Is it possible to discern correlations between past and present urban policies? Do path dependencies exist at the urban level? If so, how do they differ from other links between the past and present? A preview of the literature dealing with dependencies and urban change, a presentation of the research methodology and an examination of the historical archives of six European cities in France, Germany and Switzerland enable us to identify three features common to both past and present transport and urban planning policies—namely, contingency, reproduction and innovation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Banister, D. (2005) Unsustainable Transport. London : Spon Press.
2.
Castells, M. and Godard, F. (1974) Monopolville: L'entreprise, l'Etat, l'urbain. Paris: Mouton.
3.
Cemt (1997) Table ronde 102, Réduire ou repenser la mobilité urbaine quotidienne. OECD , Paris.
4.
Ciurl (1973) Plan directeur de la région lausannoise. Rapport de synthèse. Urbaplan, Lausanne.
5.
Corboz, A. (2001) Le territoire comme palimpseste et autres essais . Paris: Editions de l'imprimeur .
6.
David, P.A. (1998) Comprendre les aspects économiques du QWERTY: la contrainte de l'histoire, Réseaux, 87, pp. 9-21.
7.
David, P.A. (2001) Path dependence, its crisis, and the quest for `historical economics', in: P. Garrouste and S. Ioannides (Eds) Evolution and Path Dependence in Economic Ideas, ch. 2. Cheltenham : Edward Elgar.
8.
David, P.A. and Bunn, J.-A. (1991) L'économie des passerelles technologiques et l'évolution des réseaux, Flux, 4, pp. 15-29.
9.
Gallez, C. and Maksim, H. (2007) A quoi sert la planification urbaine: regards croisés sur la planification urbanisme-transport à Strasbourg et Genève, Flux, 68, pp. 49-62.
10.
Garud, R. and Karnoe, P. (Eds) (2000) Path Dependence and Creation . London: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates .
11.
Goldstone, J.A. (1998) Initial conditions, general laws, path dependence, and explanation in historical sociology, The American Journal of Sociology, 104(3), pp. 839-845.
12.
Graham, S. and Marvin, S. (2001) Splintering Urbanism. London : Routledge.
13.
Gullberg, A. and Kaijser, A. (2004) City-building regimes in post-war Stockholm, Journal of Urban Sociology, 11(2), pp. 13-39.
14.
Hommels, A. (2005) Unbuilding Cities: Obduracy in Urban Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .
15.
Lascoumes, P. (1996) Rendre gouvernable: de la traduction au transcodage: l'analyse des processus de changement dans les réseaux d'action publique, in: Curapp (Ed.) La gouvernabilité , pp. 325-338. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France .
16.
Lascoumes, P. and Le Galès, P. (2004) Gouverner par les instruments . Paris: Presses de Sciences Po .
17.
Levi, M. (1997) A model, a method, and a map: rational choice in comparative and historical analysis, in: M. Lichbach and A. S. Zuckerman (Eds) Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure, pp. 19-41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18.
Liebowitz, S.J. and Margolis, S.E. (1990) The fable of the keys, Journal of Law and Economics, 33(1), pp. 1-25.
19.
Lorrain, D. (2004) Les pilotes invisibles de l'action publique. Le désarroi du politique? in: P. Lascoumes and P. Le Galès (Eds) Gouverner par les instruments, pp. 163-197. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po.
20.
Mahoney, J. (2000) Path dependence in historical sociology, Theory and Society, 29(4), pp. 507-548.
21.
Mossberger, K. and Stoker, G. (2001) The evolution of urban regime theory: the challenge of conceptualization, Urban Affairs Review, 36, pp. 810-835.
22.
Newman, P. and Thornley, A. (1996) Urban Planning in Europe. London : Routledge.
23.
Nicholls, W.J. (2005) Power and governance: metropolitan governance in France, Urban Studies, 42(4), pp. 783-800.
24.
Novarina, G. (1993) De l'urbain à la ville: les transformations des politiques d'urbanisme dans les grandes agglomérations: l'exemple de Grenoble 1960-1990. Commissariat Général au Plan, Comité`Mutations économiques et urbanisation', CIVIL, Grenoble.
25.
Offner, J.-M. (2000) `Territorial deregulation': local authorities at risk from technical networks, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24(1), pp. 165-182.
26.
Pierson, P. (2000) Increasing returns, path dependence and the study of politics, American Political Science Review, 94(2), pp. 251-260.
27.
Pradeilles, J.-C. (1997) Géopolitique des transports urbains grenoblois , Revue de géographie alpine, 85(4), pp. 97-112.
28.
Stone, C.N. (1989) Regime politics: governing Atlanta 1946-1988. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas .
29.
Tarr, J. A. and Dupuy, G. (Eds) (1988) Technology and the Rise of the Networked City in Europe and America. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
30.
Thévenot, L. (1986) Les investissements de forme, in: L. Thévenot (Ed.) Conventions économiques , pp. 21-71. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France .
31.
Woodlief, A. (1998) The path dependent city, Urban Affairs Review, 33, pp. 405-437.
