Ce qu’ils disent de la ville. Savoirs experts et représentations des acteurs de la rénovation
Traiter d’opérations d’urbanisme ne revient pas uniquement à traiter d’économie, de l’efficacité des procédures ou de leurs conséquences spatiales et sociales. Ces opérations peuvent aussi être étudiées comme des actes de langage, découpant, qualifiant, valorisant ou dévalorisant l’espace, et concourant à l’ordonnancement, par les représentations, du monde social. C’est ce que propose cette thèse, à partir des opérations ayant touché trois anciens quartiers populaires du troisième arrondissement de Lyon, proches de la Part-Dieu : Saxe – Paul Bert, Villette – Paul Bert et Moncey – Gabriel Péri. La première partie présente les projets de rénovation et de réhabilitation qui s’y sont inscrits des années 196 à nos jours, sous forme d’une socio-histoire attentive tant aux opérations abouties qu’aux projets abandonnés. Ces trois « aventures » urbaines sont ensuite relues au prisme des discours institutionnels qui les fondent (délibérations, allocutions, paroles d’architectes et urbanistes), pour retracer la genèse et les usages sociaux des catégories mobilisées dans ce jeu de valorisation/dévalorisation de l’espace et des populations. La dernière partie s’attache à un matériau trop souvent négligé, l’étude d’urbanisme. Ce genre hybride et pluriel, utilisant divers savoirs et modes de restitution au service de l’action projetée, se transforme quand naissent les politiques de réhabilitation en 1977-78. Étudier ce(ux) qu’étudient les études autour de cette période charnière permet alors d’apporter un éclairage particulier sur le récit que narrent, pendant quatre décennies, les politiques, les architectes et les experts plus anonymes de l’urbain à propos de la centralité lyonnaise.
Urban renewal cannot only be reduced to economy, policy management and their social and spatial consequences. It can also be conceptualised as "speech acts", as discourse which classifies, enhances and depreciates areas, and then contributes to social organization. This is what this PhD aims at doing through the study of three working-class neighbourhoods near the Part-Dieu business district of Lyon: Saxe, Paul Bert, and Villette - Paul Bert and Moncey - Gabriel Péri. The first part is a social history of both completed and abandoned urban renewal and housing improvement projects, from the 196s onwards. In the second part, these three "city adventures" are examined through the lens of the institutional discourse, which gave them their legitimacy (decisions, speeches, city-planners’ and architects’ explanations). It looks into the categories used in the "game" of enhancing and depreciating the areas and their inhabitants, i.e. the appearance and use at one moment of the term "ghetto", or the idea of "traditional" population. The last part focuses on documents, which are too often neglected in urban research: urban-planning surveys and studies carried out by local government. This kind of literature, which is hybrid and diverse, involves different disciplines and produces different types of documents, in order to promote projects. These local planning documents were changed by the 1977-78 housing improvement policies. Analysing the studies and surveys done during this turning point in French society, allows us to see through the discourse of politicians, architects and anonymous experts who have been telling, over the last forty years, the story of Lyon’s centrality.
Urban renewal cannot only be reduced to economy, policy management and their social and spatial consequences. It can also be conceptualised as "speech acts", as discourse which classifies, enhances and depreciates areas, and then contributes to social organization. This is what this PhD aims at doing through the study of three working-class neighbourhoods near the Part-Dieu business district of Lyon: Saxe, Paul Bert, and Villette - Paul Bert and Moncey - Gabriel Péri. The first part is a social history of both completed and abandoned urban renewal and housing improvement projects, from the 196s onwards. In the second part, these three "city adventures" are examined through the lens of the institutional discourse, which gave them their legitimacy (decisions, speeches, city-planners’ and architects’ explanations). It looks into the categories used in the "game" of enhancing and depreciating the areas and their inhabitants, i.e. the appearance and use at one moment of the term "ghetto", or the idea of "traditional" population. The last part focuses on documents, which are too often neglected in urban research: urban-planning surveys and studies carried out by local government. This kind of literature, which is hybrid and diverse, involves different disciplines and produces different types of documents, in order to promote projects. These local planning documents were changed by the 1977-78 housing improvement policies. Analysing the studies and surveys done during this turning point in French society, allows us to see through the discourse of politicians, architects and anonymous experts who have been telling, over the last forty years, the story of Lyon’s centrality.