Jean-Bernard Racine était le dernier grand broker de la géographie francophone. Il avait le don de relier les idées, les lieux et les personnes d’une manière qui a peu de précédents dans l’histoire moderne. Cette faculté d’occuper le centre intellectuel de notre discipline tout en étant géographiquement périphérique s’est manifestée tout au long de son illustre carrière académique.
This article argues that planning narratives can be mobilized as resources through a simultaneous hybridization of temporalities and territorial scales. We draw on Ameel’s (2021) typology of planning narratives and propose to complement it by distinguishing a) project narratives promoting a persuasive vision of the future, from b) continuity narratives seeking consensus on a certain vision of the status quo. We then examine the evolution of planning narratives elaborated by the Genevan authorities over five decades (1970s–2020s). Our longitudinal analysis demonstrates that, until the mid-1990s, Geneva’s masterplans were articulated around a ‘compact-city myth’ relying on continuity narratives aiming to preserve the canton’s agricultural belt while exporting urban sprawl in neighboring France. Then, from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, ‘project narratives’ shifted to emphasize the multipolar character of the cross-border agglomeration surrounding Geneva. Finally, since the 2010s, we observe a notable comeback of the compact city myth, thereby creating tension between project and continuity narratives. This tension is exacerbated by sustainability objectives whose territorial deployment remains deliberately vague. We therefore encourage future studies to pay more attention to this simultaneous hybridity of planning narratives regarding their temporality and their spatiality.
Cities are defined by their boundaries – internally and externally. They provide the framework against which the urban narrative is told. But how can we ‘narrate’ the boundary? This paper argues the case for a creative, visual way of applying a theoretical understanding of the boundary condition to tell its story through a reading of the XII arrondissement of Paris. The method is distinctly subjective, based on the tradition of the expert observer and the photography deliberately amateur but informed. This is set against a background, both in Paris and elsewhere, of urban planning activity that seeks to promote ideas of place identity. Knowing when we move in or out and whether the boundary has a presence can either reinforce or dilute that feeling. The paper concludes by suggesting that not only is the urban boundary a ‘place’ but that photography is a good way of narrating its condition as a support to other more quantifiable approaches.
This paper focuses on the contemporary greening movement that occurs in the field of waste management in three metropolis: Vienna (Austria), Athens (Greece) and Lyon (France). For many reasons, waste managers (both in-house and companies with delegation contracts) produce always more narratives about the ecological efficiency of waste management facilities. Wastewater treatment plants, waste incinerators and landfills are nowadays ‘told’ by mentioning the non-humans livings, plants and animals, that coexist with waste in those industrial sites. There’s some ecological ambiguity in the appearance of new characters in urban waste histories. First, it shows that urbanization is now understood as a more-than-human process. But it also reveals a domination of humans on other livings that can be read as an work exploitation and, by using non-human charisma, it also obliterates the waste production system. The study is based on seven visits of waste facilities as well as on a documentary analysis (grey literature, regional daily press, public communication).
Mais qu’est-ce donc que la « spatialité » en architecture ? Si le terme tend parfois à se substituer à celui d’espace architectural, force est de constater que l’aura dont il bénéficie depuis une ou deux décennies offre un immense flou sémantique, mi-scientifique mi-esthétique et parfois mythique, aux critiques comme aux concepteurs, pour justifier ou dénigrer tel ou tel projet. Devant pareille difficulté, ce texte repart d’une définition littérale et de deux hypothèses de travail pour développer une sorte de récit dont la forme « cubique » (architecture oblige…) s’efforce de ressaisir, par la forme de l’écriture, le contenu des 9 entrées proposées pour couvrir le champ des significations du mot dans la discipline : transcalarité, dimension tierce, mise en récit, configuration, appropriation, espace de réserve, abstraction, enveloppe, atmosphère.
À partir d’une enquête monographique (50 entretiens, 2021-2024) auprès de cadres intermédiaires de l’aménagement et de l’environnement au sein de Toulouse Métropole, l’article analyse la circulation de la « résilience » dans des récits de politiques publiques. Trois mécanismes sont mis en évidence. D’abord, la résilience fait l’objet d’une légitimation scientifique qui lui confère une apparence d’objectivité et tend à neutraliser la conflictualité, ce qui rend son usage difficilement contestable au sein de l’institution. Ensuite, la résilience s’imprègne de récits néomanagériaux qui organisent à la fois la responsabilisation des citoyens et la mise en concurrence des territoires. Enfin, les cadres intermédiaires de la Métropole s’emparent de cette notion et la réinvestissent dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes. En la critiquant, en la contournant ou en la bricolant, ils l’utilisent aussi stratégiquement comme un langage de recevabilité politique. L’argument central est que la résilience opère moins comme une innovation technique que comme un ensemble de récits stabilisateurs, qui articulent injonctions écologiques, impératifs managériaux et routines professionnelles. « Raconter la résilience », à Toulouse Métropole, revient ainsi à gouverner la transition par les récits, dans une logique de rattrapage plus que de transformation.
The article examines the representations of decarbonized metropolitan futures, highlighting the absence of representation for many metropolitan spaces identified as undesirable. Although often crucial for the functioning of metropolises, these ‘back sides’ are underrepresented in urban imaginaries, overshadowed by numerous images that favor city centers and the most vibrant areas. Meanwhile, images of requalified brownfields and underground spaces for recreational or commercial uses are proliferating in urban prospective works. The article thus questions the imaginary transformation of undesirable places into desirable and economically profitable spaces and its impact on the possibilities of achieving decarbonization trajectories beyond the current ‘path dependencies’ of metropolises. It concludes on the necessity to include these spaces and their functions in scenarios and illustrations, recognizing their essential role for a transition towards decarbonized metropolises.
A main challenge facing the city of the future is that of social cohesion between the poor and the rich, generations, genders and lifestyles. In addition to issues of professional opportunities and access to resources in general (housing, shops, services, nature), spatial cohesion is also a key factor that urban sociology can help remedy by proposing new policy, tools, and concepts.In this article, we approach these issues based on the concepts of differences and commons with regard to life rhythms. The study of synchrony in terms of urban rhythms allows us to renew the thinking of urban studies on inequalities and social ties. This article proposes an original framework that explores the notions of difference and commonality, using urban rhythms as the foundation to renew approaches of urban sociology.
This paper explores the contribution of Discourse Studies (DS) to urban research from two perspectives: the field of inquiry and the research corpus. It investigates which areas have utilised DS in their research and why, as well as which types of discursive modes have been subjected to analysis. An analysis of 126 publications suggests that DS has been widely utilised to investigate urban questions in urban planning and theory, urban policy, housing research, and environmental policy; this capacity can be expanded to other fields of urban research. The study also finds out that the corpus of analysis has mainly remained monomodal, limited to one item or multiple items of the same type, predominantly text-based materials. To address this problem, the corpus of the analysis should be diversified to recognize the multimodality of discourse. This entails encompassing a variety of non-verbal modes such as images, music, gestures, moving images, soundtracks, and 3D objects. The paper concludes by pinpointing directions towards which future research should progress in order to overcome the challenges of utilising DS in urban research.Discourse Studies, Discourse, Urban Studies, Urban Research, Multimodality
The application of the psycho-social paradigm of social representations in geographical studies is rather recent. However, this approach is considered to complement the work conducted in social geography where non-directive interview methods are often used. The main hypothesis of this paper is that mobility practice is not only influenced by the accessibility to transport infrastructures, but also structured by social representations about mobility, housing, and job. Based on a corpus of semi-structured interviews with 69 Franco-Luxembourgish cross-border commuters, the Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) is employed to explore relations between different types of social representations and mobility practice. This mixed method allows to integrate both quantitative statistical data and qualitative discursive data. It is concluded that social representations can be envisaged as a theoretical approach to understanding mobility practice, and that the daily mobility practice is socially structured depending on various social representations of individuals which are also shaped by their social positions or social trajectories. Challenges related to the use of mixed methods in the research are also addressed in the methodological discussion.
Urban design practices are hard to analyse and critique. In this paper, we suggest that part of the difficulty can be alleviated if one problematises them as having a “positivity”. That Foucauldian notion refers to the discursive rules that must be met in order for a statement to be considered as “knowledge” in a specific discipline and at a specific time in history. We then describe the “archaeological” method that Foucault developed to analyse “positivities”. Applying this method to the analysis of a multidimensional diagnosis document produced by a team of consultants in the first stage of an urban regeneration project, we describe the discursive rules of construction that seem to underlie the reasoning displayed in the document. The findings cannot be generalised but they provide strong hypotheses for future inquiry into urban regeneration discursive practices.
This study aims to understand how teleworking reorganises activity-travel behaviour. While the link between teleworking and mobility was widely studied, most of the research focused on commuting practices by comparing teleworkers to non-teleworkers. However, the coping strategies of teleworkers and their household members (e.g. reorganisation of activities according to the days of the week, and associated travel behaviour) remain insufficiently studied. With a systemic approach to interpersonal relationships, and their activities in the different spheres of their lives (i.e. professional, family, social and personal), the Reinert method we used (top-down hierarchical clustering) confirms and develops our knowledge about the rebound effects of teleworking. Our findings confirm that the work/telework sphere has a structuring role in the daily activity schedule and is associated with other travel motives (e.g. shopping, leisure or other personal activities). Teleworking appears as an adjustment variable, as it offers more freedom, and facilitates the organisation and reconciliation of activities in the different spheres of daily life. Thus, teleworking transforms individuals’ choices, habits and patterns of activities and travel within the household.
Since Bamako has doubled its urbanised area in the last two decades, what interest do Malian public opinions have in the urban peripheries? At the same time, new online media platforms have been able to address sensitive topics with a growing audience thanks to connected mobile phones. This abundant material confirms the hypothesis that the peri-urban environment, although widely ignored by national policies and categories, is gaining importance. Most of these articles point to socio-economic tensions. Land issues, in particular, generate many local troubles and are related to state governance, which has become unsecured and widely criticised over the period. Narratives are on a discursive continuum with the claims and denunciations raised by these conflicts, following diversified political subjectivities. This paper deals with the statistical textual analysis implemented with the ALCESTE tool based on the proximity of words to each other. It measures the lexical classes resulting from four online platforms. Using geographical categories for assessing the last set of articles, it compares the ongoing urban sprawl with the power interplay more specific to the already constituted city and those currently inflaming the rural communities.
Despite its economic and social significance, street vending is still seen as a culturally backwards and faulty development unbecoming for Jakarta. This has led to the development of urban strategies that attempt to eliminate its presence from the city’s streets. In response to the issue, through this paper, I posit street vending as a form of interior urbanism; a creative micro-scale intervention born from precarious situations that temporarily transform the street into a habitable space. And thus, its assimilation into the city’s formal urban framework is integral in creating a more liveable and socially equitable urban environment. Hence, a thorough understanding of street vending spatial practices is needed. To compensate for a severe lack of official data and direct access to the field, this paper proposed using mind-walking to reveal the ingredients of Jakarta’s street vending interior urbanism through Instagram. Inductive coding and drawing, interpretative tools that are less intrusive, are utilised within the analytical process to provide a comprehensive reading and extract the necessary components from the Instagram datasets of three different areas in Jakarta. This experiment successfully recognises crucial ingredients that characterise Jakarta’s street vending activities, including six types of street vending practice; the typology of interior urbanism. Despite its inherent downside of only covering the spatial features and yet touching on the socio-political aspects, mind-walking can establish and set out the ingredients that make up the social phenomenon, bringing the research a step forward to formulating a comprehensive and Jakarta-centric urban street framework.
This article addresses a paradox: whereas urban projects are meant to have a specific local (historical, geographical, and cultural) color, the projects themselves and the discourse about them are highly standardized. Collected through semi-structured interviews, the discourses of the designers (architects, urban planners, landscape architects, promoters, and project managers) of two urban projects in France are scrutinized using discourse analysis (textual statistics) and content analysis (qualitative approach). First, the study reveals the uniformity of these actors’ discourse: textual statistics show a striking similarity in discourse across the two sites even if the differences among professions are more apparent. Second, it highlights the role of local specificities within this uniformity: the qualitative analysis shows that the discourse remains standardized despite its purpose to highlight singularities. Finally, the paper reveals how the actors themselves perceive this paradox and maintain a critical distance regarding the dominant trends in the production of contemporary cities.
In France, local urban plans (PLUi) can convey drivers for climate change adaptation, e.g. greening and limitation of soil sealing to reinforce stormwater management. However, translating adaptation measures into plans is not always easy for planners to effectively communicate adaptation. We create an analysis method, specifically designed for the sustainable development project (PADD), a key document of the PLUi, in order to understand its adaptation approach. The PADD examined is that of the PLUi of Nantes metropolis in France. The first part of the method has been published; here, we develop the last two steps of the method, which consist of a thematic analysis applied to the corpus and a cross-analysis of results. The findings reveal seven major intentions for adaptation. Specific actions were more difficult to identify; however, four areas of practical application emerged: vegetation, water, soil and building. Furthermore, we questioned local planners to get a complete sense of their rationale to address adaptation. Creators and agents result in being aware of the challenges and can identify concrete and synergistic adaptive actions; however, it is unclear how they would measure achievement of PADD objectives. The results may provide useful information to determine whether PADDs are conducive to adaptation.
This paper focuses on the transition of mobility practices and more specifically how certain older individuals experience patterns of Déprises leading them to adopt a more homebound lifestyle. As individuals age and advance in their life cycle, their capacities for mobility are prone to change, along with their lifestyles. Sometimes these changes are voluntary and done in a proactive manner, sometimes they are the product of external events. In some instances, following a transition period, these changes can result in a loss of mobility capacities, a continuation or reconfiguration of activities, or sometimes even an extension of mobility capacities, and therefore autonomy. As shown in earlier research, this process takes place in ways that are as diverse as the life course of each individual. This diversity, however, is still underrepresented in research, where older adults are often studied as a block according to their age (65+, 75+). This paper aims to delve deeper into the events and process leading to transition in mobility capacities among diverse profiles of older adults living in urban and suburban environments. To do so, the paper first presents results from statistical analysis showing how mobility practices can differ in older adults of different age groups representing different moments of the life cycle. Focusing afterward on a specific profile (the Stay-at-home), the article uses interview data to illustrate how diverse events, decisions and adaptation strategies led diverse individuals to become more homebound over the course of ageing. The article exposes a diversity of situations among Stay-at-home individuals, with transitions that are chosen or suffered. We conclude on strategies this plurality of Stay-at-home use to maintain their mobility and how we can support them to help them keep their autonomy.
This article draws on the space-time prism as formalized in time-geography (Hägerstrand 1970) and on spatial analysis methods to examine medium-term changes to household members’ access to place of activity, against the backdrop of urban change. The analytical framework thus uses the concept of Space-Time of Action (Demoraes et al. 2020a), referring to the combination of all the places of work or study that individuals go to, and the time taken to reach them from home. The analysis is based on two surveys conducted in Bogotá (Colombia) in 1993 and 2009 to apprehend individuals’ spatial mobilities. Two groups at different stages in their life course and co-residing in the same households are studied: schoolchildren and working adults. First, Space-Times of Action are calculated and mapped using kernel outer rings delineating the concentration of destinations for the two groups and the nine survey zones at each date. Second, the statistical significance of the discrepancies between Space-Times of Action is assessed using a bivariate colocation test. The test indicates overall stability in children’s access to place of schooling, but a more contrasting situation for adults.
In the context of urban transformation, children's mobility is a field of study in the social sciences that has been growing rapidly over the last twenty years. In this research, we aim to understand how children’s autonomy evolves during a “normative transition” from elementary (T1) to middle school (T2). Children’s autonomy is studied through daily independent travel, types of places visited as well as by observing children’s ability to deal with unexpected and unfamiliar situations. Based on a longitudinal Mobi’kids survey using mixed methods (GPS travel/stop data; data from prompted recall interviews with children), children’s autonomy (based on independent travel, types of places visited and the ability to deal with unexpected situations) was analyzed over two periods (T1, n=86 and T2, n=56). The results show differences in mobility habits between the suburban and city children (in both T1 and T2), but also the same evolution trend in terms of independent travel while attending middle school (T2). The normative transition seems to have a role in some travel patterns and consequently on a few coping strategies to deal mainly with unfamiliar contexts.
