The Greater Paris issue (2001-2012)

The Greater Paris is in 2001 an utopia. However this planning vision for Paris has brought major changes to the Ile-de-France governance regarding urban development from 2001 to 2012. Three processes jointly carried out illustrate this idea: 1- Since 2001 the City of Paris has been encouraging cooperation between local elected representatives. 2- The Ile-de-France regional development plan has been reviewed since 2004 and as of 2008 a governmental urban development project has been formulated. 3- A new governance project which includes the creation of a metropolitan government has been discussed. The Greater Paris project has led to a new ambitious public transportation plan for its suburbs (2010) and the creation of a metropolitan government (2014). All of these achievements are the result of institutional and political conflicts from the last decade.

This monography on the Greater Paris illustrates the issue of urban change of scale in the context of increased competition between cities. It aims at understanding the standpoints of public actors (the City of Paris, local mayors, the Ile-de-France region, the State): how they intend to use the Greater Paris idea, how they build up their representations of it and what are the institutional resistance against a metropolitan government. The analytical frame of this study combines three change variables - interests, ideas and institutions - to better understand how the Greater Paris project has changed the regional governance (2001-2012).