Thesis defense - Cristina Sanchez-Algarra

thursday, december 12, 2024
at 2:00 pm -
Jean Duminy Amphitheatre - ENSA Normandie

Cristina SANCHEZ-ALGARRA will present her doctoral thesis entitled "Urban recipes for the European Capital of Culture label: from desired city to reinvented territory".

This doctoral thesis was prepared in the ATE laboratory, under the supervision of Bruno PROTHprofessor, ENSA Normandie, ATE, and co-supervised by Dominique DEHAIS, honorary professor, ENSA Normandie, ATE.

Members of the jury
Laurent DEVISME, rapporteur - Professor - Nantes University
Cristina MAZZONI, rapporteur - Professor - ENSA Paris-Belleville
Marc DUMONT, examiner - Professor - Université de Lille
Françoise LUCCHINI, examiner - Maîtresse de Conférences HDR - Université de Rouen Normandie
Elise PALOMARES, examiner - Professeur - Université de Rouen Normandie
Elsa VIVANT, examiner - Professor - École des Ponts Paristech

A live webcast of the defense will be available by clicking HERE

Summary

This thesis analyzes the construction of French cities' bids for the European Capital of Culture label for the year 2028, up to the designation of Bourges in December 2023 after a heightened national competition. These bids are studied as initiatives capable of constructing narratives establishing the guidelines of urban production, this label being a tool exalting the prospective image of a city. The research explores the way in which the preparation of a cultural project of international scope enables us to reflect on the contemporary conditions of the process of making cities and their spaces, whether materially or socially conceived.
Complementing urban studies on the post-event legacy, and through a close-up analysis of nine candidate cities, and more specifically the finalists Bourges, Clermont-Ferrand, Montpellier and Rouen, we explore the strategies used to elaborate a supposedly unifying discourse that nonetheless appeals to a variety of audiences with divergent expectations. In this respect, the label is an edifying catalyst for analysis, insofar as we are also interested in the possible instrumentalization of this narrative, which, drawing on the symbolic power of art and culture to underpin certain political agendas, would help to pacify tensions without overcoming partisan, territorial and social cleavages. Our study focuses on two issues in particular: territorial construction and the urban strategy for hosting the event.
In a context marked by the imbrication of crises - territorial, economic and environmental - we question the paradigms perceptible in the bidding documents and the positioning of candidate cities with regard to contemporary urban issues. To do so, we focus on projects that are either disconnected from, or linked to, existing public policies and urban images and references, with the aim of verifying whether the concept of the "successful city", so dear to European discourse, translates into a single political, social, economic and urban response.

visual : Facade of the Métropole Rouen Normandie with the colors of the Rouen bid. Photo © Cristina Sanchez-Algarra