Contester la métropole

Abstract

Until recently, the terms “metropolis” and “metropolitanisation” were mainly used by academics and officials involved in the government of large urban areas. There are now signs that these phenomena are being taken up and politicised by social movements. In this special issue, the authors analyse some examples of such movements. In the introduction, we first situate the issue of metropolitan mobilisations within the literature analysing urban social movement. Based on this body of works and the articles gathered in the issue, we then formulate a number of cross-cutting findings, hypotheses and research perspectives. These relate to the adaptation of forms and repertoires of mobilisation to the characteristics of metropolitanisation; to the cognitive and discursive resources provided by metropolitan semantics and imaginaries for universalising the cause of movements; to the socially selective attributes of the main actors involved; and to the role of political opportunity structures that contribute to the metropolitan re-scaling of social movements in France. Finally, we examine the effects of metropolitan social movements on local public action, and vice versa.

Keywords

• France
• metropolisation
• politicization
• social movements
• structure of political opportunities