How the Algerian War shaped French cities

Pierre Gilbert & Charlotte Vorms & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-03-21T05:55:00Z

The Algerian War of Independence, which coincided with a turning point in France's urban history, had a significant influence on the future of French cities. Metropolitics explores the role of conflict in their development.
The second half of the 1950s was a crucial period of change in the history of French urban policy: it was at this time that urban renewal, slum clearance and the construction of large social housing estates began. And yet these policies were implemented while the country

- Series

Barcelona: local mobilisation or global desperation?

Charlotte Vorms & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-02-08T06:00:00Z

What is the history behind today's protest movements involving the occupation of urban public spaces? In the film Squat. La ville est à nous, Charlotte Vorms finds a secular anarchist heritage combined with a tradition of Spanish urban struggles of the type that have fuelled the 15-M Movement in Barcelona.
Close-up on the young people, harnessed, scaling the facade of a building and entering by a window: this is the opening sequence to Squat. La ville est à nous. (“Squat. The City is Ours.”).

- Reviews / democracy, urban renewal, squat, social movement, Spain, Barcelona