Juliette Pinard: Transitional urban planning: between the renewal of urban development practices and the evolution of its stakeholders – an ethnographic immersion within SNCF Immobilier

Against the backdrop of a recent surge of interest in the concept of transitional urbanism, this thesis examines how urban planning and property professionals are adopting approaches to the temporary occupation of space. Stemming from long-standing practices, temporary occupation projects are proliferating across the Greater Paris area within vacant sites and buildings earmarked for future urban development. A ‘hot’ and evolving topic, transitional urbanism is imbued with a variety of values and challenges by the stakeholders involved in these initiatives: property owners, local authorities, planners, developers and new professionals in the field of temporary occupation.

The main focus of this thesis is the transitional urban planning approach developed since its inception in 2015 by SNCF Immobilier, the organisation responsible for managing and developing the SNCF’s extensive land and property portfolio. Originally an experimental approach, transitional urban planning has become a new corporate activity, raising strategic and operational issues in the early stages of urban projects. Through ethnographic immersion within SNCF Immobilier and an empirical study of the implementation of these temporary projects, this thesis aims to investigate the company’s use of these approaches, the new difficulties they raise, and the values and challenges that employees associate with these projects. As a source of change within SNCF Immobilier, the development of transitional urbanism serves to illustrate, more broadly, the ongoing transformation of professional practices, modes of action and representations within the organisation. The operator’s thinking is influenced by its gradual integration into a new community of practice promoting transitional urbanism, which goes hand in hand with a renewal of its methods and its thinking regarding the long-term development of the city.

This research employs transitional urbanism as an analytical tool to contextualise the evolution of urban development practices, the transformation of urban spaces, and the changing roles of stakeholders in urban planning and the property sector.

Members of the jury

• Lauren Andres – Associate Professor, The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL (Rapporteur)
• Olivier Coutard – Research Director, CNRS (PhD supervisor)
• Laurent Devisme – Lecturer, ENSA Nantes (Rapporteur)
• Maria Gravari-Barbas – Professor, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
• Benoît Quignon – Director-General of Services for the City of Marseille (Guest member)
• Elsa Vivant – Senior Lecturer, Gustave Eiffel University (PhD supervisor)