Ludovic Halbert

European planning and the polycentric consensus : wishful thinking?

Vandermotten C., Halbert L., Roelandts M. and Cornut P. European planning and the polycentric consensus: wishful thinking?, Regional Studies. European Union planning documents enhance the values of polycentrism as a tool to promote a more efficient, equitable and sustainable development. This paper highlights how and suggests why a descriptive approach of the European urban system became progressively a normative concept. It examines how biases in the measurement of polycentricity in the European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) 1.1.1. report (2005) are related to this normative approach. The empirical findings do not suggest any clear correlation between more polycentricity and more economic efficiency or even more spatial equity. The paper examines the reasons for the European Union tenacity to promote polycentrism. This concept seems to be the result of a political compromise and a strange hybrid between two competing approaches for the future of the European space. Vandermotten C., Halbert L., Roelandts M. et Cornut P. La planification européenne et le consensus du polycentrisme: un mythe politique?, Regional Studies. Les documents de planification de lUnion européenne promeuvent le polycentrisme, présenté comme un outil au service dun développement plus efficace, plus équitable et plus durable. Cet article examine comment et pourquoi une approche descriptive du système urbain européen est progressivement devenue un concept normatif. Il examine les liaisons entre les biais dans la mesure de la polycentricité telle quelle a été pratiquée par létude European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) 1.1.1. (2005) et cette approche normative. Nos résultats empiriques ne montrent pas de corrélation significative entre des systèmes urbains plus polycentriques, plus defficacité économique ou plus déquité spatiale. Larticle examine les raisons de la volonté de promotion du polycentrisme par les autorités européennes. Cette promotion semble résulter dun compromis politique et le concept apparaît comme un étrange hybride entre deux conceptions opposées du futur de la construction spatiale de lEurope. Armatures urbainesu2003Polycentrismeu2003Polycentricitéu2003European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON)u2003Politiques de planification européennes Vandermotten C., Halbert L., Roelandts M. und Cornut P. Europäische Raumplanung und der Polyzentrismuskonsens: politische Wunschvorstellung?, Regional Studies. Offizielle europäische Raumplanungsdokumente vertreten die Idee des Polyzentrismus als Werkzeug für eine effizientere, gerechtere und nachhaltigere Entwicklung. Dieser Artikel untersucht wie und warum ein ursprünglich beschreibendes Konzept zu einem normativen Konzept geworden ist. Er erforscht die Verbindungen zwischen voreingenommenen Messungen des Polyzentrismus, so wie in der European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) 1.1.1-Studie (2005), und dieser normativen Ausrichtung des Konzepts. Unsere empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen keine signifikante Korrelation zwischen polyzentrischen Städtesystemen und wirtschaftlicher Effizienz oder räumlicher Gerechtigkeit. Der Artikel untersucht die Gründe für den Willen der europäischen Behörden zur Förderung des Polyzentrismus. Diese Förderung scheint das Resultat eines politischen Kompromisses, und das Konzept wirkt wie eine merkwürdige Hybride zwischen zwei gegensätzlichen Konzeptionen der Zukunft der räumlichen Konstruktion Europas. Urbane Stukturu2003Polyzentrismusu2003European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON)u2003Europäische Raumplanung Vandermotten C., Halbert L., Roelandts M. y Cornut P. Planificación europea y el consenso policéntrico: ¿una ilusión?, Regional Studies. Los documentos de planificación de la UE mejoran los valores de policentrismo como herramienta para fomentar un desarrollo más eficaz, justo y sostenible. En este artículo destacamos cómo y por qué motivo el planteamiento descriptivo del sistema urbano europeo se convirtió poco a poco en un concepto normativo. Examinamos qué relación tiene este planteamiento normativo con los sesgos al medir la policentralidad en el informe European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) 1.1.1. (2005). Nuestros resultados empíricos no sugieren una clara relación entre más policentralidad y más eficacia económica o incluso más igualdad espacial. Aquí analizamos los motivos de la tenacidad de la UE por fomentar el policentrismo. Este concepto parece ser el resultado de un compromiso político y un extraño híbrido entre dos planteamientos competitivos para el futuro del espacio europeo. Redes urbanasu2003Policentrismou2003Policentralidadu2003European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON)u2003Políticas europeas de planificación

The Decentralization of Intrametropolitan Business Services in the Paris Region: Patterns, Interpretation, Consequences

Abstract What is the importance of the decentralization of business services in a Parisian metropolitan region that is known for its inherited monocentricity? Using revised statistical and cartographic methodological tools, I try to answer two questions: Is the new Parisian metropolitan economic geography one of dispersal or of polycentricity? Does decentralization mean the decline or the reinforcement of the economic core? If secondary suburban economic centers benefit from the decentralization of business services, neighboring spaces of the municipality of Paris, such as the inner western suburbs of La Defense and Boulogne-Billancourt, are affected, too. This article demonstrates that polycentricity is not opposite to the constitution of a new golden triangle within the dense part of the agglomeration. This means both that economic centrality still matters (and thus that dispersed cities may not be the twenty-first century’s metropolitan archetype) and that an enlarged core business district (CBD) straddling Paris and the western Hauts-de-Seine département is being reinforced (thus invalidating the theory of CBD decline). Thanks to the widening of the business district from Paris to La Defense, the labor market remains integrated; meanwhile, secondary economic centers in the Outer Suburbs tend to create fragmented subregional labor markets of their own.

Filtering Risk Away: Global Finance Capital, Transcalar Territorial Networks and the (Un)Making of City-Regions: An Analysis of Business Property Development in Bangalore, India

Halbert L. and Rouanet H. Filtering risk away: global finance capital, transcalar territorial networks and the (un)making of city-regions: an analysis of business property development in Bangalore, India, Regional Studies. This paper contributes to ongoing debates on the ‘landing’ or anchoring of global finance capital into the urban built environment. Inspired by recent advances from the school of Territorial Economics, it develops the concept of transcalar territorial networks (TTNs) to explain the processes that result in ‘fixing’ foreign financial capital into business properties. The paper demonstrates that TTNs contribute to filter away the risks that foreign investors associate with the complexity of local–regional property markets. It also highlights the potential consequences on the spatial, economic and social dynamics of city-regions.

Introduction: The financialisation of urban production: Conditions, mediations and transformations

A distinctive feature of urban spaces lies in their high infrastructural density. Because buildings, roads, stadiums, airports are all capital-intensive, they rely in turn on financial infrastructures that circulate not passengers, power or data, but capital more or less temporarily fixed in the urban built environment (Harvey, 2001). Like many infrastructures (Edwards, 2003), financial ones remain invisible to most but for cases of major disruptions. Think, for instance, of how the subprime crisis revealed the interconnection between households’ mortgages and capital markets. This relative invisibility should, however, not obfuscate the importance of financial circuits in the design, construction, exploitation and ownership of the urban built environment (‘urban production’ from here on). nResearchers in urban studies unevenly pay attention to financial circuits, understood here as the sociotechnical systems that channel investments in the forms of equity and debt into urban production. Major accounts of city-making under neoliberalisation from the 1990s and 2000s are a case in point. Such studies mainly focus on evolving rationales for public intervention and the resulting changes in public actors’ modes of operation where welfare provision gives way to entrepreneurial policies (Harvey, 1989; Moulaert et al., 2003; Tasan-Kok and Baeten, 2012); the growing importance of private investments and the concomitant reconfiguration of public spending is mostly acknowledged as a contextual factor, while the ‘private investors’ and ‘international finance capital’ targeted by public authorities remain in the background of analyses. There is thus a dearth of conceptualisation and of evidence on how private financiers and investors, collectively or individually, shape or adjust to this new context and on the role played by those acting at the interface between public and private bodies. It is thus important to go beyond simplistic analytical distinctions, such as ‘public subsidies’ versus ‘private investments’ and to scrutinise financial circuits as relevant …

Examining the Mega-City-Region Hypothesis: Evidence from the Paris City-Region/Bassin parisien

Halbert L. Examining the mega-city-region hypothesis: evidence from the Paris city-region/Bassin parisien, Regional Studies. Four dimensions of the concept of polycentricity (morphological, functional, relational, and political polycentricity) are discussed based on the study of the Paris city-region/Bassin parisien system. The concentration of ‘Abstract Production’ workers in the Paris agglomeration and the fairly concentrated geography of firms information flows (as measured by their telephone calls) prevent the formation of an enlarged polycentric mega-city-region. Three explanations are proposed based on the strategies of real estate developers, information-intensive firms and policy-makers. In conclusion, the paper tries to evaluate in the Paris city-region and French context whether a limited polycentricity at Bassin parisien level is prejudicial at different policy-relevant scales. Halbert L. Examen de lhypothèse relative à la méga ville-région à partir de lexemple du Bassin parisien, Regional Studies. Cet article traite de quatre dimensions du concept de polycentricité (morphologique, fonctionnelle, relationnelle et politique) en sappuyant sur létude relative au système ville-région de Paris/Bassin parisien. La concentration de travailleurs de production abstraite dans lagglomération parisienne et la concentration relativement importante de flux dinformation dentreprise (mesurée par les appels téléphoniques) empêchent la formation dune méga ville-région polycentrique élargie. Trois explications sont proposées qui sont basées sur les stratégies des promoteurs immobiliers, des entreprises basées sur linformation et des décideurs politiques. En conclusion, jessaie dévaluer la ville-région de Paris et le contexte français afin de savoir si une polycentricité limitée au niveau du Bassin parisien est préjudiciable aux différentes échelles politiques pertinentes. Polycentricitéu2003Ville-région élargieu2003Services avancés aux enterprisesu2003Production abstraiteu2003Appels téléphoniques des entreprisesu2003Paris/Île-de-France/Bassin parisien Halbert L. Untersuchung der Hypothese der Megastadtregion: Belege aus der Stadtregion Paris bzw. dem Bassin parisien, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag werden anhand einer Studie des Bassin-parisien-Systems bzw. der Stadtregion von Paris vier Dimensionen der Konzepts der Polyzentrizität (morphologische, funktionale, relationale und politische Polyzentrizität) erörtert. Die Konzentration von Arbeitern im Bereich der ‘abstrakten Produktion’ im Ballungsraum Paris und die recht konzentrierte Geografie der Informationsströme von Firmen (gemessen anhand ihrer Telefonate) verhindern die Bildung einer erweiterten, polyzentrischen Megastadtregion. Ausgehend von den Strategien von Immobilienfirmen, informationsintensiven Firmen und politischen Entscheidungsträgern werden drei mögliche Erklärungen erörtert. Abschließend versuche ich im Kontext von der Pariser Stadtregion und von Frankreich zu bewerten, ob sich eine begrenzte Polyzentrizität auf der Ebene des Bassin parisien in verschiedenen, politisch relevanten Maßstäben schädlich auswirken kann. Polyzentrizitätu2003Erweiterte Stadtregionu2003Wirtschaftsdienstleistungenu2003Abstrakte Produktionu2003Firmentelefonateu2003Paris/Ile-de-France/Bassin parisien Halbert L. Análisis de la hipótesis de las regiones mega-ciudad: ejemplo de la región ciudad de París/Bassin parisien, Regional Studies. En este artículo se abordan cuatro dimensiones del concepto de policentralidad (morfológica, funcional, relacional y política) a partir de un estudio de la ciudad región de París y el sistema Bassin parisien. La concentración de los trabajadores en el sector de la ‘producción abstracta’ en la aglomeración de París y la geografía bastante concentrada de los flujos de información de las empresas (medidas según las llamadas telefónicas) impiden la creación de una región mega-ciudad policéntrica más amplia. Se proponen tres explicaciones en función de las estrategias de promotores inmobiliarios, las empresas con alto nivel de información y los responsables políticos. Para terminar, intento evaluar si una policentralidad a nivel del Bassin parisien en la ciudad-región de París y en un contexto francés es perjudicial en diferentes escalas relevantes a la política. Policentralidadu2003Región ciudad ampliadau2003Servicios avanzados de productoresu2003Producción abstractau2003Llamadas telefónicas de empresasu2003París/Ile-de-France/Bassin parisien

Finance Capital, Actor-Network Theory and the Struggle Over Calculative Agencies in the Business Property Markets of Mexico City Metropolitan Region

David L. and Halbert L. Finance capital, actor-network theory and the struggle over calculative agencies in the business property markets of Mexico City Metropolitan Region, Regional Studies. The selective spatialities of business property in the Mexico City Metropolitan Region are explained with reference to actor-network theory. Building on a conception of markets as the outcomes of the confrontation between different calculative agencies, the paper discusses how investment managers have to negotiate the integration of new buildings and spaces into their portfolios alongside pre-existing actor-networks whose power and autonomy differ across the metropolitan area. In a fragmented city-region, the longstanding urban coalition in the central part of the area may lock out the business property development market to finance capital while some peripheral areas may be more opened up.

Financial markets, developers and the geographies of housing in Brazil: A supply-side account

Financialisation and housing are predominantly associated to mortgages for homeownership and securitisation techniques. This paper looks at how financial markets influence the development industry, its business strategies, and the nature and location of its products. Adopting a supply-side account, the paper inquires into the rising role of financial markets as a source of funding for a consolidating development industry and its influence on the geography of housing in Brazilian cities. It develops the concept of resonance by combining two yet unrelated strands of literature on the study of financial markets (cultural economy and conventionalist economics). Narratives co-authored by the stock market community and development firms management over each individual firm, and the discursively linked strategic moves of developers, are shown to resonate, at the meso-level of the industry, into shared social representations (or conventions) on how to best assess and interpret the value of development firms. Analysing the wave of Initial Public Offerings occurring in the mid 2000s, the paper highlights that narratives of quick capital gains associated with the removal of the land banking bottleneck faced by developers supported a convention giving priority to the growth in total output, and contributed to the observed changes in the forms, scales and locations of housing projects in Brazilian cities. As discrepancies between the promises of returns for shareholders and actual financial results emerged, the growth convention unravelled, making way for other narratives and strategic moves to resonate anew and possibly change again the geographies of housing.

The Financialization of Business Property and What It Means for Cities and Regions

Halbert L., Henneberry J. and Mouzakis F. The financialization of business property and what it means for cities and regions, Regional Studies. The papers in the special issue examine the strategies and practices of investors and their relations with other actors involved in the production of business property. Although the globalization of these activities has occurred largely in the last 10–20 years, it has prompted marked changes in the geography of commercial property investment. International capital has flowed to a limited number of favoured locations, but because of the spatial fixity of real property, local actors and institutions remain an important influence on investment decisions. This poses challenges for urban development and regeneration policies that depend on private investment capital.

Finance, Business Property and Urban and Regional Development

Halbert L., Henneberry J. and Mouzakis F. Finance, business property and urban and regional development, Regional Studies. Compared with other factors of production, the supply of business property and its role in urban and regional development has received comparatively little attention. Traditional analyses assume that the supply of such property responds to demand in a relatively unproblematic way. However, there is evidence that institutional structures and processes in the property and capital markets have produced regional imbalances in the quantity, quality and price of business accommodation – benefiting some places and handicapping others. Such imbalances are present to different degrees internationally and their characteristics and causes are similarly varied. The special issue addresses this gap in knowledge.

Collaborative and Collective: Reflexive Co-ordination and the Dynamics of Open Innovation in the Digital Industry Clusters of the Paris Region

Economic geography increasingly conceptualises innovation as a collective action. However, the literature on clusters often reduces the collective dimension to the circulation of knowledge between local and regional organisations based on various forms of (market, organisational, social, institutional or cognitive) co-ordination. This paper diverges from this grass-roots perspective by discussing the role of collective actions in clusters—i.e. actions developed by a large number of cluster members acting as a group. Empirical evidence drawing on a study of three digital clusters in the Paris region shows that the cluster as a collective entity holds agency and—thanks to reflexive co-ordination—can contribute to open innovation, including innovation-seeking partnerships in the early stages of cluster life cycles.