IGP 2024 symposium

Inverting/Inventing Grand Paris

The political moment triggered by the Grand Paris international consultation process of 2008 provided an exceptional opportunity to revive research into the history of the Paris Region. Historians and researchers could not help but question the discourse stressing a break with the past promoted then by decision-makers, developers and the media. It was in this spirit that the multidisciplinary research group “Inventer le Grand Paris” (Inventing Grand Paris) was formed in 2012. The group used four international conferences (held in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016) and an eight-year research programme organised as part of the Labex Urban Futures programme, to reintegrate this episode within a long genealogy of plans, projects and operations that have defined the future of the metropolis at different times.

The word « inventing », understood according to its dual etymology of inventory and invention, has made it possible to renew a number of elements. The first was to move beyond an older historiography that used the succession of major development plans as the main framework that shaped the metropolis’ narrative (Michel Carmona, 1979). The second was to place the example of Paris firmly within an international comparative perspective, highlighting the circulation of knowledge and experts, and analysing the possible ‘moments’ around which common issues become focused within an overlapping history of metropolises. The third consisted of enriching the history of the metropolitan phenomenon with other issues, such as political scenes, landscapes and representations, as well as long-term development.

So why add the word ‘inverting’ here? Aside from the consonance, we are as much concerned with changes in focus of a research programme, as we are with the renewal of historiography and themes related to current events. On the one hand, the work of the research group has led to a shift in focus towards multi-faceted approaches to Grand Paris : to the single object of study that has sometimes been placed in a comparative perspective, succeeds one made of multiple areas, brought together by the research question they grapple with. On the other hand, the increasing importance in political and media discourse, as well as in academic disciplines, of environmental concerns, of heritage awareness, of the interests for users or stakeholders who previously played only a minor role, or the growing interest for the situated narrative, are all invitations to adopt a more decentralised perspective as a means of grasping the metropolitan phenomenon. The word « inverting » here explores the potential for the renewal of research in the dual sense of « inverting the perspective » and « changing order and value », focusing on three issues that this conference aims to explore in greater depth.

A multi-faceted reading of the metropolitan phenomenon. From one to several Grand Paris

A first proposal is to explore the many ways of talking about and seeing Grand Paris and metropolises in general, in order to test in particular whether the findings can lead to a shift in, or even invert our understanding of metropolitan history. There are two interrelated and complementary avenues of research. The first invites the historian to seek out under-documented perceptions of the metropolis because they originate from actors or users who have barely been studied (economic actors, local political structures, social mobilisation, populations rendered invisible: ethnic minorities, women, children, the elderly, etc.). The second approach is a more historiographical one and involves re-examining the methods and themes used by historians researching Grand Paris. Testing other ways of examining the metropolitan phenomenon (through the environment, landscapes, representations, conflicts, etc.) invites us to revisit the history of metropolises from the research questions directed at them, and to retrace the different ways in which they have been expressed over time.

Metropolitan temporalities. From the beat of maps to overlapping temporalities

The second inversion concerns the implications of these shifts for the metropolitan narrative. The case of Paris has long been encapsulated by a temporal pattern driven by the dates of major plans or big political decisions. The conferences organised between 2013 and 2016, followed by the diachronic theme-based seminars held between 2017 and 2023, paved the way for a shift in research towards the depth of development plans, guiding the research group’s work towards a more refined approach to this question. Understanding the metropolis at the juncture of different varied that are even sometimes contradictory, can therefore provide a new research field. How do planners, economic actors, residents, etc., make trade-offs between the temporalities of political cycles (elections), private cycles (life cycle), economic cycles (boom and bust), international cycles (wars, international conflicts), global cycles (globalisation) and environmental cycles (climate, century-long risks)? How does the whole question of time (sustainability of buildings, memorial aspects, how landscapes are moulded, vegetation cycles) impact and re-examine the way in which cities are made?

From international comparativism to a narrative of the metropolitan phenomenon

Lastly, based on these research ideas, the conference will explore a more epistemological question. The twelve years of work carried out by the Inventing Grand Paris research group has maintained a core focus on an overlapping history of metropolises within a comparative and transnational framework. This has led to the emergence of new research objects, as demonstrated by study days devoted to the construction of Greater Berlin (the writing of history), Greater Moscow (land use), Greater Tokyo (parks) and metropolitan China (circulation and transfer), in comparision to Greater Paris. As part of this undertaking, one of the challenges of this conference is also to re-examine the ways in which this observation can be made. While there is no shortage of studies underpinned by cultural transfers and transnational history resources, cultural areas and, to a lesser extent, by global history, how can these different overlapping approaches be deployed? Can an overlapping history of metropolises help to write a narrative of the metropolitan phenomenon in the contemporary era?

The aim of this two-day conference is not to exhaustively cover all of the fields where these questions can be tackled, but rather to test the ‘inversion’ potential of three approaches to the metropolitan phenomenon: grasping the metropolis through its representations and landscapes; through its forces of resistance and, finally, through its environment. Inducing such a dialogue with researchers working on other national or international metropolises, aims not only to place the singularities of Paris in a broader context, but also to accentuate the effect of inverting viewpoints as a means of enabling new perspectives on the history of metropolises to emerge.