Suchergebnisse

"Politique de la ville is the French equivalent of the German programme: Soziale Stadt (Walther 2002). Recently, emphasis is put on the role of 'culture' in the empowerment process of social housing tenants in 'disadvantaged' suburban estates. Empirical evidence from case studies shows serious conflicts between two definitions of culture: 1. Central government officers from the Ministry of Culture tend to fund cultural projects coherent with their normative and elitist vision of 'la Culture', illustrating Bourdieu's concept of cultural domination. 2. Adversely, cultural activists from communities and neighbourhoods tend to have an anthropological vision of the diversity of cultures (les cultures). They want to implement cultural projects with a bottom up approach, but they find extremely difficult to raise funds as popular cultures have a weak legitimacy. The paper will focus on the transactional process allowing compromises between cultural universalism and cultural specificities." (author's abstract)

The situation, development lines and perspectives of small and medium-sized towns in Germany and France are compared and similarities and differences within the central place systems and the spatial planning of both countries are discussed. With different approaches to definition, these towns have received new attention in both countries in recent years, albeit with different focal points. The discussion covers the positions and lines of development of these towns in the respective central place systems; the perspectives of their future development regarding the strengthening of central place functions, their attractiveness as residential and economic locations, and contexts of rural regional development and services of general interest. In addition, aspects of research on small and medium-sized towns as well as approaches to spatial policy in both countries are addressed.

This chapter concentrates on institutional differences in France and Germany. The stability of the German institutional setting contrasts with the series of institutional reforms that have stretched over decades or even half a century in France. While in Germany transformation has taken the form of successive adaptations, in France the diverse reforms have been hotly debated and sometimes even contested. Often the metropolises and regions form the focus of such discussions in France. These contrasts between stability and change can also be seen in both spatial planning systems and the position of the highest level of territorial authority (régions in France and Länder in Germany). Starting from the national policy guidelines in both countries, the authors describe different territorial units, their areas of responsibility and their manifold planning instruments. They also address processes of democratisation, participation and metropolisation, the role of the European Union and various crises as drivers of the development of both systems.

Quite apart from the diversity of situations in small and medium-sized towns, stabilising their town centres is a major challenge. In both countries, town centres have been weakened by commercial changes, a decline in the supply of services and transformations in lifestyles. They are characterised by an increase in vacancy rates, which accelerates a spiralling loss of attractiveness and atmosphere of neglect. Since the beginning of the 2000s, this challenge has been central in the public debate. In both countries, urban renewal has been a key element of this revitalisation policy. However, although the context of public action is rather similar in France and Germany, the modes of governance differ. In France the administrative municipal system continues to provide a narrow and fixed framework despite recent territorial reforms that favour the intermunicipal level. In addition, cooperation, communication and participation of local actors from business and civil society are more firmly anchored in social and political practice in German small and medium-sized towns.