Paris Municipality Research Articles

COVID-19: a catalyst for revitalizing mixed-use urban centers? The case of Paris

ABSTRACT Since the mid-1990s, the French public authorities have changed regulations to allow commercial building conversions into housing. The COVID-19 crisis has affected the global economy, social connections, environmental trajectories and energy demand/supply. Countries have been considering measures to reduce the pandemic’s long-term impact and since the beginning of 2020, national governments have recommended that companies facilitate remote work. Thus, COVID-19 has prompted some office building depopulation. With working from home expected to continue after the pandemic, due to technological, environmental and economic considerations, there is a growing impetus to convert empty office space into residential uses. The present research aims, through the Parisian case study, to consider the impacts of the pandemic and the acceleration of homeworking. Using a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology, the study aims to (1) critically analyse the policy tools implemented by the Paris municipality following the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate commercial building conversions and (2) evaluate the potential for such conversions, considering former policies. We found that adaptive reuse policies have been implemented following the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. However, according to the collected data, conversion potential is limited, due to the continuing demand for office space despite the changes and economic considerations.

Digital Work and Urban Delivery: Profile, Activity and Mobility Practices of On-Demand Food Delivery Couriers in Paris (France)

Platform-based on-demand delivery services are rapidly developing in urban areas, especially in the food sector, raising new issues for urban planners, especially in the field of transport. Based on a survey of over 100 couriers conducted in 2018 in the municipality of Paris (France), this work aims at analyzing the profile, delivery activity and mobility practices of the couriers working for these platforms. The main objective is to show how mobility practices are shaped by the characteristics of digital work in the urban delivery sector, and to highlight new challenges for urban authorities and research. Compared to other studies, our work is based on quantitative data and distinguishes three categories of couriers, depending on whether they have another activity: students, people with another paid job, and people with no other paid or non-paid activity. Findings show that these three categories have different characteristics, regarding age, education, residential location, the intensity of delivery activity and the characteristics of mobility practices, especially regarding the transport modes used. The article ends with the discussion of a number of new challenges for both urban authorities and researchers regarding the sustainability of these new forms of digital work in urban delivery.

A formação dos ministros da educação no Brasil e o recorte de gênero - 1930 a 2020: políticas públicas de gestão

The problems that come from the current crisis of representation go back to the process of creating the notions and institutions of representative democracy. Through historical analysis we can better comprehend this complexity. This article aims to analyze the link between representation, participation and decentralization by focusing on the 1789 debates on the Municipality of Paris and Condorcet’s constitutional model, which still stands as a theoretical point of reference. The continuity in practical and theoretical issues concerning representation is also explored with regard to Condorcet’s claims in favor of women’s political rights intrinsically linked to his concept of representation. They are compared to the current gender parity arguments, which led in 1999 to the revision of art. IIII of the French Constitution encouraging the equal access to representative institutions. Stemmed from different contexts both these sets of arguments maintain that only parity between men and women renders the representation of national sovereignty effective.

Encadrement des loyers à Paris : les logements à petites pièces plus contraints que les autres

The municipality of Paris decided in August 2015 to renew its approach to rent control. New rents were not to exceed a given ceiling, being capped at the median rent per square metre plus 20%, for each category of dwelling (number of rooms, neighbourhood, and period of construction). This paper analyses the effects of the policy. We showthat the ceilingmet with only partial compliance, as 20% of rents exceeded the ceiling after August 2015. We then demonstrate the distortive effect of the rent control design. Ceilings were based on the number of rooms and failed to recognise that floor area can vary widely between dwellings with the same number of rooms. Dwellings with small rooms were more constrained by the rent ceilings, and were the only dwellings for which rents fell following implementation of the new controls.

L’atelier pédagogique en urbanisme : apport des commanditaires à l’apprentissage par problèmes appliqués

Les ateliers de préprofessionnalisation dans les formations en urbanisme constituent des temps d’apprentissage par problèmes appliqués. À partir d’une expérience d’encadrement de deux ateliers de Master 1, cet article revient sur le déroulement de ce type d’apprentissage. L’analyse insiste sur le rôle de commandes réelles et des interactions entre étudiants et commanditaires dans la création et la découverte d’une communauté de pratiques. Dans ces deux ateliers, une commande a été passée par la Ville de Paris pour mener un diagnostic des places d’Italie et de la Bastille au regard de la santé environnementale, en amont de leur réaménagement. A partir des réponses contrastées des deux ateliers, nous revenons sur les caractéristiques-clés de l’apprentissage en atelier. Par ailleurs, la thématique des ateliers (la santé environnementale) est encore émergente dans l’urbanisme opérationnel. Cette commande émane en effet d’un contexte politique et organisationnel particulier. Elle intègre les aspirations d’un élu pour que les enjeux de santé gagnent en légitimité dans les préoccupations urbanistiques de la Ville. La réception des diagnostics produits est, elle aussi, contrastée parmi les acteurs politiques et techniques. Ces différences enseignent l’ampleur du rôle des urbanistes en assistance à la maîtrise d’ouvrage dans un processus de conception : l’apport d’une expertise est certain, mais l’intervention dans un jeu d’acteurs bien établi est tout aussi importante. L’atelier permet finalement aux étudiants de comprendre l’urbanisme comme activité technique et sociale avec un rapport tout particulier au politique ; et c’est à cette intersection que des compétences pratiques transversales et néanmoins fondamentales sont à acquérir pendant la formation.

Staging the French Revolution: Cultural Politics and the Paris Opéra, 1789–1794 by Mark Darlow (review)

Staging the French Revolution: Cultural Politics and the Paris Opera, 1789-1794. By Mark Darlow. (The New Cultural History of Music.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. [xiv, 421 p. ISBN 9780199773725. $65.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index.On January 27, 1793, Parisians in search of entertainment would have had the opportunity to attend the first performance of Le triomphe de la Republique, with a libretto by Chenier, music by Gossec, and choreography by Gardel. The work smacks of politicization, in the strictest sense of the word: text and sound directly record past and current affairs, with music borrowed from the festival repertoire of 1791 (Chant du 14 juillet) and 1792 (Choeur a la liberte, in honor of the Suisses de Châteauvieux). Its plot cast contemporary events in a generic light that is decidedly baroque, from the pastoral celebration of social harmony to the discordant interruption of a generale calling citizens to arms against a bellicose enemy, and from the music of martial unanimity and military battles to a ballet des nations that, retracing the story of liberty from ancient Greece to the present, culminates in the performance of Republican France. This was a few months after the proclamation of the Republic on September 21, 1792, in the midst of a revolutionary war effort that would soon intensify, and only six days after the execution of Louis XVI; was there ever a more blatant case of the government instrumentalizing the Opera? This, surely, is propaganda in its very essence.Not so, says Mark Darlow, in a refined argument that benefits from his extensive study of primary sources and his thorough knowledge of a secondary literature that encompasses history, politics, theatre, and music. In this volume, Darlow tackles several questions that concern the institution's transition from an Old Regime establishment to a national theatre. There is, first, the question of the supervisory authorities that regulated and funded the theatre. There is, then, the question of the Opera's compliance with official injunctions (and therefore of its degree of freedom). And finally, there is the question of each work's reception and the influence of this reception on operatic productions. To these questions, Darlow brings interesting answers.The Opera's continuous service throughout the revolutionary period, he observes, does indicate a consensus on the institution's pre-eminent importance: in the day-to-day operations of the Opera, this consensus allowed for both procedural continuity and discursive rupture, stability of repertory and tentative reform (p. 384). But it did not prevent confusion and competition among the authorities supervising the institution and its productions. Between 1791 and 1793, the authorities remained uncertain about the legitimacy, nature, time, and scope of the censorship they ought to exercise. Within the Constituent Assembly ( July 1789 to September 1791), legislators oscillated between principled proclamations of deregulation and a reflection on the educational mission of cultural institutions, as Darlow's reading of Le Chapelier's report ( January 1791) makes clear (p. 119ff.). At the same time, the apparent consensus on the virtue of private entrepreneurship did not prevent the Paris municipality from exerting its police power over the Opera (in the name of public order) or from allocating funding to theatres on a case-by-case basis, generally for patriotic purposes (p. 131). Successively under the control of the Crown (March 1789 to April 1790), the Paris municipality (April 1790 to April 1792), the private entrepreneurs Francoeur and Cellerier (from April 1792 to their arrest in September 1793), and the artists themselves (September 1793 to July 1794), the Opera continued to depend on subsidies for its survival. It was, then, vulnerable to the authorities' carrot-and-stick approach: institutional incentives (if not political clientelism) partially determined the Opera's repertoire. …

Paris Métropole: dispositivi e progetti per agire in termini metropolitani

Paris Metropole: devices and projects for metropolitan action - In 2001, Pierre Mansat, councillor in the municipality of Paris in charge of relations with the local communities of Ile-de- France, launched an experiment of an explorative nature targeted at creating spaces and opportunities for metropolitan governance between Paris and its surrounding municipalities This article illustrates the reasons behind this ‘metropolitan action’ and discusses its methods, difficulties and limits in the Parisian context.

Évaluation de l’impact des politiques « Quartiers verts » et « Quartiers tranquilles » sur les prix de l’immobilier à Paris

This study uses the hedonic-price method to assess the impact on residential property values of two policies implemented by the Paris municipality : “ Quartiers Verts ” (“ Green Neighborhoods ”) and “ Quartiers Tranquilles ” (“ Quiet Neighborhoods ”). Both policies aim to reorganize targeted neighborhoods in order to promote non-motorized transportation modes. The neighborhoods cover 18 % of the total Paris area. We find that the “ Quartiers Verts ” and “ Quartiers Tranquilles ” policies caused property values to rise 3 % and 1.5 % respectively.

Employment suburbanisation, reverse commuting and travel behaviour by residents of the central city in the Paris metropolitan area

This paper analyses the relationship between employment suburbanisation in the Paris metropolitan area, the growth of reverse commuting and changes in the weekday travel behaviour of working residents of the central city over a 20-year period. The results show that the number of reverse commuters has significantly increased because the municipality of Paris has lost many jobs but few working residents whilst employment has developed in the suburbs. Reverse commuters are mainly and increasingly high-income professionals whose workplace is located close to the central city in employment sub-centres that are well served by public transport. Consequently reverse commuters have lower than average car use although differences exist and are related to their professional status. The policy implications of these findings are discussed in the conclusion.

Biomonitoring of complex occupational exposures to carcinogens: The case of sewage workers in Paris

BackgroundSewage workers provide an essential service in the protection of public and environmental health. However, they are exposed to varied mixtures of chemicals; some are known or suspected to be genotoxics or carcinogens. Thus, trying to relate adverse outcomes to single toxicant is inappropriate. We aim to investigate if sewage workers are at increased carcinogenic risk as evaluated by biomarkers of exposure and early biological effects.Methods/designThis cross sectional study will compare exposed sewage workers to non-exposed office workers. Both are voluntaries from Paris municipality, males, aged (20–60) years, non-smokers since at least six months, with no history of chronic or recent illness, and have similar socioeconomic status. After at least 3 days of consecutive work, blood sample and a 24-hour urine will be collected. A caffeine test will be performed, by administering coffee and collecting urines three hours after. Subjects will fill in self-administered questionnaires; one covering the professional and lifestyle habits while the a second one is alimentary. The blood sample will be used to assess DNA adducts in peripheral lymphocytes. The 24-hour urine to assess urinary 8-oxo-7, 8-dihydro-2'-deoxy-Guanosine (8-oxo-dG), and the in vitro genotoxicity tests (comet and micronucleus) using HeLa S3 or HepG2 cells. In parallel, occupational air sampling will be conducted for some Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Volatile Organic Compounds. A weekly sampling chronology at the offices of occupational medicine in Paris city during the regular medical visits will be followed. This protocol has been accepted by the French Est III Ethical Comitee with the number 2007-A00685-48.DiscussionBiomarkers of exposure and of early biological effects may help overcome the limitations of environmental exposure assessment in very complex occupational or environmental settings.

Glycol ethers and semen quality: a cross-sectional study among male workers in the Paris Municipality

Objectives: Apparent increases in human male reproductive disorders, including low sperm production, may have occurred because of increased chemical exposure. Various glycol ether-based solvents have pronounced adverse effects on sperm...

Trajectories and driving factors of local government reforms in Paris: A ‘deviant case’ of institutional development?

The article attempts to analyse the institutional development in one of continental Europe's capital cities: Paris. The author seeks to scrutinise the driving forces that have influenced institution-building and local government reform in Paris during the last century and to identify ‘critical junctures’ on the capital city's institutional path. Looking at institution-building in Paris as the dependent variable the article takes a primarily institutionalist approach in seeking to explore the relevant factors which account for and explain institutional change in the municipality of Paris (‘what shapes institutions?’). In order to reveal the peculiarities of the ‘Parisian case’ the French capital city is put into a comparative perspective with London and Berlin. Proceeding from this ‘most dissimilar cases’ design the author pursues the question of whether and to what extent institutional developments have been convergent and/or divergent in European capital cities.

The Decentralization of Intrametropolitan Business Services in the Paris Region: Patterns, Interpretation, Consequences

What is the importance of the decentralization of business services in a Parisian metropolitan region that is known for its inherited monocentricity? Using revised statistical and cartographic methodological tools, I try to answer two questions: Is the new Parisian metropolitan economic geography one of dispersal or of polycentricity? Does decentralization mean the decline or the reinforcement of the economic core? If secondary suburban economic centers benefit from the decentralization of business services, neighboring spaces of the municipality of Paris, such as the inner western suburbs of La Defense and Boulogne-Billancourt, are affected, too. This article demonstrates that polycentricity is not opposite to the constitution of a new golden triangle within the dense part of the agglomeration. This means both that economic centrality still matters (and thus that dispersed cities may not be the twenty-first century’s metropolitan archetype) and that an enlarged core business district (CBD) straddling Paris and the western Hauts-de-Seine département is being reinforced (thus invalidating the theory of CBD decline). Thanks to the widening of the business district from Paris to La Defense, the labor market remains integrated; meanwhile, secondary economic centers in the Outer Suburbs tend to create fragmented subregional labor markets of their own.

Paris Plage: “The City is ours”

In 2003, for the second year running, the Paris municipality entrusted a young theater designer with the transformation of one stretch of the banks of the Seine River—normally congested with heavy traffic—into an open space evocative of the seaside. Paris in August is therefore Paris by the seaside. The objective of our study is to examine the entire operation, from the moment the political decision was taken by the municipality to the many and varied activities of all those who participated. Through this study, we attempt to highlight the different forms of material and symbolic (re)creation of Paris being undertaken today. We show that in a situation such as this, a reflection on the fieldwork undertaken and the production of ethnographic knowledge is in fact the key factor in the analysis.

Exposure to glycol ethers in a population of French men evaluated by measurement of urinary alkoxycarboxylic acids.

Glycol ethers are solvents that are present in a large number of products used commercially and domestically. During recent years, ethylene glycol ether derivatives, in particular ethylene glycol methyl ether and ethylene glycol ethyl ether, have been progressively replaced by propylene glycol ether derivatives, which are less toxic. The aim of this study was to estimate the level of exposure to glycol ethers in a sample population of French men employed by the Paris Municipality by measuring the amount of alkoxycarboxylic acid metabolites in their urine. Urine samples were collected at the end of two different working weeks from 109 men, 54 of whom were judged to be occupationally exposed to glycol ether-containing products. Five alkoxyacetic acids (methoxyacetic, ethoxyacetic, n-propoxyacetic, phenoxyacetic, butoxyacetic acids) from ethylene glycol derivatives, and one alkoxypropionic acid (2-methoxypropionic) from a propylene glycol derivative, were simultaneously analysed by gas chromatography coupled to electron-capture detection. 2-Methoxypropionic was the most frequently found alkoxycarboxylic acid. The concentration of this metabolite reached 5.6 mmol/mol creatinine. The second most common alkoxycarboxylic acid was phenoxyacetic (up to 2.3 mmol/mol creatinine). The concentrations of the other alkoxycarboxylic acids were less than 1 mmol/mol creatinine. Although the concentration of alkoxycarboxylic acids was higher among men occupationally exposed to glycol ether-containing products than among unexposed men, the difference was significant only for butoxyacetic acid. Our data suggest that the use and exposure levels of glycol ethers have qualitatively and quantitatively changed dramatically over recent years. Particular attention should be paid in the future to alkoxypropionic acids derived from minor isomers of propylene glycol ether derivatives.

La politique culturelle de l'an II : les infortunes de la propagande révolutionnaire au théâtre

Martin Nadeau, The Cultural Policy of Year II : the Misfortunes of Revolutionary Propaganda on Stage. The conceptualization of the French Revolution in terms of new practices which enhance politics with symbolic meaning led to this study of the role of the theatre in the revolutionary political arena. The theatre, a dominant cultural practice at this time, was bound to catch the attention of the political authorities. The pendulum swung from freedom of action, with the decree of 13 January 1791, to tight control, with that of 2 August 1793. A comparison of the records of stage productions and the sometimes contradictory preferences of the National Assembly, the Paris Municipality, the insurrectionary Commune, the Committee of Public Safety and the Public Education Committee, highlights the issues at stake in the debate on ways to mediate the general will. As a public cultural practice, the theatre gave expression to a complex and highly unstable discourse, in which actors and actresses, but also the audience, played the role of co-authors in configuring the meaning of a stage production. This was by no means an easy cultural practice to steer from the viewpoint of the political authorities, be it in terms of propaganda or of censorship.

Deaf guides in French museums

In July 1989 the Association Art Visuel International des Sourds (International Association of Visual Art for the Deaf) was founded in France for the purpose of setting up a three-year training course for the deaf in the history of art. Supported by the Musee du Louvre, the Direction des Musees de France, the Fondation Credit Lyonnais and the municipality of Paris, the association has broken new ground in opening up the world of museums to deaf visitors. The author was one of the guiding spirits behind this initiative, the first of its kind in the world.

Mechanization of the collection of household refuse and data processing follow-up in the City of Paris

The Paris Municipality decided in 1979 to introduce mechanized collection from wheeled containers. This consists in providing blocks of flats with containers with a capacity varying from 120 to 1100 1, depending on the expected refuse production and the layout of the premises and means of access. The containers are collected by means of tipper trucks with an open hopper equipped with raising arms, capable of manipulating any type of container. Mechanization of emptying operations has reduced the number of workers per truck from three to two. The containers are rented by the City of Paris to two firms which are in charge of their maintenance and regular washing. The Paris municipal services also have the objective of optimizing the means necessary for collecting the 1 million tonnes of annual refuse. With this view in mind they have carried out plans to minimize personnel numbers and amounts of equipment and have determined around 6500 collection itineraries per year, taking into account the capacity of the vehicles and local constraints. Recourse to data processing is possible thanks to the ROMA program (BETURE study) which, based on the data of the Urban Geographical Repertory available in Paris and a vehicles' file which enables the determination of optimal collection circuits.

Mechanization of the Collection of Household Refuse and Data Processing Follow-Up in the City of Paris

The Paris Municipality decided in 1979 to introduce mechanized collection from wheeled containers. This consists in providing blocks of flats with containers with a capacity varying from 120 to 1100 1, depending on the expected refuse production and the layout of the premises and means of access. The containers are collected by means of tipper trucks with an open hopper equipped with raising arms, capable of manipulating any type of container. Mechanization of emptying operations has reduced the number of workers per truck from three to two. The containers are rented by the City of Paris to two firms which are in charge of their maintenance and regular washing. The Paris municipal services also have the objective of optimizing the means necessary for collecting the 1 million tonnes of annual refuse.With this view in mind they have carried out plans to minimize personnel numbers and amounts of equipment and have determined around 6500 collection itineraries per year, taking into account the capacity of the vehicles and local constraints. Recourse to data processing is possible thanks to the ROMA program (BETURE study) which, based on the data of the Urban Geographical Repertory available in Paris and a vehicles' file which enables the determination of optimal collection circuits.

La préservation des photographies. Notes sur un colloque récent

The preservation of photographs. This article is the account of a symposium held in Paris on 17 and 18 November 1984, on the initiative of the Municipality of Paris, on preservation and restoration of photographs. On the first day, dedicated to technology and structure of photographie pictures, Mr. Grant Romer (USA) reported on the history and making of daguerreotypes ; Mr. James Reilly (USA) on a method of identification of old prints ; Mr. Jacques Pouradier (France) on the processing of manufacture and stability of pictures ; Mme Flieder (France, CNRS) on the effects of environment on the conservation of photographie materials. On the second day, dedicated to repair of damaged materials, Miss Anne Cartier-Bresson (France) reported on the methods and work of the recently created restoration workshop for photographs of the Town of Paris ; Mr. Siegfried Rempel (USA) on the results in analysis and restoration obtained by the Research Centre of the University of Texas, Austin ; Mr. Lavédrine (France, CNRS) on the work of the French Research Centre on the Conservation of Graphie Documents ; and Mrs. Sudre (France) on an experience in reproduction of original prints. Several round tables, after each session, dealt with the main public collections of photographs and laboratories, and fruitful debates followed.