Métropoles XXL en pays émergents

KEYWORDS: METROPOLIS – URBAN POLICIES – SHANGHAI – MUMBAI – CAP TOWN – SANTIAGO DE CHILE – EMERGING COUNTRIES

The reflection is based on four examples of cities of different sizes: Mumbay, the economic capital of India of 12 million inhabitants is subject to a forced march transition; Cape Town and Santiago de Chile which struggle to settle the accounts of the past and Shanghai with its 20 million inhabitants and its "skyline" amazing is doubtless the most emblematic of these cities.

Three results emerge: technical networks help organize cities and serve as systems of coherence. A metropolis is quite governable as long as a legitimate power of superior rank, capable of acting as arbiter, exists. Finally, anarchical urbanization finds its causes in land ownership schemes, in insufficient urban planning, and in the practices of promoters and local actors who profit from building construction.

The author: Dominique Lorrain is a Research director at the CNRS, teaches at Sciences Po Paris and at the MBA at the university of Tongij (Shanghai)