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Today, we're going to talk about governance,
new forms of governance,
due to the rapid development of poverty
which is a statement to observation planning failure
as, despite every attempt we've had at planning,
we find ourselves in a situation where poverty continues to increase
and therefore, inequalities also continue to increase.
As a result of this failure, we asked ourselves
what type of governance should be implemented
in order for infrastructures, for amenities,
for everything that we plan for specifically,
physically, down to the ground,
can be effective one day or another.
We'd like to remind that planning is only useful
if it is effective, efficient,
if it serves the majority.
If you plan a road which will never be built,
it is useless to plan it.
So, we began to imagine new government systems,
new decision-making processes,
which we regroup under the governance umbrella.
Today, this governance,
this government,
is no longer centralized
but requires a multi-party approach.
We no longer just have the State level of government,
we now have a larger number of parties
which can be at once public and private,
and together, these parties,
will more or less,
make decisions about the future
and the development of cities.
This is why we are no longer talking about a government
but a governance system instead.
We are, therefore, going towards good governance
as there would be a basic scheme.
I say, "there would be",
we have not yet fully tested everything in order to say, "this is how it works",
but we have a good governance,
an idea of the parties' involvement needed in order to ensure
that decision-making on urban territory is carried out properly.
To ensure this, multiple parties
and, mainly, less visible borders
are needed between both public and private parties.
Which is public, which is private?
Until today there was a clear delimitation between the two.
Which is formal and which informal?
Things are less obvious here as well,
less clear-cut than they used to be
and the State versus the civil society,
a centralized approach versus a decentralized approach.
So, today's governance involves our questioning regarding borders
between these different elements,
public/private, formal/informal, the State/civil society.
The paradox of globalization we already mentioned it.
What is it?
It is that on the one hand we'll try to have a good governance,
a decentralization of powers and on the other hand,
we realize that in cities, in today's winning global cities,
there is a re-centralization of power.
Therefore we are in a paradoxical pendulum
where, on the one hand we adopt a decentralization approach
and on the other hand
on the contrary, on the world stage,
when one studies global cities,
there should be a tightening of powers around a small number.
The other paradox is, if you go down governmental levels,
decentralization, from the State to the municipality, we find ourselves
in basic administrative units which are municipalities
which most of the time, don't correspond to anything.
Why don't they correspond to anything?
Because in the case of agglomerations
we find ourselves in several municipalities
and it is exceedingly rare to come across a complete overlap
between functional space
and political space.
The government rules over a space
and it's not necessarily the logical one
for the functions found in that city.
In this case there is no overlap.
There is also the development
of large entities such as
the European Union.
Therefore, on the one hand we will decentralize municipalities
and on the other hand we have much more important developments
where large entities are being created.
It is a true paradox, as we have opposing political movements.
And so decision-making somehow becomes extremely blurry.
We don't know if we should continue decentralizing
or, on the contrary, re-centralize
and fight on the world stage.
We have already said, regarding environmental issues,
the municipality, the local community
is probably not conducive to making major decisions.
Consequently, there are a certain number of decisions
which must be made between the State
or between larger entities,
larger than the state, no doubt,
and others can be decentralized at the municipal level.
Today, this new style of governance
Jérôme ChenalDr
