Metropolitics

Policing Social Housing in Paris: The Role of GPIS

Virginie Malochet & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-05-28T05:00:00Z

Social landlords in France recently obtained the right to organize surveillance and security operations themselves within their properties. Virginie Malochet studies the case of GPIS, a social-housing security force founded in 2004 in Paris, and explores the rationale and nature of this kind of policing, which reflects both the rise of security concerns and the increased involvement of social-housing organizations in the process of ensuring urban security.
In social-housing neighborhoods in

- From the Field / policing, surveillance, social housing, Paris, public housing, profession, housing projects, night, security, public order, France

Culture and the Nighttime Economy: A Conversation with London's Night Czar and Culture-at-Risk Officer

Amin Ghaziani — 2019-11-12T06:00:00Z

Amin Ghaziani describes the high closure rate of LGBTQ nighttime venues in London, and the city's recognition of these venues' intertwined economic and cultural significance.
From 2006 to 2016, the number of LGBTQ bars, pubs, and nightclubs in London declined by 58%, falling from 125 venues to 53. Figure 1 shows the spatial distribution of these closures. The impact was most acute in central London.
An audit by the Greater London Authority (GLA) found that 44% of all nightclubs, 35% of all

- From the Field / LGBTQ+, homosexuality, night, London, United Kingdom, England, culture, nighttime economy, nightlife

Getting Night Lighting Right

Samuel Challéat & Dany Lapostolle & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-11-02T06:00:00Z

Innovation in contemporary urban lighting has increasingly been driven by issues of sustainability. While environmental concerns focus attention on energy savings and reducing light pollution, taking account of how people use public spaces is important too, as artificial light can then be adjusted to actual needs. Following the pioneering work of Roger Narboni and Luc Gwiazdzinski, Samuel Challéat and Dany Lapostolle make the case for dedicated nocturnal city planning.
While the contributions

- Essays / France, urban planning, sustainable development, Toulouse, use of space, Grenoble, night, urban temporalities, urban project, lighting

Taking Research to the Streets

Jonathan R. Wynn & Richard E. Ocejo — 2015-06-09T05:00:00Z

Residents of iconic neighborhoods in New York City have grown accustomed to walking tourism in their midst—clumps of curious observers and amateur historians following a knowledgeable guide who points to signs of the past in the contemporary landscape. This multimedia article follows sociologists Jonathan Wynn and Richard Ocejo on a tour whose subject is both the East Village neighborhood and the phenomenon of the walking tour itself. We follow the guides from Astor Place to the Bowery, via

- From the Field / gentrification, United States, New York, night, tourism, walking tour guides, bars, East Village, nightlife, walking

The sustainable metropolis: when night enlightens day

Luc Gwiazdzinski & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-03-05T05:50:00Z

The night-time, long a neglected dimension of the city, can no longer be dismissed. Luc Gwiazdzinski invites us to explore this nocturnal realm and together imagine the contours of this particular form of metropolitan urbanity, as he believes the night has a lot to tell us about the daytime and the future more generally.
The night is a wonderful space for renewal and replenishment, for invention and new projects for our changing cities, and for their inhabitants in search points of reference.

- Essays / public space, sustainable development, innovation, territorial development, metropolis, night, urban temporalities, chronotopia