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

This research study examines the emergence of public carbon offset schemes at national and local level in France at the turn of the 2020s. A range of stakeholders develop certification frameworks and buy and sell carbon credits in the agriculture and forestry sectors, with the aim of facilitating processes to reduce emissions or sequester carbon dioxide in biomass. This study seeks to understand how awareness of the controversies surrounding this type of instrument shapes the development of these schemes by public authorities and private stakeholders in France.
This study is based on a qualitative methodology, comprising forty-seven semi-structured interviews, thirty-seven observed meetings (observation and participant observation) and visits to eight project sites. The study was structured around interviews selected to represent the full range of stakeholders involved in these schemes: administrative departments of central government and local authorities, local elected representatives, intermediaries (technical, administrative and financial), businesses, farmers and forest owners. The intertwining of issues relating to quantification, certification and economic valuation within a context of controversy and uncertainty makes this a cross-disciplinary research topic. Drawing on tools at the interface between the sociology of public action, the study of science and technology in society (STS) and the sociology of environmental discourse, the study examines the trade-offs made by public and private stakeholders regarding the quantification of CO₂e, the consideration of risks and uncertainties, certification and economic valuation.
This thesis examines several dimensions through which these actors seek to restore credibility to a contested instrument: the argument of co-construction (Chapters 1 and 2), the argument regarding the precision of quantifications and the quantitative consideration of uncertainties (thresholds, discounts) within the general framework and sector-specific methods (Chapters 3, 4 and 5), the tool of semantic renewal (Chapter 6) and, finally, the argument for the moralisation of practices through the introduction of codes of values (Chapter 7).

Composition of the jury:

• Stéphanie Barral, Research Fellow, INRAE/LISIS (Examiner)
• Olivier Coutard, Research Director, CNRS/LATTS (Thesis Supervisor)
• Marie Hrabanski, Research Director, University of Montpellier, CIRAD/Art-Dev (Rapporteur)
• Alice Mazeaud, Senior Lecturer, University of La Rochelle/LIENSs (Rapporteur)
• François-Mathieu Poupeau, Research Director, CNRS/LATTS (Examiner)

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)

The development of renewable energy in urban areas is generating growing interest, both among professionals and the general public, in sharing locally generated energy. Achieving this objective often involves local energy initiatives.

Whilst the energy sector has previously sought to remain invisible within the urban landscape, the roll-out of such energy initiatives raises the question of how these projects are received by the urban fabric. In this thesis, we argue that these local energy initiatives contribute, in their own way, to bringing energy systems back into the urban landscape, as well as to reshaping its organisation and functioning.

The research is based on four case studies in three countries: Germany, France and the United Kingdom. The cases selected are the Colibres collaborative housing project in Forcalquier (France), the

The Klimakommune project in Saerbeck (Germany), the European Sensible electricity storage project in Nottingham (United Kingdom) and the Smartmagne collective self-consumption initiative in Marmagne (France). We are committed to understanding the making of these projects; that is to say, beyond the physical outcomes produced, we focus our analysis on the actors and the mechanisms of the action currently taking place.

The thesis presents three main findings. Whilst the term ‘energy community’ is used in both academic literature and national and European policy documents, we demonstrate that the concept of an ‘assembly’ is more appropriate for characterising the energy initiatives under consideration. Our subject of study is the relationship between actors (companies, researchers, residents’ groups, developers, local authorities, interest groups, etc.) and the technical and material elements of a specific energy project: ‘local and urban socio-energy assemblages’ (ASE-LU). Their links are not based on social or political affinities, but are generated by the pursuit of the project itself.

The various projects examined enable us to situate the effects produced within what we call the ‘ordinary urban fabric’. In other words, the cases observed—whose common objective can be described as the sharing of locally generated energy—have very little to do with large-scale development projects (ZACs, OINs, eco-neighbourhoods). Within this ordinary urban fabric, project leaders do not opt for socio-political confrontation to change regulations, laws and production conditions. Instead, they prefer to exploit the margins and loopholes left by the ordinary urban fabric to bring their project to fruition and transform it into a material and social reality.

Finally, we discuss a possible link between our case studies and the commons. ASE-LUs transcend the traditional distinctions (which shape the urban fabric) between property rights and rights of use, between the private and the public, and between the primacy of the public interest and the pursuit of partial or individual interests. They face the same challenges as urban and/or energy commons: legal obstacles, and the exploitation of loopholes and gaps. They give rise to social organisations and spatio-technical systems that challenge, at the very least, the traditional legal and social structures of both the energy sector and the urban fabric.

Members of the jury

• Xavier Bonnaud, Professor of Architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-La-Villette and the École Polytechnique, and co-supervisor of a PhD thesis
• Gilles Debizet, Senior Lecturer, Université Grenoble-Alpes, rapporteur
• Bernard Declève, professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, rapporteur
• Sinda Haouès-Jouve, Senior Lecturer, Toulouse Jean Jaurès University, examiner
• Sylvy Jaglin, lecturer at the University of Paris-Est, examiner
• Fanny Lopez, Senior Lecturer, Paris-Est School of Urban and Regional Architecture, examiner
• Florence Rudolf, Professor at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Strasbourg, examiner
• Jean Sonnet, Technical Director at Omexom, VINCI Energies, guest speaker
• Taoufik Souami, lecturer at the University of Paris-Est, PhD supervisor

This thesis examines urbanisation processes in Indonesia’s non-urban districts (kabupaten) and the local government policies designed to address the demands of urbanisation in their regions whilst responding to the constraints of territorial urbanisation. The aim is to examine these Indonesian urban development policies in terms of their characteristics and strategies for addressing the problems caused by rapid territorial urbanisation, particularly in light of the prospects and imperatives of sustainable urban development, conceived as a new development ethic.

More broadly, with reference to the situation of the kabupaten in Indonesia, this thesis aims to contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms of urban development in small and medium-sized towns in developing countries.

The study comprises two main parts. The first concerns the process of urbanisation in the kabupaten, particularly on the island of Java, the most densely populated island in the archipelagic state, and the first to experience, from the 1980s onwards, this territorial dimension of urbanisation, which led to an increase in the urban population of the kabupaten. Secondly, this study seeks to understand the main issues arising in the urbanisation process of the kabupaten, particularly from the perspective of sustainable development.

Based on the comparative findings from the analysis of urban development institutions in the kabupaten, the aim was to examine local perceptions of urban development, the policies adopted to address the issues, and the shortcomings of urban development policies at the local level.

In doing so, the research examines the conditions necessary for potentially enhancing local capacities to manage their urbanisation and urban development processes, ensuring these are aligned with local realities and responsive to issues of sustainable development.

Members of the jury

• Charles Goldblum (ed.), Professor Emeritus, University of Paris 8
• Sabine Barles (ed.), Professor (HDR), University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne,
• Rodolphe de Koninck (rapporteur), Full Professor, CETASE, University of Montreal
• Manuelle Franck (rapporteur), university professor (HDR), President of INALCO
• Sylvy Jaglin (examiner), Professor, Université Paris-Est, Director of the ‘City, Transport and Territories’ Doctoral School

The 1990s and 2000s were marked, in many sub-Saharan African countries, by the adoption of neoliberal policies reputed to be conducive to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Senegal and Tanzania are no exception. In the electricity sector, low electrification rates, on the one hand, and the inability of public operators to rapidly expand the conventional grid, on the other, led their governments to undertake institutional reforms characterised by the liberalisation of the sector and the creation of agencies dedicated to rural electrification. Once the preserve of large national or international operators, rural electrification is now open to smaller private operators. Coupled with a reduction in administrative burdens and new sources of funding, liberalisation is benefiting decentralised solutions (mini-grids and solar kits in particular).

The result, in both countries, is a diversification of electricity supply models based on a variety of mechanisms, actors, resources and governance models, which coexist at the local level and which the research analyses as co-production arrangements. Through a multi-scale comparative study conducted in Senegal and Tanzania in areas of diffuse urbanisation, the thesis proposes a conceptual framework and a methodology for rethinking the nature and conditions of the provision of an essential service based on the heterogeneous arrangements observed. It thus draws on the notion of local supply configurations to adopt a cross-cutting approach to the range of existing electrification solutions, understand their interdependencies and examine the conditions for the potential regulation of the various modes of electricity supply at this scale.

By combining a socio-technical approach to the configurations of electricity supply with a socio-economic approach to local electricity markets, this thesis proposes a conceptualisation of the emerging geographies of electricity supply in regions characterised by rapid and diffuse urbanisation. On the one hand, it demonstrates that neoliberal electrification policies have led to a diversification of the electricity supply, better suited to the diversity of demand, to an average increase in coverage and access rates in these areas, and to an improvement – at least partial – in the quality of services provided as a result of market competition. On the other hand, it highlights the limitations of these policies and their market-driven logic, which result in an increase in socio-spatial inequalities at all levels and the exclusion of the poorest from any form of access to electricity. An analysis of these pitfalls highlights the need for regulatory mechanisms, the premises of which – still fragile and disparate – are examined in this thesis. By questioning who receives which service and where, it finally outlines avenues for reflection on what the transition towards a future essential (public) electricity service might look like in these changing urban environments.

Composition of the jury

• Ms Sylvy JAGLIN, Gustave Eiffel University, PhD supervisor
• Ms Pascale TROMPETTE, Université Grenoble Alpes, Rapporteur
• Ms Luisa Moretto, Free University of Brussels, Rapporteur
• Mr Eric VERDEIL, Sciences Po Paris, Examiner
• Mr Philippe LAVIGNE DELVILLE, IRD, Examiner
• Mr Bruno VALFREY, Hydroconseil, Guest

Crisis management exercises, which originated in the military, are now common practice in civil society. In recent history, their number and visibility have increased significantly, particularly in the context of the state’s response to the 2015 terrorist attacks. They are therefore one of the main tools used by crisis management organisations to prepare for events that threaten the public.

To fulfil this mission, the exercises are designed as crisis simulations that are as realistic as possible, with the dual aim of providing training and identifying weaknesses in crisis management systems that need to be addressed. However, observation of the exercises organised by the General Secretariat of the Paris Defence and Security Zone – a department of the Paris Police Prefecture – allows these objectives to be verified only partially.

To explain this apparent difficulty, one must consider the overlapping of two objectives assigned to these exercises. The first, the official one, focuses on protecting the population. The second, though implicit, is a priority: it involves protecting the state, whose very legitimacy and identity – which are, in fact, founded on the protection of the population – are called into question by the onset of crises.

Composition of the jury:

• Pascal Ughetto, Professor, Gustave Eiffel University, Chair of the jury
• Valérie November, Research Director, CNRS, PhD Supervisor and Examiner
• Olivier Borraz, Research Director, CNRS, PhD supervisor and examiner
• Myriam Mokhtari Merad, Research Director, CNRS, Examiner and Rapporteur
• Paolo Crivellari, Senior Lecturer, University of Toulouse 3, Examiner and Rapporteur
• Marie-Léandre Gomez, Professor, ESSEC, Examiner

A major flood of the Seine is the main so-called ‘natural’ risk in the Île-de-France region. By severely disrupting the networks that underpin the Île-de-France metropolitan area (public transport, road traffic, electricity, telecommunications, water, sewerage, district heating, etc.), such an event would have serious consequences for economic, social and political life. To prepare for this, public authorities and private sector stakeholders organise crisis management exercises during which they jointly simulate a flood and the implementation of their emergency procedures.

During these exercises, the stakes go far beyond simply training crisis teams. Understanding of the risks is enhanced, public awareness is raised, and coordination between the relevant stakeholders is improved. During and alongside the exercise, stakeholders redefine their roles, areas of responsibility and priorities, both in times of crisis and in normal circumstances. The aim of this research is therefore to examine crisis management exercises beyond the simulation phase, in order to understand their full impact across the Île-de-France region.