Paris agglomeration, Bassin parisien and spatial planning strategies in France", Draft Version for Built Environment

Keywords: Paris metropolitan region, polycentricity, spatial planning, competing scales

This paper highlights how, in the Paris metropolitan region's case, two polycentric spatial planning policies at national and regional levels incidentally prevented the development of a polycentric Mega-City-Region. The national policy aiming to reduce economic imbalances in the French territory has failed to promote a coherent Bassin Parisien system. At the same time, polycentric planning within the Paris-Ile-de-France region restricted the economic and urban growth to the adjacent new towns. This resulted in the reinforcement of the Paris agglomeration, thus limiting further integration of surrounding FURs in a polycentric Mega-City-Region that never existed.

Introduction

Expanding contemporary city-regions are becoming increasingly more a complex issue for spatial planners and policy-makers. To some authors, the functional urban complexes resulting from current socio-economic dynamics seem to be out of reach of any structured metropolitan governance (Lefevre, Jouve, 2002) while other academics argue that discrete but efficient forms of governance accompany the dramatic changes of our urban spaces (Le Galès, Lorrain, 2003). The interest for the new urban soft functional spaces has percolated from the urban research arena and private actors' day-to-day experience of a globalised economy to policy-makers' spatial planning debates. In France a call for projects launched in 2003 by the state-related agency for aménagement du territoire (Datar) proposes for instance to create regional think-tanks in major national cityregions via a policy of 'metropolitan contracts'. The paradox is that the Paris region, which is the first French global city-region (Sassen, 1994, Taylor, 2004) has not been selected. This paper will explain why under the light of the last fifty years of spatial planning this is not so much of a surprise.

The absence of the Paris city-region is all the more problematic as the deconcentration of population and of some activities since the 1960's has increased functional linkages with a set of peripheral functional urban regions not only in the administrative Ile-de-France region but also in surrounding regions such as the cities of Beauvais, Compiègne or Chartres but also, as some have argued (Gilli, 2002) with further distant 'cathedral cities' like Rouen, Orléans, Reims or Amiens, in effect extending the large Bassin parisien perimeter.

Commuter analysis (MIIATBP, 2002, Halbert, 2004a) shows functional linkages that are dominantly centre-periphery but also sub-regional networks indicating forms of more polycentric interactions. Halbert, L., 2006, "The Polycentric City-region that never was: Paris agglomeration, Bassin parisien and spatial planning strategies in France", Draft Version for Built Environment, edited in: HALBERT L., 2006, "The Polycentric City Region That Never Was: The Paris Agglomeration, Bassin Parisien and Spatial Planning Strategies in France", pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F., THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 4

Yet, major firms from the knowledge economy do not seem to follow this deconcentration pattern. I propose the hypothesis that unlike activities with low knowledge and contact intensity (basic logistics, some manufacturing activities, back offices), their location and their functional patterns tend to be still relatively concentrated (Halbert, 2004b).

The reason may be found in the spatial logics of the global post-fordist economy which rely on core areas of metropolitan regions that act as gateways, knowledge and information integrators as well as insurances in a world of economic uncertainty (Veltz, 1996, Hall, Pain, 2006, Halbert, 2004c). However, this is also the result of policy-makers' priorities and some partially unexpected results of spatial planning strategies. I argue first that there is only a very limited and recent interest in the Paris city-region case for knowledge intensive activities -especially for Advanced Producer Services -and that no specific policies have been implemented yet to influence or at least accompany their locational strategies. This result can in fact be broadened to all activities of the regional knowledge economy. Second, following Peter Hall's view on Paris and London's diverging spatial patterns (Hall, 1995), I stress the importance of leading institutions -especially the central government -in favouring a limited deconcentration within the Paris agglomeration, thus preventing a deconcentration at a wider metropolitan scale.

In the context of a special issue dealing with polycentrism, I intend to demonstrate more specifically in this paper that this does not result from too little polycentric planning for has been the spatial planning paradigm since at least the 1950's. It is in fact the consequence of many polycentric policies that rarely considered the enlarged city-region scale as efficient, thus thwarting the development of a polycentric organisation restricted to the Paris agglomeration. I will not discuss here the benefits of such spatial patterns (i.e. competitiveness or durability of polycentric vs. monocentric city-regions), but analyse the processes that led to the reinforcement of the Paris region relative monocentricity within a dominant political narrative of polycentrism. Halbert, L., 2006, "The Polycentric City-region that never was: Paris agglomeration, Bassin parisien and spatial planning strategies in France", Draft Version for Built Environment, edited in: HALBERT L., 2006, "The Polycentric City Region That Never Was: The Paris Agglomeration, Bassin Parisien andSpatial Planning Strategies in France", pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F., THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 5

This paper is based on the analysis of spatial planning documents as well as four workshops held in the first half of 2005 where public bodies have expressed their views on current planning issues at the metropolitan scale 1 . The lack of any documents at the enlarged city-region level as well as the large number of documents that are partly or entirely located within the functional soft perimeter described by the Polynet research (Table 1) indicates i) the numerous public institutions involved in the spatial planning field and hence the potential risk of both vertical and horizontal disintegration of public action and ii) the relatively secondary importance given to metropolitan planning in the institutional landscape. , pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F., THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 9 mentioned in the planning documents. In some cases, one sees vague territorial specialisation taken into account as some leading hot spots are mentioned such as the 'pôles d'envergure européenne' (European scope poles) in the 1994 Ilede-France Schéma Directeur (SDRIF). Needless to say, the modest level of implementation of spatial policies dealing with knowledge-intensive activities is associated with a total lack of considerations for the potential linkages of such a knowledge economy with the rest of the regional economy, therefore pinpointing the failure to address the too well-known risk of socio-spatial dualisation described in the international literature (Sassen, 2001) and, quite interestingly, mentioned in the most recent policy documents (the "internal imbalances" described in the introduction of the Contrat de Plan Etat-Région Ile-de-France 2000-06).

2) The polycentric city-region: politically irrelevant?

The current lack of documents dealing with the enlarged Paris city-region, i.e. looking across regional administrative boundaries of the Ile-de-France, has not always been so. The Contrat de Plan Interrégional du Bassin Parisien (CPIBP, 1994(CPIBP, -1999) ) constitutes a unique and interesting attempt to develop a planning strategy associating the Datar national planning agency and the eight constitutive regions. This contract was the implementation of the 1992 Charte du

Bassin parisien which reflected a synthesis of negotiations between the different regional and national partners. Three scenarios depicted in the 1992 White Papers (Datar, 1992) served as the basis of a joint regional-national public depicted in the current 1994 SDRIF follow the same logic of international attractiveness. Even though not directly referring to the regional knowledge economy concept, the specialisation in high tech industries, business services, international tourism, research and higher education of these poles are responses to increasing international competition brought by global economic changes 5 . Interestingly the corner-stone for sustaining the competitive edge of the Paris region since the 1960's and up to the latest regional Schéma Directeur , pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F., THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 15

The long inherited monocentric Parisian geography was stigmatised in the context of the fast growing population (Baby-Boom period). To prevent anarchical urban sprawl, all Ile-de-France planning documents favoured, at least since the 1960's 6 , polycentric spatial planning policies (Figure 3). The Villes Nouvelles in the Paris Ile-de-France region has been a key element of this.

Although inspired by the British new towns, one must notice differences in the , pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F., THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 17

Conclusion:

Even though polycentric spatial planning has been the core concept of most policies at national and regional level since the 1950's, it has hardly ever been implemented at the enlarged city-region scale that is to say in a perimeter associating Paris urban region and its surrounding cities. This is probably because polycentric planning was already been used at two other competing scales.

It was central at the national scale with the redistributive policy from Paris to the rest of the national territory. This national level policy may have paradoxically favoured some forms of functional division of labour in the enlarged Paris cityregion. It is also verified with the implementation of polycentrism at the agglomeration scale: deconcentration within the central area was polarised by the "peripheral" poles located on the outskirts of the agglomeration. The proximity of these poles to the dense central area reinforced a more monocentric pattern at city-region scale.

I explain elsewhere that polycentric principle's success in both regional and national planning may be explained by its ability to satisfy most actors involved in the development of a planning policy (Halbert, 2006). I rather insist here on the striking correlation between polycentric planning policies at national level and the Paris regional planning agenda. To some extent, this paper shows that competition between different spatial scales was produced un-intentionally by various well-or ill-meant policies. How did this happened if not under the auspices of what seems retrospectively a passionate relationship? Wellhoff (1995) retraces the early moments where doubts and fear overwhelmed all sentiments: as soon as the 1965 Schéma d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme de la Région Parisienne was delivered, the Datar feared that Bassin parisien -which was considered to be "the link between Paris and other vital French regions"became "torn apart 7 by contradictory attractions, and thus reduced to an economic desert" (Datar, 1965). This led to a series of spatial planning directives 1995, p. 9). After a period of relative calm, the 1990's were here again times of passionate debates (Charte du Bassin Parisien, 1992 andSDRIF, 1994). The current revision of the SDRIF will probably ensure a revival of the Bassin parisien issue as the central government will use it once more to focus the discussion on the revision of the Ile-de-France master plan.

However, today's general context has utterly changed. The rhetoric of globalisation that associates economic development and metropolitan strength is now dominant, the Paris region is valued as the first national champion that cannot be sacrificed any longer for the sake of spatial equilibrium. The aim is not so much to have less of Paris in France but to have more international cities like Paris in the national territory.

In this changing political context, should polycentrism at an enlarged regional scale be promoted? If some cathedral cities may not be considered as part of the enlarged Paris city-region although new transportation links can have integrating effect (as will probably the TGV line to Reims), there are still cross-regional issues that need to be addressed at the enlarged city-region scale. Some cities are growing or declining in the shadow of the Paris region. If we are to follow the general conclusions of international literature on polycentric city-regions, globalisation and post-fordist productive system rely on central core economies but also to some extent on secondary poles (Hall, Pain, 2006).

Yet, before any further recommendations can be made to policy-makers, one must mention our current deficiencies in understanding the functioning of the global city-region and especially of the enlarged Parisian metropolitan system. A demonstration is still to be addressed at the Paris metropolitan region level based both on the theory of the polycentric mega city-region literature and on detailed empirical studies. Whether this will be achieved during the current revision of the new regional master plan is not certain. So far, the discussions involved by the revision of the SDRIF have focused almost uniquely on the Ile- , pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F., THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 19

de-France and its constituent territories. If I argue elsewhere that Paris' economic core (the dense central part of the agglomeration) requires most of the attention of regional and national policy makers, I insist (Halbert 2004c), -and being in line with others (Belliot, 2005) -that it is important to enlarge the scope of the SDRIF to the cross-regional city-region.

References:

-Belliot, M. ( 2005), Région Ile-de-France: les enjeux masqués du SDRIF, Urbanisme, 345.

-Berger, M., ( 2004), Les périurbains de Paris. De la ville dense à la métropole éclatée ?, Paris, CNRS Éd.

-Datar, (1992), Le livre Blanc du Bassin Parisien.

-Gilli, F. ( 2002

  cities and metropolitan dynamics and only in a limited way in terms of operational implementation 2 . Both the regional knowledge and globalisation changes are recent concerns. It is in the 1990's that introductory chapters acknowledge changes in the production systems and the central role of metropolitan regions in the context of a globalised (-ing) economy. Some researchers have contributed to this change (Sassen is frequently quoted, as well as some French economic geographers such as Beckouche). The globalisation narrative and concepts have since become important: accessibility, network, connectivity, widening and deepening of labour markets, knowledge intensive activities are current references. The 2005 Datar's 'poles de compétivité' is in this context the latest example of a growing interest throughout the 1990's and 2000's in the regional knowledge economy concept. Unsurprisingly, the Paris city-region is deeply involved in this new policy for technological development.Among the 67 projects aiming at promoting partnership and cross-fertilisation between public research and private firms, 7 are based in the Ile-de-France region and a further 11 of them are located in the surrounding regions.Yet, the implementation in spatial planning documents of this growing interest for the knowledge economy is much more limited. With th e exception of the national 'pôles de compétitivité' recent policy, it is difficult to find evidence of specific proposals to promote knowledge intensive industries in the Paris enlarged urban region. There are of course what one could call 'contextual' initiatives such as the promotion of e-accessibility or policies to increase the skills of the workforce via higher education. However, the main activities of a knowledge-related economy do not benefit from any particular policies both in terms of economic development and of spatial planning. For instance, creative industries, high tech industries or Advanced Producer Services are never Halbert, L., 2006, "The Polycentric City-region that never was: Paris agglomeration, Bassin parisien and spatial planning strategies in France", Draft Version for Built Environment, edited in: HALBERT L., 2006, "The Polycentric City Region That Never Was: The Paris Agglomeration, Bassin Parisien and Spatial Planning Strategies in France"

  action. The strict Paris-centric concentrated metropolitan scenario was thought to follow 'natural' -read market-led -tendencies with the reinforcement of the Ilede-France region in an ever increasing monocentric pattern consequently limiting the development of peripheral cities. It was criticised on the base that it would lead to internal congestion within the Paris agglomeration and to economic decline for the rest of the Bassin parisien. The 'multipolar and centralisedHalbert, L., 2006, "The Polycentric City-region that never was: Paris agglomeration, Bassin parisien and spatial planning strategies in France", Draft Version for Built Environment, edited in:HALBERT L., 2006, "The Polycentric City Region That Never Was: The Paris Agglomeration, Bassin Parisien and Spatial Planning Strategies in France", pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F.,THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 10 scenario' was based on the joint development both of the Paris region and of surrounding cities, thus favouring the constitution of a single enlarged functional region. The 'metropolitan network scenario' argued on the contrary that Bassin parisien's cities had to gain greater autonomy vis-à-vis the Paris region and become a set of interlinked European metropolis, as if by-passing the capital region (Figure2). The later scenario seemed to have been the most popular both with the Datar and with non-parisian regions.

Figure 2 :

 2 Figure 2: The " metropolitan network scenario ": Paris vs. Bassin Parisien

( 1994 )

 1994 has been the implementation of a polycentric city-region. The five pôles d'envergure européenne are indeed the nodes that are supposed to sustain the future development of a polycentric region. Halbert, L., 2006, "The Polycentric City-region that never was: Paris agglomeration, Bassin parisien and spatial planning strategies in France", Draft Version for Built Environment, edited in: HALBERT L., 2006, "The Polycentric City Region That Never Was: The Paris Agglomeration, Bassin Parisien and Spatial Planning Strategies in France"

FrenchFigure 3 :

 3 Figure 3: The 1994 SDRIF: consolidating the polycentric planning policy

  ) Déplacements domicile-travail et organisation du Bassin parisien, L'Espace Géographique, 4, pp. 289-305. -Gravier, J.-F., (1947) Paris et le désert français, Paris, Le Portulan. -Halbert, L. (2004a), Polynet Report Action 1.1: The Paris metropolitan region and the polycentricity hypothesis, Polynet Working Papers, 24 p. -Halbert, L., (2004b), Polynet Report Action 2.1 & 2.2: Firms in the spaces of flows, Polynet Working Papers, 34 p. -Halbert, (2004c), Densité, desserrement, polycentrisme et transformation économique des aires métropolitaines. Interpréter la concentration des activités d'intermédiation dans la zone centrale de la région francilienne. Ph. D. thesis, Paris-I University, 342 p. -Halbert, L. (2006) The Paris Region: Polycentric Spatial Planning in a Monocentric Metropolitan Region. In: Hall, P., Pain, K. (ed.) The Polycentric Metropolis: The Multi-Centred Mega-City-Region in Europe, London: Earthscan. -Hall, P. (1995), Planifier les basins métropolitains, Metropolis, 104/105, pp.6-8. -Hall, P., Pain, K. (2006) The Polycentric metropolis: Mega-City-Regions in the European Space of Flows, London, Earthscan

Table 1 :

 1 Documents dealing partly or totally with the enlarged Paris city-region The Polycentric City-region that never was: Paris agglomeration, Bassin parisien and spatial planning strategies in France", Draft Version for Built Environment, edited in: HALBERT L., 2006, "The Polycentric City Region That Never Was: The Paris Agglomeration, Bassin Parisien and Spatial Planning Strategies in France", pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F., THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 7

	perimeter
	Scale	Name	Acronym	Content
	European	European Spatial	ESDP	European-scale spatial polycentrism
		Development Plan		(Paris + Bassin parisien are part of
				core areas vs. European peripheries)
	North-West	North-West Europe		Macro-regional scale spatial
	Europe	Vision		polycentrism at this scale (Bassin
				parisien is on the periphery of the
				Euro-core)
	National	Schémas des Services	SCC	Sectoral planning of major
		Collectifs		equipments and services (roads,
				railways, energy, environment,
				higher education)
		Plans d'Action	PASER	Plan defining national objectives to
		Stratégique de l'État		be implemented in a given region for
		en Région		a period of four years
	National/Regional Contrats de Plan État-	CPER	Contracts for a period of around six

  Halbert, L., 2006, "The Polycentric City-region that never was: Paris agglomeration, Bassin parisien and spatial planning strategies in France", Draft Version for Built Environment, edited in: HALBERT L., 2006, "The Polycentric City Region That Never Was: The Paris Agglomeration, BassinParisien and Spatial Planning Strategies in France", in HALBERT L., CONVERY F.,

	THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2)
	approved in 1970 to "direct to the surrounding regions, activities that would
	otherwise fuel excessively the Parisian growth" (Datar, 1969 cited in Wellhoff,
	18

  Halbert, L., 2006, "The Polycentric City-region that never was: Paris agglomeration, Bassin parisien and spatial planning strategies in France", Draft Version for Built Environment, edited in:HALBERT L., 2006, "The Polycentric City Region That Never Was: The Paris Agglomeration, Bassin Parisien and Spatial Planning Strategies in France"

 HALBERT L., 2006, "The Polycentric City Region That Never Was: The Paris Agglomeration, Bassin Parisien and Spatial Planning Strategies in France", pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F., THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 20 -Lefevre C., Jouve, B. (2002), Des métropoles ingouvernables, Paris:

Elsevier.

-Le Galès P., Lorrain D., 2003, Gouverner les , pp. 184-193, in HALBERT L., CONVERY F., THIERSTEIN A., 2006, "Reflections on The Polycentric Metropolis", Built Environment, 32(2) 22

He keeps focusing his researches on the relationships between firms and metropolitan territories via at least three research axes. The first one deals with the analysis of the real estate industry's role in the make up of firms' metropolitan geography. The second focuses on the so-called knowledge intensive activities that re-shape the post-fordist City. He has interests on the geography of cultural industries, high tech industries and Advanced Producer Services. The third studies public policies in regard to changes in metropolitan areas economy.

He also makes geographical documentary movies (Australia, India) and aims to progressively use video as a scientific tool (for research and communication).

1 These workshops allowed the author to sense and discuss planning issues at metropolitan scales in the context of the ageing spatial planning documents and of the new debates raised by the current revision of the regional master plan. 2 See for instance the introductory part of the Contrat de Plan Etat-Region Ile-de-France 2000-06 3 The region located north of the Ile-de-France 4 Paris and La Défense two business districts, Roissy international airport area, the Saclay high-tech plateau and Marne la Vallée 5 Increasing competition due to globalisation is probably the most quoted economic change discussed in policy documents since the 1990's. 6 Schéma d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme de la Région Parisienne (1965) 7 The passionate term used here is enlightening.