About the Challenged Notion of “Curve of a City”: the Example of the Pilgrimage of Lourdes (France)

The French urban planner Marcel Poete set out the notions of “city’s curve” and “mysticism” of the city (around the 20s). The city’s curve is the history of the city: in general, there is the beneficial influence of some Power, during a long time. And the “mysticism” is when the values of the city are displayed by monuments everywhere. These notions are no more valid. Today the success of a city depends on good governance: the city has to play games in a better way than the rival cities. And the rules of the games are the same everywhere. The “mysticism” is no more fashionable because of two phenomena: (1) the artifying of cities (2) what we call the “meaningless and seductive city”, referring to the works of Baudrillard (according to him, the disappearance of sense triggers “cool seduction”). Lourdes is an interesting example: the city’s curve perfectly explains the past of this city, but not the present. We conclude examining the consequences of the two phenomena concerning these topics: · How the artified center of the large cities is fashioned by diverse “historical styles” · “Airbnbizing” of some cities in southern Europe

About Drugs in the Cities: Is there Something New?

The history of drugs allows to focus on three interesting points: (1) The city has always been the place where artificial pleasures (like drugs) are invented then diffused (2) The involved actors (doctors, the Church, intellectuals …) have displayed fluctuating doctrines in the field (3) There have been successive “waves of moralizing”. One can build two scenarios: a majority in the Opinion appears which is in favor of drugs use and it will be decriminalized or legalized, either a new “wave of moralizing” triggers the choice of repression

What could be the « imaginary institution » of the City?

In his book “The imaginary institution of Society” the French philosopher Castoriadis wanted to explain the radical change of societies and their diversity. The social imaginary matters, and explains social change. But what is it today? The Castoriadis’s answer is mainly a criticism of the imaginary of the bureaucratic society (perfect anticipations). He hoped more autonomy. We propose this interpretation of the imaginary of the City: the main myths are personal strength, chance (here the reference is the Ulrich Beck’s book “The risk society”) and individual happiness (the reference being the works of the French philosopher Lipotevsky). We are able to explain the discrepancy between public policies (including city planning) and the real social needs. It exists because the doctrines used lag behind the “social imaginary significations”. The concerned fields are the beauty of cities, spatial segregation, women in the city, environment and drugs

Visibility as a stake for cities

Visibility has been recently discovered by sociologists. It is very much different from fame. Fame is the simple consequence of meritocracy: the name of somebody who is talented in some field is well known. Visibility involves the use of Medias and Internet (dissymmetry between the star and his (her) audience) and the person of the star (face, clothes …) is loved and worshiped. The French sociologist Heinich, a follower of Bourdieu, has theorized visibility: there is a “capital of visibility”, which is measurable (size of the audience), accumulable, transferable (to the heirs) and convertible (from some field to another one). If we consider the analogy between visible persons and visible cities, there are several interesting aspects: - The large cities are visible, while mid-sized cities are not visible, but devoted to fame (professional fame) - Their strategies allow the large cities many kinds of activities (aimed at creating the consumers’ needs) while mid-sized cities have to choose: some fame and not another one (classical music and not jazz for Salzburg, for instance) - The inhabitants of the large cities are familiar with the “laws of visibility” and the inhabitants of the mid-sized cities are familiar with the “laws of fame” - A new division of space appears. In the large cities there is visibility and a poor quality of life (because of frequent building sites, mega events, noise, networks which are saturated etc.). At the opposite, in the mid-sized cities, there is no visibility but the quality of life is at its top (at least in some of them) - There is more insecurity in the large cities, because the visible symbols (which are targeted by terrorists) are there. Moreover, their economy is also threatened, because it relies on visitors and tourists. Therefore security is required

About the Transition to an Eco-Compatible Society: the Example of Urban Spread

The transition to an eco-compatible society will depend on the conclusions of many “logical duels”, to use the words of the French sociologist Tarde. Therefore, to make prospective is uneasy: the logical duels of the day after tomorrow will depend on the conclusions of the logical duels of tomorrow, which are unknown. However, in this framework one can state what this transition will not be: (1) BAU (Business As Usual) is impossible (2) to take into account the stake of the metabolism of cities, only, is not enough (3) an Ecological Cultural Revolution is improbable. It seems that two logical duels matter very much: demography (the answer to the question: “how many do we want to be?”) and quality of life (the answer to the question: “do we want, or not, quality of life?”). Therefore one can build two scenarios, ecological emergency (in case of high population growth) and quality of life. Concerning several stakes (energy, water, agriculture …) the choices which are made in each scenario are different. In each scenario there is struggle against urban spread but for different reasons: in the scenario “ecological emergency” countryside is a reservoir of indispensable resources, in the scenario “quality of life” countryside is a place to preserve (use for leisure, quality of landscapes …)

The City as the Place of Augmented Imagination

A “natural history of the imaginary” allows understanding how the imagination has become a resource. It was discovered at the start of the 19 th century, then it has developed. Today the imaginary is everywhere in the city which is an artified city. Many professionals are in charge of it: artists, architects, advertisers, urban scenographers... The “natural history of the imaginary” shows that there is a “domesticated imaginary” and also a “spontaneous imaginary”. The “spontaneous imaginary” appears when there are “urban trances” (Music Day ...). They pose problems of urban governance. The example of the night of the 15 th of July in Paris (after the victory of the French soccer team in the World Cup) is dealt with. One explains why this event caused no trouble thanks to the tools from the sociology of the actor-network (translation, actants). One can use the notion of cognitive dissonance, also. This question is dealt with: could the imaginary be coded? The answer seems to be no

Modeling innovation and regulation thanks to game theory: Bertrand competition

One uses the model which has been already presented in articles by the author: competition through prices (Bertrand competition), the demands being deduced from the consumers ‘utilities. One can highlight three phenomena: “Monopolistic competition”: The products sold are enough differentiated, each firm having its “garden”, its customers it keeps provided its price is not higher than the others’ prices. The criterium “buy and close down” profitable: when to buy and close down is profitable, the incentive to merge is stronger. It is a sign of saturated market. The “non-differentiating innovation”: One can model it. Each utility (u1, u2, u3) becomes (u1 + K, u2 + K, u3 + K), K > 0. One demonstrates, thanks to tractable examples, that non-differentiating innovation can trigger the criterium “buy and close down profitable”. The products are less differentiated than at the start (“monopolistic competition” the “buy and close down” being not profitable). It incites firms to choose disruption

What Culture for European Cities? The Desperate Struggle of European Cultures against the American one

For a long time, American culture is spreading and replaces the other European cultures. It is a real change. According to the French writer Régis Debray, image replaces writing, the theme of happiness replaces drama and space replaces time. Also, according to the German sociologist Max Weber, the Protestantism has made Americans “ascetic inside the world”: an individual is the single responsible for his (her) own Salute. He wants success in the society. The idea of “collective grace” is suspected. In urban life there is a void which is fulfilled by tribalism: sport, music, events … In urban planning, places for people meeting, like public squares or parks, are neglected. Water and greening could be recourses. Also, there is a possible risk of placemaking taken over by private brands

Small Lexicon on Ecology (for those Interested in Cities)

Some notions about ecology show that if there is not a corpus there is an interesting and pertinent debate. We quote: on the environment itself, negative commons, mistake of the isolated system, dealing with the symptoms and not the causes (the tragedy of the horizons), and on the Opinion, Great Reversal, laws of opinion, greenwashing and the return of enclave economy. The cities are concerned by the two different stakes, adaptation and mitigation. Also, the question is posed of the places where ecological awareness can appear