Towards institutionalising urban time policy

Abstract

Urban time policies have to be regarded and embarked upon as a democratic and "cross-sectional" process. For such policies to become institutionalised requires citizens' forums, model experiments and surveys within the community as well as interdisciplinary cooperation between the various branches of the local authority administration. The trend towards a "disappearance of the cities" poses new problems. It leads to a decentering of the cities: decentralisation (into smaller parts of the cities, neighbourhoods), but also supra-city connections (territorial networks). It leads also, due to the increasing number of immigrants, tourists, commuters, and city users, in the direction of a split between a city's "citizens" and its "population". The author suggests some ways of coping with these new challenges.