Metropolitics - Metropolitics

From the Field

Mass-Producing the World’s Factory

Stefan Al - 9 February 2015

The economic transformation of China into a global manufacturing mecca has emptied many rural areas, creating tens of...

Essays

“I, you, he, she, we are all Charlie”: what feeling concerned means

Gérôme Truc & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 February 2015

The attacks that took place in Paris in early January have affected French society in a way never seen before, as...

From the Field

When Predator Becomes Prey: Rental Housing in Low-Income Minority Neighborhoods

Clément Théry - 2 February 2015

In the growing low-income rental market, predator and prey roles can shift, as landlords and tenants alike can fall...

Debates

“Gentrification or ghetto”: making sense of an intellectual impasse

Anne Clerval & Mathieu Van Criekingen & translated by Oliver Waine - 29 January 2015

The debate on the causes, effects and extent of the “gentrification” of working-class neighbourhoods in the central...

Debates

Interrupting Inequality: Crisis and Opportunity in Low-Income Housing Policy

Susan Saegert - 26 January 2015

Inequality in the United States is deeply rooted in issues of property ownership, wealth, race and class....

From the Field

In the Paris metro, hell is other people

Luke Haywood & Martin Koning & translated by Oliver Waine - 15 January 2015

In the medical field, it is not unusual for remedies prescribed to combat a particular condition to have undesirable...

Essays

Looking Backward into the Future of New York

Ted Steinberg - 12 January 2015

Can the lesson of Hurricane Sandy dampen the enthusiasm of New York City’s growth machine? Ted Steinberg, author of...

Debates

Is rurality a thing of the past?

Philippe Dubourg & translated by Oliver Waine - 8 January 2015

In the era of globalisation and metropolisation, is rurality an old-fashioned concept, a thing of the past? The...

Debates

The Age of the Renter

Tony Roshan Samara - 5 January 2015

Not all Americans own their home. In fact, more and more of them rent it. More and more of them also end up paying a...

Essays

Christmas Markets and Department-Store Window Displays: Examples of Retailtainment

Nathalie Lemarchand & translated by Oliver Waine - 18 December 2014

The function and fate of high-street shops are the subject of discussion and debate within retail firms. Where should...

From the Field

The Horseshoe Crab, our Environment and our Health

Lisa Jean Moore - 15 December 2014

Will we erase all animal diversity in the name of modernity, or will we follow the hints given by the study of the...

Reviews

The “ordinary” Italian suburbs: exploring the apartment buildings of the middle classes

Thomas Pfirsch & translated by Oliver Waine - 11 December 2014

Through the detailed histories of 23 apartment buildings and their inhabitants, a team of historians and architects...

Essays

A Right to the Suburb? New Urbanism, Public Space, and the Law

Anthony Maniscalco - 8 December 2014

The American suburb is changing. It is racially and economically diverse. Its sterile spaces are being redesigned for...

From the Field

Bypassing the city: divisions and divergences in Antananarivo

Catherine Fournet-Guérin & translated by Oliver Waine - 4 December 2014

In a context of global competition, major projects are the order of the day, including in the global South. The new...

From the Field

Participatory Budgeting in New York City

Celina Su - 1 December 2014

Over the last four years, participatory budgeting has spread from one to more than 45 cities in the US. Reporting...

Essays

Is there a model for sustainable urban planning?

Claire Carriou & Olivier Ratouis & translated by Oliver Waine - 27 November 2014

Claire Carriou and Olivier Ratouis reconsider the theoretical sources of sustainable urban planning from the...

Reviews

Detroit: Origins of the Urban Crisis Revisited

Andrew Newman - 24 November 2014

The recent reprint of Sugrue’s classic history of Detroit’s urban crisis highlights the roots of the city’s present...

Reviews

Entry into the Anthropocene

André Micoud & translated by Oliver Waine - 20 November 2014

Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, backed up by an impressive amount of data, trace the history of our...

From the Field

The Abattoir’s Call: At the Margins of New York City’s Foodie Movement

Richard E. Ocejo - 17 November 2014

Food-conscious urban consumers often ask their butcher where their meat comes from. But how many wonder about the...

From the Field

Nantes’ urban project: putting the Bilbao model to the test

Amélie Nicolas & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 November 2014

The experiences of Bilbao and its urban transformations have been shared and integrated into the urban-planning...

Debates

The Violence of Sustainable Urbanity

Erik Swyngedouw - 10 November 2014

If Nature is an ideological construction that separates us from the environment, the contemporary search for...

Debates

Finance as a New Terrain for Progressive Urban Politics

Desiree Fields - 6 November 2014

Since the foreclosure crisis, inequalities have only deepened in the US, with most wealth accruing to the 1%. Desiree...

From the Field

New York’s Two Sandys

Daniel Aldana Cohen & Max Liboiron - 30 October 2014

According to New Yorkers, two different Hurricane Sandys hit their city in 2012. The first was a one-time...

Debates

Using heritage status to combat segregation: the case of French housing estates

Marc Bertier & Hervé Marchal & Jean-Marc Stébé & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 October 2014

Challenging the idea that demolishing housing estates is all it takes to eradicate the social problems with which...

Essays

Regeneration and the Legacy of Thatcherism

Juliet Carpenter - 15 October 2014

What was Margaret Thatcher’s legacy in terms of the way inner-city areas are regenerated in the UK? Juliet Carpenter...

From the Field

Flowers under the flagstones

Cédric Ansart & Emmanuel Boutefeu & translated by Oliver Waine - 8 October 2014

Cédric Ansart and Emmanuel Boutefeu explore new ways of enhancing city streets through the small-scale greening of...

From the Field

Splitting suburban homes

Anne-Claire Davy & Peggy Mertiny & Mélanie Richard & translated by Oliver Waine - 1 October 2014

Many local stakeholders in the Paris region have expressed concern regarding the emergence of a process of...

From the Field

The Communists’ Urban Archipelago

Roger Martelli & translated by Oliver Waine - 24 September 2014

While the Socialist Party was the big loser in France’s municipal elections in March, the French Communist Party was...

Debates

What role for urban farming?

Laure Le Gall & translated by Oliver Waine - 17 September 2014

While the benefits of farming activities in large West African cities are starting to be recognised within the...

Reviews

How journalists see “the suburbs”: lifting the veil on a cliché

Julie Sedel & translated by Oliver Waine - 10 September 2014

“La banlieue”: in France, few terms convey such a clear and constant image: high-rise social housing, young men “of...

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