Philippe Hamman

Urban sustainable development and the challenge of French metropolitan strategies

This article focuses on some salient issues of urban sustainable development in France, specifically with regard to six urban agglomerations: Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Montpellier, Nantes and Toulouse. The reticular dimension of these issues is analysed with reference to the ways a plurality of actors imagine, project and realize the construction of cities, rather than through sectoral points of view. This relational approach is divided according to a triple focus in which we successively address: firstly, the state of Sustainable Development (SD) policies in the six major cities, in terms of contents and conception; secondly, their implementation from the perspective of instruments; and finally, the circuits of their realization. Thus, urban SD appears within a (locally variable) set of linkages that place these issues firmly in areas of interrelations and intersections.

Negotiation and social transactions in urban policies: the case of the tramway projects in France

Dealing with the example of the tramway projects developed in two French metropolitan areas, this paper aims to investigate from a relational point of view the debates concerning the place of the concepts of negotiation and social transactions in the implementation of local policies. We take the formal vs. informal dimension of the issue into account, as well as the multiple rationalities linked to the recognition of the ‘otherness’ in the relations between the different social actors and institutions. Finally, we make a distinction between first and second ranking transactions in order to reinforce this operating paradigm in the ‘green city’ age.

The EU’s Racial Equality Directive and the Evolution of Discourse in the Field of the Fight Against Discrimination. a Comparison Between France, the UK and Spain

This paper assesses the extent of the convergence of public policies purporting to combat racial discriminations in Europe by focusing on the cases of France, the UK and Spain. It shows that the influence of ‘national models’ remains powerful even when the implementation of a common policy instrument such as a European directive is at stake - in this instance the Racial Equality Directive of 29 June, 2000. Having outlined the reasons for focusing on this directive, we propose a synthesis of sociological and political science studies on the subject and present our comparative methodological approach in detail. We focus on the language employed to present the discrimination problem in all three countries under study. We first examine the French case and retrace the progressive evolution of the rhetoric used, from an emphasis on the fight against racism to equal opportunities and the promotion of diversity. Having thus observed the medium-term impact of national socio-political dynamics on a European frame of reference for action, we introduce a comparison with Spain and the UK, relying on documents produced by European institutions.