Metropolitics

In the Name of Metropolitan Attractiveness

Clément Barbier & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-12-08T06:00:00Z

By comparing two urban renewal projects in Lille and Hamburg, Clément Barbier shows that the staging of attractiveness by local authorities contrasts with their powerlessness to attract businesses and new residents, and that this policy is not without effects on the working-class areas concerned.
Since the early 1990s in Europe, the injunction to promote “territorial attractiveness” seems to have become widespread at all levels of government. In several conurbations, including Lille (in

- From the Field / attractivité, politiques territoriales, renouvellement urbain, métropole, projet urbain, quartiers populaires, Hambourg, Roubaix, Lille, Tourcoing

Closing the Loop or Looping Close By?

Marine Frantz & Gabriel Renault — 2023-02-07T06:00:00Z

Marine Frantz and Gabriel Renault explore the spatial dimension of the circular economy, particularly in regard to waste management issues. Based on research conducted in Lille, France, they outline steps municipalities could take to develop a more local recycling industry.
---- Series: Urban Wastes, Present and Future In the last decade, the notion of a circular economy has been imposed as a major public policy feature at various scales of governance, from European to local. Circular economy

- From the Field / waste management, waste, Lille, France, Hauts-de-France, Northern France

Open-Air Auto Shops: Subsistence Jobs in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Collectif Rosa Bonheur & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-10-25T04:00:00Z

The informal activities of street mechanics observed by Collectif Rosa Bonheur in northern France attest to a much larger subsistence economy at the margins of employment. According to this research collective, the spatial anchoring of these activities, on the borderline of informality, invites us to consider spaces that are often perceived as peripheral and relegated as “working-class centralities.”
In the vicinity of houses, in garages adjacent to dwellings, on sidewalks, in public squares

- From the Field / cars, poverty, precarity, Roubaix, Lille, Hauts-de-France, Northern France, France, working classes, working-class neighborhoods, informality, work, jobs, employment, Nord–Pas-de-Calais

The Treatment of “North Africans” in 1960s Urban Renewal in France

Janoé Vulbeau & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-02-01T06:00:00Z

While France's 1960s urban renewal has been studied in terms of its effects on the working classes, its racial dimension has rarely been highlighted. Janoé Vulbeau examines two neighborhoods in the northern cities of Lille and Roubaix, considered in light of Henri Coing's pioneering Paris study, and shows how the development of what amounts to a settlement policy was partly based on the grouping together of, and discrimination against, “North Africans.”
The urban-renewal policies implemented

- Essays / France, immigration, urban renewal, Algerian War, discrimination, Roubaix, Lille, settlement, population, Hauts-de-France, Northern France, decolonization, Nord–Pas-de-Calais

Deafening Discord: Reclaiming Residents' Anger in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Pierre Chabard & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-10-26T05:00:00Z

We recently published an article showing how, in Roubaix in northern France, elected officials took steps to “prevent the creation of a cohesive residents' collective seeking to challenge an urban-renewal project that risks being imposed upon their neighborhood.” Pierre Chabard revisits this interpretation of the situation and shows that, while it is true that the association studied by the author of this article was systematically hindered, it was not the only initiative that tried to give a

- Debates / architecture, participation, housing, urban planning, working-class neighborhoods, urban renewal, urban regeneration, Roubaix, working classes, associations, Lille, mobilization, Hauts-de-France, Northern France, Nord–Pas-de-Calais

Silent Suppression: How Local Politicians Stifle Collective Action in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Julien Talpin & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-10-19T05:00:00Z

Taking as its starting point a study of a neighborhood roundtable in the northern French city of Roubaix, this article examines the discreet but effective way in which public institutions, and local politicians in particular, have sought to thwart the collective action organized by local residents regarding an urban-renewal project. Working-class neighborhoods are all too often described as political deserts, but this experience shows this couldn't be further from the truth, and that in fact

- Debates / France, participation, housing, democracy, working-class neighborhoods, urban renewal, local councillors, local democracy, urban regeneration, Roubaix, working classes, associations, Lille, mobilization, Hauts-de-France, Northern France, Nord–Pas-de-Calais

Post-industrial cities: towards a new approach

Max Rousseau & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-09-25T04:55:00Z

While anglophone urban studies have sought to critique the way capitalism has developed, the French social sciences have instead chosen to produce detailed monographs of urban spaces. However, both traditions can be combined to good advantage, as Max Rousseau shows here through a historical analysis of urban policies in (post-)industrial cities.
Translated with the support of the Institut Français Series: Urban Studies in France The Louvre-Lens, Pompidou-Metz, The Cité du Design in

- From the Field / France, governance, urban policy, deindustrialization, United Kingdom, territorial development, Marxism, crisis, Roubaix, Sheffield, monograph, postindustrialism, Nord–Pas-de-Calais, England, Lille, Northern France, Hauts-de-France