Aims

The course aims to give students an analytical grid for various actors which, through negotiations, transactions, competitions and conflicts, help to produce the various components of the organisation of space.

Main themes

While "Urban and rural sociology" (Course SOC 2430) focuses on the subject from the standpoint of the appropriation of space, this course is located in the perspective of the production of space and its various compositions. In other words, it asks which logics the various actors choose their territorial localisations - when they have a chance. What factors influence these choices? What are the priorities? What developments is it possible to identify in time?

Content and teaching methods

Content
The course analyses how space is organised and transformed at the initiative of various actors. In this respect, the course will analyse the main actors that intervene in the structuring of urban space, by highlighting their objectives and priorities, and the development of these objectives and priorities particularly with reference to the globalisation of the social effects of these policies. For example, students will see how and why the logics of industrial localisations have been transformed, and are still being transformed, in the context of globalisation.
The same approach will be used for offices (which continue to increase in number), businesses, public services and collective amenities (e.g. schools and hospitals).
The course will also examine the logics that underpin transport (including plans for main roads and railways), and the social effects of these localisations.
In addition, the course will look at the place and significance of green spares in town and cities.
Lastly, a section will be given over to the role of the public authorities in spatial organisation (the role played not only by planning, but also by factors such as taxation and social policies). Another section will deal with inhabitants, their relationship with living space, and their demands in response to transformations in the towns and cities.
Methodology
This will be a professorial course. There will be a reading file.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

None.
An oral examination, including a critical presentation of the reading of an article.
A summarised syllabus.
The teacher.

Programmes in which this activity is taught

Other credits in programs