Suchergebnisse

In this thesis, we consider how underground or alternative cultural activities, which we call off, could work for urban development much as mainstream cultures, or in, do. We propose that underground cultural activities are an important part of the cultural landscape of a city and, in this way, could be considered an important actor of urban development. As many authors have shown, culture is nowadays a key element of urban development. First, in the major urban redevelopment projects of the last two decades, there was often a cultural facility flagship, a museum or convention center for example. It is especially true in the case of waterfront or industrial wasteland redevelopments. Second, the artists are often pioneers in the gentrification process. The presence of artists has become meaningful for a neighborhood and has increased the real estate value of a place. Third, cultural and artistic activities are very important factors in building a positive image of a city. It markets the city as an innovative and creative place, two fundamental qualities essential to success in the global inter-city competition. Indeed, it is argued that a strong and dynamic cultural framework provides many leisure opportunities for inhabitants and tourists. Cultural activities are therefore increasingly becoming a marketing strategy to attract firms and people to visit or to settle down in a particular city; and cultural tourism is an engine for urban tourism. And finally, many predict that cultural activities are going to be one of the most important economical activities in the city, both by creating direct value and employment and by developing the tourist industry. But, most of these authors considered mainstream cultures. Our purpose is to demonstrate how underground cultures could also work with these topics. By underground or alternative culture, we mean all kinds of cultural activities that are not subsidized and that have no commercial value. But, because they are a part of the 'art world' and should not be considered as separate from the mainstream cultural world, we prefer to use another semantic scheme in our thesis. We are using the concept of 'in culture / off culture'(which is used to explain what is happening in the major art festivals). The in is organized and planned, while the off is spontaneous and opportunist; the off is free of commercial, academic or trend constraints, so it is a creative and innovative space; the in draws from the off new ideas and new talents; the off needs the in to build its legitimacy; and, little by little, the off becomes the real festival: the place to show and to be, the real engine of the festival which attracts more people and more artists until a new off of the off appears. In much the same way, in our study we consider underground cultures as "off culture", and mainstream culture as "in culture". Our research is focused on the artistic squats as an example and a syncretism of off culture. Indeed, they can be considered both as the space of the off culture and as the off spaces of culture. This is one of the original features of this research: using artistic squats as a comprehensive key to analyze and understand urban changes. For this reason, we needed to develop an original methodology. We propose to implement three different kinds of methodological research, each focusing on one of the topics already detailed and all based on artistic squats issues. These works will focus on the Parisian case, but also on other European and global metropolis, such as San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Berlin, London,. by our personal experiences or by bibliographic review. Concerning economical issues, we will most likely not implement empirical research, but it undoubtedly would be of some interest to do a bibliographically based comparison with the theory of innovation and creativity. On the other hand, a literature review has been done on the changes in cultural practices and taste and on sociology of art and artists. We will also consider, as a background theoretical framework, 'reflexive modernity', 'aesthetic reflexivity' and 'hypertext society' theories as well as 'networks society' and 'global cities' theories and 'creative city' and 'innovative society' theories in our study. Our three research focuses are the following: - Could off cultures be flagships for urban development? According to many authors, one of the key elements for a successful urban redevelopment project is a cultural flagship. We suggest that this flagship could be an off cultural flagship. Off culture spaces are as meaningful as in culture spaces. We argue that urban planners use off places as a flagship in urban redevelopment strategies. So, how could planners integrate these off spaces in urban projects? We study three urban projects, based on interviews and officials materials analyzes. We are considering a case where planners finally decided to integrate a off space in the urban redevelopment project (Les Frigos in the ZAC Paris-Rive Gauche). The second case (La Chapelle-Stalingrad regeneration project) shows how off culture are used as a tool for planning, by cleaning and securing a decaying area. Off artists become planners' pathfinder. They are symbolic shifter from decay to glamour. Then, the real planning project could start. Moreover, this example puts into relief the role of inhabitants organizations in the cultural-led regeneration planning. Indeed, it seems that culture is the unique acceptable feature for urban projects. What does this culture-oriented claim mean? For whose sake are cultural amenities created? The third project is the Newtown cultural precinct that has been created in Johannesburg (South Africa). In this quite unique urban, social, economic and political context, can culture play a similar role? What are the objectives of such an undertaking? Does this project correspond to the lifestyles and behaviours of the inhabitants? As it is shown with the Parisian example, this kind of urban planning practices are more related to a settlement policy than to a cultural one. - Are off spaces places of gentrification? Following many authors, we are interested in the aesthetic and consumerist explanations of gentrification processes. We propose that off cultures play a role in the gentrification process, and expect that they work by giving a trendy image to a neighborhood, as a creative and bohemian place. So, off cultures could be a meaningful pathfinder of gentrification. To prove our purpose, we implement a methodology based on real estate agents interview. We consider real estate agents as good informers about the evolution of real estate markets and neighborhood social changes. They could help us to understand neighborhood and market changes, to explore the potential for gentrification, and to clarify the role of artists and then of off artists and places in gentrification. To do so, we interview several agents in different neighborhoods, all of them located near artistic squats. At the same time, we realize a statistic analysis of real estate market trends. Nevertheless, the results of the researches are mixed. Local real estate agents use artists as a communication tool. They argue that artists and even off artists create a pleasant atmosphere in the neighbourhood, that could attract other populations. But, real estate statistics do not provide convincing results. The only certainty we can propose is that in general, property prices are not influenced by artistic squats. - Is the off an element of the 'tourist gaze'? We argue that off cultural spaces could be tourist places by corresponding to the 'tourist gaze' expectations. Therefore, we do not analyze the tourist (and then economic) impact of off places, but show that off places are important tourist attractions. To do so, we analyze how tourist guidebooks present a city. Indeed, guidebooks writers give meaning to a place by choosing specific places or things to see, and then by interpreting them for the tourists and sometimes by judging them. In this way, tourist guidebooks could be considered as meaningful pathfinder. Based on a comparison between Paris and Berlin, the analysis of several guidebooks shows main differences between the two cities' tourist image. In the Paris case, artistic squats and other off scenes are almost never described in guidebooks. Off is not a part of the city's experience. On the other hand, according to guidebooks, a tourist in Berlin should not avoid visiting one of the many off places. Off is definitely a local attraction. Moreover, off is the Berlin's taste. As we have showed, our PhD is quite ambitious. But it must be considered not as an exhaustive exercise but as an understanding of contemporary urban society proposal. This study help us to understand how off cultures are a part of the city imaginary, and so, how they give meaning to the city. But we also expect that our concept could be used by other scholars or planners for example to understand how urbanity occurs, how a place becomes trendy, or to put into relief relationships between in and off in other sphere. We expect to deliver some comprehensive keys for urban planners such as contemporary gazers. ; Dans cette thèse, nous montrons dans quelle mesure les pratiques culturelles alternatives, que nous appelons off, participent au développement des grandes métropoles, tout comme cela a été démontré avec la culture institutionnelle, que nous appelons in. Il est couramment admis que la culture est un élément qualifiant dans la concurrence inter-urbaine et est essentielle à la construction de l'image d'une métropole. En effet, la diversité et la qualité de l'offre culturelle et artistique sont des atouts pour attirer des entreprises de pointes dont les cadres sont friands et grands consommateurs de services culturels. D'autre part, l'événementiel culturel est un moteur du tourisme urbain, principalement axé autour du tourisme culturel. Enfin, la culture et l'industrie culturelle représentent aujourd'hui un secteur économique en pleine expansion, et jouent un rôle important dans le développement des grandes métropoles comme Paris, New York, Los Angeles et San Francisco. En terme de développement urbain, ces phénomènes peuvent se manifester de plusieurs manières : • Les lieux culturels sont programmés dans les projets urbains : dans de nombreux programmes de requalification de friches urbaines, de nouveaux équipements culturels et de loisirs ont été aménagés, devenant les portes-drapeaux de la regénération urbaine ; • les artistes sont souvent des pionniers de la gentrification. A la recherche de locaux spacieux, peu onéreux et centraux, ils s'installent dans des quartiers dévalorisés, industriels ou populaires ; et peu à peu, par leur présence, revalorisent symboliquement le quartier, où de nouvelles populations, attirées par la proximité des artistes, viennent s'installer, entraînant une hausse des prix de l'immobilier. Cela a souvent pour conséquence de chasser les populations les plus pauvres dont les artistes eux-mêmes, incapables de payer les nouveaux loyers ; • les espaces d'expression de la culture (musées, galeries, théâtres, patrimoine bâti.) sont les lieux visités par les touristes, devenant les symboles de la ville, reconnus internationalement. Ces observations portent sur ce que l'on peut considérer comme étant la culture institutionnelle, que nous appelons in. Pour notre part, nous proposons que les pratiques culturelles alternatives ou off participent elles-aussi et de manière similaire au développement urbain. Leur présence est révélatrice de la créativité et du dynamisme d'une métropole. Elle est porteuse d'une image positive pour la ville car c'est par la pluralité et la diversité des scènes et des pratiques artistiques que la culture devient un élément de la métropolisation. Nous parlons de culture in et de culture off par analogie aux grands festivals où se côtoient le in et le off. Le in y est programmé et le off opportuniste et spontané ; le in s'enrichit par l'existence du off où, par une plus grande liberté, peuvent se produire les innovations ; le off a besoin du in pour justifier son existence, trouver une légitimité. Et peu à peu, le off prend le dessus sur le in, attire plus de spectateurs, devient le moteur populaire du festival. Ainsi, dans cette thèse, nous postulons que la culture off joue un rôle dans le développement urbain par complémentarité avec la culture in. Pour cela, nous concentrons nos analyses autour des lieux culturels off (comme par exemple les squats d'artistes) pour montrer en quoi ils contribuent à l'attractivité d'un espace métropolitain. En effet, les lieux off sont l'inscription physique dans l'espace urbain de pratiques artistiques off. Ici, ils ne sont pas l'objet de l'étude, mais le fil conducteur, l'analyseur permettant une compréhension nouvelle des évolutions urbaines contemporaines. Dans cette optique, il s'agit de construire une méthodologie adaptée et novatrice en reprenant les trois grands marqueurs du développement urbain que nous avons présentés précédemment. Ainsi, trois axes et méthodes de recherche sont mis en œuvre : • La régénération urbaine. Comment les lieux culturels off sont-ils intégrés à des projets urbains ? Comment deviennent-ils des constituants d'un nouveau quartier ? Comment les aménageurs conçoivent-ils cette intégration ? Nous nous intéressons particulièrement aux discours produits par les différents acteurs impliqués pour justifier, expliquer et valoriser la présence de lieux off dans des projets d'aménagements (par exemple, l'intégration des Frigos dans la ZAC Paris-Rive gauche). • La gentrification. Dans quelle mesure des lieux off (comme les squats d'artistes) participent-ils à la revalorisation symbolique d'un quartier ? Pour cela, avons réalisé une analyse de données statistiques sur le marché immobilier parisien et des enquêtes auprès d'agents immobiliers afin de comprendre la perception, par des acteurs centraux du marché immobilier, de la présence d'artistes dans un quartier. • Le tourisme urbain. Les squats d'artistes et d'autres éléments de la culture off sont-ils des lieux touristiques ? Participent-ils à l'image touristique des villes ? Pour mettre en évidence cela, nous étudions la construction de l'image touristique des villes à travers une analyse sémiotique de différents guides touristiques. En effet, le guide touristique constitue en soi un corpus intéressant, quoique négligé, pour analyser l'image construite d'un lieu. Il ne reflète pas la réalité du lieu, mais construit et est construit par l'imaginaire porté par ce lieu. Au travers ces trois volets, cette recherche montre comment et dans quelle mesure un lieu off, peut participer au développement urbain. La coexistence des cultures in et off est essentielle à l'effervescence créative d'une métropole, à la fois révélatrice et symbole du dynamisme métropolitain.

In this thesis, we consider how underground or alternative cultural activities, which we call off, could work for urban development much as mainstream cultures, or in, do. We propose that underground cultural activities are an important part of the cultural landscape of a city and, in this way, could be considered an important actor of urban development. As many authors have shown, culture is nowadays a key element of urban development. First, in the major urban redevelopment projects of the last two decades, there was often a cultural facility flagship, a museum or convention center for example. It is especially true in the case of waterfront or industrial wasteland redevelopments. Second, the artists are often pioneers in the gentrification process. The presence of artists has become meaningful for a neighborhood and has increased the real estate value of a place. Third, cultural and artistic activities are very important factors in building a positive image of a city. It markets the city as an innovative and creative place, two fundamental qualities essential to success in the global inter-city competition. Indeed, it is argued that a strong and dynamic cultural framework provides many leisure opportunities for inhabitants and tourists. Cultural activities are therefore increasingly becoming a marketing strategy to attract firms and people to visit or to settle down in a particular city; and cultural tourism is an engine for urban tourism. And finally, many predict that cultural activities are going to be one of the most important economical activities in the city, both by creating direct value and employment and by developing the tourist industry. But, most of these authors considered mainstream cultures. Our purpose is to demonstrate how underground cultures could also work with these topics. By underground or alternative culture, we mean all kinds of cultural activities that are not subsidized and that have no commercial value. But, because they are a part of the 'art world' and should not be considered as separate from the mainstream cultural world, we prefer to use another semantic scheme in our thesis. We are using the concept of 'in culture / off culture'(which is used to explain what is happening in the major art festivals). The in is organized and planned, while the off is spontaneous and opportunist; the off is free of commercial, academic or trend constraints, so it is a creative and innovative space; the in draws from the off new ideas and new talents; the off needs the in to build its legitimacy; and, little by little, the off becomes the real festival: the place to show and to be, the real engine of the festival which attracts more people and more artists until a new off of the off appears. In much the same way, in our study we consider underground cultures as "off culture", and mainstream culture as "in culture". Our research is focused on the artistic squats as an example and a syncretism of off culture. Indeed, they can be considered both as the space of the off culture and as the off spaces of culture. This is one of the original features of this research: using artistic squats as a comprehensive key to analyze and understand urban changes. For this reason, we needed to develop an original methodology. We propose to implement three different kinds of methodological research, each focusing on one of the topics already detailed and all based on artistic squats issues. These works will focus on the Parisian case, but also on other European and global metropolis, such as San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Berlin, London,. by our personal experiences or by bibliographic review. Concerning economical issues, we will most likely not implement empirical research, but it undoubtedly would be of some interest to do a bibliographically based comparison with the theory of innovation and creativity. On the other hand, a literature review has been done on the changes in cultural practices and taste and on sociology of art and artists. We will also consider, as a background theoretical framework, 'reflexive modernity', 'aesthetic reflexivity' and 'hypertext society' theories as well as 'networks society' and 'global cities' theories and 'creative city' and 'innovative society' theories in our study. Our three research focuses are the following: - Could off cultures be flagships for urban development? According to many authors, one of the key elements for a successful urban redevelopment project is a cultural flagship. We suggest that this flagship could be an off cultural flagship. Off culture spaces are as meaningful as in culture spaces. We argue that urban planners use off places as a flagship in urban redevelopment strategies. So, how could planners integrate these off spaces in urban projects? We study three urban projects, based on interviews and officials materials analyzes. We are considering a case where planners finally decided to integrate a off space in the urban redevelopment project (Les Frigos in the ZAC Paris-Rive Gauche). The second case (La Chapelle-Stalingrad regeneration project) shows how off culture are used as a tool for planning, by cleaning and securing a decaying area. Off artists become planners' pathfinder. They are symbolic shifter from decay to glamour. Then, the real planning project could start. Moreover, this example puts into relief the role of inhabitants organizations in the cultural-led regeneration planning. Indeed, it seems that culture is the unique acceptable feature for urban projects. What does this culture-oriented claim mean? For whose sake are cultural amenities created? The third project is the Newtown cultural precinct that has been created in Johannesburg (South Africa). In this quite unique urban, social, economic and political context, can culture play a similar role? What are the objectives of such an undertaking? Does this project correspond to the lifestyles and behaviours of the inhabitants? As it is shown with the Parisian example, this kind of urban planning practices are more related to a settlement policy than to a cultural one. - Are off spaces places of gentrification? Following many authors, we are interested in the aesthetic and consumerist explanations of gentrification processes. We propose that off cultures play a role in the gentrification process, and expect that they work by giving a trendy image to a neighborhood, as a creative and bohemian place. So, off cultures could be a meaningful pathfinder of gentrification. To prove our purpose, we implement a methodology based on real estate agents interview. We consider real estate agents as good informers about the evolution of real estate markets and neighborhood social changes. They could help us to understand neighborhood and market changes, to explore the potential for gentrification, and to clarify the role of artists and then of off artists and places in gentrification. To do so, we interview several agents in different neighborhoods, all of them located near artistic squats. At the same time, we realize a statistic analysis of real estate market trends. Nevertheless, the results of the researches are mixed. Local real estate agents use artists as a communication tool. They argue that artists and even off artists create a pleasant atmosphere in the neighbourhood, that could attract other populations. But, real estate statistics do not provide convincing results. The only certainty we can propose is that in general, property prices are not influenced by artistic squats. - Is the off an element of the 'tourist gaze'? We argue that off cultural spaces could be tourist places by corresponding to the 'tourist gaze' expectations. Therefore, we do not analyze the tourist (and then economic) impact of off places, but show that off places are important tourist attractions. To do so, we analyze how tourist guidebooks present a city. Indeed, guidebooks writers give meaning to a place by choosing specific places or things to see, and then by interpreting them for the tourists and sometimes by judging them. In this way, tourist guidebooks could be considered as meaningful pathfinder. Based on a comparison between Paris and Berlin, the analysis of several guidebooks shows main differences between the two cities' tourist image. In the Paris case, artistic squats and other off scenes are almost never described in guidebooks. Off is not a part of the city's experience. On the other hand, according to guidebooks, a tourist in Berlin should not avoid visiting one of the many off places. Off is definitely a local attraction. Moreover, off is the Berlin's taste. As we have showed, our PhD is quite ambitious. But it must be considered not as an exhaustive exercise but as an understanding of contemporary urban society proposal. This study help us to understand how off cultures are a part of the city imaginary, and so, how they give meaning to the city. But we also expect that our concept could be used by other scholars or planners for example to understand how urbanity occurs, how a place becomes trendy, or to put into relief relationships between in and off in other sphere. We expect to deliver some comprehensive keys for urban planners such as contemporary gazers. ; Dans cette thèse, nous montrons dans quelle mesure les pratiques culturelles alternatives, que nous appelons off, participent au développement des grandes métropoles, tout comme cela a été démontré avec la culture institutionnelle, que nous appelons in. Il est couramment admis que la culture est un élément qualifiant dans la concurrence inter-urbaine et est essentielle à la construction de l'image d'une métropole. En effet, la diversité et la qualité de l'offre culturelle et artistique sont des atouts pour attirer des entreprises de pointes dont les cadres sont friands et grands consommateurs de services culturels. D'autre part, l'événementiel culturel est un moteur du tourisme urbain, principalement axé autour du tourisme culturel. Enfin, la culture et l'industrie culturelle représentent aujourd'hui un secteur économique en pleine expansion, et jouent un rôle important dans le développement des grandes métropoles comme Paris, New York, Los Angeles et San Francisco. En terme de développement urbain, ces phénomènes peuvent se manifester de plusieurs manières : • Les lieux culturels sont programmés dans les projets urbains : dans de nombreux programmes de requalification de friches urbaines, de nouveaux équipements culturels et de loisirs ont été aménagés, devenant les portes-drapeaux de la regénération urbaine ; • les artistes sont souvent des pionniers de la gentrification. A la recherche de locaux spacieux, peu onéreux et centraux, ils s'installent dans des quartiers dévalorisés, industriels ou populaires ; et peu à peu, par leur présence, revalorisent symboliquement le quartier, où de nouvelles populations, attirées par la proximité des artistes, viennent s'installer, entraînant une hausse des prix de l'immobilier. Cela a souvent pour conséquence de chasser les populations les plus pauvres dont les artistes eux-mêmes, incapables de payer les nouveaux loyers ; • les espaces d'expression de la culture (musées, galeries, théâtres, patrimoine bâti.) sont les lieux visités par les touristes, devenant les symboles de la ville, reconnus internationalement. Ces observations portent sur ce que l'on peut considérer comme étant la culture institutionnelle, que nous appelons in. Pour notre part, nous proposons que les pratiques culturelles alternatives ou off participent elles-aussi et de manière similaire au développement urbain. Leur présence est révélatrice de la créativité et du dynamisme d'une métropole. Elle est porteuse d'une image positive pour la ville car c'est par la pluralité et la diversité des scènes et des pratiques artistiques que la culture devient un élément de la métropolisation. Nous parlons de culture in et de culture off par analogie aux grands festivals où se côtoient le in et le off. Le in y est programmé et le off opportuniste et spontané ; le in s'enrichit par l'existence du off où, par une plus grande liberté, peuvent se produire les innovations ; le off a besoin du in pour justifier son existence, trouver une légitimité. Et peu à peu, le off prend le dessus sur le in, attire plus de spectateurs, devient le moteur populaire du festival. Ainsi, dans cette thèse, nous postulons que la culture off joue un rôle dans le développement urbain par complémentarité avec la culture in. Pour cela, nous concentrons nos analyses autour des lieux culturels off (comme par exemple les squats d'artistes) pour montrer en quoi ils contribuent à l'attractivité d'un espace métropolitain. En effet, les lieux off sont l'inscription physique dans l'espace urbain de pratiques artistiques off. Ici, ils ne sont pas l'objet de l'étude, mais le fil conducteur, l'analyseur permettant une compréhension nouvelle des évolutions urbaines contemporaines. Dans cette optique, il s'agit de construire une méthodologie adaptée et novatrice en reprenant les trois grands marqueurs du développement urbain que nous avons présentés précédemment. Ainsi, trois axes et méthodes de recherche sont mis en œuvre : • La régénération urbaine. Comment les lieux culturels off sont-ils intégrés à des projets urbains ? Comment deviennent-ils des constituants d'un nouveau quartier ? Comment les aménageurs conçoivent-ils cette intégration ? Nous nous intéressons particulièrement aux discours produits par les différents acteurs impliqués pour justifier, expliquer et valoriser la présence de lieux off dans des projets d'aménagements (par exemple, l'intégration des Frigos dans la ZAC Paris-Rive gauche). • La gentrification. Dans quelle mesure des lieux off (comme les squats d'artistes) participent-ils à la revalorisation symbolique d'un quartier ? Pour cela, avons réalisé une analyse de données statistiques sur le marché immobilier parisien et des enquêtes auprès d'agents immobiliers afin de comprendre la perception, par des acteurs centraux du marché immobilier, de la présence d'artistes dans un quartier. • Le tourisme urbain. Les squats d'artistes et d'autres éléments de la culture off sont-ils des lieux touristiques ? Participent-ils à l'image touristique des villes ? Pour mettre en évidence cela, nous étudions la construction de l'image touristique des villes à travers une analyse sémiotique de différents guides touristiques. En effet, le guide touristique constitue en soi un corpus intéressant, quoique négligé, pour analyser l'image construite d'un lieu. Il ne reflète pas la réalité du lieu, mais construit et est construit par l'imaginaire porté par ce lieu. Au travers ces trois volets, cette recherche montre comment et dans quelle mesure un lieu off, peut participer au développement urbain. La coexistence des cultures in et off est essentielle à l'effervescence créative d'une métropole, à la fois révélatrice et symbole du dynamisme métropolitain.

In this thesis, we consider how underground or alternative cultural activities, which we call off, could work for urban development much as mainstream cultures, or in, do. We propose that underground cultural activities are an important part of the cultural landscape of a city and, in this way, could be considered an important actor of urban development. As many authors have shown, culture is nowadays a key element of urban development. First, in the major urban redevelopment projects of the last two decades, there was often a cultural facility flagship, a museum or convention center for example. It is especially true in the case of waterfront or industrial wasteland redevelopments. Second, the artists are often pioneers in the gentrification process. The presence of artists has become meaningful for a neighborhood and has increased the real estate value of a place. Third, cultural and artistic activities are very important factors in building a positive image of a city. It markets the city as an innovative and creative place, two fundamental qualities essential to success in the global inter-city competition. Indeed, it is argued that a strong and dynamic cultural framework provides many leisure opportunities for inhabitants and tourists. Cultural activities are therefore increasingly becoming a marketing strategy to attract firms and people to visit or to settle down in a particular city; and cultural tourism is an engine for urban tourism. And finally, many predict that cultural activities are going to be one of the most important economical activities in the city, both by creating direct value and employment and by developing the tourist industry. But, most of these authors considered mainstream cultures. Our purpose is to demonstrate how underground cultures could also work with these topics. By underground or alternative culture, we mean all kinds of cultural activities that are not subsidized and that have no commercial value. But, because they are a part of the 'art world' and should not be considered as separate from the mainstream cultural world, we prefer to use another semantic scheme in our thesis. We are using the concept of 'in culture / off culture'(which is used to explain what is happening in the major art festivals). The in is organized and planned, while the off is spontaneous and opportunist; the off is free of commercial, academic or trend constraints, so it is a creative and innovative space; the in draws from the off new ideas and new talents; the off needs the in to build its legitimacy; and, little by little, the off becomes the real festival: the place to show and to be, the real engine of the festival which attracts more people and more artists until a new off of the off appears. In much the same way, in our study we consider underground cultures as "off culture", and mainstream culture as "in culture". Our research is focused on the artistic squats as an example and a syncretism of off culture. Indeed, they can be considered both as the space of the off culture and as the off spaces of culture. This is one of the original features of this research: using artistic squats as a comprehensive key to analyze and understand urban changes. For this reason, we needed to develop an original methodology. We propose to implement three different kinds of methodological research, each focusing on one of the topics already detailed and all based on artistic squats issues. These works will focus on the Parisian case, but also on other European and global metropolis, such as San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Berlin, London,. by our personal experiences or by bibliographic review. Concerning economical issues, we will most likely not implement empirical research, but it undoubtedly would be of some interest to do a bibliographically based comparison with the theory of innovation and creativity. On the other hand, a literature review has been done on the changes in cultural practices and taste and on sociology of art and artists. We will also consider, as a background theoretical framework, 'reflexive modernity', 'aesthetic reflexivity' and 'hypertext society' theories as well as 'networks society' and 'global cities' theories and 'creative city' and 'innovative society' theories in our study. Our three research focuses are the following: - Could off cultures be flagships for urban development? According to many authors, one of the key elements for a successful urban redevelopment project is a cultural flagship. We suggest that this flagship could be an off cultural flagship. Off culture spaces are as meaningful as in culture spaces. We argue that urban planners use off places as a flagship in urban redevelopment strategies. So, how could planners integrate these off spaces in urban projects? We study three urban projects, based on interviews and officials materials analyzes. We are considering a case where planners finally decided to integrate a off space in the urban redevelopment project (Les Frigos in the ZAC Paris-Rive Gauche). The second case (La Chapelle-Stalingrad regeneration project) shows how off culture are used as a tool for planning, by cleaning and securing a decaying area. Off artists become planners' pathfinder. They are symbolic shifter from decay to glamour. Then, the real planning project could start. Moreover, this example puts into relief the role of inhabitants organizations in the cultural-led regeneration planning. Indeed, it seems that culture is the unique acceptable feature for urban projects. What does this culture-oriented claim mean? For whose sake are cultural amenities created? The third project is the Newtown cultural precinct that has been created in Johannesburg (South Africa). In this quite unique urban, social, economic and political context, can culture play a similar role? What are the objectives of such an undertaking? Does this project correspond to the lifestyles and behaviours of the inhabitants? As it is shown with the Parisian example, this kind of urban planning practices are more related to a settlement policy than to a cultural one. - Are off spaces places of gentrification? Following many authors, we are interested in the aesthetic and consumerist explanations of gentrification processes. We propose that off cultures play a role in the gentrification process, and expect that they work by giving a trendy image to a neighborhood, as a creative and bohemian place. So, off cultures could be a meaningful pathfinder of gentrification. To prove our purpose, we implement a methodology based on real estate agents interview. We consider real estate agents as good informers about the evolution of real estate markets and neighborhood social changes. They could help us to understand neighborhood and market changes, to explore the potential for gentrification, and to clarify the role of artists and then of off artists and places in gentrification. To do so, we interview several agents in different neighborhoods, all of them located near artistic squats. At the same time, we realize a statistic analysis of real estate market trends. Nevertheless, the results of the researches are mixed. Local real estate agents use artists as a communication tool. They argue that artists and even off artists create a pleasant atmosphere in the neighbourhood, that could attract other populations. But, real estate statistics do not provide convincing results. The only certainty we can propose is that in general, property prices are not influenced by artistic squats. - Is the off an element of the 'tourist gaze'? We argue that off cultural spaces could be tourist places by corresponding to the 'tourist gaze' expectations. Therefore, we do not analyze the tourist (and then economic) impact of off places, but show that off places are important tourist attractions. To do so, we analyze how tourist guidebooks present a city. Indeed, guidebooks writers give meaning to a place by choosing specific places or things to see, and then by interpreting them for the tourists and sometimes by judging them. In this way, tourist guidebooks could be considered as meaningful pathfinder. Based on a comparison between Paris and Berlin, the analysis of several guidebooks shows main differences between the two cities' tourist image. In the Paris case, artistic squats and other off scenes are almost never described in guidebooks. Off is not a part of the city's experience. On the other hand, according to guidebooks, a tourist in Berlin should not avoid visiting one of the many off places. Off is definitely a local attraction. Moreover, off is the Berlin's taste. As we have showed, our PhD is quite ambitious. But it must be considered not as an exhaustive exercise but as an understanding of contemporary urban society proposal. This study help us to understand how off cultures are a part of the city imaginary, and so, how they give meaning to the city. But we also expect that our concept could be used by other scholars or planners for example to understand how urbanity occurs, how a place becomes trendy, or to put into relief relationships between in and off in other sphere. We expect to deliver some comprehensive keys for urban planners such as contemporary gazers. ; Dans cette thèse, nous montrons dans quelle mesure les pratiques culturelles alternatives, que nous appelons off, participent au développement des grandes métropoles, tout comme cela a été démontré avec la culture institutionnelle, que nous appelons in. Il est couramment admis que la culture est un élément qualifiant dans la concurrence inter-urbaine et est essentielle à la construction de l'image d'une métropole. En effet, la diversité et la qualité de l'offre culturelle et artistique sont des atouts pour attirer des entreprises de pointes dont les cadres sont friands et grands consommateurs de services culturels. D'autre part, l'événementiel culturel est un moteur du tourisme urbain, principalement axé autour du tourisme culturel. Enfin, la culture et l'industrie culturelle représentent aujourd'hui un secteur économique en pleine expansion, et jouent un rôle important dans le développement des grandes métropoles comme Paris, New York, Los Angeles et San Francisco. En terme de développement urbain, ces phénomènes peuvent se manifester de plusieurs manières : • Les lieux culturels sont programmés dans les projets urbains : dans de nombreux programmes de requalification de friches urbaines, de nouveaux équipements culturels et de loisirs ont été aménagés, devenant les portes-drapeaux de la regénération urbaine ; • les artistes sont souvent des pionniers de la gentrification. A la recherche de locaux spacieux, peu onéreux et centraux, ils s'installent dans des quartiers dévalorisés, industriels ou populaires ; et peu à peu, par leur présence, revalorisent symboliquement le quartier, où de nouvelles populations, attirées par la proximité des artistes, viennent s'installer, entraînant une hausse des prix de l'immobilier. Cela a souvent pour conséquence de chasser les populations les plus pauvres dont les artistes eux-mêmes, incapables de payer les nouveaux loyers ; • les espaces d'expression de la culture (musées, galeries, théâtres, patrimoine bâti.) sont les lieux visités par les touristes, devenant les symboles de la ville, reconnus internationalement. Ces observations portent sur ce que l'on peut considérer comme étant la culture institutionnelle, que nous appelons in. Pour notre part, nous proposons que les pratiques culturelles alternatives ou off participent elles-aussi et de manière similaire au développement urbain. Leur présence est révélatrice de la créativité et du dynamisme d'une métropole. Elle est porteuse d'une image positive pour la ville car c'est par la pluralité et la diversité des scènes et des pratiques artistiques que la culture devient un élément de la métropolisation. Nous parlons de culture in et de culture off par analogie aux grands festivals où se côtoient le in et le off. Le in y est programmé et le off opportuniste et spontané ; le in s'enrichit par l'existence du off où, par une plus grande liberté, peuvent se produire les innovations ; le off a besoin du in pour justifier son existence, trouver une légitimité. Et peu à peu, le off prend le dessus sur le in, attire plus de spectateurs, devient le moteur populaire du festival. Ainsi, dans cette thèse, nous postulons que la culture off joue un rôle dans le développement urbain par complémentarité avec la culture in. Pour cela, nous concentrons nos analyses autour des lieux culturels off (comme par exemple les squats d'artistes) pour montrer en quoi ils contribuent à l'attractivité d'un espace métropolitain. En effet, les lieux off sont l'inscription physique dans l'espace urbain de pratiques artistiques off. Ici, ils ne sont pas l'objet de l'étude, mais le fil conducteur, l'analyseur permettant une compréhension nouvelle des évolutions urbaines contemporaines. Dans cette optique, il s'agit de construire une méthodologie adaptée et novatrice en reprenant les trois grands marqueurs du développement urbain que nous avons présentés précédemment. Ainsi, trois axes et méthodes de recherche sont mis en œuvre : • La régénération urbaine. Comment les lieux culturels off sont-ils intégrés à des projets urbains ? Comment deviennent-ils des constituants d'un nouveau quartier ? Comment les aménageurs conçoivent-ils cette intégration ? Nous nous intéressons particulièrement aux discours produits par les différents acteurs impliqués pour justifier, expliquer et valoriser la présence de lieux off dans des projets d'aménagements (par exemple, l'intégration des Frigos dans la ZAC Paris-Rive gauche). • La gentrification. Dans quelle mesure des lieux off (comme les squats d'artistes) participent-ils à la revalorisation symbolique d'un quartier ? Pour cela, avons réalisé une analyse de données statistiques sur le marché immobilier parisien et des enquêtes auprès d'agents immobiliers afin de comprendre la perception, par des acteurs centraux du marché immobilier, de la présence d'artistes dans un quartier. • Le tourisme urbain. Les squats d'artistes et d'autres éléments de la culture off sont-ils des lieux touristiques ? Participent-ils à l'image touristique des villes ? Pour mettre en évidence cela, nous étudions la construction de l'image touristique des villes à travers une analyse sémiotique de différents guides touristiques. En effet, le guide touristique constitue en soi un corpus intéressant, quoique négligé, pour analyser l'image construite d'un lieu. Il ne reflète pas la réalité du lieu, mais construit et est construit par l'imaginaire porté par ce lieu. Au travers ces trois volets, cette recherche montre comment et dans quelle mesure un lieu off, peut participer au développement urbain. La coexistence des cultures in et off est essentielle à l'effervescence créative d'une métropole, à la fois révélatrice et symbole du dynamisme métropolitain.

?When it comes to seeing depth and lateral connections in the development of popular culture, nobody exceeds Marshall Fishwick.? -Canadian Psychology In Probing Popular Culture: On and Off the Internet, one of the leading authorities in American and popular culture studies presents an eye-opening examination of the Information Age's influence on what we do, how we live, and who we are. Dr. Marshall Fishwick, author of the textbooks Great Awakenings: Popular Religion and Popular Culture; Popular Culture: Cavespace to Cyberspace; and Popular Culture in a New Age focuses his penetrating gaze upo