Speaker
Description
In the scientific literature, small towns are often presented as places with a combination of demographic (population decline), economic (marginalised by globalisation) and even social (high concentration of poor people) vulnerabilities. In France, research on small and medium-sized towns has a long history, but scientific debate and the focus on metropolisation issues overshadowed them in the 2000s. They have also been ignored since the 1970s by public actors and policies, which for the last decade or so have been focusing their attention on metropolises and rural areas. However, a renewed interest in and for small towns has been visible since 2014 and a national programme for revitalising town centres, a revival of attractiveness accentuated since the covid-19 crisis.
The aim of this presentation is to examine the factors explaining this new context and interest. It also attempts to objectivise the elements of dynamism or “revenge”, to use the terminology often employed by the media, by studying the reality of the socio-economic and demographic situation of small towns in France. Against a backdrop of small towns being put on the political agenda, three topics in particular are explored: the great return of centrality, urban decline and development models. Finally, we look at the major future challenges facing small towns and local actors, if they want to confirm their “renaissance”.
This presentation is based on general trends of small towns in France as well as some specific case‐studies chosen to illustrate specific challenges and locally implemented policies (such as Thiers or Saint-Eloy-les-Mines), from recent scientific literature and recent studies carried out by various research and institutional bodies.
| Keywords | small towns, France, renaissance |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
