Metropolitics

Wind Power: Transition Without Debate

Leny Patinaux & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-02-09T08:11:58Z

At a time when the construction of wind farms is regularly the subject of criticism and protests, Leny Patinaux examines the public inquiries organized as part of wind-power projects in northern France, and highlights the democratic deficit of the energy transition.
On October 5, 2021, in response to the increasingly systematic protests against new wind-farm projects, France's environment minister at the time, Barbara Pompili, announced a series of measures for the "controlled and responsible

- From the Field / Hauts-de-France, électricité, éoliennes, énergie, participation, transition énergétique, enquête, Nord–Pas-de-Calais

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

Photographing Prison

2020-10-02T05:00:00Z

The photographs presented here were taken by Andrea Eichenberger at the former men's and women's prison in Beauvais, in northern France, during its final year of operation and after its closure. Located in the heart of the city, the prison was originally run by the local bishopric under the Ancien Régime. It was briefly transformed into a hospital between 1813 and 1819, before becoming a prison départementale (county prison) in 1858. It closed in 2015, replaced by a new prison on the outskirts

- From the Field / prison, incarceration, France, Hauts-de-France, Northern France, Beauvais, image, photography, inmates, carceral space, experience of imprisonment, prison administration

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

Dunkirk as a New “Laboratory” for Free Transit

Henri Briche & Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-06-29T05:00:00Z

From September 2018, the public transport network in Dunkirk, France, will be free of charge for all users. Henri Briche and Maxime Huré's research into the zero-fare system already in place in the city at weekends affirms the feasibility of a public policy that encourages urban development and benefits working-class populations – but is often decried as being unrealistic and costly. How was this policy forged locally, and what is the current state of the art in fare-free transit in France and

- From the Field / France, public transportation, United States, mobility, transport, free, mass transit, rapid transit, bus, transport policy, Dunkerque, Hauts-de-France, Nord–Pas-de-Calais, Dunkirk, Northern France, fares

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