Friday 20 February 2026 | 14h-16h30 | Maison méditerranéenne des sciences humaines et sociales, room A154 (Aix-en-Provence))

Seminar coordinated by Cesare Mattina.

At a time when the capacity of democratic institutions to act and govern seems to be paralysed at many levels, to the point of calling their legitimacy into question, these two books examine the governability of cities around a number of sectors of intervention in the making of urban territories (housing, tourism, transport, public spaces, green spaces, water services, etc.). Their common starting point is to take seriously the difference that politics can make, on a municipal or metropolitan scale - by studying policy instruments and the practices of institutional players as closely as possible, in the North (European cities) and in the South (South African cities, as well as Indian and Brazilian ones).

Around this fundamental shared concern, the two works adopt contrasting forms and methodologies, disciplines and academic cultures to provide some answers to the question of the power of cities to act in favour of the common good, social justice and a possible municipal «progressivism». We thought it would be stimulating to organise this seminar around a cross-reading of these two works by two of their (co-)authors, each of whom would explain his or her approach but also discuss that of the other.

Presentation of the works :

• Claire Bénit (ed), Local officials and the struggle to transform cities. A view from post-apartheid South Africa. London: UCL Press, 2024

Summary:

Why is it that even «progressive» municipalities, elected on a social justice platform (the «desire to improve society», Murray Li 2007), rarely seem able to transform cities? Why does it seem almost impossible to reduce spatial inequalities, to provide and maintain basic urban services, to improve the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, to protect the most precarious city dwellers? Local Officials and the Struggle to Transform Cities examines these aporias from the point of view of South African cities, where the post-apartheid period (1994-2008) opened up a window of opportunity for municipalities to transform themselves, and to establish a dialogue with researchers in order to observe and support their practices. In debate with other «progressive moments» in the life of cities, in Brazil, the United States and India, this collective work analyses the practices of municipal officials and elected representatives in the making of cities. It examines the instruments they invent or renegotiate to devise and implement urban policies aimed at social justice, the interplay between individual and collective agentivity, and the structural constraints (social, urban, institutional and political) that shape their initiatives. This analysis of concrete institutional practices is based on the reflexive return of former municipal managers, institutional ethnography and forms of embedded research. Going beyond explanations of the ungovernability of cities as the result of political cynicism, endemic corruption, infrastructural weakness or a chronic lack of competence, the book illustrates and theorises the practical forms of ’institutional activism« deployed by municipal players.

• Thomas Aguilera, Francesca Artioli, Claire Colomb, Housing under Platform capitalism. The contentious regulation of short-term rentals in Europe. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2025.

Summary:

Since the birth of Airbnb in 2008, many of the world's cities have been transformed by the development of short-term accommodation backed by digital platforms, a phenomenon accused of disrupting local housing markets. Based on comparative, multiscalar, mixed-method research in twelve European cities, the book shows that these short-term rentals have been subject to a wide variety of regulatory regimes.

In some cities, policies are trying to limit this practice. In others, regulations are aimed more at supporting the market. These choices depend on a variety of political decisions and pressures, whether from civil society, property interests, the tourism industry, or municipal housing and welfare systems. This book questions the capacity of local states to govern housing markets and platform capitalism in an era of globalised human and financial flows. Faced with this global transformation, Housing Under Platform capitalism demonstrates that institutions and regulations are genuinely capable of defending the public good, protecting the right to housing and limiting the power of capital.

Reading workshop "Governing the city

Theme 2025-2026

Institutional activism and the making of the city

The purpose of the reading and research workshop. The aim of this workshop is to revisit the debates and social science texts on the ways in which cities have been governed since the beginning of the twentieth century. It is based on questions relating to the localised analysis of politics and responds to the need, experienced in our own research, to articulate and hold together three dimensions:

• Games and rivalries between social groups in urban spaces
• Political, partisan and institutional battles to govern the city
• Urban public policies: genealogy, instruments, actors and spatial effects

Organisational principles. These workshops take the form of work sessions lasting between 2 and 2.5 hours. Two to four texts (articles or chapters) are circulated two weeks before each workshop, combining theoretical, methodological and empirical dimensions.

Coordination and moderation of the 2025-2026 sessions : Claire Bénit-Gbaffou & Alice Daquin

More information on the reading group page