Metropolitics

Unexpected Outcomes: Land Ceilings, Rent Control, and the Rise of Real Estate in Bombay

Nikhil Rao — 2025-12-09T06:00:00Z

Paradoxically, Mumbai's neoliberal real-estate system has its origins in progressive legislation.
---- Series: Provincializing the “Real-Estate Turn” When the Phoenix Mills compound in central Mumbai reopened in 1999 after a long closure, the former textile factory complex featured a bowling alley and a nightclub. It bore the distinction of being the first mill compound in Mumbai's storied textile mill district—Girangaon, or the village of mills—to transform itself from a manufacturing space

- Essays / Bombay, Mumbai, rent control, land ceilings, real estate, real-estate turn, legislation, governance

(Re)Constructing Inequality: Community Development in Public and Private

Claire Dunning — 2021-12-14T06:00:00Z

Claire Dunning reviews Jeremy R. Levine's new book, Constructing Community, an ethnographic study of community development projects in Boston.
For a book about urban poverty and redevelopment, Constructing Community recounts few protests or headline-grabbing incidents. Instead, the drama unfolds slowly over the course of a decade in poorly lit community rooms, downtown board rooms, and the backseats of cars. This is a book about the banalities of bureaucracy and governance—a fact that author

- Reviews / Boston, Massachusetts, United States, mass transit, rapid transit, transport, public transportation, community-based organizations, urban poverty, redevelopment, poverty, governance, local governance, urban governance, ethnography

In Search of Grand Paris: Pierre Mansat on the Eve of the June 2020 Municipal Elections

Magda Maaoui & Pierre Mansat — 2020-06-26T05:00:00Z

Magda Maaoui interviews Pierre Mansat, former deputy mayor of Paris and a founding father of “le Grand Paris” (the metropolitan authority for Greater Paris), about Grand Paris and the limits of political action at the municipal level in light of the upcoming municipal elections.
Less than a week before 12 million Parisians vote in the second round of elections for their mayors and their municipal councils, which has now been delayed from March 22 to June 28 owing to the coronavirus lockdown,

- Interviews / Grand Paris, Grand Paris Express, Greater Paris, Paris region, Paris, Île-de-France, France, banlieue, suburbs, metropolitan areas, metropolitan restructuring, metropolis, territorial equality, territorial reform, governance, local governance, metropolization, coronavirus, Covid-19, public transportation, transport, mass transit, intercommunality

Inclusive Place-Based Leadership: Lesson-Drawing from Urban Governance Innovations in Bristol, UK

Robin Hambleton — 2018-10-09T05:00:00Z

Across the world, progressive city leaders are working to limit the damaging impact of decisions made by “placeless” leaders, meaning powerful interests that are unconcerned about the consequences of their decisions for particular places and communities. Robin Hambleton outlines a new way of thinking about place-based leadership and reports on the steps being taken by Mayor Marvin Rees and other civic leaders in Bristol, UK, to test this model in practice.
---- Series: Progressive Mayors and

- From the Field / local government, governance, local governance, United Kingdom, progressive urban politics, civic innovation, progressive mayors, city leadership, power of place, collaborative governance, inclusion, Bristol, England

Streetcars Named Desire

Luc Gwiazdzinski & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-03-15T06:00:00Z

Luc Gwiazdzinski provides an original and critical analysis of the changes affecting today's cities and contemporary urban production by focusing on the trams, streetcars and light-rail systems that increasingly form part of the urban landscape. He shows in particular how these vehicles, as vectors for urban regeneration, are used as tools for the “staging” of the city.
Humanity has always cultivated the art of storytelling – an art that is at the heart of social ties everywhere (Salmon

- Debates / public transportation, urban planning, governance, storytelling, transport, Strasbourg, urban regeneration, Bordeaux, Montpellier, mass transit, urban project, tramway, tram, streetcar, light rail, fictional urban planning, Tours

Megacities and how to govern them: rethinking urban development in terms of infrastructure networks

Éric Verdeil & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-09-25T05:00:00Z

Are colossal megalopolises like Shanghai or Mumbai uncontrollable? This collective work shows that nothing could be further from the truth: by proposing an innovative interpretation, on the margins of classic approaches centred on political institutions, it underlines the importance of technical networks in city governments.
Governing Megacities in Emerging Countries (Métropoles XXL en pays émergents in the original French) is an ambitious and stimulating book that seeks to shift the terms of

- Reviews / governance, networks, metropolis, Global South, urban growth, megacities

Transport as both a function and a facilitator of metropolitan development?

Aurélien Delpirou & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-02-12T05:50:00Z

In Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the development of public transport is a central element of the metropolitan projects currently under way. However, the challenges to be tackled and the approaches adopted differ significantly from one city to another. Here, Aurélien Delpirou compares the three situations and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of their respective strategies.
As part of the major territorial shake-up presently under way in France, a new type of intermunicipal body is set to

- Essays / Île-de-France, Grand Paris, public transportation, Paris region, governance, Marseille, Paris, transport, Lyon, metropolis, Greater Paris, mass transit, rapid transit, Rhône-Alpes

Is rurality a thing of the past?

Philippe Dubourg & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-01-08T05:50:00Z

In the era of globalisation and metropolisation, is rurality an old-fashioned concept, a thing of the past? The arsenal of reforms and laws that have been passed – indeed, often forced through – in recent years in France seems to give weight to this idea, while the economic crisis has proved to be the perfect opportunity to (dis)unite small local authorities under the steamroller of global finance.
Metropolisation means concentrating not only economic life but also collective human existence

- Debates / France, rural, governance, local governance, intercommunality, village, metropolization, territorial equality

The misunderstandings of European democracy

Philippe Aldrin & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-05-28T04:50:00Z

Though an economic giant, the European Union still appears to be something of a political dwarf. Yet a political Europe does exist, but the unusual forms that this transnational power takes seem to prevent a clear understanding of its true nature. Under the guise of technocratic governance free from political wrangling, three non-representative institutions impose their agenda upon the people and national governments of Europe. This is the conclusion drawn by political scientist Antoine Vauchez,

- Reviews / Europe, governance, democracy, elections, abstention, citizens

The Localism Act in London: institutionalising urban divisions

Justinien Tribillon — 2014-04-16T05:00:00Z

By decentralising planning powers to local communities, the British Conservative government claims that they are strengthening local democracy and protecting it from the mistakes of big government. In a map-based analysis of the effects of the Localism Act in London, Justinien Tribillon disputes this claim and underlines the reinforcement of urban economic divisions through a new parochialism.
“Good fences make good neighbours,” goes an English proverb.
Introduced by the coalition

- Debates / participation, local government, governance, local authorities, London, United Kingdom, local democracy, neighborhood, localism, England