Inventing Grand Paris: metropolitan planning history and its valorization

Abstract

ABSTRACTPlanning of the Paris Region has a long history that began a century ago in conjunction with the global development of metropolitan planning policies. In 2013, a group of scholars working on the planning history of the Paris Region launched a series of four two-day annual international conferences entitled ‘Inventer le Grand Paris/Inventing Grand Paris’, which were held each December from 2013 to 2016. These conferences sought to expand the knowledge about the planning history of the Paris Region as well as to develop international comparative studies. This initiative was a reaction to the lack of historical depth in the discourse of the main actors of the Grand Paris planning process. It also sought to assemble for the first time and complete the historical research on the overall planning of the greater region, connecting it with research on other metropolitan planning histories. Beyond the conferences, a new website opened in June 2017 giving access to the proceedings but also providing a platform for sharing new historical material and research on this subject.