Metropolitics

A Masterpiece in Peril: The Garden Suburb of La Butte-Rouge

Renaud Epstein & translated by Oliver Waine — 2026-02-24T06:00:00Z

La Butte-Rouge, built in the mid-20th century in Paris's southern suburbs, is the archetypal example of a French cité-jardin. In a recent work retracing its history, Élise Guillerm highlights the urban and architectural qualities of this eco-neighborhood before its time, whose very existence is now threatened by an urban renewal project.
Analysis of urban policies, and particularly urban renewal policies, dispels the idea that historical knowledge can prevent the repetition of past mistakes.

- Reviews / urban planning, cité-jardin, HLM, urban heritage, heritage, Châtenay-Malabry, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, social housing, sustainable development, garden city, garden suburb, France, Paris region, Paris, history, urban history, environment, urban renewal, landscape

Urban Public Transit: A Choice Between Two Models

Arnaud Passalacqua & Philippe Poinsot & translated by Oliver Waine — 2025-12-02T06:00:00Z

Public transportation has a decisive role to play in any meaningful ecological transition. And yet key players in the sector continue to prioritize technical innovations that consume huge quantities of resources. Arnaud Passalacqua and Philippe Poinsot re‑examine past experiences in France in order to identify solutions that are more technically modest and available in the shorter term.
Urban public transportation is considered an important tool for public policies aimed at promoting a

- Essays / funding, innovation, mass transit, mobility, model, public transportation, resources, technical innovation, transport, urban technical networks

Producing Affordable Housing in West Africa: How States Respond to Demand and Local Realities

Mathilde Mouton & translated by Oliver Waine — 2025-10-10T05:00:00Z

Based on her consulting work in West Africa, Mathilde Mouton highlights the limitations of state-led social housing programs. She calls for greater consideration of initiatives in the informal sector to produce housing that is adapted to the needs and resources of local populations.
A plan for 100,000 new homes in Senegal, a plan for 150,000 social housing units in Côte d'Ivoire, a plan for 40,000 dwellings in Burkina Faso, a plan to build 20,000 homes in Benin… Over the past decade, many

- From the Field / Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa, Senegal, housing, affordable housing, informal housing, social housing

Istanbul as a Showcase of AKP's Electoral Techno-Nationalism

Yohanan Benhaïm & translated by Oliver Waine — 2025-06-03T05:00:00Z

In Turkey, President Tayyip Erdoğan was re-elected for a third term in May 2023. Yohanan Benhaïm looks back on the last electoral campaign in Istanbul and shows how "techno-nationalism" and its implementation in urban spaces have become an electoral tool for the ruling AKP party.
In Turkey, despite the economic crisis and the earthquake of February 2023, the elections of May 14 and 28, 2023, saw the People's Coalition (Cumhur Ittifakı) retain its majority in parliament and President Erdoğan

- From the Field / Turquie, Istanbul, politique, élections, mégapole, industrie de défense, technonationalisme, campagne électoral

The Myth of Urban Exodus from Paris: Mobility in Times of Health Crisis

2025-05-02T05:00:00Z

The rushed departures of city dwellers to the countryside ahead of the first Covid‑19 lockdown, in spring 2020, played into the idea of an urban exodus. After analyzing previously unseen data on Facebook users in France, however, a team of researchers came to quite a different conclusion.
This article seeks to cast light on the mobility dynamics of people in France—and in Paris more particularly—between March 2020 and September 2022, in order to decipher the potential geographical impacts

- Debates / Covid-19, exode urbain, réseaux sociaux, confinement, mobilité, mobilité résidentielle, numérique

Geolocation Among Teenage Peers: Between Play, Control, and Gendered Vulnerability

Yann Bruna & translated by Oliver Waine — 2025-03-28T06:00:00Z

Geolocation practices among teenagers are ambivalent, combining aspects of both play and surveillance. Yann Bruna examines Snap Map use, which exposes girls in particular to new forms of vulnerability online and in urban spaces.
Whether used in the workplace, within families or in romantic relationships, geolocation tracking has become an increasingly popular way of monitoring the activities of others over the last 10 years, propelled in particular by the widespread use of smartphones—the

- From the Field / teenagers, geolocation, youth, communication technology, surveillance, technology

Large-Scale Farming in the Face of Competing Land Uses in Abidjan District, Côte d'Ivoire

Adjoba Marthe Koffi-Didia & translated by Oliver Waine — 2025-03-21T06:00:00Z

To the west of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's largest city, large farming operations—owned by multinational companies geared toward export markets—are today facing an obstacle posed by Abidjan's growing urban sprawl and the rise of land claims among Indigenous communities whose customary rights are threatened.
Songon Subprefecture is located to the west of the Abidjan metropolitan area, 23 km (14 miles) from Abidjan's central business district (Le Plateau), and covers an area of 621.71 km² (240.04

- From the Field / land rights, Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan, Global South, agriculture, farming, land use, Africa, customary law, access to land, West Africa

A Place for Women

2025-01-21T06:00:00Z

For over 40 years, a feminist association called Apiaf, based in Toulouse in southwestern France, has been working with female victims of domestic violence. In this interview, members of the association talk about the central role of non-mixity in accommodating and assisting these women, thus guaranteeing a space of protection and emancipation.
Interview conducted by Pauline Delage.
Apiaf (Association pour l'Initiative Autonome des Femmes; "Association for Women's Autonomous Initiative") is

- Interviews / violence, women, non-mixity, associations, gender, feminism, activism

In Norway, Housing Schemes Designed with Children in Mind

Grégoire Tortosa & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-11-22T06:00:00Z

How can cities take more of a “child's eye view”? Grégoire Tortosa shows how avant-garde housing developments in Oslo and Tromsø, in Norway, have been designed to encourage children to play freely.
From the 1920s onwards, the Modernist movement defined a new conception of the city. By proposing a “coherent set of reasoning principles recognized and used as a reference,” it set itself up as an urban paradigm (Héran 2015, p. 33), with functionalism, technicism, the rejection of all heritage,

- From the Field / cars, Norvège, urban planning, spatial planning, urban design, urban development, housing, housing estates, housing projects, children, play

When the Poor Make a Living from the Waste of the Rich

Simon Joxe & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-11-15T06:00:00Z

In Buenos Aires, cartoneros—poor individuals who collect the waste of the rich—have managed to formalize their activity. Simon Joxe explains how a system of shared waste management system was set up between cartoneros and public authorities.
Argentina, October 28, 2021. Accompanied by representatives of the cartonero movement and over 10,000 people, Juan Cabandié, environment minister, proposes a “Packaging and Social Inclusion Bill” in the Argentine parliament (Congreso de la Nación

- From the Field / recyclage, Argentine, déchets, Buenos Aires