Building up stories: Fictional urbanism controlling the city

The rise of storytelling in urban disciplines is contemporary with the end of the ‘great stories.’ Urban planning narrative as defined by Bernardo Secchi in the 80s – a progressive and emancipatory rhetorical system closely linked to the transformations of the city – then loses its capacity of mobilising and organising urban action. It is replaced by plot-making of different urban projects, the narration of the city-to-be, told in the way of a good story.

This transformation of the urban action entails new tasks for the urban planner. City-makers are now meant to be simultaneously planning technicians, creators of meaning, animators of participative structures, communicators of intentions and cultural mediators. This goes side to side with the emergence of a new mode of urban governance: the new public governance.

Finally, it seems emblematic of what Guy Debord called the ‘integrated spectacular’. Our research focuses on these transformations, which seem to impact the profession of urban planner at its core; our investigation ranges from the history of political thought to the sociology of professions, as well as dealing with radical geography. It proceeds by analysis of documents and semi-directive interviews.