This thesis begins with the observation that poor housing conditions have persisted over the last 30 years. By adopting a supply-side economic approach, public policy has proved incapable of responding to successive ‘crises’. An interdisciplinary review shows that few studies address the issue of housing within the joint dynamics of households (residential mobility) and housing stock (construction, demolition and renovation). Drawing on the concept of the filtering process and the vacancy chains method, our thesis proposes to overcome this limitation by creating new concepts (social position, function and demographic profile) that enable a comprehensive and dynamic analysis of the housing system. To this end, we have developed the Housing Systems Analysis (ASHA) model, which simulates the impact of variations in housing supply on the entire system based on household mobility (turnover rates) between housing types (vacancy chains).

This model was used, drawing on data from the eight Housing Surveys (INSEE, ENL, 1978 to 2013), to analyse, using a retrospective, prospective and experimental approach, the evolution of the housing system over a longitudinal period of 35 years. Through simple empirical observation, the initial analysis identified the functioning of the current system (2013), structured into residential sectors that mirror the hierarchy of society as a whole. Simulations of the continuation of successive supply policies (between 1978 and 2013) showed that the real break in the system stems from the continuation of the planning logic of the 1977 reform (enacted in the context of the Trente Glorieuses) up to 2013. Far from completely abandoning housing subsidies, the reform established a subsidised home ownership scheme for the upper, middle and solvent working classes, to the detriment of vulnerable households, often young people.

The prospective analysis, meanwhile, simulated the extension of the 2013 system through to 2050. The results reveal its high level of instability. The collapse of the private rental market drives households into early home ownership, which leaves them vulnerable and excludes them from the system. Furthermore, it highlights significant pressures within the social housing sector. The ASHA model also offers the possibility of conducting experimental prospective simulations of alternative housing policies: large-scale construction of social housing and attempts to build housing with a view to improving the fluidity of the system (adaptation to residential dynamics). The results do not fundamentally alter the organisation of the system, which remains highly socially unequal. In this sense, they show that resolving poor housing conditions requires recognising that a supply-side policy alone cannot address residential vulnerability caused by the effects of increasing precariousness in society as a whole. In this context, an overhaul of the system will likely require a reform that incorporates the profound transformations of the current and future social context.

Composition of the jury

Rapporteurs:

• Marc Dumont, Professor at the University of Lille
• Yankel Fijalkow, Professor of Social Sciences at ENSAPVS

Examiners:

• Jean-Claude Driant, Professor Emeritus at the Paris School of Urban Planning
• Véronique Flambard, Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Lille
• Arnaud Simon, Senior Lecturer at Paris-Dauphine University (PSL)

Guest:

• Manuel Domergue, Director of Research at the Abbé Pierre Foundation

At the end of apartheid in 1994, hopes for political, economic and social renewal began to emerge in South Africa. Among the new ANC government’s priorities were reducing inequalities and ensuring universal access to basic services. Realising the right to water, as enshrined in the new Constitution, thus became one of its key priorities. The City of Johannesburg, which had been engaged since the late 1990s in a process of reforming its water policy, launched the Gcin’amanzi (OGA) project in 2003 in its largest township: Soweto. From the outset, it was the subject of much controversy and led, in 2006, to a court case:

‘the Mazibuko case’. Spurred on by activist groups and with the support of a human rights organisation and a renowned constitutional lawyer, five residents of Soweto are challenging two aspects of the OGA project: the installation of prepayment meters, and the free water policy, the volume of which is deemed insufficient.

This thesis aims to trace the history of this ‘case’ and to examine the impact of the militant use of the law by a group of disadvantaged city dwellers on municipal water policy. Furthermore, this work examines the potential effects of the right to water and helps to understand the effectiveness of the justiciability of the right to water and, more generally, of social rights.

Drawing on empirical research conducted in two ordinary cities in emerging economies – Vitória in Brazil and Coimbatore in India – we explain why municipal waste management in the Global South cannot exclude so-called ‘informal’ actors, lest it end in failure. This observation is now widely accepted, though the reasons behind it have not yet been fully explained.

We begin with an empirical observation of conflicts over ownership that arise when municipal schemes for separate waste collection are introduced, and which transcend the dichotomy between large private operators and small-scale waste pickers. These clashes lead us to pose the following central question: to whom does waste belong—res derelictae, objects defined precisely by their abandonment?

This is where our research makes its contribution: by combining economic theory with an urban planning approach, we demonstrate that the urban waste stream constitutes an impure public good (or ‘public bad’): a rival good, but one that cannot be excluded. This characteristic stems as much from disruptions in the waste collection service as from the market value of a growing number of materials – provided they are captured at source.

Finally, looking at the issue from a broader perspective, we argue that the local trade in dry waste is directly influenced by the prices of virgin or secondary raw materials (where such markets exist). This dominance of the global economy over a local urban service allows us to identify emerging strategies of urban mining, which raise the question of the legitimacy of appropriation with renewed urgency.

The aim of this research is to study and understand a period in the history of architecture and technology that shaped the transformation of the French engineering landscape at the turn of the 21st century. The years 1970–2000 were marked by upheavals and reforms that have left a lasting impact on today’s construction industry.
On an international scale, the Meadows Report (1972) and the quest for material efficiency through the development of lightweight structures marked the beginning of a complex debate concerning lifestyles and production methods. In France, the early 1970s coincided with the end of the Trente Glorieuses (1946–1975) and the post-1968 era.

Before the end of the Trente Glorieuses, architectural construction in France was still heavily influenced by the post-war reconstruction period. It was characterised by post-war needs, during which industrialisation had had a profound impact on the art of building, as well as by the tradition of reinforced concrete in French construction. The post-1968 era marked a turning point in French society, prompting reflection on new needs and new construction policies. Georges Pompidou’s term in office (1969–1974) gave rise to research driven by architectural innovation and the emergence of major international competitions. In terms of architectural education, the post-1968 era represented a break with the tradition of the École des Beaux-Arts, according to which the architect was to deal with the art and the engineer with the technical aspects. In this context, the role of the engineer was encouraged to change.

What appears to have begun as a socio-cultural shift and a period of political upheaval led, during this time, to the completion of projects presenting major technical challenges, thereby playing a key role in elevating the status of the French consulting engineer to a leading position within the architectural design team. The Centre Pompidou, the glasshouses and stretched-fabric roofs at La Villette, the Louvre Pyramid, and Hall 2F of the Roissy terminal at Charles de Gaulle Airport all reveal the undeniable importance accorded to structure, which even became a defining feature of the architecture itself.

This period leaves a tangible mark that manifests itself through various projects: from the technical language developed in his buildings to the design and communication tools used (such as calculation software, models and drawing books), amongst other things. But this mark is also intangible, as it represents a truly unique approach to the profession that emerges through these practices. The collected body of work covers project design, the functioning of architectural practices and the careers of lead architects, in the form of archives and interviews to be conducted with a range of key figures from this period. The thesis examines how these projects and buildings were realised, and how their rationale and processes reveal and transform ways of working: networks, professions and practices.

India’s major cities are undergoing far-reaching spatial transformations, characterised in particular by a proliferation of property developments aimed at transnational corporations and the upper middle classes. Our thesis focuses on the property development companies that initiate and coordinate this type of project. By studying two urban regions in southern India (Bangalore and Chennai), we seek to understand the processes through which some of these companies are strengthening their position in the material, symbolic and political shaping of urban spaces.

We begin by emphasising the crucial role played by central government through its housing finance policies (the expansion of household credit), the gradual liberalisation of land use, and the opening up of the construction sector to capital from financial markets. The thesis then shows how, in the mid-2000s, the explosion in investment, particularly from abroad, benefited a limited number of property developers. These developers took advantage of this context of abundant capital. Armed with the cognitive, social and political resources enabling them to navigate India’s ‘informal urbanism’, they took on risks that asset managers—still unfamiliar with local players, their practices and the geography of property markets—were unwilling to accept. Whilst recourse to financial markets brought about organisational transformations and accelerated a process of professionalisation, their key role in securing investment ensured these development companies a degree of autonomy. On the one hand, bolstered by the capital raised, they accelerated their growth by industrialising their operations and expanding their markets into southern Indian cities. On the other hand, these major developers were able to develop and disseminate models relating both to desired forms of urbanisation and to national and local policies on urban development.

Members of the jury

• Armelle Choplin, Senior Lecturer, University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée
• Eric Denis, Director of Research, CNRS, UMR Géographie-cités (rapporteur)
• Ludovic Halbert, Research Fellow, CNRS, UMR LATTS (co-supervisor)
• Loraine Kennedy, Research Director, CNRS, UMR CEIAS
• Christian Lefèvre, Professor, University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (Director)
• Renaud Le Goix, Professor, Paris Diderot University (rapporteur)

Suburban areas are often criticised for the excessive mobility (particularly car use) they generate. In this PhD thesis, we have taken this criticism seriously and put it to the test by exploring the links between the living environment and leisure mobility. Indeed, whilst some studies have focused exclusively on the influence of households’ socio-economic variables (level of education, socio-professional category, income) to explain their mobility, others have highlighted the influence of the urban context. We build on this research, but by making a twofold shift. On the one hand, we do not merely consider the urban context shared by a group of households, but also the living environment specific to each household (understood as the space ordinarily used by the household in question within its urban context). Secondly, we hypothesise that households’ spatial practices (both within and outside their living environment) are also based on their ‘relationship with their living environment’. This ‘relationship with their living environment’ does not stem solely from the households’ socio-economic characteristics but also relates to their individual history, their residential history, and their differing valuations of the functional, social and sensory dimensions (in other words, their perception) of their living environment.

Our work therefore involved empirically testing the hypotheses regarding the influence of the urban context and the relationship with the living environment on leisure mobility. The Paris and Rome metropolitan areas, which exhibit contrasting urban structures and patterns of suburbanisation, form the focus of our study. For our sample, we selected families (households comprising adults aged between 30 and 45 with children) and conducted surveys in nine neighbourhoods (within their urban context), distinguished by their geographical location (central, semi-central, peri-urban) and their level of public transport provision. Our empirical work combines three complementary approaches: a contextual approach in which we describe the functional, perceptual and social characteristics of the study areas; a qualitative approach comprising 81 semi-structured interviews; and a quantitative approach based on 2,250 telephone interviews (closed-ended questionnaire) with households residing in the neighbourhoods studied. Drawing on the literature, an analytical framework was used to analyse the interviews and classify households into five profiles of ‘relationship with the living environment’ based on their perceptions and practices in the functional, sensory and social domains.

Our statistical results confirm the strong influence of income and socio-economic status on leisure mobility, but also highlight the significant influence of two other variables that act both independently and in combination: the relationship with the living environment and the urban context. Furthermore, when controlling for the effects of income and socio-economic status, the results clearly confirm a statistically significant influence of geographical location. Residents of the city centre always travel more kilometres for leisure mobility than those in the city’s outskirts and the suburbs, and their overall mobility (work + leisure) is almost equivalent to that of suburban and outskirt residents. Analysis at the neighbourhood level allows us to test the hypothesis of compensatory mobility and to identify the specific contextual factors that are decisive in the choice of leisure activities. Analysis of the context at different scales (the conurbation, geographical location, neighbourhood and housing) confirms the influence of key factors that account for a significant proportion of leisure mobility in terms of distance, such as a lack of tranquillity, green spaces and the strength of community and social networks, as well as the location of leisure facilities within the conurbation. We then observe the influence of rail transport provision, housing density and tenure status (owner-occupied or rented). The type of housing (detached house or block of flats), however, has no influence on leisure mobility.

The findings highlight the role of the relationship with the local environment in shaping a lifestyle upon which leisure mobility is based. By focusing on the relationship between households and their local environment, it becomes clear that leisure mobility depends, in particular, on the image that households form of their local environment.

The initial questions underlying this thesis project stem from the following observation: the digital revolution has led to the development of digital platforms that have entered the mobility sector by offering new services based on the sharing model. These new entrants are disrupting current governance models and reshaping the landscape of mobility operators.

These companies, along with local authorities, are adapting to these changes by developing their own shared mobility services or by forming partnerships with digital platforms. The dynamics between stakeholders on the ground are changing, and a new balance must be found. Furthermore, the impact of these new forms of mobility on practices and the urban environment requires public authorities to find regulatory approaches better suited to current shifts.

By comparing several French metropolitan areas, this thesis will analyse the restructuring of the range of stakeholders and metropolitan governance in the field of mobility, focusing on two areas of research: understanding the strategies of private stakeholders in urban mobility, and analysing models of governance and regulation of metropolitan mobility in the age of digital platforms.

“How are energy choices made in urban development projects?” This question, born of curiosity, also ties in with current concerns. Faced with the growing importance of environmental issues—and energy issues in particular—in urban development, the urban planning sector is indeed seeking to overhaul its working methods. However, the implementation of such changes is hampered by a lack of understanding of the operational mechanics of urban development projects.
Consequently, our thesis is built around understanding the mechanisms by which urban planning choices are made in French urban projects. More specifically, we have focused on the scope of action of urban project ownership, which spans the interface between the ‘strategic’ orientations of planning and the ‘technical’ choices of formal design. Moving away from the artificial division of tasks between project ownership and project management, we propose that urban project ownership is responsible for a genuine design activity that takes several forms:

– contributing to the development and updating of strategic guidelines and decisions regarding the planning and composition of the urban development project;
– overseeing the client/contractor partnerships in the construction of the various physical components (buildings, infrastructure, public spaces) of the urban environment;
– developing and steering the mechanisms and processes for organising collective action.

In this context, this thesis first sets out to empirically document the ‘black box’ that urban project management still represents. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of the energy-related decisions made during the Bordeaux Euratlantique project of national interest, the aim is to address the following questions: what are the design processes internal and external to urban project management, and how do they interrelate? what processes lead to the formulation and reformulation of planning choices during the project? and what tools does urban project management employ in its design work?
To this end, we reconstruct, in narrative form, the main sequences of action that led to the definition of an energy and environmental strategy, the organisation of the integration of energy considerations into the building process, and the implementation of heating and cooling supply systems. Adopting a pragmatic approach, we combine analytical frameworks drawn from various disciplines (sociology of organisations and technology, management sciences) to interpret each of these sequences of action, highlighting their political, cognitive and productive dimensions.
This cross-cutting analysis of the narrative then allows us to highlight the pivotal role assigned to decision-making, understood as a mechanism for committing to and making collective action irreversible. Like quality, costs and deadlines, decision-making can thus be regarded as a macro-objective that guides the client in their design activities. However, steering the design process through decision-making facilitation sometimes conflicts with the complexity of the socio-technical assemblages of the urban fabric, characterised by interdependencies that necessitate an integrated approach to certain interfaces. The thesis therefore concludes with a re-examination of the quality-cost-time-decision objectives through the lens of a tension between the logic of ‘defining’, guided by technical and economic performance, and the logic of ‘bringing about’, guided by operational effectiveness.

Members of the jury

• Nadia Arab, university lecturer, Université Paris-Est, examiner
• Gilles Debizet, Senior Lecturer, Université Grenoble-Alpes, examiner Laurent DEVISME, Professor, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Nantes, external examiner
• Nicolas Ferrand, Graduate of the École des Ponts et Chaussées, Olympic and Paralympic Equipment Delivery Company, professional examiner
• Taoufik Souami, Professor, Université Paris-Est, supervisor of Jodelle ZETLAOUI-LÉGER’s doctoral thesis; Jodelle ZETLAOUI-LÉGER, Professor, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris La Villette, examiner

The demographic profile of social housing estates is becoming increasingly disadvantaged, against a backdrop of political tension, particularly between the right to housing and social diversity. The growing influence of local authorities in housing policy has not, however, diminished the debate taking place at national level. What is the contemporary role of social housing in France: should it focus on housing the most disadvantaged or on housing as many people as possible?

This question relates to the French social model and the republican pact. What is the French social housing model, and how does it fit into the country’s social model? In practical terms, what role do social housing organisations play in contemporary housing policy, within what system and from what perspective? The aim of this research is to describe the social housing model in its specific French context, particularly through its national stakeholders and in relation to contemporary housing policy.

To this end, the first part outlines housing policy, providing an overview of housing policy with a focus on social housing. The first chapter sets out the key components of the ‘model development’. The second chapter analyses the ‘system dynamics’ of housing, drawing in particular on some of the work carried out by the Research Network on the Socio-Economics of Housing during the 1990s and early 2000s. The third chapter examines the ‘political significance’ of contemporary housing policy, highlighting three complementary approaches at national level and analysing how the European dimension is taken into account.

This section raises questions about the role of national stakeholders in shaping housing policy in France. It also offers an explanation for the lack of major systemic reform over the past few decades. For this reason, the second part presents a study on the representation of social housing, based on some sixty interviews with a sample of key figures in the field of social housing: the Prime Minister, ministers, MPs, senior civil servants in ministerial offices, senior executives in the social housing sector, local councillors, experts and journalists. This study seeks to understand how the housing sector and social housing are organised.

To this end, the fourth chapter describes the ‘national social housing landscape’ through a biographical analysis, from which three main positions emerge: political, administrative and practitioner. The fifth chapter examines the discourses of the actors and identifies 19 items describing the ‘justifications for the functions’ of social housing. Finally, the sixth chapter studies the combination of these items in the ‘formalisation of conceptions’, enabling five complementary ones to be distinguished, which only partially overlap with the actors’ positions.

Finally, the general conclusion highlights the prominence of items with inherently ambiguous meanings in these representations, and the relatively limited focus on knowledge regarding the housing system, thereby helping to provide an overview of housing policy in France.

Composition of the jury

• Mr Jean-Pierre LEVY (CNRS) Thesis supervisor
• Mr Yankel FIJALKOW (ENSA Paris Val-de-Seine) Co-supervisor
• Mr Xavier DESJARDINS (Sorbonne University) Rapporteur
• Ms Claire LEVY-VROELANT (University of Paris 8) Rapporteur
• Mr Emmanuel BELLANGER (CNRS) Examiner
• Ms Catherine BONVALET (INED) Examiner
• Mr Patrick LE GALÈS (CNRS) Examiner
• Mr William LE GOFF (Federation of Public Housing Authorities) Guest

Supervisor: Olivier Coutard

Voluntary local carbon offsetting is one of the mechanisms designed to help achieve “carbon neutrality” in France. These projects, which involve either reducing or capturing CO₂ emissions, are described as “voluntary” because they go beyond the regulatory framework applicable to public and private sector organisations. From the Kyoto Protocol (1997) to the Paris Agreement (2015), the market for “voluntary” carbon offsetting has been primarily international, with climate projects implemented in the Global South and funded by countries in the Global North. Criticised for its climate ineffectiveness at the international level, can local voluntary carbon offsetting make a significant contribution to states’ carbon neutrality? This thesis aims to analyse in particular the case of France, which has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and whose government has been involved since 2017 in developing tools to support these schemes at national and local level (Low-Carbon Label).

Drawing on field surveys, interviews and analyses of written documents, this research aims to quantify and assess the contribution of local carbon offsetting to national carbon neutrality. The application of the principle of additionality, the examination of the incentives and disincentives of ‘offsetting’ on the endogenous reduction of offsetting schemes, as well as the analysis of the environmental and socio-economic co-benefits of these projects, will enable us to clarify the contributions of voluntary local carbon offsetting.

This tool, which has its roots in climate finance, remains multidisciplinary due to the diverse nature of the projects implemented (forestry, agriculture, energy), the variety of stakeholders involved (businesses, intermediaries, the State, local authorities), and by the economic (carbon price, carbon value) and administrative (certification, support, verification) issues it raises. This thesis therefore adopts a socio-technical and multidisciplinary approach. 

With the hosting of several international events having brought security concerns back into the spotlight, the Rio de Janeiro state government introduced a new public security policy in late 2008 to regain territorial control of a large number of favelas, relying on the Police Pacification Units (UPP). In this context, the authorities have partially revised their plan for the integration of the favelas.

Since the 1990s, it has been viewed primarily in terms of urban planning, through the improvement of infrastructure and access routes, as well as, to a lesser extent, land and urban regularisation. Now, the authorities are planning to promote ‘integration through regularisation’ of commercial and administrative relations, bringing together the various stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

This thesis examines the integration of favelas from a perspective that has received little attention: that of regularisation through the electricity grid, the aim of which is to transform ‘illegal users’ into new ‘registered customers’, linked to the distribution company via a meter. In particular, we will focus on highlighting the interplay between public and private interests at work in electricity regularisation projects in two favelas, Santa Marta and Cantagalo. To this end, our analysis aims to examine the regularisation of the electricity supply through its tools – socio-technical (installation of meters and network upgrades), commercial (methods of bill collection) and those for managing electricity consumption – and how subscribers adapt to them.

Research shows that the formalisation of the electricity supply reshapes the relationship between favela residents and the state and the market, a process that faces certain limitations: the contractual commercial relationship struggles to be grounded in a relationship of trust; measures to control consumption focus on ‘bringing behaviour into line with standards’ rather than supporting usage patterns; the regularisation of the service reproduces rather than overcomes socio-economic inequalities, which are, moreover, gradually losing their political character. This thesis thus aims to contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which favelas are integrated within the framework of the increasing neoliberalisation of urban policies.

Access controls, commercial profiling, ‘smart’ video surveillance, as well as the monitoring of work activities, sensors for toxic substances, and so on, are all forms of surveillance that are becoming increasingly widespread. They are the subject of fierce criticism, whether to denounce their harmful effects or to call for their expansion. This thesis helps to explain these differing critical responses, which contribute to the evolution of our surveillance and risk societies. It offers an analysis that situates surveillance practices within their organisational, social and practical contexts, based on two systems: accident prevention (known as safety) and the prevention of malicious acts (known as security) within the railway sector in France. The research shows that, despite the apparent distance between the issues under consideration, the professionals responsible for surveillance face similar practical challenges. The thesis substantiates this finding first from a historical perspective, demonstrating that the early 19th-century railway managers addressed both these issues using the same disciplinary framework.

Following an examination of these issues at the beginning of the 20th century, sociological analysis of current practices highlights a convergence between the professional fields of railway security and safety, centred on ‘risk management’. In both cases, one of the main tasks of security and safety professionals is to dispose of certain data collected during their surveillance activities.

Building on these findings, this thesis aims to offer a partial re-examination of the analysis of surveillance practices. The focus of most research on surveillance on data accumulation processes effectively obscures the processes of omission, exclusion or destruction of data. The thesis therefore argues for attention to be paid to both processes—accumulation and separation—in order to better understand and renew the critique of surveillance practices.

Members of the jury

• Mathilde Bourrier, Full Professor, University of Geneva (rapporteur)
• Dominique Cardon, Associate Professor, Sciences Po
• Anne-Cécile Douillet, University Professor, University of Lille 2
• Cédric Moreau de Bellaing, Senior Lecturer, École Normale Supérieure
• Valérie November, CNRS Research Director (LATTS) (PhD supervisor)
• Gwenaële Rot, University Professor, Sciences Po (rapporteur)