Whilst post-war urban planning in France was characterised by central government intervention in the land and property markets, decentralisation has been accompanied by a decline in public land policy measures implemented by the central government. 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 in accessing housing and the issues of land sealing observed in metropolitan areas. This relative resurgence of public land policy in France, underpinned by the rise of specific funding and dedicated organisations such as public land agencies (EPFs), appears counter-intuitive given the changes currently affecting the development systems of European cities: increasing budgetary pressures, the rationalisation and privatisation of the public housing stock, the significant role of private operators in the early stages of development projects, etc.

This thesis sets out to explore this apparent tension between, on the one hand, the growing and evolving role of private operators in the development of urban spaces and, on the other hand, the rebuilding of public capacity for land management prior to the implementation of urban and property development projects. By focusing on the practices and mechanisms deployed in Île-de-France since the 2010s, three lines of analysis are proposed. Firstly, the thesis examines the gradual re-establishment of public land management capacity in the Île-de-France region, through a study of the financial, legal and regulatory mechanisms, socio-technical instruments and organisational arrangements underpinning such measures. Secondly, it examines the implications of this renewed land policy for the system of urban space production and for the relationships between private property developers and the public actors involved in their regulation. Finally, it explores the ambivalent social and spatial effects of public land policy on property developments in the Île-de-France region, through an analysis of the networks—that is, the coordinated chains of actors—around which this policy is organised. In doing so, this study examines the potential contribution of public land policy mechanisms to the dynamics of tertiarisation and financialisation in urban development in the Île-de-France region.

This book unfolds like a Chinese landscape painting that the eye slowly takes in. I use this metaphor because I am describing a panorama. It is not made up of mist-shrouded mountains or wind-swept bushes, but of data centres, delivery warehouses, and the flow of social media…

I am exploring the hypothesis that the internet forms part of a broader trend towards breaking society down into smaller components, thereby making its mechanisms more fluid. A concept from chemistry – the reduction of matter to powder before reassembling it – is also applied to social relationships, memory, and humanity in general.

Just as reducing matter to powder accelerates chemical reactions, reducing society to powder enables the accelerated decomposition and recomposition of the substance of which humans are made. It enables a proliferation of reactions within society, of humanity’s output, of social chemistry: the combinatorics of passions (Charles Fourier), the hyper-fragmentation of labour (Mechanical Turk), the decomposition of knowledge (Paul Otlet), the Internet of neurons (Michael Chorost), and society through the aggregation of affects (Facebook). This is what I call the ‘cloud society’.

Members of the jury

• Thesis supervisor: Antoine Picon (University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, City, Transport and Territories Doctoral School, Techniques, Territories and Societies Laboratory)
• Joint supervision of the thesis: Pierre Cassou-Noguès (University of Paris 8, Doctoral School of Practice and Theories of Meaning)
• Emmanuel Mahé (École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs)
• Nicolas Thély (University of Rennes 2)
• Nathalie Roseau (École nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, LATTS)
• Karen O’Rourke (Jean Monnet University, Saint-Étienne)

Over the past twenty years or so, interest groups representing private companies have been (re)structuring their collective action in the metropolitan areas of Paris and London. These groups include the regional Chambers of Commerce (CCI Paris Île-de-France, LCCI), regional employers’ organisations (Medef, CBI) and recently formed groups (Paris Ile-de-France Capitale Economique and London First). Once focused – at the local level – on internal and organisational concerns, these groups are now in the public eye, are assertive in their demands and are making their case on an unprecedented scale: the regional-metropolitan level.

Our work has developed at the intersection of two areas of inquiry:

On the one hand, research into collective action by businesses is marked by a debate that challenges the notion that collective action by general economic interests is necessarily politicised. Some authors indeed demonstrate their inability to sustainably build collective action capable of exerting influence; this interest being ‘naturally’ subject to the dynamics of collective action based on membership (Olson 1971).

On the other hand, the reference framework for this collective action – the metropolitan region – poses a problem insofar as its governmental and institutional basis is unclear (the Île-de-France region, the Greater Paris metropolitan area?) or relatively recent and lacking in power (London and the GLA)  (Jouve and Lefèvre 2004).

Our research therefore seeks to address the following question: Does the (re)structuring of collective action by economic interest groups in London and Paris Ile-de-France aim to influence its political environment? If so, how can we explain the choice of the metropolis as the spatial scale for this restructuring?

By tracing the history of these groups’ collective action (Part 1), examining their internal and external operating mechanisms (Part 2) and demonstrating that they represent the specific interests of the corporations driving globalisation (Part 3), we argue that these groups are developing a genuine strategy of influence.

Using transport as a prime example, we demonstrate not only that the metropolis constitutes one of the scales of their space of dependency (Cox 1998), but also that this space is multi-scalar. Consequently, the metropolis appears more as their new sphere of engagement (Cox 1998). This specific economic interest finds here the means to achieve the scalar synthesis of all its scales of dependency: from the local to the global.

Situated at the intersection of risk research and urban studies, this thesis examines the establishment of neighbourhood crisis management committees (known as CCE in Spanish), participatory mechanisms promoted by Costa Rica’s national risk management policy since 2006 and established in San José, the country’s capital, since 2012. Created on the initiative of local authorities and composed exclusively of residents, the CCE aim to involve residents of areas affected by emergencies in risk management activities.

In the Costa Rican metropolitan area, these measures are implemented in particular in neighbourhoods affected by urban flooding – events that disrupt daily life in the city and are emblematic of so-called ‘urban’ risks. These risks are linked to morphological factors, as well as to settlement patterns, urban activities and services.

Adopting a systemic approach, the study examines the relationships forged between local government officials and local residents within these participatory committees. The thesis draws on a variety of empirical sources: a study of institutional archives, cartographic work, and interviews and participant observation in two neighbourhoods with different socio-economic profiles, Barrio Luján and La Carpio.

The thesis demonstrates that top-down mechanisms, ostensibly designed by bureaucrats to promote a ‘culture of risk’ amongst the population, are exploited by both residents and local officials to defend their respective projects and interests in the areas concerned. The systemic and comparative approach reveals that this instrumentalisation is neither unambiguous nor fixed: it evolves in step with the interactions between the two actors. Thus, by highlighting the contextual and dynamic nature of risk definition across neighbourhoods, the thesis draws attention to the unstable nature of the categories proposed by public risk management, which are reappropriated and subverted by the way in which residents make them their own. In both cases studied, local residents constantly highlight the limitations of public policy and its contradictions regarding its stated objective. From this perspective, the thesis highlights the contribution of residents’ conceptions of the territory and invites reflection on new pluralist frameworks for risk policies.

Composition of the jury

• Bruno Barroca, University Professor, Gustave Eiffel University, examiner
• Mathilde Gralepois, Senior Lecturer – HDR, University of Tours, co-director
• Jean-Pierre Lévy, Research Director, CNRS-Latts, PhD supervisor
• Patrice Melé, Professor, University of Tours, rapporteur
• Pascale Metzger, Senior Research Fellow – HDR, IRD, rapporteur
• Valérie November, Research Director, CNRS-Latts, examiner
• Julien Rebotier, Research Fellow, CNRS-LISST, examiner
• Helga-Jane Scarwell, University Professor, University of Lille, examiner

The focus on disasters has confined most research into risk to the history of specific events. Moving beyond this approach and following in the footsteps of Fernand Braudel, our thesis is rooted in the history of the long term, as evidenced by ‘the morphological trajectory of the urban landscape’ and ‘the trajectories of architecture’. In other words, we shall draw on the traces of the history of territorial morphology to understand architecture as a process of stabilising an inhabited and meaningful materiality anchored in socio-technical networks. Our hypothesis is that the hybridisation of architecture enables us to identify the fluidity of these historical strata (in the sense of Marcel Roncayolo) by revealing situations of risk and their resolution. The thesis aims to discuss this hypothesis through a historical approach, grounded in architectural theory and socio-geographical references. The ultimate objective is to propose an innovative approach to architecture by demonstrating that it can serve as a revealer of the unstable nature and volatile dimensions of risk.

The historic centre of Tunis forms the basis of our empirical approach. This choice is justified primarily by the fact that it is an area exposed to risks, yet one that has not recently experienced any catastrophic events. Our analysis is based on the study of three architectural typologies representative of Tunis’s history: a traditional house, a European-style building and a self-built dwelling. These enable us to identify three levels of understanding of the dynamics of risk generation in relation to scientific, economic, social and even ecological contexts: 1/ the crystallisation of risks through technical hybridisation via risky attachments, 2/ the amplification of risks through the hybridisation of uses and standards, 3/ the fluctuation of risk situations due to their recalcitrant nature. By situating itself within the paradigm of the extensive roots of risk, the thesis highlights its generative processes through the prism of urban temporalities and architectural hybridisations. It reveals the importance of documenting the systems of belief and knowledge specific to each territory. The loss of memory regarding natural disasters, coupled with the erosion and alienation of knowledge concerning hazards, social norms, architectural materialities and modes of habitation, are the triggering factors for risk situations. Ultimately, this thesis proposes the construction of an architectural understanding of risk based on an indexical logic, which forms part of a reconstruction of historical, context-specific knowledge reactivated by lessons learnt.

The rise of a ‘participatory imperative’ is driving a renewal of public action and opening up the decision-making system to all stakeholders. Users are thus encouraged to get involved in order to broaden the pool of available knowledge and to have their perspectives taken into account on the basis of their user expertise. Aiming to understand this renewal and to define the place and role played by users within these participatory bodies, we have structured this thesis around the figure of a ‘competent user’. In other words, an actor capable of co-producing public action and sharing their user knowledge.

Our analysis of two participatory schemes, drawn from the field of urban transport, first enabled us to highlight the concrete impacts of user participation on the solutions and directions adopted for the project under discussion. We then examined these approaches in the light of the principles of collective design applied in the fields of industrial engineering and management sciences. Finally, we demonstrated that in order to establish collective public action based on the development of user expertise, three conditions must be met: legitimisation, formalisation and implementation.

My PhD thesis explores the history of seven social housing blocks situated along the Paris ring road, from Porte Pouchet to Porte des Poissonniers. The architect Raymond Lopez designed these blocks in the 1960s as part of a joint urban development initiative, Sector 8, using the same architectural prototype for all seven buildings. However, these initial similarities are overshadowed by a striking disparity in the fate that Lopez’s towers have met over the 60 years since their construction. Some have been demolished, others converted and refurbished. Currently, the Tour Poissonniers, which was initially threatened with demolition, is undergoing renovation. The contrasting fates of the seven towers reveal the story of a remarkable paradigm shift in the field of urban regeneration, replacing the old paradigm of social housing demolition with that of transformation. This thesis explores this shift by examining how architecture, urban planning and local policy have interacted in resolving a problem with such significant social and ecological impact.

My research project will examine the correlation between the development of new social housing regeneration programmes with strong environmental ambitions and the obsolescence of various parts of the building, as well as its maintenance protocols. The study takes the seven Lopez tower blocks as its case study, in order to trace the paradigm shift from demolition to regeneration. To analyse this, the project combines a more traditional policy study of changes in the instruments used for the production and management of social housing with a micro-analysis of the various parts of these seven tower blocks in their physical dimension. This micro-analysis uses a socio-technical approach to study the interaction between the technical construction choices for the various elements of the tower and the evolution of daily life within the buildings. More specifically, the study will delve into the concept of component obsolescence and analyse the maintenance practices of the tower blocks.

The study aims to trace the role of architecture—and therefore of architects—in this shift, from the most basic cleaning practices right through to a large-scale cultural transformation in the management of 20th-century built heritage. The study approaches ecological transitions as a process that must be examined not only through a belief in innovation, but also through an analysis of the impact on everyday practices.

One chapter of this thesis will compare this change of direction regarding the Tour des Poissonniers—which was originally slated for demolition but managed to avoid it—with Corviale, a housing estate in Rome that suffered the same fate and is currently undergoing regeneration with funding from the NGEU[1]. The conclusions of this thesis aim not only to trace this change of course within the French context, but also to extend it to the European context, thereby contributing to a comparative socio-history of the historical production of social housing in Europe, the role of architecture, and a continental response to climate change. This ambition aligns with a personal journey across different countries, and with the conviction, through the combination of architecture and political science, that the intersection of disciplines opens up new avenues in the transition of our urban environments.

[1] European funding programme – Next Generations EU

By examining basic public services, this thesis explores the reorganisation of political and technical powers following the implementation of decentralisation reforms. In India, this issue has already been the subject of several case studies in rural areas and metropolitan cities. The aim of this work is to supplement this body of research by situating it within the distinct context of small Indian towns. These have so far attracted little attention from researchers and planners.

This lack of interest reflects a bias in the way Indian urbanisation is conceived, where the term ‘city’ refers primarily to metropolitan areas, regarded as the drivers of economic growth, at the expense of the rest of urban India. Yet a significant proportion of the urban population now lives in this type of town and is therefore just as affected by the changes introduced by the new urban policies resulting from decentralisation. As part of this doctoral research, a survey was conducted across four small towns of 20,000 inhabitants selected in eastern Uttar Pradesh, interviewing politicians, engineers and residents. The empirical research analysed the formation of local governments from a multi-level perspective to understand the institutional transformations since the reform. The study’s findings provide an insight into the process of municipal emergence in small towns.

Making the country’s development more environmentally sustainable without significantly altering the pace of economic and urban growth: this is the challenge the Chinese authorities have been tackling since 2006 in order to address the growing pressure on natural environments and the severe environmental degradation caused by rapid development. China is probably the only country in the world where energy and environmental efficiency in the provision of essential urban services (water, sanitation, electricity, gas, heating, solid waste management) is being pursued so vigorously through circular economy policies and the operation of eco-industrial parks and eco-cities, against a backdrop of sustained and prolonged economic and urban development.

Based on a study conducted in Shanghai, Suzhou and Tianjin—three cities at the forefront of China’s transformation—combined with an analysis of the national framework and the country’s overall situation, this thesis aims to analyse the substance and forms of the environmentalisation of essential urban services being implemented in China. Our research shows that China’s ambitious policies for the environmentalisation of essential services are resulting in cities in a partial improvement in the environmental quality of their provision, whilst the prospect of resource efficiency and the circular economy remains a distant one. The prevalence of developmentalist urban planning structurally hinders the emergence of technical systems for resource reuse that offer alternatives to conventional networks. The path towards the environmentalisation of essential services taken in Chinese cities remains too technology-centred and too detached from urban planning for environmentalisation—and in particular the pursuit of resource efficiency—to be more substantial.

From an operational perspective, these lessons suggest that, in China and beyond, greater consideration should be given to issues relating to the provision of essential services in urban planning and development.

Both public policy and academic research are showing a growing interest in the relationship between cities and energy. This thesis examines how energy network operators contribute to the development and implementation of local energy policies, and the ability of urban policy-makers to steer them in this direction. The issue is examined through the lens of alternative energy distribution actors in France: local distribution companies (LDCs). For over a century, these companies have been responsible for the distribution and supply of electricity, and in some cases gas and heat, within the municipalities that own them. Today, they are emerging as innovative levers of action available to cities for developing urban energy policies.

Focusing on urban operators, this thesis examines the cases of GEG in Grenoble and UEM in Metz. Despite their local presence, local electricity distribution companies (ELD) have only in recent years begun to give the urban level a prominent place in their business strategies. The sectoral and centralised organisation of the public electricity service has long held back the ELDs, hindering the emergence of a specific approach to their concession areas. However, the restructuring of the economic model brought about by liberalisation is leading the ELDs to seek new sources of growth. Seizing opportunities linked to the prioritisation of energy and climate policies, they are demonstrating a high degree of adaptability and developing new strategies that place greater emphasis on their urban roots.

Having long been dominated by sectoral approaches at national level, local energy companies are now increasingly involved in the development of urban energy initiatives. However, this urban focus does not automatically make local energy companies instruments of governance for urban energy policy, which would require municipal political actors to have the capacity to take the initiative and steer the process in line with their own objectives. Through an analysis of the examples of Grenoble and Metz, we demonstrate that the emergence of energy as a local political issue is both gradual and heterogeneous, challenging a previously predominantly economic and industrial approach to the management of ELDs. However, the ongoing politicisation is hampered by the municipalities’ limited expertise in energy matters; they are only able to integrate their energy and climate concerns into the strategic management of their local enterprises to a very limited extent.

The changes are, however, far more significant at the operational level, in projects involving partnerships centred on energy issues: local climate and energy plans, responses to national and European calls for tenders, coordination of distribution networks… The analysis of the alternative regional energy model for ELDs proposed in the thesis shows that the local status of operators is not sufficient for the development of urban energy governance, which also stems from the politicisation of energy issues and the development of appropriate expertise within urban political and administrative systems.

Members of the jury

• Cyria Emelianoff, Professor at the University of Maine, ESO Le Mans (rapporteur)
• Alain Faure, Research Director at the CNRS, PACTE (rapporteur)
• Sylvy Jaglin, Professor at the University of Paris-Est, LATTS (Director)
• Dominique Lorrain, Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS, LATTS
• Jochen Monstadt, Professor, Darmstadt University of Technology
• François-Mathieu Poupeau, Research Fellow at the CNRS, LATTS (co-supervisor)
• Livier Vennin, Grand Paris Project Manager, EDF

Housing provision in France lies at the heart of several academic debates: on state intervention, on private sector approaches to housing provision, and on local governance. The argument that a process of neoliberalisation has been affecting Western societies since the 1970s offers a cross-cutting perspective. However, an analysis of one instrument of national housing policy – tax relief for rental investment – reveals its many limitations, particularly in the 2000s.

Based on a methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, our research reveals the emergence of a new political economy of housing production. In connection with decentralisation, public authority has become dual in nature, with, on the one hand, a State that regulates the market through legislation and, on the other, local authorities that enter into negotiations with private actors. This duality also highlights contradictions between national issues (particularly macroeconomic ones) and local priorities.

In contrast, property development is undergoing a transformation: whilst the tax incentives introduced by the state have attracted new players and given rise to a specific development model, the new approach to public policy is prompting a shift in strategies. The physical development of the city is being affected by these changes. This is partly because national regulations have an impact on supply, but also because the unequal bargaining power of local authorities vis-à-vis private actors leaves small and medium-sized towns more vulnerable to housing production that falls short of public expectations.

This thesis analyses the development of a high-speed socio-technical system (fibre-optic network and data centres) and the urban transformations of a West African metropolis, examining the conditions and mechanisms of ‘digital urbanism’ in Dakar (Senegal).

The aim is to understand how digital infrastructure and urban spaces shape one another, and to offer an interpretation based on materiality rather than viewing it as an inert physical substrate. Drawing on research from urban studies and social approaches to technology inspired by Science and Technology Studies (STS), the study examines the socio-political, socio-technical and territorial dimensions of the roll-out of ultra-high-speed broadband infrastructure, analysing it across three scales—corresponding to distinct spheres of action and temporalities—and within different types of intra-urban spaces. Using a qualitative methodology (interviews, participant observation, mapping), the thesis demonstrates the ambivalent relationship between the privatised development of the ultra-high-speed broadband socio-technical system and socio-spatial inequalities.

At national and metropolitan levels, she highlights the links between urban planning stakeholders and powerful international telecommunications operators, as well as their respective influence on metropolitan digital development within a context shaped by neoliberal policies. At street level, it analyses 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 socio-technical ‘tinkering’, but also that of ‘street-level’ technical expertise, which is essential to the physical development of ultra-high-speed broadband infrastructure. The analysis of the governance of the roll-out, coupled with that of urban materiality and metropolitan socio-spatial developments, has made it possible to define a digital urbanism that varies according to urban profiles.

However, whilst emphasising the decisive influence of telecommunications operators and the public authorities’ limited capacity for policy-making and regulation, the thesis identifies self-regulatory mechanisms that are sometimes beneficial to the public interest, as well as mechanisms for partial catch-up in certain less ‘attractive’ neighbourhoods. These findings lead to a more nuanced understanding of the effects of the ‘privatisation’ of digital development on urban fragmentation and suggest avenues for reflection regarding the public sector’s renewed commitment to the planning and implementation of urban digital development in Dakar.

Composition of the jury:

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