Pierre Ginet
Fonction
Professeur
Organisation
Université de Lorraine
La Lorraine, expropriée de son destin
La Lorraine, expropriée de son destin
Border Region
Lorraine, Grande Région, Union européenne
Language(s)
Français
Main Category
Introduction
Lorraine, integrated into the Grand Est region in 2016, is "gripped" between the French state, the EU and the metropolitan regions of Luxembourg and Strasbourg. These actors force their congruent logic of neoliberal "territorialisation" on Lorraine.
Summary
Lorraine appears to be subject to continuous outer influences, from the patriotism of 1914 - 18 with its many victims, to the "copy and paste" mode that we see today. Unable to initiate endogenous development, too dependent on outer forces – Lorraine is not even an administrative region today. Lorraine is the victim of "territorialisation" under the neoliberal approach. It has degraded to nothing but a crumbling space, a suburb of Luxembourg and a place where nuclear wastes can be put in final storage. The politicians and elites in Lorraine want to retroactively legitimate and support this exogeneous development..
Content
The throughs from the chapter "La Lorraine expropriée de son destin" ["Lorraine, disowned by its own fate"] in the work "Transistions néolibérales" ["Neoliberal change"], published in September 2018, developed based on a previous book dedicated to a great spatial planning project, the "Cigéo" project (Ginet, 2017), which intended to store the most radioactive nuclear wastes in the geological layers "at the edge of France", in Bure (Guilluy, 2014). This project has caused outrage among tens of thousands of citizens and local, national and international bodies for more than three decades. This is due to a technological impossibility that still waits to be scientifically revoked, and supported by an actor who serves as judge and party in one, in the name of the "public debate" (CNDP, 1995). Cigéo appears like a material production to us at first, a symbol and potential symptom of an organisation of space under a neoliberal system of the world, an emblematic artefact and a particularly relevant mirror image of its omnipotence. It seems to be a hypothesis cited in our previous work that has been proven true in the meantime. Our approach leads us to analyse the case of the former Lorraine region, now dissolved to become part of the Grand Est region. It is part of a European cross-border region itself. We must think about the connections that may hypothetically link the different spatial planning projects and new territorial composition. A deep analysis on a body of academic articles and critical, as well as ideologically independent, works opposing this dominating ideology must be done.
Table of contents (of the work Transitions néoliberales):
- Introduction – Welcome to Neoliberalism!
- Part 1 – Neoliberalism? Confiscation, legitimation, territorialisation
- Part 2 – Predatory spatial planning
- Part 3 – The fable of compensation for people and spaces
- Part 4 – Autopsy of a victim region: Lorraine. Lorraine, disowned by fate
- 1. It is a fate suffered, rather than a fate chosen. Dependence on international economy. A region controlled by Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg. The guardianship of the greater region*, space of the metropolisation* of Luxembourg.
- 2. Lorraine, defined by external strategies of territorialisation. The spatial development concept* of the greater region* (REK-GR). A "cross-border polycentric metropolitan region", controlled from Luxembourg.
- 3. Lorraine, the victim of its internal geopolitical fragmentation. The Sillon Lorrain, a good solution…in theory.
- Conclusion – away from the neoliberal influence?
- Glossary of terms on Neoliberalism
- Bibliography
Conclusions
The new regional French cartography, announced in 2014, entered into effect in 2016. In July 2014, the National assembly passed a new map with 13 regions in the first reading. In December 2014, the new division was accepted in the last reading. Lorraine disappears from the Republic as a regional authority and merges with Alsace and Champagne-Ardenne into a new large French region, called the Grand Est region. The great projects referring to Lorraine increasingly lose focus. The strings are now held by neoliberal actors acting from Luxembourg, Paris, Zürich, Brussels or Strasbourg. A combination of Lorraine, Alsace and Champagne-Ardenne produces a "critical mass on European level", as the Neoliberals technocratically call it. This will most likely weaken the actions and decision-making on a regional-political level. The new composition of the area based on neoliberal ideology leads to deliberate weakening and eventual destruction of the former national and regional bodies to the benefit of new ones: the greater regions "of European dimensions" and the Euro regions, potential neoliberal proto-states, that are symptomatic for the de-territorialisation and re-territorialisation of the neoliberal elites in space across all geographical levels. "Neoliberal change" (Ginet, 2018) to which the elites and politicians often contribute, and that the population is often unaware, as a partially used hypothesis, including its reach and risks.
Lead
Pierre Ginet
Contact Person(s)
Date of creation
2019
Identifier
ISBN:978-2-343-15656-9