Abstract
Taking its point of departure from Mariana Mazzucato’s The Entrepreneurial State (2014), this article examines the French state as an innovator in the realm of green housing. Drawing upon field research into the design and reception of eco-neighbourhoods, the author explores the French state’s experiments in ‘green culture’, asking what ‘improving daily life’, a stated objective of the ÉcoQuartier programme, means to planners and residents? Do ÉcoQuartier inhabitants become more environmentally conscious in their domestic practices? There are numerous parallels with France’s post-war experiments in mass housing that prompt us to ask questions about the French state’s experimental method. This article argues that the innovation of the eco-neighbourhood reveals that the state’s belief in spatial determinism remains strong and that the ÉcoQuartier initiative indicates that some, but not all, of the important lessons from the mass housing experiments of the 1950s and 60s have been learned.
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