Back to the city ?
Research Team Prof. Etienne Piguet | |
Objectives
Sustainable development and the model of the compact city increasingly influence land planning policies. In this context, an inward development and an urban regeneration are suggested by many official planning documents. The advantages of limiting urban sprawl and promoting inward development are well developed in academic literature as well as in official documents. But some political and sociological questions remain unanswered. Which social categories are more likely to go back to the city? Will this movement of return to the city change its social structure? Will it create new inequalities?
Studies, mostly in Anglo-American countries, have shown that the movement of return to the city is in many cases accompanied by a gentrification process. In other words, social categories concerned by this movement are rather middle to high classes. Our purpose is to determine if a movement of return to the city occurs in Switzerland, which social categories are concerned and if a process of gentrification is going on. Case studies will focus on the motivations and the residential trajectories of these new inhabitants and determine to what extent the regeneration policies adopted by local authorities take into account this important social dimension of the process.
Research report
Rérat, P., Piguet, E., Söderström, O. et Besson, R. 2008: "Back to the City? Étude de l'évolution démographique et de l'attractivité résidentielle des villes suisses. Neuchâtel: Institut de géographie et Fonds national de la recherche scientifique.
Publications
Rérat, P., Piguet, E., Besson, R. et Söderström, O. 2008: Les âges de la ville. Mobilité résidentielle, parcours de vie et attractivité des villes suisses. Geographica Helvetica 63, 261-271.
Rérat, P., Söderström, O., Besson, R. et Piguet, E. 2008: Une gentrification émergente et diversifiée: le cas des villes suisses. Espaces et Sociétés 132-133, 39-56.
Rérat, P. (éd.) 2008: Reconstruire la ville en ville. Géo-Regards: revue neuchâteloise de géographie (numéro spécial). http://www.alphilrevues.ch/f/revue/4/10
Rérat, P. (éd.) 2008: Reconstruire la ville en ville: tendances et enjeux. Géo-Regards: revue neuchâteloise de géographie, 7-26. http://www.alphilrevues.ch/f/revue/4/10
Rérat, P. 2009: La fin de l'étalement urbain? Tracés, 22-24.
Rérat, P. et Söderström, O. 2008: De la litanie sur la « communication » et la « participation » à la conduite de projet. Les Cahiers de l'APSAN-SO, 5-8.
Rérat, P., Piguet, E. et Söderström, O. 2009: L'attrait retrouvé des villes suisses. Le Temps. 8 janvier
Rérat, P., Söderström, O. and Piguet, E. (eds.) forthcoming: New forms of gentrification: issues and debates. Population, Space and Place (special issue).
Rérat, P., Söderström, O., Piguet, E. and Besson, R. forthcoming: From urban wastelands to new-build gentrification: the case of Swiss cities. Population, Space and Place
Rérat, P., Besson, R., Piguet, E. et Söderström, O., à paraitre Habiter la ville : évolution démographique et attractivité résidentielle des centres urbains helvétiques in L. Pattaroni, A. Rabinovitch & V. Kaufmann (eds.), Habitat en devenir, Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes
Case studies
A quantitative analysis based on the last population censuses will focus on the demographic evolution and the residential attractiveness in 25 cities (Aarau, Baden, Basel, Bellinzona, Bern, Biel-Bienne, Chur, Fribourg, Genève, Lausanne, Locarno, Luzern, Lugano, Neuchâtel, Olten, Schaffhausen, Sion, Solothurn, Sankt-Gallen, Thun, Vevey/Montreux, Wil, Winterthur, Zug and Zürich). In Zürich and Neuchâtel, further analyses will be carried on the profile, the trajectories and the motivations of the new urban dwellers as well as on the strategy of the local government and the role of the private sector in the field of urban regeneration.
International seminar
« New-Build Gentrifications: Forms, Places and Processes », Neuchâtel, 15-16 November 2007 (link).
- Programme (download pdf)
- Book of abstract (download pdf)
