Metropolitics

Covid-19 Transformed New York's Destination Food Markets

Ivana Mellers — 2021-10-05T05:00:00Z

Ivana Mellers analyzes how New York's destination markets—key spaces of economic and social interactions—coped during the pandemic.
---- Series: New York Dossier: The Food Industry Faces the Covid-19 Pandemic Like supermarkets, restaurants, and coffee shops, New York City's three outdoor destination food markets—Queens Night Market, Bronx Night Market, and Smorgasburg—have been seriously impacted by the Covid‑19 pandemic. In March 2020, when organizers would ordinarily be planning their

- From the Field / Featured, market, markets, food, food culture, food industry, Covid-19, coronavirus, pandemic, New York, United States

The Flea Market of Marseille

Michèle Jolé & William Kornblum — 2016-05-17T05:00:00Z

Marseille's flea market (“marché aux puces”) lies at the heart of a vast urban renewal project that could end up wiping the market off the map for good. Michèle Jolé and William Kornblum, who have both adopted Marseille as their hometown, explore the loss that the transformation of this veritable institution would represent for the city's residents and, more generally, for the northern neighborhoods (“les Quartiers Nord”) of Marseille.
“The more we gain distance from the center, the more the

- From the Field / public space, urban renewal, market, Marseille, retail, commerce, informality, urban project

Free public transport: from social experiment to political alternative?

Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-03-20T05:59:01Z

In a work combining storytelling and reflection, a local councillor and a philosopher analyse the policy of free public transport implemented since 2009 in Aubagne, near Marseille. A resounding success with residents, this experiment has opened the way to a stimulating debate on the feasibility of policies that offer an alternative to market-led solutions in urban areas.
Free public transport appears to be something of a taboo subject both in society at large and in the world of the social

- Reviews / public space, public transportation, market, mobility, transport, urban public service, Aubagne, public policy, free, mass transit, transport policy, urban technical networks, urban services

Alternative views and uses of money

Smaïn Laacher & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2010-12-01T15:20:57Z

Still largely unknown, Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) are interesting alternatives to free market dominance. How do they work and what are their social and political goals?
Contrary to what is often said, the social critique of the economy has not disappeared. Moreover, social experiments involving applied critiques of capitalist economics and a quest for concrete alternatives have never given up the ghost. One perfect illustration is the emergence in France in the mid-1990s of a large

- Essays / LETS, local currencies, market