Géraldine Pflieger

How Does Urban Public Transport Change Cities? Correlations between Past and Present Transport and Urban Planning Policies

Is it possible to discern correlations between past and present urban policies? Do path dependencies exist at the urban level? If so, how do they differ from other links between the past and present? A preview of the literature dealing with dependencies and urban change, a presentation of the research methodology and an examination of the historical archives of six European cities in France, Germany and Switzerland enable us to identify three features common to both past and present transport and urban planning policies—namely, contingency, reproduction and innovation.

The shifting territorialities of the Rhone River’s transboundary governance: a historical analysis of the evolution of the functions, uses and spatiality of river basin governance

AbstractFor the past decade, water policies have been strongly influenced by the concept of integrated water resource management (IWRM), and the river basin has been regarded as the most relevant scale for water governance. This article is based on the case of the Rhone River. Through historical analysis (from 1870 to the present), we study how the river’s functions evolve, how water users compete to secure their needs, and the effects on the governance structure and on its spatiality. While this governance structure has remained stable for decades, we show how the evolution of water policies (and the emergence of IWRM) and of environmental concerns strongly modified the strategies of actors. We also demonstrate how the governance structure as well as its space and scale of regulation tends to change with the attempt of central States to get back to the centre of the configuration of actors.

What 'Regulatory State'? Explaining the Stability of Public Spending and Redistribution Functions after Regulatory Reforms of Electricity and Rail Services in the United Kingdom and Germany

In Europe, the rise of the regulatory state was accompanied by a broad diffusion of research on the processes of privatisation, liberalisation, and reregulation of utilities, previously managed directly by the state. This article offers an empirical and theoretical discussion of the paradigm of the regulatory state. It proposes to evaluate the transformation of the actual functions of the welfare state in a context of reforms of network industries over the last twenty years. Relying on cases from the electricity and railways sectors, it studies the changing balance between the traditional functions of the welfare state and the new regulatory functions introduced by the reforms. This article explains how, alongside the strengthening of regulatory functions, states maintained and developed powerful redistribution functions. The emerging regulatory state is not substituted for the positive/welfare state, but partly juxtaposed with it, making the structures for governing these sectors much less easy to read.

The local politics of Europeanization: A study of French cities’ approaches to participation in the CIVITAS programme

European Union policy at the local scale is split into numerous sectoral programmes in the spheres of cross-border cooperation, energy, the environment, culture and transport. In this context, the CIVITAS (City-Vitality-Sustainability) initiative on sustainable urban mobility was launched in 2000. The aim of this article is to analyse relations between cities and Europe, focusing on the practical ways in which local policies have been ‘Europeanized’ in four French cities. The article highlights three main results. First, CIVITAS does not represent a sufficient financial incentive to sustain ‘download Europeanization’ of local transport policies, which remain under the control of local authorities. Second, despite a lack of European funding, local authorities mobilize strongly on a European level in order to distinguish themselves. In a context where French transport authorities are becoming increasingly dependent on local financial resources, entering the CIVITAS programme and acquiring this seal of approval has played a determining role in legitimizing and boosting budget allocations to public transport. Third, the mobilization of local authorities and the selective strategy of the European Commission jointly strengthen political competition between cities at a European level and reinforce a network of innovative cities.

Historia de la universalización del acceso al agua y alcantarillado en Santiago de Chile (1970-1995)

What factors explain the growth of universal access to potable water and sewage networks in Santiago, Chile? We will analyse the respective roles of housing policies and the fi rst wave of service reforms in achieving universal access to drinking water during the 1980s. Th e second part of the article focuses on the diffi culties linked to urban growth in Gran Santiago that coincided with the expansion of water and sewer lines during the 1980s, eventually leading to a second wave of reforms. Finally, we shall examine the designo f the 1989 regulatory and management reforms and their eff ects on service access as it varies by social group and geographic location. RESUMEN ?Cuales son los factores que explican la universalizacion de las redes de agua y de saneamiento en Santiago de Chile? Analizaremos los papeles respectivos de las politicas de la vivienda y de las primeras reformas del servicio en la universalizacion del acceso al agua potable a lo largo de los ochenta. En una segunda fase, destacaremos las difi cultades que trae para estas redes el crecimiento urbano del Gran Santiago en los ochenta, las que generan una segunda ola de reformas. Estudiaremos, fi nalmente, el diseno de la reforma reglamentaria y gerencial de 1989 y sus efectos en terminos de accesibilidad espacial y social al servicio.

Achieving Universal Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation Networks in Santiago de Chile: An Historical Analysis 1970–1995

WHILE European and North American cities had achieved universal access to urban services by the end of the 1930s, and in some cases already by the turn of the twentieth century, cities in developing countries continued to suffer from a dearth of domestic networks compared to the standards enjoyed by their counterparts in the North. During the second half of the twentieth century, cities in developed countries experienced a modern ideal of territorial integration through networks, a process which was assisted by integrated, monopolistic and state-owned services. Yet, this ideal was far from the most pressing concern of developing countries trying to cope with management failures, funding problems, and difficulties controlling and planning urban growth. Against this contrasting landscape between the modern ideal of countries in the North and service access problems in the South, Chile stands out as an exception. Although the country was marked by serious social and spatial inequalities, Chile’s capital city enjoyed generalized access to essential services. Santiago de Chile is, therefore, frequently cited as an example of a metropolis in the South that achieved sustainable universal access to drinking water much earlier than expected (by the Tarr and Dupuy

Domination du consommateur, résistance du citoyen. Les tensions entre les figures de l'usager au sein du système de régulation de l'eau en France

Depuis le debut des annees 1990, les hausses de prix et la mise en cause du systeme de gestion deleguee ont incite l’Etat, les distributeurs d’eau et les collectivites locales a approfondir la transparence de gestion et a developper leurs relations avec les associations de consommateurs. L’ouverture progressive du systeme de regulation aux associations se traduit par une mise en tension de differentes figures de l’usager en fonction des strategies de chacun (Etat, collectivites, entreprises et associations). Comment les differentes figures de l’usager s’articulent-elles ? Qui du consommateur ou du citoyen est privilegie dans ce mouvement ?Au plan national, l’Etat et les associations privilegient le registre de la consommation : reflexions sur le niveau de prix, la performance du service et l’information des consommateurs. De leur cote, les firmes tentent d’opposer une figure du citoyen preoccupe par la preservation de l’environnement. Au plan local, le statut de l’usager varie. Selon les cas, l’usager peut etre approche dans sa seule dimension consumeriste ou dans une dimension plus large hybridant les categories du consommateur et du citoyen. Les exemples de Grenoble et de l’Ardeche montrent que, sous certaines conditions, la relation marchande peut etre amenagee et integree dans un debat citoyen traitant de la preservation de la ressource, des choix d’investissement ou du developpement touristique. Ce depassement de la relation marchande depend des strategies de communication des collectivites, des themes de mobilisation des associations, du degre de decloisonnement des politiques locales et de l’ampleur des enjeux locaux lies a la distribution d’eau.