Engaging rampant urbanization for the long-term. The case of Brittany (France)
Acculturation in France of the American concept of urban sprawl was a long-drawn-out and shaky process which so demonized the term, and the related concept of suburbanization, that it became a tool for fearmongering against any alternative approaches running counter to conventional centralized views of what constituted true sustainable urban development. This guilt-by-association argument tends generally to fly in the face of the long history of human settlement and the genesis of the urban fabric, both of which have led to the development of characteristics that call for a more nuanced approach. We first explain the process and reasons for the development of this unwarranted connotation, then use the particular case of Brittany to illustrate our argument that the effect of the perversion of the concept of urban sprawl has led to a largely unjustified stigmatization of the “invisible cities” which have come to characterize this region.