This article by Clarence Hatton-Proulx, postdoctoral researcher at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne / Géographie-cités, analyses infrastructural bifurcation in the urban waste management trajectories of two Western metropolises.
Published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, this article identifies the social and political factors that explain why Montréal abandoned waste incineration after a century of use, while this technology has dominated Paris’s waste treatment mix for over 50 years.
Inspired by historical comparative urbanism, it zooms in on two specific incinerators, des Carrières in Montréal and Ivry next to Paris, that despite many similarities reveal divergent infrastructural trajectories illustrating larger trends: the decline of waste incineration in North America and its enduring importance in Northern Europe.
It argues that deindustrialization and gentrification apply pressure on waste incinerators as relics of industry in dense urban areas. Their closure or survival depends on four intertwined factors: energy systems, maintenance and modernization, urban electoral politics, and land use cultures.
Hatton-Proulx, C. (2025). Explaining infrastructural bifurcation: A comparative history of urban incineration in Montréal and Paris. Journal of Urban Affairs, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2025.2537255
Clarence Hatton-Proulx is a postdoctoral researcher at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He obtained a masters in science and technology studies from York University and a PhD in urban studies and history from INRS and Sorbonne Université. He works on the history of energy transitions, waste management, soil pollution, and deindustrialization in urban settings. His research has been published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, Journal of Urban History, Enterprise & Society, and eslewhere.
