Urban Morphology & Violence | Figure for Article 8

Stagnation in the French Banlieues

Table 1: Policies to address the issues of poverty and education in the French banlieues

YEAR	POLICY IMPLEMENTED	EXPECTED OUTCOME
1977	Beginning of the 'Habitat and social life' operations	Aim to rehabilitate the moderate rent housing (HLM) buildings with state financial assistance.
1983	Launch of the 'Banlieue 89' mission	Aim to rehabilitate and connect the suburbs together.
1984-1988	First contracts for shared state/region plans integrating the social development of neighborhoods: 148 conventions concerning around 170 neighborhoods.	The operations mainly concerned the rehabilitation of buildings and urban planning, as well as some social actions.
1990	Speech from President Mitterrand, the president, announcing the creation of a city ministry (Ministère de la Ville).	The Ministry ensures support for territories in their development and the reduction of territorial inequalities: in this capacity, it is responsible for the policies to fight inequalities in favor of disadvantaged neighborhoods in urban areas and rural areas.
1994	First city contracts.	The scale of intervention of the city's policy extended to the entire city, keeping targeted action in the most troubled neighborhoods.
1996	Recovery pact for the city, under Alain Juppé's government, which divided the urban areas according to its difficulties.	Creation of 36 sensitive urban zones (ZUS), 15 urban revitalization zones (ZRU), and 2 urban free zones (ZFU)
2000	Law on urban solidarity and renewal, commonly known as the SRU law.	The SRU law remains best known for its Article 55, which requires cities with more than 3,500 inhabitants to have at least 20% of social housing. Its goal is also to allow for a significant improvement in the living conditions of the inhabitants and mark in depth, and in a sustainable way, the transformation of the image and perception of the neighborhoods.
2003	National Urban Renewal Program (PNRU) of the Borloo Law.	Provides €30 billion in investment over the period 2004-2008 to restructure the ZUS and, exceptionally, neighborhoods with the same characteristics. It provides for 200,000 constructions of social rental housing, 200,000 rehabilitations and 200,000 demolitions.
2007	Replacement of city contracts by the Urban Social Cohesion Contracts (CUCS).	CUCS includes a project that aims to improve daily life and promote equal opportunities for residents and better integration of neighborhoods in the city and agglomeration. It is divided into multi-year action programs on priority fields and neighborhoods, specifying the commitments of each of the partners. The actions are grouped around five thematic axes: 1) habitat and living environment; 2) employment and economic development; 3) educational success; 4) health; 5) citizenship and crime prevention.
2014	Integration of the Priority Neighborhoods of the City (QPV).	It aims to reduce the complexity of the meshing of socially disadvantaged areas (by replacing two schemes with one and simplifying the defining criteria).
2018	"Action Coeur de Ville"	Structured around five main themes to revitalize cities suffering from 'urban decline': 1) réhabilitation/restructuration de l'habitat en centre-ville; 2) développement économique et commercial équilibré; 3) accessibilité, mobilité et connexions; 4) mise en valeur de l'espace public et du patrimoine; 5) accès aux équipements et aux services publics.

Other Issues

Issue no. 15 | May 2024

Africas Rising?

Global Challenges

Issue no. 15 | May 2024

Africas Rising?

After a century marked by decolonisation and the imposition of a development model based on Western standards, Africa has entered the 21st century with a new status thanks, among other things, to its demographic dynamism (2 billion inhabitants in 2050 according to the UN, over 50% of whom will be under 25), its sustained economic growth, its extensive mineral and energy resources, and its drive for political leadership.

Additionally, since the end of the Cold War, emerging countries are successfully challenging the leadership of the West and are transforming this plural continent. If China has come to play a preponderant role, notably in terms of infrastructure development, the existence of multiple Africas presents prospects for a host of other international actors.

The continent’s development, however, is not without raising many questions, as it is still marked, in many ways, by issues of poverty and inequalities, as well as civil conflict and political repression.

The African continent is seeking more than ever to assert its autonomy of decision and action by making the most of its diverse potential. How will Africa – in its plural dimension – take advantage of this dynamism to write a new page in its history in the decades to come?

Start reading

Issue no. 5 | April 2019

New Grammars of War:
Conflict and Violence in the 21st Century

Global Challenges

Issue no. 5 | April 2019

New Grammars of War: Conflict and Violence in the 21st Century

The Dossier aims to explore new trends and expressions of violence in armed conflict in the 21st century. Taking as a starting point the changing paradigm of armed conflict – from conventional wars with clear contours towards more non-linear, fragmented and protracted types of civil and international conflict — it adopts a broad approach to portray changing forms of violence across different types of armed conflicts (including terrorism, international/civil wars or urban warfare). In the context of a fragmenting international order, with increasingly blurred lines between state and non-state, combatant and civilian, domestic and international, the number of actors involved in conflicts and concurrent strategies of violence have multiplied. In face of the ubiquity of violent conflict — despite an overall decline in interstate conflict and global number of casualties — the Dossier aims to shed light on new or changing forms of violence, their contexts, actors and victims. It explores the novelty, heterogeneity, scales and vectors of violent practices in contemporary conflicts by investigating the impact of a series of factors such as new military technologies (drones, robots), new communication tools (social media), gender, migration, or the subcontracting of security to private actors.

Start reading

Issue no. 10 | October 2021

Decolonisation:
A Past That Keeps Questioning Us

Global Challenges

Issue no. 10 | October 2021

Decolonisation: A Past That Keeps Questioning Us

Today, we observe a renewed interest in the theme of decolonisation in three interrelated fields: in the academic world which opens new areas of research and teaching (e.g. decolonisation studies; decolonising the curriculum), in the practice of professionals and international actors who are revisiting their way of working, as well as in the vocabulary and activism of civil society targeting the remnants of colonial times such as street names, statues or museum objects. The renewed focus on decolonisation brings forth underlying issues such as the lingering of Eurocentrism, continued oppression of indigenous people, cultural relativism, the ongoing materiality of colonialism, the guilt of the West or, more generally, “the darker side of Western modernity”. While decolonisation has had a lasting impact on the political scene (with the decolonisation movements of the 1960s) and theoretically in the realm of academia, it lags behind in practice as processes, mentalities and epistemes are still permeated by “coloniality”. The present issue puts therefore decolonisation into historical perspective and provides fresh analytical perspectives on its epistemologies and methodologies as well as its practical application and consequences in various fields.

This issue has been coproduced by the Graduate Institute’s Department of International History and Politics and the Research Office. It also includes contributions from other research centres and departments of the Institute.

Start reading

Sign up for email notification of new issue

Stagnation in the French Banlieues

Table 1: Policies to address the issues of poverty and education in the French banlieues

Sign up for the newsletter