Books & ideas

The Decomposed Passerby

Clément Rivière — 2024-04-04T08:03:00Z

Carole Gayet-Viaud's ethnographic study shows that city dwellers are far from always indifferent to their public environment. They sometimes interact with it, either by giving to beggars, getting into disputes, engaging in pure sociability, or perpetuating (but also combating) discrimination.

Urban Countrysides

Matthieu Calame — 2024-02-20T06:30:00Z

The renaturation of cities offers several advantages in terms of healthcare, urban planning and economics. But urban gardens can also become a Trojan horse for gentrification. Is cultivating them really all that counter-cultural?

Too concrete

Jean Bérard — 2023-09-14T07:00:00Z

The emergence of environmental protection policies in the second half of the twentieth century is the result of compromises between protest movements and economic and urban development—change by bits and pieces, rather than a genuine urban ecological transition.

Delhi, a Bourgeois City

Marie-Hélène Zérah — 2021-05-31T07:00:00Z

Efforts to make Delhi a “global” city have gone hand in hand with the destruction of nature and the commons, as well as the relegation of the poor to the periphery. The development of this metropolis attests to the urgency to reconcile ecological justice and social justice.

The color of France's “yellow vests”

Aurélien Delpirou — 2018-12-17T07:00:00Z

Jacquerie, revolt of the peripheries, or revenge of the working class? The initial analysis of the “yellow vest” (gilets jaunes) movement has unleashed sociological prejudices. Yet this movement reflects not so much a France split in two as a multiplicity of territorial interdependencies.

Running Water on Every Floor

Emmanuelle Hellier — 2018-02-15T08:00:00Z

How did people living in Paris, New York and London slowly gain access to running water? Although private companies shared the water market from the 17^th to the 18^th centuries, cities slowly realised the need for a public network.

Paris for Sale

Loïc Bonneval — 2017-10-26T07:00:00Z

Which actors are responsible for creating housing markets? A recent book looks at how Parisian real estate changed in the late nineteenth century, revealing how the property boom radically altered relationships to the city.

What is the Use of Starchitects?

Christophe Camus — 2016-09-01T07:00:00Z

Based on the example of Toronto, the sociologist Guillaume Ethier reflects on the cultural and urban effects involved in contemporary architectural realizations referred to as “iconic.” This architecture—a sort of sculpture on a grand scale—derives its aura from starchitects who conceive it and maintain a complex relationship with its urban environment.

Social Mix, Control and Gentrification

Matthieu Giroud — 2016-05-19T07:44:31Z

Public policies often encourage gentrification in the name of social mix, among other arguments. In urban research, however, this type of discourse is the subject of intense criticism.

Living in a Laboratory: New Orleans Today

2015-09-10T06:30:00Z

To live in New Orleans after Katrina is to witness the sweeping incursion of neoliberal policy in the guise of redevelopment and “resilience.” Crisis has worked as a lever for gentrification and intensified segregation. A closer look at the city's development is instructive, for it might very well be the model for urban policies in places as different as New York, Cleveland or Detroit.