the main project focuses on the creation of a bibliographic, archival, and iconographic corpus relating to major development plans (for the period 1928-1960), which is currently being used to develop an atlas of Greater Paris plans.
- An editorial project aimed at building a resource center on the history of Greater Paris by publishing conference proceedings, study days, and scientific articles; Publishing news about research projects.
- A corpus (including iconographic material) for research purposes, i.e., one that can be explored using innovative methods.
Keywords
: History, Greater Paris, Metropolis, Planning, Transnational
General coordination
: Frédéric Pousin, Nathalie Roseau
, Alessandro Panzeri
To find out more about Inventing Greater Paris: www.inventerlegrandparis.fr
The program and proceedings of the IGP seminar can be viewed at the following address:
http://www.inventerlegrandparis.fr/chantiers-de-recherche/seminaire-igp/