Governing Paris—Planning and Political Conflict in Île-de-France

Abstract

In this paper we examine some of the major planning challenges facing the Paris region and we locate these in the context of problems of institutional coordination and cooperation. Finding the right institutions for metropolitan governance is a challenge for most of Europe's large cities. Our approach to the Paris region emphasizes the need to understand the evolution of institutions of governance and the struggles between political actors around these institutional legacies. Political competition motivates key actors in the multi-level governance of the region. We examine the struggle to develop new social housing and conflicts around transport policy in Paris. Political conflict and different perspectives on regional planning stand in the way of solutions to current problems. In the final part of the paper we discuss how potential political and institutional solutions might develop.

Notes

1. These are—Paris (both a commune and a department), the inner departments of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne, and three outer departments—Essonne, Yvelines and Val-d'Oise. The eighth department of the current Île-de-France region, Seine-et-Marne already existed in 1964.

2. The term “politique de la ville” covers a number of areas of policy—including housing renewal, destruction of the large blocks of the 1960s and 1970s, support for community associations, educational initiatives, enterprise zones and other employment initiatives.

3. According the housing charity Fondation Abbé Pierre there are 3.4 million in housing need and 1.3 million nationally on waiting lists.

4. “We have a duty to allow the talents of the architects of the 21st century to express themselves in Paris. It is not height that poses the problem, but aesthetics and how we chose. I do not want to immobilize this city” [Bertrand Delanoë quoted in Le Monde, 18–19 January 2004 (authors' translation)].