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Genealogy of a Myth: the French Public Development Corporations
in Charge of New Towns |
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by Loïc VADELORGUE
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| Most French new towns « builders » consider
the specificity of these
new towns came from their innovative administrative form, the établissement
public d’aménagement (EPA), the French equivalent to
a development corporation.
Historical evidence does not support this view. First, EPAs are
embedded
in a secular tradition of civil services. Second, the early 1960s
political
choice to select a public corporation, instead of a « mixed
» (public-private)
company, was the output of difficult controversies and compromises.
Third,
new towns planning shifted from a regional scale to a more local
scale in the
late 1960s. Initial planning institutions in charge of new towns
were very
slowly transformed into EPAs able to start their implementation,
as central
government remained divided on the issue of creating new towns. |
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Le Vaudreuil against Central Government. The Socio-Political Path
of Localism Revisited |
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by Claire BROSSAUD
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| The 1960s French new towns were influenced by the
utopia of localism.
Le Vaudreuil (Val-de-Reuil) is a good illustration. After Henri
Lefebvre’s The
Right to the City (1968), social relations and citizenship are still
perceived by
urban planners as a bottom-up process. The paper shows how the configuration
of relations and the socio-professional affiliations of Le Vaudreuil
« builders
» intellectually, historically and geographically structured
this localist
approach in the cultural, technical and political spheres. The result
is an alternative
to the dual and static vision of the political sphere as «
the centre
against the periphery ». It gives room to a more networked
vision in which
the distinct mental spheres of Le Vaudreuil public policies become
its symbolic
places of memories. The hidden complicity between City Councillors
and central government officers which was firmly criticised in the
1960s was
replaced by a more diffused and decentralised model of power. Such
a change
was beneficial for left-wing movements and self-governing socialism. |
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New Towns and Democracy: a Failure |
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by Michel MOTTEZ
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| When transforming new towns into «
ordinary » cities, central government
did not pay enough attention to their self-governing ability.
« Revisiting » the 1965 regional Master Plan, the author
discovers French
new towns were grounded on three pillars: economy, culture and democracy.
Focussing on Evry new town, the paper shows how the economic dimension
was taken into account, although it remains frail. Even if many
things were
implemented in the cultural field, they did not give birth to a
real cultural life.
This absence is explained by the weakness of the democratic construction,
rigidly enclosed in outdated communal institutions. Democracy and
cultural
identity are bound together and the paper considers what can be
done for
overcoming this failure. This is a major challenge for a sustainable
democracy. |
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Brasília: Urbanity and Social Relations in a New Town |
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by Brasilmar FERREIRA NUNES
and Lourdes BANDEIRA
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| This paper is about the transformations of Brasília
which became the
administrative capital of Brazil in 1960 and was planned in accordance
with
the « Chart of Athens ». Many changes occurred since
the beginning of this
new town. The large heterogeneity of the Federal District as a whole
must be underlined. The paper deals with the impact of these social
transformations
on the urban space. The initial dream of town planners, «
a rational urban
design leading to the creation of a new society and of new human
beings »,
did not become reality. Urban planning is not an efficient tool
for social
changes. Brasília is still unable to survive without a substantial
support from
central government. |
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The Contribution of New Towns to Polycentrism in Paris Metropolitan
Area:
the Polarisation of Employment |
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by Sandrine BERROIR, Nadine CATTAN
and Thérèse SAINT-JULIEN
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| This paper assesses new towns capacity of polarisation
within the system
of employment interdependencies in Paris metropolitan area. Three
components
of polarisation interact together: the amount and quality of jobs
supply,
the degree of autonomy-dependence from the main pole (Paris) and
the range
of polarisation. They give an image of the part played by new towns
in the
polycentric metropolitan system. In order to assess the specific
role of new
towns, they are compared with some other ten pilot employment poles. |
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Mobility and Urban Planning: Commuters in Marne-la-Vallée |
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by Nathalie BREVET
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| This paper is about mobility in Marne-la-Vallée.
It gives first an analysis
of the 1965 Master Plan, much committed with the organisation of
travel to
work. Then, it compares the 1965 initial aims with data from the
1999 population
Census. Following initial aims, Marne-la-Vallée is no autonomous
enclave. Some of its residents work inside the new town, but many
more commute
in the Eastern part of Paris metropolitan area. Most commuters do
not
use only their car. A majority of commuters working in Paris use
public transportation,
those working in one of the two new town centres do the same. |
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Rootedness and Kinship Propinquity in Ile-de-France New Towns: a
Comparison |
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by Christophe IMBERT
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| New towns were intended for generating full living
spaces within Paris
large metropolitan area. Thirty five years later, the former settlers
seem to be
deep-rooted in their new town. It can be explained by both the creation
of
centrality in these new urban areas and the large scale of this
settlement. If
the settlement in a new town meant first affordable home-ownership,
it offered later on opportunities for a new housing, for instance
after a marital
breakdown. Inside new towns, residential turn-over is lower than
anywhere
else within Paris metropolitan area, whatever the dwellers’
social and housing
circumstances. This residential embeddedness might be related with
family
propinquity, as children tend to live in the neighbourhood when
they leave
the parental home, as it is evidenced in the paper. |
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Anthropologists and their Territories. The Meaning of Territory
toDay |
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by Michel MARIÉ
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| As a self-biographer, the author tells about some
territories which used
to be both his living spaces and his research fields. He intends
to bind together
the evolution of his way to look at territories and their own transformations.
In a society characterised by an increasing mobility, a «
voyeur » and
« traveller » anthropologist imitates the territories
and the inhabitants he used
to visit. |
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« Mankind Heritage » and Social Conflicts. The Potosi
Mine in Bolivia |
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by Pascale ABSI
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| The concept of « Mankind Heritage » is
universal and abstract. It really
exists only in specific social and historical contexts. These contexts
give birth
to conflicts dividing the population on the size and scope of what
must be
protected. As a witness of colonial history, the Potosi mine became
« Mankind Heritage » in 1987. A sector of the population
takes advantage of
this prestigious title to refuse a large-scale exploitation of the
site, without
paying attention to economic and political issues. This example
shows tensions
and obstacles between local private interests and the universal
and
public characters of a patrimonial heritage. |
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