Metropolitics

From Scientific Uncertainty to Strategic Ignorance

Gwenola Le Naour & Valentin Thomas & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-11-24T06:00:00Z

In the absence of data, uncertainties about the health risks of industrial pollution abound, and are used by private firms to assert that their activities are not harmful. In this article, Gwenola Le Naour and Valentin Thomas analyze how this “scientific ignorance” is maintained in the “chemical valley” to the south of Lyon in France.
On May 10, 2022, a public meeting was held in Lyon to present the results of an investigation by France Télévisions journalists into perfluorinated pollution

- From the Field / Lyon, pollution, Rhône-Alpes, risk, France, health, industry

The Limits of the Accepted Orthodoxy on Rent Control

Loïc Bonneval & François Robert & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-03-22T06:00:00Z

In response to a recent critique of their work, Loïc Bonneval and François Robert defend their method and results. In their view, not only should the idea of the unwanted effects of rent control be qualified, but the negative effects of the lack of regulation of the private rental market, which characterizes the current situation, should also be highlighted.
Robert C. Ellickson and David Le Bris's criticism of an article on rent control published in Métropolitiques in 2011 (and translated in

- Debates / rent, rent control, rental, rental housing, affordable housing, housing, housing crisis, housing policy, real estate, real-estate industry, history, France, Lyon

The Damage Inflicted by French Rent Controls between 1914 and 1948

Robert C. Ellickson & David Le Bris — 2019-02-26T06:00:00Z

In an essay in Metropolitics, Loïc Bonneval questioned the consensus among economists that strict rent controls have perverse effects. Bonneval based his analysis on a study of apartment buildings in Lyon between the two world wars. Robert Ellickson and David Le Bris challenge Bonneval's interpretation, and marshal evidence of the damage that rent controls inflicted in Lyon and France between 1914 and 1948.
In an article originally published in 2011 in Métropolitiques (in French) and recently

- Debates / rent, rent control, rental, rental housing, housing markets, housing policy, inequalities, Lyon, France, housing, housing crisis

Does Rent Control Prevent Investment in Real Estate?

Loïc Bonneval & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-02-08T06:00:00Z

While rent-control measures kept private rental housing in France affordable for much of the 20th century, it has been massively rejected since the 1950s, on the grounds that it discourages investment in real estate. Here, Loïc Bonneval utilizes an unpublished historical survey to demonstrate the highly debatable nature of these criticisms—as rent control did not stop rental investment being profitable in the past.
The question of how to keep private-sector rents in check has become ever more

- Debates / France, housing, real estate, property, Lyon, rent control, rental, housing crisis, housing markets, rent, 20th century, 19th century, rental housing

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

Using heritage status to combat segregation: the case of French housing estates

2014-10-22T04:50:00Z

Challenging the idea that demolishing housing estates is all it takes to eradicate the social problems with which they are associated, the authors here instead argue for collective housing schemes to be recognised as heritage assets so that they can be renovated and returned to their original function as places of good-quality housing.
Today, it is acknowledged that for the last 30 years or more – ever since the first riots in the Lyon suburbs and what the media at the time referred to as

- Debates / France, banlieue, segregation, housing, housing projects, Marseille, social housing, housing estates, Lyon, suburbs, heritage

Flowers under the flagstones

Cédric Ansart & Emmanuel Boutefeu & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-10-08T04:50:00Z

Cédric Ansart and Emmanuel Boutefeu explore new ways of enhancing city streets through the small-scale greening of footpaths and façades, and show how “asphalt flowers” can help to transform the way we share these spaces and blur the lines between the public and private domains.
---- Series: Nature in the City In recent years, flowers and climbing plants have been burgeoning along the footpaths and façades of city streets. This “greening” of urban thoroughfares is the result of operations

- From the Field / public space, environment, nature, urban ecology, green spaces, Lyon, Rennes

Catholics, sociologists and the city

Frédéric Dejean & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-11-27T05:50:00Z

Far removed from the habitual image of a Church incapable of dealing with the de-Christianisation that has accompanied urbanisation, Olivier Chatelan's book shows how Catholics in Lyon managed to get to grips with the urban question during France's “Trente Glorieuses” post-war boom years. By using an empirical form of sociology that was rapidly developing at the time, they sought to adapt their ministry to new urban realities.
“The attraction of cities has a ruinous influence on the religion

- Reviews / Lyon, suburbs, religion, church

The Vertical Village: the long road travelled by a Lyon housing cooperative

Marie-Pierre Marchand & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-10-10T04:55:00Z

The “Village Vertical” development that has taken shape in a mixed-development zone in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, is today one of the most prominent experiments in the alternative housing sector. Here, Marie-Pierre Marchand – who has monitored the development's progress as part of a research project – describes how this cooperative came into being, along with the values that it embodies.
---- Series: Mutual Housing Following significant media coverage, the Village Vertical (in English,

- From the Field / construction, participation, housing, sustainable development, alternative housing, Lyon, cooperative housing, Villeurbanne, verticality