Antoine Picon will give a lecture on "architecture and digital technology" at the American University of Beirut from March 14 to 18, 2018.
François-Mathieu Poupeau
Electricity and Local Authorities in France (1880-1980) Another History of Public Service,
Brussels Peter Lang, 2017, 446 p.
Electricity, a Jacobin public service? Contrary to popular belief, this book shows the role played by local authorities in building what became a pillar of the welfare state in France in the 20th century. This influence, which has been little discussed in historiography, must be viewed in the context of the origins of the electricity sector: a socio-technical system rooted and organized at the municipal level. This "matrix" has never been erased and has had a lasting impact on the management of public services. It explains the maintenance of several local prerogatives at the time of nationalization (distribution concessions, municipal and departmental utilities, etc.). It sheds light on certain decisions taken after the creation of Électricité de France, in terms of social redistribution (support for domestic users) and regional planning (price equalization, rural electrification). By bringing to light the actions of local authorities and their main representative organization, the FNCCR (National Federation of Local Authorities and Municipal Utilities), this alternative history of public services, told "from the bottom up," nuances the vision of a hegemonic state. It also provides a better understanding of the current changes in the electricity sector, at a time when issues of decentralization are resurfacing in political debates.
Edited by Dominique Lorrain, Charlotte Halpern, and Catherine Chevauché
Sustainable Cities: New Models for Resource Management.
SciencesPo Les presses, 2018, 360 p.
Sustainable, frugal, sober, resilient, smart cities… Faced with the environmental emergency, innovative urban projects to reduce pollution and waste are multiplying all over the world.
But what are these experiments worth on a global scale?
What are their limitations? Is it possible to make a city sustainable without harming its neighbors? How can we detect false good ideas?
This is what this book sets out to do. It does not merely provide an overview of pioneering experiments carried out in nine cities in industrialized and emerging countries, in both the North and the South, but also looks at processes of very different scales and types—from a single urban object to an entire city—in an attempt to assess their impact and identify ways in which they can be generalized.
Constance Berté will speak on Friday, January 12, 2018, at the round table "Workshop 5 – Environmental compensation: what terms and what place in land strategies" as part of the meeting of public land stakeholders organized by the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition.
Konstantinos Chatzis, Gilles Jeannot, Valérie November, Pascal Ughetto
The Metamorphosis of Infrastructure: Between Concrete and
Digital
Peter Lang, 2017, 368 p.
Infrastructure is everywhere. As its name suggests, it supports our daily lives, including bridges, airports, water and electricity networks, as well as submarine cables and computer server farms. While there is generally a marked divide between researchers interested in new infrastructure (around digital technology) and those loyal to infrastructure linked primarily to the first and second industrial revolutions, the authors of this book belong to both groups. Some of them even attempt to explore what is happening to traditional infrastructure in the digital age. This comparison allows us to explore the commonalities between various infrastructures and discuss the relevance of extending the concept to other fields. It also highlights certain shared developments, particularly around the affirmation of the individual and the emergence of a political dimension that had previously been largely overlooked, as is often the case with infrastructure networks.
Publisher's website: https://www.peterlang.com/view/product/83115
Full text: https://www.peterlang.com/view/9782807606012/fm_introduction.xhtml
Aude Danieli, a doctoral student in sociology at LATTS, was heard on December 14, 2017, at the National Assembly as part of the round tables on "societal and economic issues surrounding smart meters." These round tables were chaired by Roland Lescure, Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee, Gérard Longuet, Senator and Chairman of OPECST, and Cédric Villani, Member of Parliament and First Vice-Chairman of OPECST.
She participated in the second round table on the theme of "Smart meters: health effects and controversies," drawing on the results of her sociology thesis on the design, uses, and controversies related to the installation of the new Linky smart meters. This round table was chaired by Cédric Villani, Member of Parliament and First Vice-President of OPECST.
This public hearing, open to the press and focusing on the economic and societal issues surrounding smart meters, was organized by the Economic Affairs Committee and the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (OPECST).
The report on the debates will be published in the first quarter of 2018.
Antoine Guironnet will speak this Friday, December 15, at the Bordeaux Urban Forum #5 meeting on the theme "Towards a financialization of city building?" More information here.
"Diffusion, appropriation, and contestation of a financialized framing of environmental policies. The case of the Building Plan in the energy renovation of commercial real estate,
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Antoine Guironnet
, "Going to the global real estate marketplace. A comparison of two French city governments at Mipim"
LATTS Working Paper, No. 17-12, December 2017
URL: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01664820
Martine Drozdz will participate in this symposium, which will take place on December 2-3, 2017, at the Institut français Mounira. Her keynote lecture will focus on:
The territorial integration of Western Sahara: from the Saharan constellation to the borders of the national territory
Jonathan Rutherford and Simon Marvin wrote this article on "The Conversation," which can be found at the following link:
https://theconversation.com/mettre-la-nature-sous-cloche-une-fausse-bonne-idee-87214