Thesis supervisors
: Christian Lefèvre, Ludovic Halbert
Many urban objects and spaces located in metropolitan areas are becoming financial assets. Offices, shopping centers, student residences, and large facilities are being acquired by investment funds and listed companies that capitalize on the future revenue streams generated by the use of these buildings by businesses and residents. Urban redevelopment through the development of mixed-use neighborhoods is linked to financial markets through real estate market financing channels. This thesis aims to analyze this financialization of urban capitalism based on the articulation of urban government policies and the financial strategies of real estate asset managers. The power relations between these two actors and their socio-spatial and material effects are examined through a comparison of two major development projects located in Greater Paris and Greater Lyon. It is from this perspective that the study focuses on operational projects, but also on the real estate fairs where they are presented, and metropolitan strategies.
The research shows that, despite different political orientations, the construction of standardized, polarized commercial real estate reserved for a few large companies is conditioning urban redevelopment in both cases. These conditions correspond to the selective investment standards of asset managers, which real estate consultants and developers relay to urban governments. They are the result of processes whose conflictual nature varies according to local agendas. After intense negotiations led by developers, the municipality of Saint-Ouen abandoned certain structural principles of the Docks project. The development of the Carré de Soie, on the other hand, resulted in a consensus between developers and Greater Lyon around the creation of a tertiary hub. Two local configurations are put forward to interpret this comparative result conducive to financialization. The weakness of office production regulation in the Paris metropolitan area has led to localized negotiations within the project, where municipal objectives are constrained by the prioritization of political priorities, the financing terms of the development, and the materiality of the land. In the Lyon metropolitan area, the institutionalization of a real estate supply policy promoted by the executive and the economic development services of Greater Lyon organizes the circulation of investment standards at the agglomeration level and reinforces their influence on development.
Based on these findings, the thesis proposes an urban political economy interpretation of the financialization of the urban environment that offers an alternative to Marxian theory, emphasizing the role of asset managers and highlighting their mediations. It contributes to theories of urban power by showing the limited influence of local agendas on the selective effects of financialization and by discussing the formation, under certain conditions, of a financialized growth coalition.
Thesis defense on June 20
,
2017
Doctorate
: Spatial Planning, Urban Planning
Year of thesis registration
: July 21, 2012
Doctoral school
: VTT – City, Transport, and Territories
Jury
Philip Ashton, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago (Rapporteur)
Ève Chiapello, Director of Studies, EHESS (CEMS)
Sylvie Fol, University Professor, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Ludovic Halbert, CNRS Research Fellow (LATTS) (Co-supervisor)
Christian Lefèvre, University Professor, University of Paris-Est (Thesis Director)
Gilles Pinson, University Professor, Sciences Po Bordeaux (Rapporteur)