Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Avoiding megapolization: The battle of Île‐de‐France

1995; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 3; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09654319508720297

1469-5944

Alain Lipietz,

French Urban and Social Studies

Abstract In France, the end of the 1980s witnessed the rise of an unexpected orthodoxy concerning regional planning. According to it, the growth of a megapolis around Paris (in the region Île‐de‐France) would be the only card in the hands of French productivist planners in order to resist the marginalization of France within Europe. This orthodoxy expressed a quasi‐consensus reflected in the debates about the new Schéma Directeur Regional de l'Île de France (SDRIF), the regional plan for the Paris region over the next quarter of a century. Yet the orthodoxy was criticized from two sides: the theoretical disadvantages of a megapolis, and the growing opposition of concerned citizens, first the mayors of suburban cities (from any side of the political chessboard), and above all the emergence of ecologists (18% at regional elections in Île‐de‐France, 1992). Unexpectedly, in 1993, the new (right‐wing) Minister of the Interior, Charles Pasqua, decided to put an end to the growth of the Parisian megapolis. He reflected thus a general turn in mindsets. Yet this does not mean that everybody agrees with the strategy for avoiding megapolis, and in fact it could mean a new form of megapolization.