“The implementation of the Paris Agreement (COP 21) interrogates the contemporary role of politicians, specialists, researchers and citizens worldwide. The new problems posed by the urgency of energy transition contributes strong uncertainties to our globalised situation and the technological and social changes of our world. It is in this context that we ask, what are the major challenges for the metropolitan governments of tomorrow? Answering this question requires cooperation between those who act and those who produce knowledge.

Metropolises carry innovation and economic development. How can we think of the relationship between the metropolis and other territories – medium and small towns, regions, deserted spaces? How will these environments survive tomorrow, beyond access to an increasingly centralized economy and industry? While mobility is a major phenomenon, an essential requirement and a source of problems (energy, environmental, functional), how can metropolises rethink and organize this flux by increasing its inputs while reducing gas emissions?

Flexibility is another requirement, which also has its strengths and problems. How can we make a city flexible and adjustable, a city that is also a resilient and reassuring city, in the face of environmental threats? Metropolitan France is simultaneously a place of social and cultural diversity, of great population movements, of technological and social innovation, but also of social distance, frustration and conflict. How can we make a living together?

These are the questions posed to this hybrid forum The metropolitan condition in an unpredictable world, involving local authorities, city workers and researchers, coming both from French and abroad, to deepen reflection on the major stakes of metropolises and territories in an unpredictable world.”
 

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