Metropolitics

Migrants' Occupation of Lycée Jean Quarré: The Refugee Cause and the Cause of a Neighborhood

Isabelle Coutant & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-11-16T06:00:00Z

The flows of migrants seeking refuge in Europe since the summer of 2015 have led to temporary settlements—legal or otherwise—in various urban locations. What is the impact of their presence on individual neighborhoods and relations with local communities? A study by Isabelle Coutant on the occupation of a disused high school in northeastern Paris sheds light on these impacts and the associated expressions of solidarity, engagement and tension that emerge.
In the summer of 2015, the

- Essays / France, immigration, refugees, public space, working-class neighborhoods, collective action, Paris, proximity, neighborhood, migration, sociabilities, RESF, hospitality, politics, school, migrants, engagement, occupation, local action, asylum

What we can learn from babies' sociability

Carole Gayet-Viaud & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-10-09T04:55:00Z

The sociability of very young children reveals a neglected dimension of relations and interactions in public, and highlights issues associated with ordinary urban contact that often go unnoticed. Civil interaction exhibits an inclination towards friendliness, a concern for others and the surrounding world, which, while admittedly limited and sometimes disputed, nevertheless contributes to an ordinary sense of belonging to a moral and political community.
---- Series: Children in the City

- Essays / public space, proximity, children, sociabilities, interactions, civility, civil inattention, education, teaching, common good, friendliness, order in public, socialization

The Abattoir's Call: At the Margins of New York City's Foodie Movement

Richard E. Ocejo — 2014-11-17T05:50:00Z

Food-conscious urban consumers often ask their butcher where their meat comes from. But how many wonder about the form of death the animals were put through? Richard Ocejo gives a rare glance at a link in the food chain that remains an unglamorous mystery.
Open kitchens in trendy restaurants, countless chef, cooking, and food-related television shows, artisanal food carts, and whole animal butcher shops. As food culture has grown, how food gets made has become more glamorous. Knowing about

- From the Field / United States, proximity, short food-supply chains, food, New York, distance, food culture, craft, death, meat

The role of proximities in improving territorial governance

Lise Bourdeau-Lepage & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-07-10T04:55:00Z

What can be done to improve territorial governance? André Torre and Jean-Eudes Beuret emphasise the role of proximity in this process, where conflict and negotiation are two sides of the same coin.
This work, through its 105 pages, proposes the broad lines of a method for managing and coordinating territories using a proximity-based approach (Gilly and Torre 2000; Pecqueur and Zimmermann 2004). The key idea is relatively simple and can be stated as follows: territories are subject to major

- Reviews / local governance, proximity, conflict, negotiation

Regulating public spaces: the ambiguous role played by new professions

Jacques de Maillard & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-04-17T13:52:12Z

Despite a hiatus in the debate on community policing in France, the “new professions” involved in regulating public order have been the subject of renewed interest of late. Jacques de Maillard has studied the work of correspondants de nuit (“night-time mediators”) in Paris, and here describes how an alternative – a compromise between repression and abandonment – has been sought.
In the early 1990s, initiatives to manage conflict in public places, on public transport and in social-housing

- From the Field / public space, safety, Paris, proximity, profession, policing, security, public order

Organic school meals: what remains of the pioneer spirit?

Leïla Kebir & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-05-09T04:55:00Z

The concept of “organic canteens” has proved remarkably successful, buoyed by the Grenelle de l'Environnement (the French government's environment round table) and the model of alternative food systems. However, the large-scale implementation of organic canteens remains problematic in the face of incompatibilities between local production and organic farming, and raises the question of the dilution of the initial objective.
It was against the backdrop of a food crisis that organic canteens

- Debates / sustainable development, proximity, agriculture, short food-supply chains, farming, food, food culture

Local food: a concrete Utopia

Christian Deverre & Jean-Baptiste Traversac & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-02-15T06:00:00Z

Roland Vidal recently invited us to look beyond short food-supply chains and rethink local links between cities and agriculture. Here, Christian Deverre and Jean-Baptiste Traversac provide a critical reading of the consequences of changes in farming production methods on the environment and the population.
In an article published in 2011 in Métropolitiques, Roland Vidal denounced both the lack of realism of proposals to feed major urban centres via local agriculture and the erroneous nature

- Debates / France, Paris region, utopia, urban agriculture, market gardening, proximity, short food-supply chains, food, Greater Paris, food culture