Gouverner les espaces publics urbains : régulations collectives, fragmentation institutionnelle et informalités de l’action publique. Le cas du littoral estaquéen à Marseille

Abstract

Based on the ethnographic study of a local and hybrid institution managing beaches (and surrounding coastal public spaces) in l’Estaque (Marseille), the paper contributes to an under-researched and highly polarised literature on urban governance: the governance, management and regulation of urban public space. Solving the “issues” that emerge on the beaches of Marseille – very small and scarce spaces in a largely industrialised coastal area, with limited public access, and yet densely used, especially in summer, by a socially diverse population seeking leisure activities and cooler environments – requires important public resources. In their everyday management, local stakeholders (public, private and civic) demonstrate both ingeniosity and paralysis, in the context of extreme institutional fragmentation, where respective institutional responsibilities are unmapped, unknown, and unstable. The paper opens analytical directions to study public space management in contemporary cities and offers conceptual frameworks that have been developed in cities of the South to reflect on the informality of public practices, beyond the culturalist lens often used to understand Marseille politics.

Keywords

• public space management
• urban governability
• institutional fragmentation