City districts : regaining the urban environment

In the social turmoil of the 1970s, the inhabitants of some deprived city districts decided to take charge of the planning and development in their own neighbourhood. They formed an organisation, working together and deciding on what they wanted, and also to try to solve a certain number of problems that they faced concerning management on a collective basis. This was how the city districts came into existence, incorporating economic, social and political aims. During the 1980s and 1990s, the idea was reconsidered and spread throughout the country. Today there are nearly one hundred and fifty city wards grouped together in the National Committee for Liaison in City Districts (Comité national de liaison des Régies de quartier : CNLRQ). They have been recognised as working bodies in French collective life, but do they know how to communicate their original utopia as an independent group capable of stimulating action and promoting their vision ? As far as the CNLRQ is concerned, this challenge is part of its everyday life.