CRIA Team

This first axis focuses on the relationship between networks, infrastructures, and mobility. It is structured around two research perspectives. The first is a continuation of a long-standing CRIA tradition of analyzing territorial strategies (assessment, planning, financing, management methods) relating to networks and their transformations, from a primarily physical point of view, through infrastructures. This analysis focuses primarily on major network infrastructures (stations, transit hubs, airports, ports, logistics centers, etc.) in a context where the legitimacy of said infrastructures is being called into question, and where the associated territorial debate is evolving (narratives, players, mechanisms). Analysis also considers the evolution of transport financing methods (some of which are based on land valuation and value capture) in the light of the reorganization of state intervention and the sectors’ overture to both competition and privatization.
The second perspective corresponds to an intensification of research into public policies relating to the mobility of people and goods in metropolitan contexts. The trajectory of these public policies (planning, governance) and the regulatory, financial, and infrastructural tools used to regulate urban mobility are considered. Different contexts are examined (mainly Europe and North America), enabling characterization of the content of the post-pandemic public policy toolbox. Particular attention is paid to controversies in the fields of personal mobility (socially and spatially selective policies) and goods mobility (the social, economic and ecological impacts of logistics)

Territorial Metabolism and the Greening of Urban Planning and Development

The second axis of research focuses on territorial ecology through interdisciplinary analysis of cities’ characteristic stocks, flows of material and energy internally and with other territories (otherwise labeled “urban metabolism”), as well as society-biosphere interactions. This work is particularly relevant today in the definition and implementation of policies for the circular economy, food sovereignty, and energy production. The metabolic approach facilitates practical, contextual, and critical analysis (e.g., of trade-offs between energy and materials), and questions the notion of transition. This is made possible by a long-term perspective (historical and prospective) and a multiscale approach (enabling the consideration of relationships between cities and other territories, and vice versa).
These issues are linked to the greening of urban planning and development: analysis through the prism of circularity issues is thus complemented by consideration of issues of ecology. The aim is to examine how the cohabitation of city dwellers and other organisms (plants and animals) and acknowledgement of their ecosystem functions, is changing design, production, and management practices of urban space. The evolving relationship with the materiality of non-human organisms in the making of the city is addressed through environmental and biodiversity preservation measures (ZAN—zero net artificialization, ZEN—zero net emissions, ZPNB—zero net loss of biodiversity, etc.) and processes of de-artificialization or renaturation. Another focus of interest is the forms of ordinary interaction between humans and non-humans in urban spaces, analyzed through the prism of changing management and maintenance methods. The relationship between city and river is being addressed in connection ecological protection. This line of research resonating with the other four, the issue of “greening” can increasingly be seen as a transversal one across the team.

Local Action between Public and Private, Built and Unbuilt Areas

In this theme, particular attention is paid to the processes that contribute to the creation of built-up and undeveloped areas and public spaces through the analysis of local public action and its articulation with the actions of private players, associations, and households. To this end, research focuses on action frames of reference such as stakeholder strategies (political and technical), modes of action (instruments, legal and regulatory tools—from hard law to soft law), zoning, and schemes—in particular, operational arrangements and financing circuits. It also considers the material content of built production (housing, activities, infrastructural spaces, vacant buildings, etc.) and non-built production (renaturation, desilting, reclamation of derelict land, installation of more or less permanent or temporary furniture, reconfiguration of public spaces, etc.).
Consideration is also given to the way in which local public action seeks to adapt to changes in living conditions and lifestyles (growing inequalities; urban decline and depopulation; social, territorial, and health vulnerability; the aging of a population; demand for greater consideration of environmental and health issues, etc.). Expanding on this, work looks at the effects of initiatives undertaken on those who live and work in the areas concerned (appropriation and resistance, changes in residential patterns, transformation of consumer practices, socio-spatial segregation, etc.).
Special attention is paid, moreover, to the life cycle of the spaces produced. The aim is to approach development processes from a continuum that goes beyond not only the segmentation of project time (programming-design-production-management), but also the sectoral division between players (project owner-project manager; producers-operators-users). This involves reflecting on the conditions under which the management and use of these spaces are considered in their design and production, while paying renewed attention to the processes involved in transforming the existing. The aims here are to achieve greater sobriety in terms of land and materials and to gain an understanding of the reconfiguration of project management at a time when experimental approaches and the use of temporary solutions are becoming more widespread. This is complemented by an analysis of the law in action in these development processes.
Work is also continuing on the analysis of the way in which different types of built and undeveloped space are perceived and managed by the urban operators who own them. This involves examining the extent to which spaces are subject to processes of commodification and/or financialization, which could have an impact on their use.
Finally, the question of real estate dynamics is addressed, particularly in the light of the ageing population and the health crisis and its long-term effects.

Territorial Development and Planning

The aim of this theme is to explore the way in which territorial development approaches are established and the effects they produce on actors, populations, and territories, particularly when they incorporate planning processes and actions, or more intangible approaches such as labelization. Whether driven from above (national and transnational territorial development frameworks and policies, and in some cases the role of the developmental state) or from below (local development projects or associative approaches), the objective is to analyze the way in which territories are apprehended and the frameworks (discourses, concepts, policies, actions, tools) of territorial development approaches are produced at different scales. The circulation of models and “best practices,” “alternative” strategies, interactions between the frameworks produced, and the way they are incorporated and transformed when these approaches are implemented are also considered.
The approach also involves analyzing the ways in which the frameworks in question are examined, or even challenged, in confrontation with the diversity of actors at different scales and/or the very characteristics of the territories concerned by territorial development initiatives. In this context, work focuses specifically on the interactions between spatial forms and development actions, on local economic development, and on heritage labelization approaches as forms of local development. This includes echoes of the work carried out in Territorial Metabolism and the Greening of Urban Planning and Development axe of research, where greening becomes a development tool (for example, through the development of energy territories). Priority research areas include urban policy districts, low-density areas, small and medium-sized towns, and certain East Asian countries (e.g., urban decline in Japan, vulnerability to health crises in Singapore).

Urban Planning and the Reaching of Urban Planning: Reflective Approaches

CRIA continues to contribute to collective reflection on the field of urban planning and development, its theoretical resources, teaching practices and links with action. The questions and concerns raised by changes in the environment, the health crisis and, more generally, systemic crises strongly challenge the field of urban planning and development, both in terms of its theoretical foundations and the teaching that is done in it (and the content of the field as a register of action). Pedagogical and scientific methods are also addressed, in particular through consideration of the use of serious games in teaching and modalities of broadening understanding of cities and urban projects through urban walking schemes (outdoor classes, urban walks).
In recent years, the team has also hosted a number of CIFRE theses and participated in several research-action projects, such as the POPSU program. Drawing on this experience, the team published a guide to CIFRE theses in 2023 aimed at future doctoral students, supervisors, and companies. Furthermore, this team is developing a review of the existing links between research and urban action to better both disseminate knowledge to city professionals and assess the contributions of expertise to research and the links between these two fields of intervention.

Fields of Study

CRIA’s work focuses on different territorial configurations (from small and medium-sized towns to major metropolises). Studies are being carried out in a variety of cultural areas (Europe, North America, North-East Asia).

“La Bretelle”, occupation temporaire sous le boulevard périphérique entre Paris et Ivry-sur-Seine, 2023 © Antoine Fleury