From urban project to anti-urban project. Large-scale sport facilities and intercommunality in a medium-size agglomeration
This paper examines a global trend of contemporary urban mutation policies which emphasize the construction of large-scale urban spaces (Bélanger, 2000). From this angle, does L’Odyssée – the largest swimming pool and ice rink complex in France, financed by Chartres Métropole (“l’Agglo”) – contribute efficiently to intercommunal solidarity? This social geography research includes direct observation, archive research and review of relevant scientific literature. In addition to demonstrating the contrasting effects of L’Odyssée on intercommunal solidarity, our results show that L’Odyssée synthesizes global developments through its design, realization and exploitation. This is made evident by the omnipresence of intercommunality in territorial development without direct democratic mandate; as well as a widespread and multi-scalar inter-city competition and an accentuation of the commodification and shrinking of urban public space. Additionally, an authoritarian control of urban mega-projects by political elites sensitive to private interests reduces the collective benefits of these urban projects at the expense of vulnerable social groups, less advantageously positioned. Individual strategies and governance conflicts related to this model diminish the geographical effects of intercommunality and contribute to the manifestation of the anti-urban project.