Metropolitics

How the Gonesse Triangle Became a Zone to Defend

Stéphane Tonnelat & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-04-28T05:00:00Z

Despite the cancellation in late 2019 of the EuropaCity project - a giant shopping mall and entertainment complex on the outskirts of Paris — the government's decision to build a new train station in the middle of farmland has brought opposition groups to occupy the land and form a new “zone to defend”: the ZAD of the Gonesse Triangle.
On Sunday, February 7, 2021, just under a hundred people—comprising members of the Collectif pour le Triangle de Gonesse (Collective for the Gonesse Triangle;

- Debates / Gonesse, écologie, Île-de-France, mobilisation, zone à défendre, urbanisation

Sentinel Territories: A New Concept for Looking at Environmental Change

2020-05-08T05:00:00Z

In this essay, the authors develop the concept of “sentinel territories,” or environments where humans can perceive early warning signs of environmental change. Sentinel territories can illuminate common features of spaces where environmental issues emerge and be used as a tool to advance environmental policies.
This paper attempts to broaden the notion of “sentinel devices,” borrowed from science and technology studies (STS) scholars, to develop the concept of “sentinel territories.”

- Essays / sentinel, sentinel territories, environment, climate change, environmental change, territory, risk, preparedness, mitigation

Filming Ethnic Diversity in New York

Stéphane Tonnelat & translated by Christina Mitrakos — 2016-10-21T08:23:11Z

Frederick Wiseman's fortieth documentary film, In Jackson Heights (2015), returns to an urban theme explored in previous films such as Central Park (1989) and Public Housing (1997). This time he chose an entire New York City neighborhood characterized by great racial and ethnic diversity.
Frederick Wiseman's latest documentary, In Jackson Heights, plunges us into a three-hour uninterrupted exploration of the institutions, the streets, and the concerns of the inhabitants of a multiethnic

- Reviews / immigration, gentrification, ethnicity, New York, neighborhood, community, Queens, institution, street, film, documentary, diversity, Featured

Coping with crowdedness in mass transportation

Martin Aranguren & Stéphane Tonnelat & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-02-26T05:50:00Z

Riding overcrowded metros, tubes or subways with dozens of strangers in varying moods is routinely viewed as a trying experience. Yet we know very little about the discreet but crucial emotional work that passengers do every day in order to facilitate the smooth functioning of urban mass transportation.
In Paris, annual metro ridership increased from 1.2 billion journeys in 2000 to 1.5 billion in 2011, or 5.16 million trips per weekday. [1] This roughly 25% growth in passenger numbers has

- From the Field / France, public space, public transportation, Paris, density, métro, mass transit, metro, subway, tube, underground, emotions, antisocial behaviour, sociabilities, rapid transit

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

Stéphane Tonnelat & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2011-06-20T05:30:00Z

How can the residents of a flooded neighborhood in New Orleans, torn between reconstruction imperatives and environmental exigencies, prove its viability? Stéphane Tonnelat looks at a solution people from the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans came up with: a platform providing access to the bayou as well as a forum for debate about the future of the neighborhood. This public space seems to have bolstered the sustainability of a neighborhood in a risky location.
---- Series: New Orleans: The

- From the Field / catastrophe, public space, sustainable development, New Orleans, disaster, environment, collective action, hurricane

New Orleans: The Post-Katrina Years

Jean Samuel Bordreuil & Stéphane Tonnelat — 2011-05-25T05:56:06Z

How to keep track of a city's recovery after an environmental catastrophe? Metropolitics sheds light on some of the collective actions that have fed debates and helped the inhabitants rebuild New Orleans after the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
Catastrophes are a common topic of social research as they expose crucial and often revolting aspects of our modern societies (see the focus in Books and ideas). Katrina, the Hurricane that almost wiped out New Orleans in late

- Series

The Geography of Financial Crisis

David Harvey & Nadine Roudil & Stéphane Tonnelat — 2010-12-22T09:07:40Z

David Harvey is a leading figure of the marxist critique of neoliberalism. During his last stay in France, in October 2010, he answered a few quick questions on his relationship to Paris, on the geography of the financial crisis and on Utopia and social movements.
---- Dossier : Penser la ville avec Marx Video 1: Space, Marx and Paris Duration: 3:26 Question 1: You propose a spatial reading of Marx's critique of capitalism. Could you tell us how his work has helped you elaborate your own

- Interviews / Marx, financial crisis, utopia, crisis, video

Three questions to Richard Sennett

Richard Sennett & Philippe Simay & Stéphane Tonnelat — 2010-12-15T08:24:35Z

Richard Sennett writes about cities, labor, and culture. He teaches sociology at New York University and at the London School of Economics. He is one of the most prominent scholars on the city, from Antique Greece to contemporary New York, and of the relations between its manifold public spaces and the human body. We hear his take on new technology and cultural expressions in Paris's public spaces.
Richard Sennett answers three quick questions:
Question 1
Do new technologies of

- Interviews / public space, communication technology, culture, video

“Placemaking”: a new approach to designing and managing urban public spaces

Michèle Jolé & Stéphane Tonnelat — 2010-11-23T16:22:04Z

Based in New York City, PPS or "Project for Public Spaces" is an innovating urban planning and design company at the forefront of the contemporary trend of advocacy for better public spaces around the world. Though they regard Paris as an inspiring example, they also suggest ways to enhance the role of its public spaces towards more lively and more economically sustainable neighborhoods.
---- Dossier : Espaces publics urbains et concertation Kathy Madden is senior vice-president of Project

- Interviews / public space, placemaking, parks, video