What is meant by amnagement du territoire in post-war France?

However, it was not until the creation of DATAR (La Délégation à l'aménagement du territoire et à l'action régionale) in 1963 that land planning was moved towards the forefront of the political agenda. The body controlled large budgets and could bypass the influence of the local elites who had not relinquished their control throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The remit of DATAR at its inception was to oversee large-scale projects to encourage economic development in particular regions and to co-ordinate regional development objectives across government departments. A clear example of this was when tourist facilities were improved on the Languedoc and Aquitaine coasts and major winter sports resorts were built in the Alps. In the same vein, DATAR was instrumental in the development of the docks and industrial estates at Dunkirk and Fos, which were designed to promote heavy industry in those coastal areas by improving access for imported raw materials and energy products.

1964 saw a further progression of aménagement du territoire when DATAR attempted to reduce the supremacy of Paris. Eight metropoles d'equilibre were chosen to be generators of regional development in an attempt to strengthen the larger French cities and begin to amend the imbalance between the capital and the rest of France. Further, it was hoped that the economic and industrial attraction of Paris would be decreased by each of the metropoles and their surrounding regions. The cities chosen were Bordeaux, Nantes, Toulouse, Lille, Metz/Nancy, Strasbourg, Marseille and Lyon. The selection was not restricted to cities of industry but included those with potential for high level services such as universities and teaching hospitals. This initiative certainly created a wider economic system within France and the eight cities were the largest centres of tertiary activity (outside of Paris) at the time of their inception.

Further to this, and in an attempt to re-establish the structure of the conurabations, DATAR contributed to building of new towns in the areas surrounding Paris (Marne-la Vallée and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines), around Lille (Villeneuve d’Ascq) and around Lyon (L’Isle d’Arbeau). Decentralisation of industry and services was further promoted by the continuation of awarding government grants to companies which located in specific regions and the number of industrial jobs rose markedly, particularly in the areas around the Paris basin, such as the Centre, Picardy and Brittany. In contrast, business wishing to set up in other regions, notably the Ile-de-France, still had to obtain the permission of DATAR and also faced fiscal disincentives.

The state, through DATAR, also set its own example of decentralisation by relocating some of its own services and public sector industries: bank notes were to be manufactured near Clemont-Ferrand; whilst the meteorological office was moved to Toulouse as was the “école nationale supérieure de l'aéronautique”. The “service de télécommunication des armées” was moved to Rennes, the “industrie électronique” to Bretagne and the “aérospatiale” to both Toulouse and Bordeaux. The net result of these various policies and initiatives of aménagement du territoire was the creation of over 600,000 jobs in the regions which surround the Paris basin and moreover a substantial increase in amenities in the regional capitals which were much better served by public transport. Elsewhere, the policies and initiatives of industrial relocation had a radical impact in the regions of the south and west where large labour pools were found. These regions, which previously had little industry, saw more and more rapid development in comparison to the old industrial regions of the north and east.

These policies and initiatives taken to implement aménagement du territoire throughout the 1960’s and the beginning of the 1970’s were by far the most successful. Employment in the industrial and tertiary sectors grew throughout the period. DATAR incorporated all sections of industry into its policies: agriculture, manufacturing, administrative, research and tourism were all improved and enriched. Moreover, the policies were implemented throughout France. Projects were established in Paris as well as medium sized towns and little villages as well as from rural parts to the mountains. Few places were not affected by the policies and initiatives of DATAR during this time.

From 1974 onwards, slower rates of growth and the economic and employment crisis which hit many of the older industrial zones, such as textiles and steel, and led DATAR to revise its regional development targets, especially as the funding available from the government to achieve them was ever decreasing. DATAR’s initiatives and policies began to change from large-scale expansion schemes to initiatives intended principally to ease the restructuring of the former industrial heartland’s through environment improving projects, retraining the workforce and introducing new economic projects. Further, one of DATAR’s policies throughout the early 1970’s had been to encourage French and foreign car-manufacturers to locate factories in the Nord and Lorraine regions but from 1974 onwards it instead gave priority to schemes in medium-sized towns and then to more rural areas in order to attempt to limit the magnetic pull of the regional capitals and try to halt the continuing rural depopulation. 

Up until now, we have seen the successes of DATAR’s initiatives and policies with regards to aménagement du territoire. It must be noted that the picture of success is marred by the apparent failure to halt the drift of the French population from countryside to town. From 1975 to 1999 over 40% of French communes in rural areas saw their population decline. This is particularly true of the sparsely populated area forming the Central Pyrenees to the Ardennes, and moreover the Southern Alps, Corsica and the hinterland of Brittany. To combat the population drain, the government, through DATAR, awarded substantial grants to farmers and encouraged additional economic activity, particularly in silviculture and tourism. DATAR has awarded grants so nature reserves can be created in these areas with a view to preserve the existing ecological balance and further to attract tourists.

During the 1980’s the era of state led national policies and initiatives as regards aménagement du territoire underwent a semantic change; there was a reinvention of policy undertaken on a much more local level. The key change was prompted on the one hand by the growing recognition of rural differentiation and on the other hand by political decentralisation which was enshrined in the series of laws enacted between 1982 and 1984. These laws transferred much policy-making and implementation power from the State to local government at a regional, departmental and communal level. From now on many of the policies and initiatives of aménagement du territoire undertaken at the commune and departmental level. It can be argued that the State and thereby DATAR after the passing of these laws increasingly disengaged itself from a direct land planning role. In assessing this change we must question after DATAR’s successes at a national level throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s whether dispensing power to many different regions, communes and departments diminished the overall efficacy of aménagement du territoire as a concept.

In 1995 new guidelines were defined for aménagement du territoire through the “Loi d’Orientation sur l’Aménagement et du Développement du Territoire” which was amended by the Council of Ministers in 1998 and presented to the French Parliament in 1999. The concept of aménagement du territoire was to be enshrined in the law of the land. The law emphasises the need for substantial development and adopts a new approach to planning with an aim to achieve a more harmonious and improved balance between the roles of the central government and local authorities. In the years leading up to 2020 the key development policy will be to further reduce the disparities between rural and urban areas. By way of example, there will be a marked effort to stem the depopulation of over 400 rural cantons and also support still populated but vulnerable areas to prevent the disintegration of the rural way of life. It appears this reinvention and reconstruction of aménagement du territoire, after a much maligned period in the 1980’s, will see a return to the ‘belles années’ of the concept in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

 

In conclusion, we have seen that aménagement du territoire in post-war France attempted primarily to reduce the concentration of power and resources in Paris as well as lessen the divide between the north-east and south-west and rectify the contrast between town and country whilst at the same time create a more even distribution of both the population and economic activity. Policies and initiatives taken by the Direction de l’aménagement du territoire in the 1950’s and early 1960’s though ambitious were effective in oiling the wheels of change in a country suffering from the devastating effects of war. Policies and initiatives created by DATAR in the 1960’s and 1970’s achieved to a much greater extent decentralisation of industry and the transformation of French infrastructure. DATAR’s capacity as a strategic rather than an implementation body meant that it could formulate policy rather than deal with operational management which was delegated to local government. Without doubt the “Loi d’Orientation sur l’Aménagement et du Développement du Territoire” gives further impetus to the concept which was unquestionably weakened throughout the 1980’s.

As the new millennium dawns, France is less influenced by affairs on a national level and more so on a  European level. In 2003 the regions of France are much more likely to be contending with their European counterparts than with each other. Equally, the same distinction can be made for cities: Paris is no longer competing with Lyon, Marseille or Lille for prominence and influence but instead competes with London, Frankfurt and Brussels. Paradoxically, the French capital is now attempting to increase its predominance and authority over the regional capitals to attract major foreign investment as well as offering tax incentives to multinational corporations which establish themselves in the city. In an attempt to again counterbalance the intensifying significance of Paris there are plans to stimulate and reinvigorate development in about 10 regional cities which have the capability of becoming European and international centres of commerce because of the tertiary infrastructure, communications networks and higher education and research establishments constructed and initiated by DATAR from 1963 onwards.

Bibliography

H Clout, Regional Development in Western Europe, 1987

J.R. Pitte, La France - Géographie d'aujourd'hui, 1997

Hilary P. M. Winchester, Contemporary France, 1. ed, 1993

J Lajugie, Espace régional et aménagement du territoire, 1995

D. Noin, Le nouvel espace français, 3.ed, 1998

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http://www.environnement.gouv.fr/dossiers/aménagement-territoire/dosadt.htm

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