Laboratory for Theories on Urban Mutations
French Planning Institute, Paris VIII University

The TMU laboratory was created by the merger of two teams, one centred on the third world, particularly Southern countries, the other on planning theories and techniques used in developed countries. City and city production are currently at the heart of the laboratory’s interrogations.
TMU laboratory work is aimed at city production and management and their operators (people systems, action mechanisms, institutions, participatory approaches). It is based on priority areas (particularly major urban operations) and is part of the international debate on action theories. The theme of the environment has become increasingly important at the laboratory, with developments in the field of modelling and assistance with decision-making, the analysis of environmental impacts and risks linked to physical urban environments (water, air, land), the interrogation of these environments by industrial ecology, analysis of how they are taken into account and their increasing importance in major urban operations. The study of transformations in urban forms, urban spaces and their practices, specifically in the largest cities, is combined with observation and interpretatand the habits of emerging groups, in order to renew traditional approaches, for example in terms of transportation.
Two complementary concerns cross over with these themes:
- questioning the notion of sustainability in relations with urban players in their various historical, technical, conceptual and social-economic components
- “revisiting” metropolization in terms of governance, actions and urban forms in an approach that links knowledge processes, action models and urban products.

colloque de l'UMR AUS
« FAIRE TERRITOIRE AUJOURD'HUI» -
usages du concept, appartenances, mobilités, rôle du politique
Paris, 20-21 septembre 2007

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organisé par Nora Seni - LTMU

"Ville éphémère / Ville durable, Quels acteurs pour la ville de demain ? "
18 janvier 2008
appel à communications et programme