Patrick Rérat

The New Demographic Growth of Cities The Case of Reurbanisation in Switzerland

After having lost population for some decades, many cities are experiencing a new growth. This paper addresses this reurbanisation phenomenon in the case of Switzerland. It argues that the demographic evolution of cities is not adequately explained by the ‘stages of urban development’ model that tends to consider urban regions as closed systems. It should rather be analysed by unfolding the underlying mechanisms that include housing consumption as well as in- and out-migration flows. Swiss cities have gained inhabitants since 2000 thanks to international migrants, young adults, non-family households and some parts of the middle to upper class. From a demographic point of view, families’ residential behaviour remains the driving force of suburbanisation so that the population growth is still higher in suburbs than in cities.

Youth migration and spaces of education

This special theme on youth migration, a key strand of the broader phenomenon of the population movements of young people and which the above quote suggests is increasing globally, emanates from three sessions on Youth Migration and Mobility at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference (London, August 2011). Tellingly, our call for contributions on youth migration yielded a diverse set of papers for the sessions that were, unintentionally, united by the common theme of education-induced youth migration. This link between youth migration and education forms the core of this special theme, with the main aim to explore how, why and where education-related factors shape contemporary forms of youth migration, and vice versa. There is a well-established scholarship on young persons (i.e. school pupils, college and university students) migrating across local, regional and national boundaries to increasingly ‘consume’ school and college (e.g. Smith and Higley 2012), national higher education (HE) (e.g. Hinton 2011) and international HE (e.g. Waters, Brooks, and Helena Pimlott-Wilson 2011). Also important here, although less researched, are the movements of individuals (e.g. teachers, academics, managers/administrators, agencies) and institutions (Waters and Leung, this theme) to produce, manage and deliver education for young people in highly competitive education labour markets and market places (e.g. Jöns 2009; Kim 2009). The focus of the theme therefore connects with this wide scholarly interest with underresearched young migrant populations, and the unfolding processes that are shaping the new ways in which more and more young people move within and between nations (King and Ruiz-Gelices 2003; Findlay et al. 2006). This is typified by calls to progress more fully the understandings of the migrant agency of both children (e.g. Dobson 2009; Ni Laoire 2011; Tyrrell et al. 2013) and youths (e.g. Brooks and Waters 2010; Geisen 2010), and how migration is implicated in the formation of contemporary childhood and youth identities and experiences. As Barker et al. (2009, 7) assert, for example, there is a need to ‘develop multiple understandings of how, when, why and where younger age and mobilities are co-constitutive’ (Skelton 2009; Holt and Costello 2010; Skelton and Gough 2013).

Highly qualified rural youth: why do young graduates return to their home region?

This paper addresses the motivations underlying migration decision-making in the case of young university graduates returning to their rural home region in Switzerland. Empirical results show the joint role of social ties, living environment, and job opportunities, although the weight given to each of these factors varies between graduates. Some strategies used by the graduates to cope with a limited labour market are furthermore identified. I argue that internal migrations are far from being the sole consequence of labour market conditions and that a greater appreciation of non-economic issues is needed.

Housing, the Compact City and Sustainable Development: Some Insights From Recent Urban Trends in Switzerland

Abstract One of the debates on the sustainability of housing revolves around the spatial dimension of human settlements and the influence of location and urban morphology on resource and energy consumption. Urban sprawl has often been criticised and this has led to the promotion of the model of the compact city as an alternative in many countries. Based on empirical data on urban trends in Switzerland, this paper discusses three critiques that are usually made of the model of the compact city. These critiques relate to its feasibility, its social consequences and its environmental implications. The paper concludes that the model of the compact city seems workable in the context of a growing population group whose residential aspirations are oriented towards centrality and proximity.

The real estate markets: Players, institutions and territories

Revealing the parties, the processes and the institutions and, consequently, both the diversity and contingency of the real estate markets, the existing increasing literature emphasises the contemporary numerous links and interdependencies between real estate, land value, planning and town planning policy and even the financial system. This paper is an attempt to understand all the real estate markets, from the most peripheral ones, where the urban rent is the lowest, to the most dense city centres. To gain a better understanding of the real estate market, a process of firstly deconstruction and then reconstruction is used. The process of deconstruction involves identifying various market trends according to property type (principally residential buildings), players and institutions, territorial situations and temporalities based on research conducted in Switzerland. We then developed a meta-synthesis inspired by Fernand Braudel whose works put as much emphasis on day-to-day economic activity as on long-term activity, and on local as well as global issues.

Peripheries, Mobilities and e-Technologies: The Rise of Regional Social Network Policies

Abstract The mobility of highly qualified people is a major issue for regional development and represents a matter of particular concern for peripheral regions, which tend to be characterized by the out-migration of their graduates (brain drain). While regional policies have traditionally focused on the labor market and framework conditions in order to foster territorial development, a new kind of instrument is emerging: the regional social network. This approach to policymaking no longer considers highly qualified people leaving their home region as a loss, but sees them as potential resources to be mobilized and capitalized at a distance. Based on six case studies, this paper elaborates a typology of regional social networks and analyzes their governance and management. It situates this new approach in a more general debate on regional innovation policies with regard to the specific needs of peripheral regions in a time of growing spatial mobility and the ubiquitous use of e-technologies.

Spatial capital and planetary gentrification: residential location, mobility and social inequalities

Gentrification in its various forms is about place and more precisely place competition or place appropriation between classes. In this chapter I argue that the choice of a place of residence is a strategic decision that enables individuals or households to gain locational advantages that are crucial in negotiating and mastering the spatial aspects of everyday life. The term ‘spatial capital’ (see Rérat and Lees 2011; Rérat 2016) has been used to conceptualize these locational advantages, revealing them to be an additional form of classled appropriation of urban resources.