Eric Denis

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · Géographie-cités

Negotiating Rights to Inhabit Common Lands for Housing in Two Cities of South India This paper presents a framework for understanding the everyday political dynamics of commoning initiated by residents to secure their claims to ‘common land’ in urbanising localities. This paper puts forward the proposition that a spatialised approach would serve to...

L’article analyse la diffusion des coopératives uruguayennes d’habitat par aide mutuelle en Amérique latine et la fabrique d’un contre-référentiel dans les débats internationaux sur l’habitat abordable. Nous retraçons les modalités de la circulation des coopératives par aide mutuelle, issue des revendications syndicales sous-régionales, basée sur l...

This chapter examines land dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa in the context of massive, rapid, and diffuse urbanization. The first section focuses on the future of land-based commons, particularly on the outskirts of urban areas, including the rural fringes that some actors expect to be absorbed by the urban area. The second section addresses the emer...

This chapter examines land dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa in the context of massive, rapid, and diffuse urbanization. The first section focuses on the future of land-based commons, particularly on the outskirts of urban areas, including the rural fringes that some actors expect to be absorbed by the urban area. The second section addresses the emer...

While the notion of "commons" has been the subject of a remarkable resurgence of interest in the academic, operational and political world over the last ten years, little work has been done on the cities of the Global South and the precise question of land for housing. Yet access to urban land for the inhabitants of these rapidly growing cities is...

Dans une région particulièrement fragmentée, notamment entre ses rives nord et sud, les enjeux de la concurrence entre villes portuaires et du tourisme de masse contribuent à fragiliser le devenir des cités méditerranéennes. Des signaux faibles tels le nouveau municipalisme dessinent cependant la voie de nouvelles solidarités, comme avec les migran...

Subaltern Urbanization in India In India, where a tenth of the world's urban dwellers live, the urbanization is not limited to the expansion of very large metropolises such as Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru. Cities with less than 100,000 inhabitants account for 40% of the urban population. Often forgotten, invisible, and neglected by urban policies, th...

Dans quelle mesure l’approche des communs peut-elle contribuer à renouveler les politiques, programmes et projets dans le domaine de l’habitat ? Quels sont les retours d’expériences de projets d’habitat en commun dans les villes des Suds ? Alors que la notion de « communs » fait l’objet d’un regain d’intérêt remarquable dans le monde académique, op...

Cities are facing many sustainability issues in the context of the current global interdependency characterized by an economic uncertainty coupled to climate changes, which challenge their local policies aiming to better conciliate reasonable growth with livable urban environment. The urban dynamic models developed by the so-called “urban science”...

Open access: https://books.openedition.org/editionscnrs/37238

Fondement de toute implantation humaine et matière première de l’aménagement urbain, le foncier est devenu une cible privilégiée d’investissement par une multitude d’acteurs qui concourent à sa valorisation rapide dans un grand nombre de territoires urbains. Cet article s'attache à dégager des pistes prospectives permettant de renouveler les agenda...

As the foundation of all human settlement and the primary material for urban development, land has become a prime target for investment by a multiplicity of players who contribute to its rapid development in a large number of urban areas. In order to grasp the profound changes taking place in land tenure dynamics, this chapter addresses them in rel...

The concept of subaltern urbanization is about vibrant smaller settlements—outside the metropolitan shadow—sustainably supporting a dispersed pattern of urbanization. We propose a theoretical framework which draws on an empirical research collective using both large statistical and land‐use data sets and detailed case studies in non‐metropolitan In...

The current science of cities can provide a useful foundation for future urban policies, provided that these proposals have been validated by correct observations of the diversity of situations in the world. However, international comparisons of the evolution of cities often produce uncertain results because national territorial frameworks are not...

he reduction in the number of individuals commuting and travelling have without a doubt decreased the propagation of the coronavirus Covid-19 virus, as indicated by recent research. However, several articles underline the necessity to take into account urban and regional mobilities to better understand the emergence of infectious diseases in parti...

Since the 1990s, the conversion of land for urban use has never been more intense. Occurring under all latitudes, transcending the economic disparities as well as the political regimes, urban built-up expansion appears very much articulated to the global financial turn, which occurred after the progressive destatization of the money creation, which...

L’urbanisation à l’échelle planétaire et la conscience croissante des problèmes écologiques font de l’« urbain » un objet privilégié pour l’action publique et la recherche. C’est en effet grâce à la perspective urbaine que nous parvenons aujourd’hui à une meilleure compréhension des sociétés contemporaines et des milieux de vie. En articulant les d...

This article (in French) analyses the emergence of the slum category in colonial India and its deployment, initially in a hygienist perspective to measure overcrowding and poor housing, and later as a means to measure the phenomenon. Two contrasting cases –the metropolises of Delhi and Madras/Chennai– are used to illustrate this evolution. After In...

Les approches coopératives et collectives pour l’habitat populaire auto-construit sont l’objet d’une attention renouvelée, alors que sont pointés les besoins en logements dans les pays africains en transition urbaine rapide. S’appuyant sur une discussion de la notion de «communs», cet article pointe trois enjeux clés à prendre en compte pour que le...

Réédition de: "Subaltern Urbanization Revisited", P Mukhopadhyay, MH Zerah, E Denis - India International Centre Quarterly, 2017

In choosing to focus on the Global South, Metropolitics turns its attention to a key aspect of contemporary cities: land and land rights. By shedding light on situations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab world, this series analyses land-rights strategies deployed by residents of low-income neighbourhoods to access land, and the way these...

CENTRE FOR POLICY RESEARCH: http://cprindia.org/news/6862 PART 4 OF A SERIES OF INTERPRETATIONS DRAWING ON A NEW BOOK ON SMALL TOWNS In this interview, Eric Denis, Director of Research at Géographie-cités lab, CNRS, Paris, discusses some of the varied processes characterising small town economics. What kind of economic processes do we see emerging...

Although India is home to some of the biggest global metropolises, it is still predominantly rural though in the midst of an ongoing urban transition. In this context, the Indian system of cities challenges trends currently associated with an urban transition. The goal of this chapter is to assess how India’s urban transition impacts the demographi...

In the Global South, vast swathes of periurban and agricultural land are being sold off and converted into financial windfalls. Éric Denis shows that the working classes also play a role in this commodification of land, giving rise to new means of producing the city. Moreover, this lust for land reveals these populations’ desire to see the city exp...

The essay offers a personal and critical reading of the evolution of the desire of New Towns in Cairo which is present since the first Post-Independence Master Plan of 1956. It looks at the policies that facilitated its emergence, the administrative mechanism behind it, and how successive political regime have defined and used desert residential ar...

In the special issue "The Contemporary Urban Conundrum" edited by Sujata Patel & Omita Goyal Abstract: When we used the phrase “subaltern urbanisation” (Denis, et. al. 2012, EPW), we were quite upfront about it being as much a literary device to focus attention on our area of inquiry, as to acknowledge a link, possibly tenuous, with the wide liter...

This chapter is about a locality recognised as a town long before the colonial period: a historical sea-gate on the Coromandel Coast, known as Parangipettai today, but also as Porto Novo, Mohammed or Mahmud Bandar. With 25,000 inhabitants in 2011, it had remained a non-growth locality for half a century, a place that had fallen off the map of India...

The introduction to this edited volume seeks to decenter and enlarge our conception of urbanisation, shifting the perspective from large agglomerations to smaller urban settlements in the specific case of India, and to discuss the main results produced by the collective research team that participated in the Subaltern Urbanization Research project....

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the linkages between economic dynamism and the diversity of small towns. The main challenge is to assess how far the substantial role small towns play in the Indian process of urbanisation is accompanied by their economic expansion and diversification, as well job creation. In the first part of this chapter,...

This volume decentres the view of urbanisation in India from large agglomerations towards smaller urban settlements. It presents the outcomes of original research conducted over three years on subaltern processes of urbanization. The volume is organised in four sections. A first one deals with urbanisation dynamics and systems of cities with chapte...

This volume decentres the view of urbanisation in India from large agglomerations towards smaller urban settlements. It presents the outcomes of original research conducted over three years on subaltern processes of urbanization. The volume is organised in four sections. A first one deals with urbanisation dynamics and systems of cities with chapte...

Dans les pays des Suds, d’importantes surfaces périurbaines et agricoles sont vendues et converties en manne financière. Éric Denis montre que les classes populaires participent à la marchandisation de ces terres, alimentant de nouveaux modes de production urbaine. Ces convoitises et captations foncières révèlent également le désir qu’ont ces habit...

En déplaçant la focale vers les villes du Sud, Métropolitiques propose de s’intéresser à un élément clé de la fabrique urbaine contemporaine : le foncier. Avec un éclairage depuis l’Asie, l’Afrique, l’Amérique latine et le Monde arabe, ce dossier analyse les stratégies d’accès au sol déployées par les habitants des quartiers populaires et la manièr...

This paper illustrates the bottom-up process of participation by which the settlers of a squatter settlement named Ponmudi Nagar (PMNGR) influenced the state agencies to legalize their occupation, access basic infrastructures and secure titles. The settlers’ experience illustrates the communities’ capabilities to mobilize with minimal or no externa...

Using the work of several scholars, this position paper suggests possible paths in the study of the diverse forms of urban expansion that ripple out across emerging countries, notably in Asia. With global productive capacities relocating within Asian cities, these urban centers are expanding at unrivalled rates. Little research has been carried out...

En s’appuyant sur une série d’auteurs, ce positionnement expose des pistes afin d’étudier dans leur diversité les halos urbanisés étendus dans les pays émergents, en particulier en Asie. Les villes s’y étendent à un rythme inégalé, stimulées par la relocalisation en leur sein des capacités productives mondiales. Caractériser l’expansion urbaine dan...

Knowledge management (KM) in local governance processes is being transformed through digitization (ICT), spatialization (GIS), and participatory processes; the question is whether this increases the potential for building adaptive capacity and inclusivity. The question is linked to discussions on how knowledge construction and circulation can impro...

Asian megacities concentrate 60 % of world megacities population in 2010. The demographic trend which lead to this current situation since the 1960 is exposed. Then the population mass of these megacities is compared to their economic weight opening on a reflexion on their position within the world cities system. The analyse is supported by an orig...

This literature review aims at summarizing the state of knowledge related to small urbanised settlements. The significance of researching these localities can be inferred from the fact that a growing share of urban population lives in such agglomerations with a population above 10,000 and below 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. This fact is not limite...

The main question concerns the ways in which knowledge management configurations (KM) within urban governance are being transformed through digitization and spatializing information (GIS). This question fits into broader discussions on how knowledge construction, circulation and utilization can improve competences in local government (efficiency an...

Working Paper Series Nº 124 . Working Group: Development with Territorial Cohesion . Territorial Cohesion for Development Program.

Thematic Report n°2, Chance2Sustain

This policy brief explores the mapping of city visions in fast-growing cities in several emerging economies (Brazil, South Africa, India, Peru). As cities have to deal increasingly with both complexity and uncertainty in their development, they are concerned with the future pathways their cities can take. City visions on urban development portray i...

Chennai is the largest metropolitan city in South India (8.7 million in 2011) and the provincial capital of the large state of Tamil Nadu (population 72 million in 2011). Before that, under British rule, the city was the capital of the Madras Presidency, and was known as Madras until 1996, when the name was officially changed to Chennai. Located on...

Digital and spatial knowledge management in urban governance: Emerging issues in India, Brazil, South Africa, and Peru The main question concerns the ways in which knowledge management configurations (KM) within urban governance are being transformed through digitization and spatializing information (GIS). This question fits into broader discussion...

Publication en ligne, City report series (Chance2Sustain)

Les trois cas d’études en Inde, en Ethiopie et en Mauritanie ont permis de voir comment est appréhendé un même cadre référentiel qui pose la sécurisation foncière au coeur de la lutte contre la pauvreté. Plusieurs types de villes (petites, secondaires, capitales) et formes d’urbain (zone centrale, quartiers périurbains, urbain diffus) ont permis de...

Les trois cas d’études en Inde, en Ethiopie et en Mauritanie ont permis de voir comment est appréhendé un même cadre référentiel qui pose la sécurisation foncière au coeur de la lutte contre la pauvreté. Plusieurs types de villes (petites, secondaires, capitales) et formes d’urbain (zone centrale, quartiers périurbains, urbain diffus) ont permis de...

In 2050, urban India will be home to fourteen per cent of the world's urban population. In less than thirty years, half of India's population will have to cope with urban life and there will be tremendous transformation of landscape, economic structure and social life. In order to forecast India's urban future, we assumed that secular and contempor...

Au fil du temps, l’Égypte n’a cessé de voir gonfler sa capitale. Ville la plus peuplée d’Afrique, Le Caire affiche l’une des plus fortes densités du monde.

This reports draws out strategic issues concerning the ways in which digitization and spatialisation of information within local government is changing the interaction between government and citizens in unforeseen directions. It synthesizes the results of fieldwork in five cities within the Chance2Sustain programme, describing the outcomes of new m...

Initiatives for implementing geospatial information databases are being implemented across Indian cities. This essay explores one such initiative implemented by a metropolitan planning agency, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) in a South Indian metropolis. It shows that, contrary to the promises of digital databases as a toolfor...

Different types of spatial knowledge (expert, sectoral, tacit and community) are strategic resources in urban planning and management. Participatory spatial knowledge management is a major method for eliciting various types of knowledge, providing a platform for knowledge integration and informing local action and public policy. Knowledge types lin...

When governments fail them, how citizens organize and build their own communities Irregular or illegal housing constitutes the ordinary condition of popular urban housing in the Middle East. Considering the conditions of daily practices related to land and tenure mobilization and of housing, neighborhood shaping, transactions, and conflict resolu...

The ambition of this book is to upgrade the knowledge of urban land tenure dynamics, eventually underscoring the banality of current trends. Instead of looking for the Middle East's specificities in politics, we suggest adopting a research policy that scrutinizes the ‘proximate’: denying the holistic and culturalist exception for the sake of the st...

This chapter reviews Hernando de Soto's work in Cairo on the legalization of illegal housing. It underlines how his lobbying of the highest authorities in the country helped develop the concept of the individualization of working-class property in favor of owners, rather than of occupiers/possessors. Far from regarding this program as having stoppe...

The concept of subaltern urbanisation refers to the growth of settlement agglomerations, whether denoted urban by the Census of India or not, that are independent of the metropolis and autonomous in their interactions with other settlements, local and global. Analysing conventional and new data sources “against the grain”, this paper claims suppor...

Different types of spatial knowledge (expert, sectoral, tacit and community) are strategic resources in urban planning and management. Participatory spatial knowledge management is a major method for eliciting various types of knowledge, providing a platform for knowledge integration and informing local action and public policy. Knowledge types lin...

Until now, studies of urbanization in India have been based only on official urban figures as provided by Census surveys. This approach has inevitably introduced several avoidable biases into the picture, distortions which are further compounded by numerous regional inter-Census adjustments. A much sounder option is now available in the Geopolis ap...

Until now, studies of urbanization in India have been based only on official urban figures as provided by Census surveys. This approach has inevitably introduced several avoidable biases into the picture, distortions which are further compounded by numerous regional inter-Census adjustments. A much sounder option is now available in the Geopolis ap...

Real Estate Financialization Observed in Indian and Egyptian Metropolises Since the 1990s, the fast growing metropolises of the South have been characterized by a massive spatial expansion without precedent. The land appropriation supporting the extensive construction of exclusive real estate projects, notably gated communities and private cities,...

Since the 1990s, the fast-growing megacities of the South have been characterized by massive, unprecedented spatial expansion. This paper examines the land appropriation supporting the extensive construction of exclusive real estate projects, notably gated communities and private cities. The public land reserves available on the edges of the megaci...

Translation of Éric Denis "La financiarisation du foncier observée à partir des métropoles égyptiennes et indiennes", Revue Tiers Monde 2/2011 (No 206). URL www.cairn.info/revue-tiers-monde-2011-2-page-139.htm DOI 10.3917/rtm.206.0139.

Different forms of spatial knowledge (expert, tacit, sector and community knowledge) are a strategic resource in urban development. Research methods concerning participatory data collection and analysis that elicit and integrate the various forms of knowledge or co-produce knowledge through collaboration between scholars and practitioners have the...

Cet article propose une contribution au débat suscité par la publication du rapport annuel sur le développement dans le Monde 2009 de la Banque mondiale intitulé Repenser la géographie économique. Il recense et évalue les choix des séries de données en matière d'urbanisation et la manière dont ces mesures géographiques sont employées pour soutenir...

This paper offers a contribution to the debate sparked off by the annual publication of the report on World Development 2009 entitled “Reshaping economic geography”. It lists and evaluates the choices of urbanization data set and the way theses geographical measures are used in order to support development politics supporting demographic and econom...

What do we know about urbanisation in Africa? The classification systems of urban/rural areas differ from one country to another. As a consequence, international comparisons of urbanisation indicators or historical analyses of urban growth are difficult to establish. Urbanisation is indeed increasing, but how and where exactly? More in metropolises...

Dans le cadre d'un dossier sur l'observation foncière, cet article fait le point sur les sources de l'analyse des dynamiques foncières. Ce faisant, il décrypte les tendances récentes de l'urbanisation pour les villes des pays en développement et dans leur rapport aux questions foncières. L'article articule les questions relatives à l'essor des poli...

The paper show how two historical metropolis, Istanbul and Cairo, after on long marginalization with the expansion of the Atlantic system, are coming back as the majors political capitals at the Oriental edge of Europe. Istanbul is already the most inhabited agglomerate area of Europe.

This article aims to identify, in spite of their own identities, comparable features in the three Middle Eastern megacities of Cairo, Istanbul and Tehran, in the context of globalization. They have already developed their economic and cultural metropolitan functions, but their international position is still low. The demographic and spatial of the...

Introduction au Cahiers du TIGR intitulé: Le Caire, Istanbul, Téhéran, Les trois métropoles du Moyen-Orient

Réédition d'un article paru dans la revue Urbanisme, n°328, 2003

Que savons-nous sur l'urbanisation de l'Afrique ? La variabilité de la définition de l'urbain dans chaque pays rend difficile toute comparaison internationale des indicateurs d'urbanisation et toute analyse historique de la croissance de ce phénomène. Certes l'urbanisation croît, mais de quelle manière et où précisément ? Plutôt par les grandes mét...

Les évaluations des réformes dites « pro-poor » visant la formalisation des titres de propriété dans les périphéries populaires des villes en développement tendent toutes à souligner les risques sociaux et l'absence de résultats de ses politiques pourtant très médiatisés. L'intervention de H. de Soto au Caire ne déroge à ce verdict : elle serait un...

he Fith population census enumeration operations have just been achieved. They have to meet the 38 millions inhabitants of the largest countries of Africa with a unique questionnaire shared by two statistical institutions, one in the North and a second for the South. The census is a milestone of the peace agreement of 2005 that put an end to the ci...

in the Egypt of 2008, half the population has known only one president, Husni Mubarak. And the rate of population growth, at its peak when Mubarak assumed office in 1981, has stopped declining as it had been in the 1990s. A new kind of population increase has begun. Such are the lessons of the provisional results of the Egyptian general population...

In less than a decade, a new urban world has been created at Cairo's gates. One thousand square kilometers outfitted with sewers and utilities, partially divided into plots and slightly inhabited, equal to twice the area of the Cairo urban agglomeration as it has existed for more than a millennium, which totaled some 13 million inhabitants in 2006,...