The Calanques National Park, between environmental effort and urban effort

Abstract

Since 2008, our research has involved sociological monitoring of the political construction of the Calanques National Park, its social uses and the environmental controversy that has arisen. We have addressed these issues in the context of their interaction with urban policies. This article analyses the interactions between the Calanques National Park and the city of Marseille through the analytical framework of environmental effort. Environmental effort can be defined as the socially differentiated and potentially unequal contribution of social actors to public environmental protection policies. First, we show how the territorial make-up of Marseille has always involved a great deal of crossover between the city, the countryside and nature. Second, we examine the boundaries between the city and nature today, a result of convergence between a prevailing naturalist vision that dominated the creation of the Calanques National Park and the city’s urbanism strategy. Third, we show how the environmental effort required of the population in some districts to protect the Calanques in the context of park policy is compounded by an additional urban environmental effort required of inhabitants to support the transformations imposed on their immediate environment.