Controverse | EPFL Graph Search

Une controverse est une discussion argumentée, engendrée par l'expression d'une différence d'opinion ou d'une critique quant à un problème, un phénomène ou un état de choses. Caractéristiques Par métonymie, une controverse désigne l'ensemble des éléments divergents ou contradictoires d'un débat. Depuis plus d'une dizaine d'années, l'étude des controverses s'est imposée comme une branche très active des sciences sociales et en particulier de la sociologie. Les disputes et les controverses sont même devenues des objets de prédilection des courants regroupés sous l'expression de sociologie pragmatique. On trouve plusieurs formes de modélisation sociologique des processus controversés. Les sujets ou domaines les plus investis de la controverse incluent la politique, la science, l'environnement, la religion et le sexe. D'autres domaines de controverse incluent l'histoire, la théologie et la philosophie, ou encore l'économie, les finances, les organisations, l'âge, le genre et

Planning the heterogeneous city: an analysis of the controversies on Mumbai’s Development Plan 2014 – 2034 in the making

Tobias Stefan Baitsch

The currently on-going revision of Mumbai’s development (MDP) plan is accompanied by heated controversies over a common urban future. After publication of the draft for public consultation in February 2015 an unprecedented public outcry and strong criticism by both, experts and civil society led to its temporary withdrawal. Meanwhile the first draft was revised and replaced by a second in summer 2016. Although exceptional in scope and consequence the events around the making of Mumbai’s development plan are highly representative of the tensions and conflicts pervading the development and regulation of contemporary cities in South and North. The study of controversies induced by the MDP is a unique opportunity to develop a refined understanding of the increasing heterogeneity of contemporary urban development and the challenges that it raises for urban planning. Building on the large amount of diverse data produced during the controversies and interviews with various stakeholders, I propose an analysis of the controversies based on French pragmatist sociology as developed in On Justification (Boltanski and Thévenot 2006). Using the analytical framework of different Orders of Worths, the approach allows to symmetrically account for competing visions over the future of the city and the different paths to urbanisation. Instead of searching for the hidden (capitalist) agenda and going behind a mere description of various “assemblages”, I attempt to understand how each conception of urban development pervades both, tools of urban transformation and thinking patterns of private and public actors.

2016

Incremental Urbanism: A study of incremental housing production and the challenge of its inclusion in contemporary planning processes in Mumbai, India

Tobias Stefan Baitsch

Whilst urbanisation reached an unprecedented dimension, in a not so distant future half of the urban population will live in

informal¿ settlements. Often subsumed under the pejorative term slum, these habitats account for the majority of the future urban growth. Incremental urban development was once accepted as a viable means of addressing housing needs for large parts of the urban population. However, these approaches were largely abandoned in the 1990s in favour of mass housing provided through public private partnerships. While these largely failed in providing the required quantities and produced poor urban spaces, the scale of the phenomenon is such that incremental urban development needs reconsidering. However, in contrast to the well-documented experiences of the 1970s and 1980s, there is a lack of knowledge about the actual functioning of incremental development in contemporary regimes of urbanisation. Adopting an approach informed by French pragmatist sociology (Boltanski and Thévenot 2006), particularly the sociology of convention (Thévenot 1984), this research inquires into the production of slums at two levels: the intricate reality of housing production in Mumbai¿s slums and the contemporary controversies revolving around urban development. Building on fieldwork in a

self-built¿ resettlement colony in Mumbai forty years after it was established, this research examines how incrementally developing settlements are made, maintained, and transformed through everyday practices of local actors. Standing at the crossroads of the market, the political, and the social the so-called contractors are key figures engaged in the processes of construction and house making. As mediators in and of incremental urbanism they produce not only built-up space but also social space. Focusing on contractors as hitherto under-examined figures reveals that self-help housing in Mumbai, in contrast to conventional believes about housing practices of the urban poor, is by and large a professionalised mode of urban production. This research offers a refined account of the intricate reality of housing production and the ambiguous nature of incremental urbanism. Regarding urban planning, this research analyses the on-going revision of the Mumbai Development Plan 2014-2034 and the controversies accompanying it, which brings to the forefront the interplay of powers and arguments that otherwise are disguised in the dispersed and detached everyday making of the city. To better understand the discourse on current planning practices and struggles over conflicting approaches towards slums, this research examines the arguments and legitimization principles that underpin four major positions advocated in the controversies as the `good¿ way to urbanisation. Considering them as equally valid positions allows drawing comparisons between the different conceptualisations of urban planning and development, and the role and legitimacy they confer to modes of incremental urbanism. Reading the two moments in the production of Mumbai¿s slums together sheds light on the challenges to incorporate incremental urbanism into planning processes. It is argued that these challenges lie not solely with the conflicting rationalities ¿ or cosmos ¿ of how to create a just city, which clash in the controversies, but also with the ambiguity of incremental urbanism itself. Both of which contribute to complex processes of invisibilisation, or subalternisation, of incremental urbanism.

EPFL2018

Unpacking the Green Economy concept: A quantitative analysis of 140 definitions

Marta Giulia Baldi, Albert Merino, Romano Tobias Wyss

Over the past ten years, the Green Economy (GE) concept has gained momentum in both academia and policy-making arenas, leading to international programs in diverse sectors and driving national agendas all over the world. The concept is however highly controversial, partly due to its theoretical blurriness. The aims of this article are to shed light on the conceptual ambiguities surrounding the GE and to clarify its distinctive components. More concretely, the paper aims at understanding what GE definitions have in common as a conceptual whole (that is, which key features do they share?), and what makes them different to each other. For these purposes, the present study relies on an extensive review of both academic and grey literatures. Such a review yielded 95 GE definitions, as well as 45 definitions of Green Growth (GG), which is often interchangeably used with the former. All the definitions were methodically translated into a coded format thanks to a conceptual framework inductively developed by the research team. They were subsequently analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as network analysis. Results provide the basis for a common meta-understanding of the GE concept. Like Sustainable Development (SD), the GE is a multidimensional notion, whose focus is on the potential trade-offs and synergies between economic and environmental dimensions (without ignoring social issues). The results uncover several discourses underlying the GE narrative, such as “econocentric incrementalism”, “unlimited eco-efficiency” and “transformative GE”. The analysis outlines several key cleaving elements discriminating GE definitions, like the focus on either well-being or economic growth, or the consideration or not of environmental limits. Finally, GE definitions are put into a broader perspective according to their potential as theoretical backgrounds for handling the social-ecological challenges posed by the Anthropocene.

2020

Incremental Urbanism: A study of incremental housing production and the challenge of its inclusion in contemporary planning processes in Mumbai, India

Tobias Stefan Baitsch

Whilst urbanisation reached an unprecedented dimension, in a not so distant future half of the urban population will live in

informal¿ settlements. Often subsumed under the pejorative term slum, these habitats account for the majority of the future urban growth. Incremental urban development was once accepted as a viable means of addressing housing needs for large parts of the urban population. However, these approaches were largely abandoned in the 1990s in favour of mass housing provided through public private partnerships. While these largely failed in providing the required quantities and produced poor urban spaces, the scale of the phenomenon is such that incremental urban development needs reconsidering. However, in contrast to the well-documented experiences of the 1970s and 1980s, there is a lack of knowledge about the actual functioning of incremental development in contemporary regimes of urbanisation. Adopting an approach informed by French pragmatist sociology (Boltanski and Thévenot 2006), particularly the sociology of convention (Thévenot 1984), this research inquires into the production of slums at two levels: the intricate reality of housing production in Mumbai¿s slums and the contemporary controversies revolving around urban development. Building on fieldwork in a

EPFL2018

Unpacking the Green Economy concept: A quantitative analysis of 140 definitions

Marta Giulia Baldi, Albert Merino, Romano Tobias Wyss

2020