Contenu du sommaire : L'urbanisme tactique + Géographie et guerre + Varia

Tactical urbanism is a modality of intervention resulting from citizen initiatives, involving temporary, reversible and inexpensive material transformation, whose objective is to introduce rapid changes in the use and appropriation of urban public space. During or shortly after the spring 2020 lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tactical urbanism proved to be a simple, quick and inexpensive way to respond to the health emergency of social distancing. In particular, bicycle lanes and paths, referred to as pop-up infrastructures or in France as “coronapists,” were created in order to avoid a modal shift to the car by people afraid of using public transport. Based on research conducted with interviews and video elicitation in five French cities–Grenoble, Lyon, Montpellier, Rennes and Saint-Étienne–with experienced and novice cyclists, the article analyzes how these pop-up infrastructures have been perceived and used according to the context, the type of infrastructure and the profile of cyclists. Building on the discussion of the role of infrastructure, the aim here is to understand how the contingencies arising from the layout of transitory infrastructure produce a different relationship to space and mobility. In doing so, we examine the potential spillover effect of the coronapists on a population that did not practice utilitarian cycling before the pandemic and the continued practice of those who were already utilitarian cyclists. The purpose is to examine how these new infrastructures may have acted as a facilitator of modal shift or as a learning facilitator, and what particular role coronapists played in the practice of utilitarian cycling. The article first examines the reception of the infrastructure and then questions the uses related to an assessment of the cyclability in terms of comfort, safety and security. The article ends with a discussion of the interests and limitations of the tactical dimension in the implementation of coronapists. The diversity of the territory surveyed has shown the political force of the infrastructures and the effect that these transitional infrastructures have had as a complement to other measures. They promote new uses and encourage new people, including children, to adopt cycling on a daily or more regular basis. This result invites the pursuit of this proactive policy. These promising results encourage the development of these infrastructures in sparsely populated, suburban or rural areas. In addition, we have shown that ridership is highly dependent on cyclists' assessment of the comfort, safety, and security of the path. This perception varies greatly depending on the context, the type of facility and the experience of the cyclists. In most cases, the coronapists have helped to stimulate more cycling by providing greater coverage and safer or more direct routes. The expectancies and dissatisfaction generated by transitional facilities, which relate to perceived bikeability, inform us of the importance of considering the diversity of uses in their design as well as their physical quality and maintenance. The results of our survey encourage the design of readable, wide, physically separated, continuous and maintained facilities to improve cyclists' sense of safety. Finally, the results also show the importance of thinking about cycling policy by considering the full range of possible uses and experience levels from the design stage onwards in order to attract new cyclists.

The rise in homelessness in European cities linked to increased migration has led cities to face new challenges of providing shelter for precarious newcomers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the French authorities required that all homeless people be sheltered. In order to meet this obligation, they recognised the voluntary actions of activist associations as a resource complementing state action. In this context, the long-standing demand of social movements that vacant buildings be used to house the homeless has gained momentum. This paper addresses the emergence of a non-profit temporary housing model, known as habitat intercalcaire (in-between homes), in France. It originates from the institutionalisation of squatting through regulated occupations of public or private properties that are temporarily unused, to accommodate people who do not qualify for mainstream shelters or social housing. These projects are often included in temporary urbanism strategies of areas undergoing urban renewal. In the academic literature, very few publications examine these practices, especially in France. In other European countries, such as the Netherlands and Switzerland, several authors have analysed temporary housing through the perspective of its commodification (Baloche, 2016; Debrunner, Gerber, 2021). This paper adds to this body of knowledge, through the study of the partnerships between different organisations, activist groups and local authorities in the creation of non-profit temporary housing that integrates rationales both from the social welfare sector and from urban development. By using an actor-centred perspective it complements other studies that have addressed mainstream emergency shelters and “alternative” accommodation for asylum seekers and migrants, such as squats and homestays (Agier et al., 2019; Bouillon, 2009; Damon, 2021; Dietrich-Ragon, 2011; Gardella, 2014, 2016; Lévy, 2021; Roche, 2021). Through an interdisciplinary approach, the paper focuses on the encounter between the discourses, values and practices from the two fields and questions the tactical dimension of these urban actions. It is based on empirical research including participant observation in meetings and seminars organised by the promoters of this non-profit temporary housing model. In addition, interviews with fifteen stakeholders – both from local governments and from the associative sector – were conducted in Rennes, Villeurbanne and Grenoble. The three cities were chosen owing to the involvement of their local political leaders, coming from left-wing or green parties, in reception policies and in housing issues.By focusing on the rationales of the emergence of this housing model, the main findings of the study show how contradictory political and ideological stances have been overcome through pragmatical means, and how the political commitment of elected representatives has fostered different strategies in the three cities. Values originating both from the social welfare and urban development realms, have been combined by advocates of the model, in order to encourage its adoption by property developers. In addition, by facilitating the management of properties by social welfare organisations, these practitioners show they can provide “creative” and financially sustainable long-term solutions for housing the homeless. Finally, the paper shows that these experiments attempt to pacify divergent logics and to include the social issue in urban management on a long-term basis. In doing so, it raises further questions on the future joint evolutions of social welfare and urban planning, when faced with challenges associated with international migration and housing crises.

This article examines the trajectories of two places, from the temporary to the permanent, from the interstitial to the emblem of an institutionalised urban cultural policy in Lisbon: the Fabrica do Braço de Prata in the Marvila district and Lx Factory in the Alcântara district. What is the role of the transitory dimension in the implementation and development of these projects? Based on a field survey (observations and interviews) as well as the reading of press articles and grey literature, we will first show how these temporary projects were born from private initiatives in strategic districts of the city, before analysing their characteristics, with in particular the emphasis on the temporary in words and images. Finally, we will try to read their integration in the official discourses of the city and their inscription in the construction of the figure of Lisbon as a creative metropolis

Launched by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) since 2018 in Ouagadougou, Dakar, Abidjan and Tunisia, the “urban fabric initiatives” are inspired by tactical urbanism. They promote collaborative urban projects with short-term and low-cost implementation, complementing the usual urban projects of the AFD. This article proposes to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of these initiatives and to analyse the socio-spatial transformations and possible changes in governance. The article highlights the success of some initiatives and the improvement of living conditions in certain neighbourhoods. However, it also highlights the limitations of this type of urban planning in the Global South.

Today, the city plays a central role in the major geostrategic dynamics worldwide. Since 2007, more than one in two inhabitants is urban and the urban rate would reach 54% of the world population in 2021. Demographic projections indicate still high rates for this century, with 60-70% of urban dwellers by 2050. For the military, mastering the urban terrain is therefore necessary if not fundamental to intervene in the next crisis management operations (Africa, Middle East, Asia mainly) whose number continues to increase since the end of the Cold War. It is recognized in all Western doctrines as unavoidable and formidable, requiring specific preparation and mechanisms for engagement with rural areas. Urban space is, after all, the terrain of asymmetrical warfare, hybrid strategies in favour of the defender, the circumvention of technological power by more rudimentary capacities. However, the Ukraine War since 2022 reminds us that the conventional war between two states remains conceivable on the European continent. The urban space also appears as central and decisive in military operations.

From the outset of the conflict, discourses on the war in Ukraine have become a political arena for Chinese diplomacy and Beijing's discursive power in the world. In developing its official discourse on the conflict, Beijing has had to calibrate its communications to different external and internal factors and mobilize different strategies to promote them. Certainly linked to Russia after many years of economic and political rapprochement with Moscow, the Chinese government had to define a position. How has the Chinese discourse sought to preserve its Russian partner, knowing that there is no formal alliance between Moscow and Beijing and that economic relations between China and the West are stronger than with Russia? This article uses a qualitative approach and analyzes the evolution of Chinese media discourse by conducting a qualitative study of the publications of two Chinese newspapers, the Huanqiu Shibao and the Caixin Zhoukan, as well as by analyzing the publications of Chinese Internet users and experts on the microblogging site Weibo. The analysis highlights the notable evolution of Chinese official discourse on the war in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion. This evolution reflects both Beijing's determination to preserve its neutrality in order to reduce the impact of the crisis on its own geopolitical ambitions and economic prospects, and the change in the international context surrounding the war following its escalation in space and time.

The North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon, traditionally known as NOSO, are the scene of an armed conflict pitting government forces against pro-independence militias. This asymmetrical confrontation, which has its roots in the vicissitudes of the dual Franco-British colonial heritage, began in October 2017, when activists claiming to be from the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front (SCACUF) symbolically proclaimed the independence of their regions under the banner of the "Republic of Ambazonia" and created armed militias to fight the presence of the Cameroonian state in the English-speaking zone. The violence linked to this insurgency rapidly turned into a low-intensity armed conflict, the humanitarian and socio-economic consequences of which are considered disastrous after six years of confrontation. The NOSO is the setting for a forgotten conflict, with the understanding that the international community is involved at least in terms of humanitarian care, media attention and political and diplomatic initiatives. This article examines the factors and effects of this neglect. Thus, it appears that the denial and lead screed maintained by Cameroonian actors contribute to hindering the action of the international community in the two regions plagued by armed violence, and that the weak international mobilization associated with the intransigence of the main local protagonists favors the stalemate of the conflict, the specter of which tends to extend beyond the original home of Anglophone Cameroon.

After the vote of the 158 municipal councils of the Basque Country concerning the creation of a single Public Establishment of Intercommunal Cooperation (EPCI) for this territory, which resulted in a qualified majority of the municipalities pronouncing themselves in favour of the constitution of a Community of Agglomeration of the Basque Country, the signature of the prefectoral decree establish the creation of this entity, the steering committee in charge of its implementation specifies the competences, governance and taxation of this new institution, which forced the elected representatives to decide between the different options highlighted by the experts and the State services; and this, knowing that this flexible institution is bound to evolve over time. Since 1 January 2017, the ten EPCIs of the Basque Country have merged to provide this territory with a new representative institution which, in two years, has taken on all the competences provided for by the law and has designed and implemented 23 sectoral policies. However, this has not been achieved without difficulties synonymous of a reduction in State allocations and the centralisation of administrations and decision-making.

In France, local queer associations participate, through their activities, in providing individuals from sexual and gender minorities with spaces that are more or less free of heteronormativity and that promote self-affirmation. These spaces, which can be considered as reassuring, are nevertheless little studied outside the large urban centres, particularly in medium-sized cities, thus raising the question of queer possibilities in these territories. Based on a precise census of associations on a regional scale, and associative activities collected through the social networks of three structures established in medium-sized cities in the north of France, results show the spatial strategies put in place by the associations to assert their presence in territories where queer communities are often little developed and visible. Through various local partnerships and by taking over spaces that are sometimes perceived as heterosexual, these associations, through their shifting practices, challenge the supposed sexual binarity of the places. Moreover, the spatialities of associations, through the relations maintained with local populations and public authorities, inform us about the acceptance of sexual and gender minorities, and participate in establishing a geography of queer possibilities.