Mega-mall, global city and social issues of our times the case of Europacity in Paris

Abstract

The retail trade fully participates in the international competition between the world's major cities, whether it be by the wealth it generates, or by the ways it reveals city and regional territorial displays. One can argue that city department stores had demonstrated this in the 19th century, while recently mega-shopping malls show that a wide range of public and private actors can be involved in a regional (metropolitan, national …) development project, each playing their own cards, at different scales. The goal of this article is to show how the social, political and economical interests interact regionally (locally) around a commercial project in the context of globalization. It focuses on the Europacity retailtainment mega-mall project, in the town of Gonesse located north of Paris, and framed within the “Métropole du Grand Paris” (Greater Paris Metropolis) urban development project, in itself a government ambition to strengthen the French capital's global position. We will analyse how such a project brings together supporters and opponents at all levels. Indeed, it is common to treat opponents as representatives of localism against globalized entrepreneurs, but this article illustrates a more nuanced reality where each side is part of a multiscalar game of scale.