Metropolitics - Metropolitics

Debates

The Fantastical Accounts of Grand Paris

Frédéric Léonhardt & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 28 September 2011

After four years of ongoing debate, the French government’s Grand Paris scheme has spawned a large-scale mass transit...

Debates

Integrating the train into the city: some thoughts from Spain

Luis Santos y Ganges & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 21 September 2011

Are inner-city railways condemned to form boundaries or barriers within the city? Based on a critique of the...

Debates

Designing protests in urban public space

Tali Hatuka - 14 September 2011

Social and political protests in urban public spaces are multiplying in cities all around the world. Tali Hatuka...

Metropolitics

Summer Break 2011

The Editorial Board - 20 July 2011

Metropolitics is on vacation. Publications will resume on September 12th. In the meantime, we propose a selection of...

Reviews

City Words: An Invitation to Travel

Yves Grafmeyer - 13 July 2011

L’aventure des mots de la ville (The Adventure of City Words Through Time, Languages, Societies), tells the story of...

Debates

New Orleans as a Rust Belt City?

Robert J. S. Ross - 6 July 2011

New Orleans needs to recover not only from the 2005 catastrophic flooding of Katrina, but also from a much more...

Debates

For a Critique of the Liberal Foundations of American Cities

David Imbroscio - 29 June 2011

Profoundly touched by the consequences of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, David Imbroscio seeks concrete political...

From the Field

New Orleans Post-Katrina: the Uses of the Web in Times of Crisis

Jean Samuel Bordreuil & translated by Oliver Waine - 24 June 2011

What is the role of the internet media, particularly blogs, in mobilizing action in the aftermath of a major...

From the Field

Making sustainability public: the bayou observation deck in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans

Stéphane Tonnelat & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 20 June 2011

How can the residents of a flooded neighborhood in New Orleans, torn between reconstruction imperatives and...

Debates

Who cares about care? Health care rationalization and the demise of a public hospital after Katrina

Anne M. Lovell - 8 June 2011

Charity Hospital served the poor and uninsured in one of the US’s unhealthiest cities. Though repaired after Katrina,...

From the Field

The Build/No-Build Line

Richard Campanella - 1 June 2011

The Katrina flooding of 2005 ignited a debate between abandonists and maintainers. Should the city move to higher...

Debates

Bienville’s Dilemma: New Orleans Between Site and Situation

Richard Campanella - 25 May 2011

Ever since its founding at the mouth of the Mississippi river, New Orleans is the result of a delicate compromise...

From the Field

The School of Urban Renewal: A New Ideological Mishmash?

Claire Carriou & Yankel Fijalkow - 18 May 2011

The Borloo Act of 2003 is said to have marked a major turning-point in French policy concerning so-called “critical”...

Debates

The (mis)measurement of periurbanization

Anne Lambert & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 11 May 2011

(Peri)urban sprawl is unanimously decried as a cause for economic, environmental and social concern. And yet defining...

Interviews

Drug-consumption rooms in the city?

Laurent El Ghozi & Nadine Roudil & translated by Oliver Waine - 4 May 2011

Following a number of experiments in Geneva and Bilbao, the question of whether supervised injection centres should...

Debates

The Wealth of Local Currencies

Sophie Donzel & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 27 April 2011

Following up on Smaïn Laacher’s essay on Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS), Sophie Donzel, deputy mayor of...

Debates

Access to home-ownership: what are the effects of the economic crisis?

Bernard Vorms & translated by Oliver Waine - 20 April 2011

A 70% home-ownership rate? This is the stated objective of the reform that has recently come into effect in France,...

Debates

The Handicaps of Handicapped Housing

Catherine Carpentier & Emmanuelle Colboc & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 13 April 2011

Since February 2005, all new and renovated housing in France has to meet standards of accessibility for the disabled....

Debates

Suburbanization as a Project

Martin Vanier & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 6 April 2011

Experts and policies fail to recognize the contradictions that urban sprawl creates and rarely go beyond directives....

From the Field

The Ladies Kingdom and Its Many Uses. A shopping mall in Riyadh for women only

Saba A. Le Renard & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 30 March 2011

The frenetic development of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia is unveiling new and unexpected urban realms, including a shopping...

Essays

“Ghetto,” “Banishment,” “Neighborhood Effects.” A Critique of the “Ghetto” Image of French Housing Projects

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 23 March 2011

Are residents of French housing projects really “banished” to their neighborhoods and kept in “confinement” there?...

Interviews

Towards a regional democracy?

Frédéric Dufaux & Edward W. Soja - 9 March 2011

To achieve a better democracy, Edward Soja defends the idea that we need to change the way we think about the social...

Debates

Homosexual City, Homophobic Banlieue?

Éric Fassin & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 9 March 2011

Is homophobia prevalent in social housing projects? Is sexual orientation the new divide between civilizations? Éric...

From the Field

Aging in self-managed housing

Stéphanie Vermeersch & translated by Claudio Cambon - 2 March 2011

What happens to old people when they find themselves in a state of dependence? As an alternative to retirement homes,...

Essays

Arab Cities in Revolution: Some Observations

Éric Verdeil & translated by Oliver Waine - 25 February 2011

Are the revolutions we are currently witnessing in Tunisia and Egypt essentially urban revolutions? Éric Verdeil...

Debates

Housing: for an act III of the decentralization process

Patrice Lanco & translated by Michael Stokes - 18 February 2011

Although housing has not been concerned before now by decentralization, the contrasted realities of local markets...

Debates

The city is sustainable development

Jacques Lévy & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 9 February 2011

After unraveling the divergent conceptions of the relationship between “nature” and “society” that underlie the...

Debates

Building cities without young urban planners?

Jean-Philippe Gallardo & translated by Claudio Cambon - 2 February 2011

The National Collective of Young Urban Planners (CNJU) is sounding the alarm bell about the discrimination that...

Debates

Why Build New Housing?

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 28 January 2011

Can building more houses solve the housing problem? Jean-Claude Driant shows that a simple quantitative approach does...

From the Field

The mayor, the developer and low-cost home ownership

Guilhem Dupuy & translated by Michael Stokes - 17 January 2011

At a time when controlling housing prices has become a national priority, a recent study carried out by Guilhem Dupuy...

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