École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales

Charles University in Prague

Faculty of Arts

Institute of World History

DISCURSIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF CITÉ-JARDIN

THROUGH HYGIENISM AND SOCIALISM (1919-1950):
STUDENT THESES AT INSTITUT D’URBANISME DE
L’UNIVERSITÉ DE PARIS

Master Thesis

Boya Wei

Thesis supervisor in Paris: Annick Tanter-Toubon, Ingénieure de Recherche

Thesis Supervisor: Luda Klusakova, Professor of History, Charles University

Paris, Prague, 2014

Hereby I declare that I worked out this thesis independently, using only the listed resources
and literature, and I did not present it to obtain another academic degree.

………………………………..
Prague, May 14
 Acknowledgements

While thesis writing is a lonely endeavour, several professors have provided me with
invaluable guidance throughout the development of my thesis project. I want to express my
deepest gratitude for my thesis advisors Luda Klusakova and Annick Tanter-Toubon for all of
their tireless efforts and most productive mentoring.

Also, I want to thank Laurent Coudroy de Lille and José Mayorga for their help in locating
key primary source at IUP archive, and Cathleen Giustino for her help at the Library of the
Museum of Decorative Arts of Prague.

My thanks to Jaroslav Ira for his careful reading, and Annie Sevin for her insightful
suggestions. I also want to thank Jiri Janac, Marketa Krizova, Michal Pullman, Jaroslav Ira,
Marie-Vic Ozouf-Marignier, Isabelle Backouche, Adèle Sutre, Nicolas Verdier, Juliette
Rennes, whose seminars provided valuable ideas for developing my thesis.

My thanks to Willian Autunes and Iteb Jabou for their support over the course of thesis
writing. Also, I am thankful to Marie-Claude Finas, Eszter György, Marie Hankova for their
wonderful help throughout the administrative process of TEMA program. Finally, I wish to
thank Jan Barta, without his help this thesis can not be written.
Hygienismus a Socialismus v diskursivní reprezentaci cité-jardin
(1919-1950): diplomní práce na Institutu urbanismu pařížské
University

Abstrakt

Tato studie sleduje historii sociálního bydlení ve Francii 1919-1950, se zaměřením na tvorbu
cité- jardin (zahradních měst) v okolí Paříže. V návaznosti na pojetí diskurzu a moci u
Michela Foucaulta, a pojmu sociálního prostoru podle Henriho Lefèbvra, se tato studie
zabývala reprezentacemi zahradních měst v textech studentských prací na Institut
d'urbanisme de l'Université de Paris. V centru pozornosti byl výzkum způsobu, jakým elitní
urbanistické prostředí při práci s konceptem cité-jardin odhalovalo aplikaci dvou diskurzů
zásadního významu: „hygienistického“ a „socialistického“.

Klíčová slova:
Sociální bydlení, Paříž, cité-jardin, zahradní město, Michel Foucault, formování diskurzu
 Boya WEI TEMA

Discursive Representations of Cité-Jardin through

Hygienism and Socialism (1919-1950): Student Theses
at Institut d’Urbanisme de l’Université de Paris

Abstract

This study will trace the social housing history in France from 1919 to 1950, with a focus
on the creation of cités-jardins in Paris region. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s notion of
discourse and power, and Henri Lefebvre’s notion of social space, this study will look into the
representations of cité-jardin in the writings of student thesis at the Institut d’Urbanisme de
l’Université de Paris, while examining the ways in which elite discourses on cité-jardin provided
a window into the re-appropriations of hygienist and socialist discourses.

Keywords:

Social housing, Paris, cité-jardin, garden city, Michel Foucault, discursive formation
 2

Table of Content

Table of Content 2

Introduction 4
Hygienism and urban planning 5
Method of analysis 13

Part I. Hygienism and Housing Policies in Nineteenth Century and the Beginning of
Twentieth Century France 20
Class and Hygienism under Haussmanian Paris 20
HBM Legislation and Social Reformers of Musée Social 28
The Problem of Lotissements and its Political Stake in Paris Banlieue 36
Garden City Movement and the Interventions of Office Public d’HBM du Département du Seine
46

Part II. The Consolidation of a Discipline: Teaching of urban studies during the first
half of the twentieth century 52
Legitimizing a Category of Scinece: From E.H.E.U to I.U.U.P 52
Teaching Methods: between Theory and Practice 55
La Vie Urbaine: milieu of Reformers 62
Mémoire de fin d’étude, from Student to Peer 67

Part III. Analysis of Discursive Representations in I.U.U.P. Theses 77

Plurality for Urban forms, Laboratory of Ideas 77
Hygienic Aesthetics of the Elites 83
Social Service and Social Surveillance 87
Pro-nativist City planning under Vichy Regime 93
Class, Race and Gender in the Representations of Cité-jardin 96

Conclusion 102

Bibliography 105
 3

Table of Abbreviation

BTHVP: Bibliothèque des travaux historiques de la Ville de Paris

CSAORP: Comité supérieur de l’aménagement et de l’organisation générale de la région
parisienne
DPLG: Diplôme d’architecte diplômé par le Gouvernement
EHEU : École des hautes études urbaines
ENAM: École nationale d’administration municipale
ESA: École spéciale d’architecture
FNMF: Fédération nationale de la mutualité française
HBM: Habitation à bon marché
IUUP : Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris
OPHBM : Office public d’HBM du Département de la Seine
PAEE: Plan d’aménagement, d’extension et d’embellissement des villes
SFHBM : Société française des habitations à bon marché
SFIC: Section française de l’internationale communiste
SFIO : Section française de l’internationale ouvrière
SM-I: Secrétaire de mairie-instituteurs
 4

Introduction

Throughout the long nineteenth century, hygienism was considered as the scientific
response to various “social issues.” Topographie médicale (literally, medical topography) was
widely used to eradicate the taudis and squalor of the medieval Paris. The beginning of urban
planning in the twentieth century has often been considered as a response towards the
devastation of the war and the housing shortage incurred. Yet, the conquest of urban space by
pouvoir medical was more than a simple process of classification and identification of places of
insalubrité. It involved complex relations among constructions of class identity, gender, race,
disease and degeneration. It implicated the enlargement of a pouvoir public, under the influence
of republicanism, and the bourgeoning democracy, coupling with ideas of social reforms. The
confluence between the “social” and “spatial” makes this matter particular rich topic for analysis
of discourse and power.
But how did this pervasive influence of hygienism come about to have an impact on
urban space? Nineteenth century hygienism was once a prism for examining the social and
individual matters, the emergence of various sub-disciplines demonstrated the transformation of
medical knowledge and medical power in the everyday practices of society, industrial hygiene,
urban hygiene, mental hygiene, etc. Meanwhile hygienism renders disease a social matter,
forging strong links with the process of urbanization. The beginning of urban studies and its
transformation into a scientific discipline illuminate the constitutive nature of expert discourse,
especially in the process of consolidating medical, architectural, and municipal expertise. Within
the expert discourse on hygienic housing and salubrité, there is also the question on urban form
and studies of morphology. How did cité-jardin become the archetypal urban form in the
interwar years? How did the architects, hygienists, as well as the statesmen understand this new
urban form and its potential? It is precisely through the analysis of the propagation of this
particular form of urban planning that this study managed to uncover the appropriation of power,
institutionalization of knowledge, through the construction of the notion of class, race, gender
and disease.
How did hygienism become a factor in the spatial management of modern Paris? The
answer partly lies in the entanglement between spatial and social relationships. As Henri
Lefebvre reminds us, space is imbued with meaning and social relations, in which every
discourse has a space; and every space produces discourse.1 To add spatiality to the Marxist view

1
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).
 5

of the relationship between land, capital, and labor, Lefebvre asks what can be done about space
within competing versions of what a space should be and the tensions of its meanings: “a space
is thus neither merely a medium nor a list of ingredients, but an interlinkage of geographic form,
built environment, symbolic meanings, and routines of life.”2 To be sure, historian, geographer,
and others have traced the influence of hygienism in the thinking and the planning of urban space
of Paris, over the course of nineteenth and twentieth century. A number of studies have
examined the relationship between the development of public hygiene and the modern state, as
well as the process in which public hygiene brings forward the social causes of disease.

Hygienism and urban planning

The nineteenth century obsession with hygiene is articulated through an eagerness to

solve social ills. Even for disciplines as mental hygiene, preoccupied with psychological mark-up
of individuals, it extends its realms of intervention to the public, as prescribing traits to
collectives. Historians Lion Murard and Patrick Zylberman demonstrated the reasons behind the
counterintuitively slow development in public hygiene policies in France over the course of the
Third Republic. 3 In L’hygiène dans la République, Murard and Zylberman highlighted the
relationship between state power and medical power, the various knowledge involved in the
composition of new body of knowledge known as public hygiene, as well as the limitations of
the state in extending interventions into the homes of private individuals. In Une société à
soigner, Hygiène et salubrité publiques en France au XIXe siècle, Gérard Jorland demonstrated
how and in what ways hygienists managed to make the science of public hygiene a priority.4
Focusing on the concerns over workers’ health among hygienists, Caroline Moriceau showed
how a particular category of science, industrial hygiene, has achieved its material and intellectual
crystallization through the channels of congress and journals, over the period of 1860-1914.5
Meanwhile, political scientist Benoît Larbiou’s work on René Martial uncovered the
racial dimension of hygienism, through uncovering the overlapping’s between social reformers
and “éducateur sanitaire.” 6 While discussing the limited executive power of municipal

2
Harvey Molotch, “Review Essay: The Space of Lefebvre,” Theory and Society, 22 (1993): 888.
3
Lion Murard and Patrick Zylberman, L’hygiène dans la République. La santé publique ou l’utopie contrariée,
1870-1918. (Paris : Fayard, 1986).
4
Gérard Jorland, Une société à soigner, Hygiène et salubrité publiques en France au XIX e siècle. (Paris : Éditions
Gallimard, 2010).
5
Caroline Moriceau, Les douleurs de l’industrie. L’hygiénisme industriel en France, 1860-1914. (Paris : Editions de
l’EHESS, 2009).
6
Larbiou Benoît, “René Martial, 1873-1955. De l’hygiénisme à la raciologie, une trajectoire possible,”
Genèses, 60
(2005), 123-178.
 6

hygienists, as constrained by elite reformers, as well as their strategies employed to narrow the
professional differences among: “hygiène sociale” “hygiène industrielle” “hygiène scolaire,”
Larbiou notes that:“[Martial] affirme l’existence d’une distance sociale par rapport aux secteurs
dominés de l’espace social en rappelant à l’ordre le corps des ouvriers – comment s’habiller,
comment se loger, comment tenir sa maison, comment avoir des relations sexuelles – et par
rapport aux éducateurs professionnels: il présente son travail comme un « plan suivant lequel
les éducateurs des masses ouvrières […][doivent] donner cette instruction», ce qui revient à
apprendre « aux maîtres quoi et comment apprendre » et le « bon usage » de l’hygiène.”7
Other scholars have studied the process of territorialization or spatialization of hygienist
policies. In La construction des îlots insalubres, Yankel Fijalkow investigates the process
through which the category of îlot insalubre was progressively constructed to enable state
intervention towards both public and private spaces. Connecting the link between the pouvoir
publique and its use of statistics, Fijalkow demonstrated the “réseaux d’universalisation des
savoirs qu’il est possible de comprendre comment une « statistique municipale » s’établit dès la
fin du 19ème siècle dans de nombreuses communes et semble ignorer l’existence depuis 1840
d’une Statistique Générale de la France au Ministère de l’Intérieur.” 8 Historian Fabienne
Chevallier focused on the role of hygiene in the transformation of Paris during the Second
Empire and the beginning of the Third Republic.9 For Chevallier, “L’hygiène constitue à cette
époque un champ d’action qui permet de vérifier le bien-fondé de l’idée de progrès.” 10 She
argues that the period of 1854-1898 is a time in which the “puissance publique” turn to the
doctrine of destruction and reconstruction of Parisian space, curing the insalubrities on the one
hand, while privileging “l’esthétique des percées urbaines,”on the other hand. 11 Situating her
thesis aside from the social control argument for the Haussmanization of Paris as Foucault
pursued, 12 Chevallier argues that the transformation of Paris was intrinsically linked to the

7
Benoît, “René Martial, 1873-1955,” 100.

8
Yankel Fijalkow, La construction des îlots insalubres. Paris 1850-1945. (Paris : L’Harmattan, 1998), 20.
9 Fabienne Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne. Histoire des Politiques d’Hygiène (1855-1898). (Rennes : Presses
Universitaires de Rennes, 2010).
10
“L’action publique menée dans le domaine de l’hygiène scolaire est le symbole de cet idéal. Les actions de la
municipalité parisienne restent toutefois en deçà des ambitions affichées dans le domaine de l’hygiène sociale, en
dépit des visions anticipatrice apportée par la régime du Seconde Empire. Ainsi, les résultats de la lutte contre le
logement insalubre, de même que le bilan des réalisations d’habitations à bon marché, sont décevants. Cette époque
précède ainsi l’affaiblissement des croyances du XIXe siècle en la vertu du progrès –progrès qui, jusque-là, se
confondait largement, dans les mentalités des acteurs de la municipalité parisienne, avec les réalisations obtenues
en matière d’hygiène.” See Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne, 45.
11
Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne, 44.
12
See Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne, 15, 54. Chevallier writes, “les travaux du philosophique Michel Foucault ne
sont plus à citer. Pour lui, l’hygiène fait partie des sciences qui ont été mobilisées à cette époque au service d’un
 7

building of modern state, a process characterized by vast constructions of the city halls and a
series of municipal buildings. These new buildings, in turn, reflected the premises of Etat-
providence in formation driven by often pragmatic doctrines, as manifested by the building of
Parisian theatres during the Second Empire. “Ces nouveaux édifices, dont l’accroissement créait
un vaste domaine public municipal, bouleversaient les relations anciennes tissées entre les
monuments et l’espace urbain.”13
While Fijalkow and Chevallier have written about hygienism in urban space of Paris,
others have focused on the relationship between the rising pouvoir public and social housing in
the late nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. To write history of social
housing of France, one is indebted to Roger-Henri Guerrand’s work Les Origines du Logement
Social en France, in which Guerrand accounts the context in which the first legislations of
habitations populaires came into being in 1850 (La loi du 13 avril 1850 sur le logement
insalubre ) and 1894 (la loi du 30 novembre 1894 sur les habitations à bon marché proposée par
Jules Siegfried).14 Meanwhile historian Hélène Frouard has interrogated in a concerted matter the
role for patronat in the realization of social housing from 1894 to 1953.15 Frouard demonstrates
how and in what ways the patronat had reacted facing the ever-present intervention of the state
on matters of workers’ housing, in light of the ideological struggle between the liberalism and
state interventionism. As Frouard pointed out, the Republic and its statesmen reasoned that a
matter as important as housing should not to be left to the hands of the industrialists.
Similarly, a number of studies have examined how urban space bred disease and social
degeneration, while focusing on the perception of disease in nineteenth-century medical
knowledge that creates ways of thinking about the relationship between the individual and
society. Physician Bénédict Augustin Morel advocated the concept of dégénérescence, or
degeneration, in his famous Treatise of 1857 to explain the network of disease and social
disorder, while naming the process of pathological change in physical conditions as being able to
transpose from individual bodies to the society at large. As defined by Bénédict Augustin Morel,
dégénérescence was thought as a “pathology that acted over generations, culminating in
cretinism, idiocy, sterility and death.”16 As historian Eric Jennings notes that, “the condition was

contrôle accru des individus par les sociétés modernes. On présentera toutefois ici une autre facette de l’hygiène.
Telle Janus, celle-ci dévoile les ressorts contradictoires qui ont permis la construction de l’Etat moderne.” (P. 15)
13
Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne, 73.
14
Roger-Henri, Guerrand. Les origines du logement social en France. (Paris : Éditions Ouvrières, 1966).
15
Hélène Frouard, Du coron au HLM. Patronat et logement social (1894-1953). (Rennes, Presses Universitaires de
Rennes, 2008).
16
Eric Jennings, Curing the Colonizers, Hydrotherapy, Climatology, and French Colonial Spas. (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2006), 23.
 8

thought to affect the spirit and the body in equal measure and increasingly came to be applied not
merely to individuals and lineages, but also to be applied to peoples and races.”17
Another important scholarship in examining the turn of using degeneration as a social
theory is the case of constructing femininity under Vichy regime, and reflections on women’s
role in the political biological thinking of the social realm, as demonstrated by the work of
sociologist Francine Muel-Dreyfus, in Vichy et l’éternel féminin.18 Muel-Dreyfus notes that the
biological metaphor of disease was used to analyze political and social situations, especially at
times of crisis. 19 Most important, as Muel-Dreyfus argues, “L’«éternelle » opposition
masculine/féminin légitimée par les sciences médicales est au cœur d’une vision inégalitaire du
monde social qui condamne l’individualisme au profit de l’organicisme.” 20 “Le discours
biologique et médical sur les pathologies sociales atteindra une très vaste audience à la fin du
siècle, dépassant largement le milieu des professionnels pour devenir un élément ordinaire du
langage politique et de la culture de crise. Le thème de la « décadence » nationale est devenu
omniprésent, et l’alcoolisme, la tuberculose et la syphilis sont construits comme « dangers
sociaux », atteintes à l’« organisme social ».”21 As shown in Muel-Dreyfus’ scholarship, the link
between social dégénérescence and organicism was established through a kind of psychological
determinism through which principles of subordination were established, making individuals
subordinate in the face of the a collective, as represented by the corps national.22 Such order also
assimilates the nation to a living organism, “un organisme vivant.”
From second half of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century,
organicism was widely employed as a framework of thinking about the way society is
organized.23 Since the first international congress of cities at Gand in 1913, studying the “object
of city” and “une science communale” became priority.24 Renaud Payre, in his study of the early
years of the journal La Vie urbaine, analyzed the organicistic penchant in the contributing
articles of architects, geographers, such as Camille Vallaux, Jacques Levainville as well as Raoul
Blanchard.25 While organicism considers the city as organic being, each part has a designated
function; yet the flip side of such conception is that any unplanned or uncontrollable initiatives
“avènement non contrôlé” were akin to a disease.26 Here, urban planner and sociologist Hubert

17
Ibid.
18
Francine Muel-Dreyfus, Vichy et l’éternel féminin. (Paris : Éditions du Seuil, 1996).
19
Muel-Dreyfus, Vichy et l’éternel féminin,289.
20
Ibid., 292.
21
Ibid., 293.
22
Ibid..
23
Schangler 1971, as cited in Payre, “Un savoir « scientifique, utilitaire et vulgarisateur»,” 17.
24
Payre, “Un savoir « scientifique, utilitaire et vulgarisateur»,” 18.
25
Ibd., 19.
26
Hubert Tonka, Préface, Introduction à l’Urbanisme – Marcel Poëte, 14.
 9

Tonka27 pointed out clearly the slippage between corporal disease and mental disorder: “A cette
époque les glissements de langage flirtant avec la maladie corporelle et psychique étaient
monnaie courante, j’étais très méfiant des abus de langage et des pseudo-métaphores,
particulièrement de celles en relation avec le corps humain, sa santé, son dérèglement, le
« bon » et le « mauvais » pour lui, puis le beau… qui correspond au bien, en fait, une sorte
d’eugénisme post-darwinnien pas très clair. ”28 Moreover, Hubert Tonka interrogates the link
between Bergson and Poëte in the preface of Introduction à l’Urbanisme-Marcel Poëte:

“Bergson, lui, ne me convenait pas du tout, le continuisme, l’évolutionnisme mâtiné de

psychologie me semblaient fonder des perspectives qui écartaient (voire éradiquaient) le
social, d’ailleurs je soupçonne que M. Poëte adhérera l’idée d’évolution créatrice plus
qu’à l’évolutionnisme à proprement parler, ce qui pouvait attirer notre homme est sans
doute le concrétisme dont Bergson teintait les réalités philosophiques qu’il revisitait; C’est
un jour à la lecture d’un texte où Bachelard évoquait les idées de Bergson que je fis le lien
entre Bergson et Poëte, comment un ensemble ténu de gestes concrets, pratiques peut bâtir
un « organicisme » en constante évolution créatrice –non cristallisé?”29

Having traced the link between hygienism and urban planning, how, then, does socialism
factor in the dialogic relations between hygiene and space? John Merriman writes that, “the most
vocal critics of contemporary urban life were utopian socialists, whose ideas of urbanisme
corresponded to what Pierre Lavedan has called “l’urbanisme constructeur”: the city as it was,
victimized by bourgeois individualism, had to be abandoned and new cities built with the aid of
science.”30 In Les Socialistes et la Ville, Grande-Bretagne, France, 1820-1850, Frédéric Moret
studied the conceptualization of space in socialist writings. 31 Moret examines the discourse of
Robert Owen and Charles Fourier in locating the problems of urban lives, and then turning to a
utopian socialist position of the denial, a “refus de la ville,” as exemplified by Owenian society
and Fourier’s phalanstère. 32 Part of the answer, as Pierre Bourguignon stresses, lies in the
Utopian and Christian philanthropists who started to criticize the functions of the industrial cities
and the inequalities produced against the working class.33 Then, “le mouvement socialiste [qui]
élabore une pensée radicale remettant en cause le système capitaliste lui-même et [qui] finira,

27
Sociologist and urban planner, Hubert Tonka had worked for Henri Lefebvre as his assistant.
28
Tonka, Préface, Introduction à l’Urbanisme, 14.
29 Ibid., 18.
30
John Merriman, “Images of the nineteenth century French City,”in French Cities in the Nineteenth Century,
ed.John Merriman, (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981), 38.
31
“Cette étude ne se limite pas à une analyse des projets urbains ; plus globalement, elle entreprend d’interroger
toutes les occurrences du thème urbain dans le discours et les théories de ces socialistes. ” See Frédéric Moret, Les
Socialistes et la Ville, Grande-Bretagne, France, 1820-1850. (Paris : ENS Editions, 1999), 9.
32
Frédéric Moret, Les Socialistes et la Ville, Grande-Bretagne, France, 1820-1850. (Paris : ENS Editions, 1999).
33
Pierre Bourguignon, Les Socialistes et la Ville. (Paris : Editions Bruno Leprince, 2005), 19.
 10

pour partie, par évoluer au niveau de la ville à ce qu’on appelle le socialisme municipal.”34
Bourguignon as well as Moret both considered utopian socialists, as represented by Robert Owen
in Britain and Charles Fourier in France, the pioneers for proposing projects of social reform.35
Another part of the answer lies in the intersection of matter of workers’ housing and
defending interests of the worker class. As Fabienne Chevallier points out, it was during the
period of solving problems of insalubrious housing that the organization of Congrès d’hygiène
ouvrière in 1892 had demonstrated well.36 Le docteur Paul Brousse as well as the leaders of
Fédération des travailleurs socialistes de France had formed alliance with Conseil Municipal de
Paris in assuring the success of the congress.37 As Aude Chamouard notes, Brousse was well
implicated in the propagation of municipalism among socialists in 1890s. 38 Opposing the
“impossibilisme” of the gesdistes, Brousse and his followers gravitated towards concrete
realisations in terms of proving muninicipal public services for the working class.39 While the
demolition of the entire quartier gave new meanings to hygiensm, making it the tool for
modernizing the city, this social critique of the urban policies of the Second Empire was taken on
by the socialistes possibilistes, who had taken over Conseil Municipal of Paris in 1892.40
Using the example of the labor day march of 1892, historian Joan W. Scott pointed out in
“Mayors versus police chiefs: socialist municipalities confront the French state,” 41 that the
evolution of municipal socialism in the late nineteenth century reflected the conflict between the
centralized state and ordinary French men and women. “Joan Scott’s article challenges the thesis
that the annual May Day marches, processions and festivals of labour and municipal socialism
served to ‘integrate’ workers into national political life dominated by the bourgeoisie and by
Paris. Scott shows how communes with socialist majorities attempted to create within the
bourgeois state an alternative model of government that was decentralized, municipal and based
upon the solidarities of the extended working-class family, in opposition to the power of French
capitalism and its ally, the state.” 42 Indeed, as Scott, Moret, Chamouard and Chevallier
demonstrated, socialist involvement with matters of the urban space starts from the spatialization
of social problems and social inequality. Meanwhile, other historians and political scientists have
studied exclusively the process of municipal socialism and their implantation in the banlieue of
34
Bourguignon, Les Socialistes et la Ville, 19.
35
See Frédéric Moret, Les Socialistes et la Ville, Graned-Bretagne, France, 1820-1850. (Paris : ENS Editions,
1998). See also Pierre Bourguignon, Les Socialistes et la Ville. (Paris : Editions Bruno Leprince, 2005).
36
Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne, 125.
37
Ibid.
38
Aude Chamouard, Une Autre Histoire du Socialisme,(Paris : CNRS Editions, 2013).
39
Chamouard, Une Autre Histoire du Socialisme, 37.
40
Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne, 158.
41
Joan Scott, “Mayors versus police chiefs: socialist municipalities confront the French state,” John Merriman
(edited), French Cities in the Nineteenth Century. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981), 230-245.
42
Merrimann, “Images of the nineteenth century French city,”30.
 11

Paris, in the effort to uncover the particular episode of socialist engagement with the urban
management.43
Many scholars have written about the beginning of urban studies and urban planning in
France. Abundant scholarship has been produced concerning the adoption of the very form of
cité-jardin in France, as well as leaders of the garden city movement.44 The monumental work of
Christian Topalov, Laboratoires du nouveau siècle, has investigated and unraveled the myriad
connections between social reformers of the Musée Social and various institutions of the Third
Republic, including circles of early urban planners.45 Focusing exclusively on the incipiency of
the first school of urban studies from 1910 to 1920, Rémi Baudouï sheds lights on the genesis of
the first school of urban studies, by presenting the continuities in the teaching personnel from
l’Institut d’Histoire, de Géographie et d’Economie Urbaines, via l’École d’Art Public, all the
way to E.H.E.U. and later on I.U.U.P. Baudouï summarizes that “c’est avant tout autre chose un
champ de réflexion intellectuel sur les conditions d’une action réformiste dont les protagonistes
épousent au quotidien les opportunités d’officialisation et d’institutionnalisation.”46Meanwhile,
scholars such as Daniel Matus Carrasco have also mobilized important archival sources from the
Institut d’Urbanisme d’Université de Paris, especially the students’ mémoire de fin d’étude.
Matus Carrasco studied the use of bibliographical sources in the students’ theses (1922 -1937) of
E.H.E.U. and I.U.U.P.47
While these studies provided abundant readings and ways of thinking about the
establishment of urban study and its consolidation in view of various neighboring disciplines,
such as history and geography, few have examined this period through the lens of discursive
appropriation. Or, few have focused on questions of representation and power, in treating this
subject. Still, my decision to write about discursive representations of student theses at Institut

43
See Emmanelle Bellanger, “Du Socialisme au Grande Paris Solidaire, Henri Sllier ou la Passion des Villes,”
Histoire urbaine, 37 (2013), 31-52. Renaud Payre, “Les désillusions réformatrices, le thème de la réforme
municipale dans la France de l’après-guerre mondiale,” Revue Française d’administration publique, 108 (2003),
593-602. Katherine Burlen, Katherine Burlen, Banlieue Oasis, Henri Sellier et les cités-jardins (1900-1940), (Saint-
Denis, Presses Universitaires de Vincennes-Université de Paris-VIII, 1987).
44
See Katherine Burlen, Banlieue Oasis, Henri Sellier et les cités-jardins (1900-1940), (Saint-Denis, Presses
Universitaires de Vincennes-Université de Paris-VIII, 1987). Laurant Coudroy de Lille, “Henri Sellier 1883-1943 ou
la cause des villes. Retour sur un engagement en urbanisme,”Histoire Urbaine, 37 (2013) : 5-5. Accessed June 10,
2014. doi :10.3917/rhu.037.0005. See also Mayalène Guelton « De la cité-jardin à la cité-linéaire. Georges Benoit-
Lévy : parcours d’un propagandiste idéaliste (1903-1939). Defended 16 juin, 2008 at Université de Versailles Saint-
Quentin-en Yvelines.
45
Christian Yopalov, Laboratoires du nouveau siècle. La nébuleuse réformatrice et ses réseaux en France, 1880-
1914. (Paris : Éditions EHESS, 1999).
46
Rémi Badouï, La Naissance de l’École des hautes études urbaines et le premier enseignement de l’urbanisme en
France, des années 1910 aux années 1920, (Paris : École d’Architecture de Paris-Villemin/A.R.D.U. Paris VIII,
1988), 143.
47
Daniel Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937 : les étudiants et les sources bibliographiques,”
under supervision of professor Jean-Pierre Frey, defended in 2009 at Institut d’Urbanisme de Paris.
 12

d’Urbanisme de l’Université de Paris warrants explanations. As a student of language, I became

fascinated by questions of representations. Having been introduced to Michel Foucault’s
conceptualization of discourse and Henri Lefevre’s theory on socials space, I decided to study
urban history with methods of discursive analysis, following questions of representation. While
various studies have focused on the beginning and the development of urban planning in France,
few have examined the texts produced by first generations of urban planners. By examining
I.U.U.P. students’ theses from 1921-1950, this study has identified ten theses that either focused
directly on cité-jardin, or have involved the discussion of its feasibility and application in
France, as primary texts. Moreover, the chosen periodization needs further justification, as 1919-
1950 includes the post-war period that exceeds the 1919-1939 interwar periodization. The reason
for such arrangement is that the three theses written after 1939 demonstrated continuity in the
discussion of urban art and the treatment of the issue of comfort in Habitation à Bon Marché.
Such continuity allowed for better understanding of the theses written in the years before.
As this study will show, hygienist movement and socialist municipalism constituted two
centerpieces for understanding the various discursive representations of cité-jardin between 1919
and 1950. 48 Situating at the crossroad of history of urban studies, history of medicine and
hygienist movement, this study strives to unravel the circulation of legitimacy, authority and
power in the elite discourse through means of discursive appropriation of socialist and hygienist
discourse. This is a study inspired by the circulation of ideas, especially the promulgation of the
urban form, cité-jardin, in the crossroads between the representation of space and circulation of
discourse. Tracing the history of the social housing in France from late nineteenth century to the
garden city movement in the interwar years, with a focus on the creation of cités-jardins in Paris
region, this study will look into the representations of cité-jardin in the writings of student thesis
at the Institut d'Urbanisme de l'Université de Paris, while examining the ways in which elite
discourses on cité-jardin provided a window to the re-appropriations of hygienist and socialist
discourses. As my project is closely related to notions of power and discourse, it calls for
theoretical underpinnings and method of analysis outlined by Michel Foucault in his concept of
Discursive Formation, and the method of Archeology of Knowledge.

48
This study choses to use the French word cité-jardin instead of garden city (as the concept coined by Ebenezer
Howard) precisely because of the alterations made when introducing Howardian concept to France, that the model
of “cité-jardin” does not necessary share the whole set of structures as the original British model.
 13

Method of analysis

While considering Michel Foucault’s contribution to the field of discourse analysis,

scholars often turn to the following three texts as reference: Les Mots et les choses (1966),
L’Archéologie du savoir (1969) and L’Ordre du discours, an inaugural lecture given at Collège
de France on 2 December 1970. While Foucault’s theoretical undertaking has inspired works in
many areas, his influence on discourse studies is partly linked to his notion of “formation
discursive”(discourse formation) and power. After Foucault’s introduction of this notion in
1969, it facilitated the production of many articles in 1970s in France. Starting from 1980s,
scholars have witnessed a decline in its deployment in France.49 Meanwhile, Michel Pêcheux’s
publication of Analyse automatique du discours (1969) represented the start of “L’École
française d’analyse du discours,” paying tribute to “le marxisme althussérien, la psychanalyse
lacanienne et la linguistique structurale.” 50 Although the Foucauldian notion of “formation
discursive” has witnessed transformations and re-interpretation, in France and elsewhere, this
study will focus mainly on its conceptualization in L’Archéologie du savoir (1969), where
Michel Foucault systematically introduced the notion of discourse formation.
Before unpacking the theoretical components, it seems pertinent to first discuss the
context in which Foucault developed this concept. For instance, philosopher Philippe Sabot
situates Foucault’s conceptualization of discourse formation in the debate that features a
bifurcation of the path inspired by Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological inquiry into the crises of
European scientific endeavor, to either pursue “a philosophy of knowledge, of rationality and
concept” or to pursue “a philosophy of experience, meaning and subject.” 51 Sabot states that
Foucault had well chosen his position in L’Archéologie du savoir, which is the philosophy of
knowledge, and the method of “une analyse historique des systèmes d’énoncés, considéré
indépendamment de leurs instances énonciatives.”52 Sabot further explicates that the theoretical

49
Roselyne Ringoot, “Questionner le discours avec Michel Foucault. Actualisations théoriques et actualité
éditoriale,” Mots. Les Langages du politique, 94 (2010) : 199-207, acessed May 12, 2014. doi :10.4000/mots.19887.
50
Dominique Maingueneau, “Pertinence de la notion de formation discursive en analyse de discours,” Langage et
Société, 2011/1, no.135, 88.
51
Philippe Sabot, “L’expérience, le savoir et l’histoire dans les premiers écrits de Michel Foucault,” Archives de
Philosophie, 2006/2 Tome 69, 285-286. Edmund Husserl was introduced in France in the conference on February
1929, where he published Méditations cartésiennes, a text that marked the introduction of phenomenology into
France.
52
Philippe Sabot, “L’expérience, le savoir et l’histoire dans les premiers écrits de Michel Foucault,” Archives de
Philosophie, 2006/2 Tome 69, 288
 14

construct that Foucault proposes here is not one that seeks to make a claim about “transcendental
subjectivity” or the lived-experiences that phenomenologists often resort to. 53 Rather, what
Foucault proposes here is to see the interconnectedness of what has been said, that is the
multitudinous ways that various statement (“énoncés”) are related to one another, at its very
superficial level, by looking at the regularities of their occurrences. “Superficial” means that
Foucault’s method is not preoccupied with the objet that a set of statement references to,
or the meaning of behind what has been said, but with “statement” (what has been said) itself.
Specifically, Foucault used the example of historian and biologist Georges Canguilhem, to
elaborate on the historical approach to analysis, one that is not simply an exercise of the search
for precursors but the search for new type of rationality and its various effects. 54 What Foucault
was concerned with, the shifting and transformation of concepts, should not be viewed as going
through a progressive refinement, rather as constitution and validation at various places: “celle
de ses règles successives d’usage, des milieux théoriques multiples où s’est poursuivie et achevée
son élaboration.”55 In this sense, the archeological endeavor that Foucault advocates is not to
trace retrospectively the continual history of Reason (“histoire continuiste de la Raison”), rather
it concerns itself with “la mise en jeu des concepts de discontinuité, de rupture, de seuil, de
limite, de série, de transformation [qui] pose à toute analyse historique non seulement des
questions de procédure mais des problèmes théoriques.”56
Foucault’s concept of discourse formation is based very much on the conceptualization of
“énoncé”, or “statement.” First of all, there is no accident that Foucault states at the very first
sentence on the chapter on “Les formations discursives” of L’Archéologie du savoir that he
wants to describe the relations between “statements” as the primary units of “discours.” 57
Foucault notes, the unit of analysis, or “statement,” is not what is said or argued in a book in its
entirety. Rather, it is the defined as “any series of signs, figures, marks, or traces – what their
organization or probability may be – is enough to constitute a statement; […] there is a statement
whenever a number of signs are juxtaposed – or even, perhaps, - when there is a single sign. The
53
Sabot writes that “c’est dans cette perspective générale que l’archéologie du savoir s’oppose à toute philosophie
reposant sur le primat du sujet constituant, de la conscience fondatrice, ou de l’expérience vécue.” See Philippe
Sabot, “L’expérience, le savoir et l’histoire dans les premiers écrits de Michel Foucault,” Archives de Philosophie,
2006/2 Tome 69, 289.
54
“Ils prescrivent ainsi à l’analyse historique non plus la recherche des commencements silencieux, non plus à la
remontée sans terme vers les premiers précurseurs, mais le repérage d’un type nouveau de rationalité et de ses
effets multiples.” Foucault, L’Archéologie du savoir, (Paris : Éditions Gallimard, 1969), 11.
55
Ibid.
56
Ibid., 33.
57
Regarding discourse, Foucault admits that instead of reducing the “fluctuating meaning of the word
‘discourse,’[he] believed that [he] have in fact added to its meanings: treating it sometimes as the general domain of
all statements, sometimes as an individualizable group of statements, and sometimes as an individualizable group of
statements, and sometimes as a regulated practice that accounts for a certain number of statements.” Michel
Foucault, The Archeology of Knowledge,(New York : Pantheon Books, 1972), 80.
 15

threshold of the statement is the threshold of the existence of signs.”58 Further, clarifying on the
relationship between “statement” and “speech act,” Foucault maintains that it would take a set of
“statements” in order to constitute a “speech act” or an “illocutionary act,” as exemplified by the
formulation of a promise, an order, a contract and an engagement. In other words, what has been
said and the context within which it was pronounced, constituted the very speech act itself.59
Foucault continues to emphasize the reciprocity in this mutually constitutive relation between
“statement” and action, by stating that “chaque acte prendrait corps dans un énoncé et chaque
énoncé serait, de l’intérieur, habité par l’un de ces actes. Ils existeraient l’un par l’autre, et dans
une exacte réciprocité.”60
After establishing the relationship between “statement” and action, Foucault further
hypothesizes the relationship between “statement” and “object” (“objet”) by suggesting that all
the statements referencing to a common “object” should be grouped together. (“Les énoncés
différents dans leur forme, dispersés dans le temps, forment un ensemble s’ils se réfèrent à un
seul et même objet.)” 61 Meanwhile, this constitutive relationship between the “group of
statements” (un ensemble d’énoncés) and the “object” is far from stable, that it remains open to
transformation. (“Chacun de ces discours a constitué son objet et l’a travaillé jusqu'à le
transformer entièrement.”) 62 Moreover, using the example of psychopathology, Foucault
explains the relational traits that allow for the identification of a group of statements are the
various ways in which the object emerges according to a set of rules: “le jeu des règles qui
rendent possible une période donnée l’apparition d’objets: objets qui sont découpés par des
mesures de discrimination et de répression, objets qui se différencient dans la pratique
quotidienne, dans la jurisprudence, dans la casuistique religieuse, dans le diagnostic des
médecins, objets qui se manifestent dans des descriptions pathologiques, objets qui sont cernés
par des codes ou recettes de médication, de traitement, de soins.”63
Foucault also specifies the method of analysis that he wants to put forward by the
archeology of knowledge. He maintains that attentions should be paid to the dispersion of objects
and the law of their distribution. 64 In other words, the method he proposes is to uncover a

58
Foucault, The Archeology of Knowledge, 84.
59
Foucault, L’Archéologie du savoir, 115.
60
Ibid.
61
Foucault, L’Archéologie du savoir, 48.
62
“L’objet qui est posé, comme leur corrélat, par les énoncés médicaux du XVII e ou du XVIIIe siècle, n’est pas
identique à l’objet qui se dessine à travers les sentences juridiques ou les mesures policières; de même, tous les
objets du discours psychopathlogique ont été modifiés de Pinel ou d’Esquirol à Bleurer :ce ne sont point des mêmes
maladies qu’il est question ici et là ; ce ne sont point des mêmes fous qu’il est question. ” See Foucault,
L’Archéologie du savoir, 49.
63
Ibid.
64
Ibid., 50.
 16

“system,” the laws of dispersions, and rules of formation.65 Therefore, it is through this grouping
of statements, the identification of the system of dispersion, correlations and transformation that
Foucault defines the concept of discursive formation: “[…] entre un certain nombre d’énoncés,
un pareil système de dispersion, dans le cas où entre les objets, les types d’énonciation, les
concepts, les choix thématique, on pourrait définir une régularité (un ordre, des corrélations,
des positions et des fonctionnements, des transformations), on dira, par convention, qu’on a
affaire à une formation discursive […]”66
Further on, Foucault differentiates his project of archeology of knowledge from that of the
history of ideas.67 This is an important differentiation as it clarifies Foucault’s position and the
method of his analysis. Foucault understands the project of the history of ideas as one that treads
on the margins of history, assuming a mission that cuts across existing disciplines, creating
passages across disciplinary boundaries, pursuing themes of “genèse, continuité, totalisation.”68
The project of archeology of knowledge, on the other hand, concerned itself more with defining
the specificity of the discourses, instead of tracing preceding discourses. 69 That rather searching
for continuities, the archeology of knowledge is more interested in identifying ruptures,
transformations and modes of correlation. With such differentiation in mind, we can now
approach the question why the Foucauldian notion of discourse formation is important to this
study. How and in what ways do the transformation and the relay of hygienist discourse from
eighteenth century to nineteenth century have implications for the hygienist discourse of the
beginning of the twentieth century? In a similar vein, how have nineteenth and the twentieth
century socialist discourses impacted the urban planners of the interwar years? How have
perception of disease and theories of degeneration affected the ways politicians think about
social and urban issues? If the mission, as Foucault advocated, is not to simply trace the origin of
the discourse, how should we proceed once captured its “regularity of occurrences”?
In order to answer this set of questions, we need to further untangle the relationship
between Foucauldian conceptualization of discourse formation and power. On discourse and
power, Foucault argues that “power must be analyzed as something which circulates; or rather as

65
Philippe Sabot, “L’expérience, le savoir et l’histoire dans les premiers écrits de Michel Foucault,” Archives de
Philosophie, 2006/2 Tome 69, 289.
66
Foucault, L’Archéologie du savoir, 56.
67
Ibid., 115.
68
Foucault writes, “[L’histoire des idées] montre comment le savoir scientifique se diffuse, donne lieu à des
conceptions philosophiques, et prend forme éventuellement dans des œuvres littéraires ; elle montre comment des
problèmes, des notions, des thèmes peuvent émigrer du champ philosophique où ils ont été formulés vers des
discours scientifiques ou politiques… ” (Foucault, L’Archéologie du savoir, 186.)
69
Foucault specifies that the project of the archeology of knowledge is different from the history of ideas in terms of
the treatment of originality and regularity; analysis of the contradictions; comparative descriptions; identification of
transformations----l’assignation de nouveauté; l’analyse des contradictions; descriptions comparatives; repérage
des transformations.
 17

something which only functions in the form of a chain.”70 That is, the study of power should not
be individual-based, rather it should anchor in the web of social relations established on
interchanges of discourses. The Foucauldian concept of “statement” is instructive in
understanding the ways in which discourse functions as a social rule, or a social force. In turn,
the institution sustains the discursive practices that take shape within itself. To use the example
of the history of psychiatry, the birth of the discipline, for Foucault, involves the set of
statements on what is “normal” and “abnormal,” and a set of practices concerning how to treat
people who are considered as “abnormal,” through the various ways of differentiation, diagnosis
and treatment, and finally the institutionalization and legitimization of such practices. It all has to
do with the power relationships established throughout this process, between psychiatric patient
and doctors, between psychiatrists and practitioners of neighboring disciplines. Foucault also
suggests that the “material conditions” or the “material consequences” are aspects of the speech
that gets caught up in the institutional practices of this proposition. That is to say, the discursive
practices and institutional practices are mutually constitutive. Therefore, it is through this
analysis of discourse, and by extension, the analysis of power that this study seeks to exploit
from the Foucauldian notion of discursive formation.

Having defined the key concepts of this study and relationship between discourse and
power, it is important to articulate the method of analysis that this study uses in “opening up” the
primary texts. As Foucault’s conceptualization of discursive formation and power are the two
centerpieces of the theoretical underpinning for this study, the very method of analysis articulates
in the language of the Foucauldian project of archeology of knowledge. That is to read the
primary text, while looking for places where various kinds of discourse and ways of
representation emerge. Moreover, such analysis requires, as Foucault puts it, an exercise of the
“grouping of statements,” meaning that a concerted effort to put together similar ways or
strategies of representation, focusing on what the statements were trying to express, and the
“objects” of such expressions, instead of digging into the “deeper” meanings behind the
representation. However, such effort should not limit itself to the sheer identification of different
type of discourses through the texts, but rather it should extend to a rigorous examination of the
various ways in which different discourses articulate with one another, by looking at their ways
of transformation and the implications on constructing power relationships.
Meanwhile, the particular form of the primary text requires further explications. The
corpus is constituted of mémoires de fin d’étude, written by students of I.U.U.P. dating from
1926 to 1950. As I will explain later in the study, the very form of the theses was rather peculiar,

70
Paul Rabinow, “Space, Knowledge, and Power,” The Foucault Reader, (Pairs : Pantheon Books, 1984), 98.
 18

while the purpose of carrying out independent research was as much as a process of examining
students’ command of knowledge taught in seminars, as a process of selecting peers, and urban
planners of the future. There are two points to be made in clarifying the method of analysis.
First; this study focuses less on the technical aspects of the model of cité-jardin in the content of
the texts, meaning that there will be no evaluation on how successfully students mobilized taught
theories, on spatial and social organizations of cité-jardin or other matters of urban planning per
se, for the planning of streets and public facilities of their own projects.71 Rather, it looks at how
students articulate their ideas through certain “colored lens” of representations, for example, how
they understand relationships between men and nature, how they conceptualize as middle class,
working class, their needs, and the relationships between the two, or how they represent social
needs of the working class families, how the housing situation of the working class affects the
society as a whole, how and in what ways social services and social assistance program should
intervene in people’s lives, etc. These questions would point to the part of students’ writing
where it provides a window into what they perceive as problems and solutions to urban matter.
Second, the critical axes of class, race, and gender inform analysis of the primary texts. These
categories provide rich readings into unstable relationships of power, where constructions of
class, race and gender are closely related and mutually informative. The grouping of
“statements,” as Foucault prescribes, involving one or multiple categories, allows for an analysis
that shows how socialist and hygienist ideologies have become a “screen” onto which problems
and solutions concerning cities and societies are projected. For, the ways in which elite
discourses talk about problems of public hygiene, diseases, social housing issues, social services,
and urban planning included, were articulated through the “screen” of hygienism and socialism.
as they operate together in constituting power relationships.
The following sections will provide answers to the questions above. The first part will
focus on hygienism and the development of housing policies in nineteenth century and the first
half of twentieth century Paris. This part of the study will also contextualize the introduction of
garden city, or cité-jardin, to France and its appropriation, the myriad relationships established
between the milieu of social reformers, the period of municipal socialism, as well as the regional
planning of Paris in the interwar period. The second part of the study will focus on I.U.U.P., the
history of its establishment, organization structure, teaching method and important teaching
faculties, the official publication of the school, La Vie urbaine. This part will also present the
particular format that students followed in writing their theses, the purpose of such exercise, its
organization, as well as the relationship between directors of thesis and subject matter chosen by

71
Although, some of the textual analysis does involve concrete examples of how students’ understand the model of
cité-jardin. But, again, the purpose is to capture the instances in which a planning idea was discussed, and
oftentimes juxtaposed, in light of other competing and/or derivative models.
 19

the students. Finally, in the third part, this study will engage in textual analysis of the students’
theses, with the attempt to unravel the hybridity in hygienist and socialist discourses, with regard
to the critical axes of class, race and gender.
 20

Part I. Hygienism and Housing Policies in Nineteenth Century and

the Beginning of Twentieth Century France

Class and Hygienism under Haussmanian Paris

Historian Janet Horne has noted that eighteenth century hygienists were concerned with
individual moral attributes, while their nineteenth century counterparts were preoccupied with
questions of hygiene from the public and social perspective. 72 While insalubrity, epidemic
disease along with revolutions ravaged Paris of the long nineteenth century, doctors made the
insalubrious living conditions of the urban lower class as the culprit of the spread of disease and
death. Before Haussmann’s transformation of Paris, the medieval city was riddled with dank
back street, overcrowded houses with poor ventilation, little sunlight, and ineffective sewer
system and putrefied air. Growth in industrialization and urbanization rates only made things
worse by drawing in large numbers of workers that the city could no longer house. After cholera
hit Paris in 1832, taking away 18 602 lives, physicians and hygienists alike investigated into the
wretched conditions in which working class live.
After several rounds of research, prominent Parisian doctors of the time declared war
against insalubrious housing, which they claim as the reason for working class plight. For
example, among the early classics of public health literature, there was the Topographie
médicale de Paris (1822) by doctor Claude Lachaise who voiced his concerns over the dense
population of Paris, housed in over-crowded homes, with poor ventilation and a general lack of
sunlight, constituting a very unhealthy urban living environment. Later, Louis-René Villermé
used statistical method to map out the mortality rate in different districts of Paris. Together with
Villermé, doctor Alexandre Parent- Duchâtelet established the journal Annales d’hygiène
publique et de médecine légale. A member of the Board of Health in Paris, Parent-Duchâtelet
conducted researches that primarily concerned with sewerage.73
As historian Fabienne Chevallier points out the period between 1788 and 1855 witnessed
the birth of social hygiene. 74 Since Restauration, private homes of the poor became public

72
Janet Horne, Le Musée Social aux Origines de l’État Providence (Paris: Belin, 2004).
73
Andrew Lees, Cities Perceived: Urban Society in European and American Thought, 1820-1940. (Manchester
University Press, Manchester: 1985), 70-71.
74
Chevallier, Le Paris Modere, 36.
 21

matter. In 1827, Conseil de Salubrité proposed to scrutinize housing constructions with sanitary
regulations. “En 1820, le conseil met pour la première fois en relation la mauvaise hygiene des
habitations, soustraites aux rayons du soleil, et la tuberculose.”75 Feared of unrest, the regime of
the July Monarchy used the sanitary state of the workers’ home to gauge their political
reaction.76 After 1842, authorities began single out matters such as the heating, lighting as well
as the circulation of air, while considering housing conditions. 77 Starting from 1848, logement
insalubre became a public matter, which allows for both actions of eliminating houses that did
not meet sanitary regulations, and constructing homes for those in need.78
Meanwhile in France, behind the screen of public hygiene campaign there was the
aspiration for the biological regeneration of the French stock. Hygienists saw the scientific
breakthrough of Pasteurization and vaccination as the solution for a society that had boggled
down in dégénérescence, or degeneration. In his famous Treatise of 1857 Physician Bénédict
Augustin Morel used the concept of degeneration to explain the network of disease and social
disorder, while naming the process of pathological change in physical conditions as being able to
transpose from individual bodies to the society at large. Physicians like Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
inspired by Darwinism, advocated degeneration theories that studied the heredity of criminality.
In a similar fashion, Alain Corbin suggests that nineteenth- century French physicians
understood prostitution as a disease with a hereditary nature in his study of the history of
commercialized sexuality. Such arguments link the presence of prostitution to social
degeneration.79 Likewise, Ruth Harris analyzed the role of French physicians in voicing concerns
over social-hygiene associated with alcoholism and working class men. Harris argues that
medical examiners while serving for government commissions helped to construct “a chain
which linked the individual drunk to general perceptions of abnormality, social dangerousness
and national degeneration.” 80 The slippage between environmental and moral factors became
salient in explaining the working class alcoholism and sexual promiscuity that led to the rampant
spread of syphilis, along with other venereal diseases.
In fact, nineteenth century disease prevention was fraught with entangled class relations.
Public health reforms were headed by hygienists who held “the ambitions to impose the
standards of personal hygiene and moderate behavior characteristic of middle-class public health

75
Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne, 36.
76
Ibid., 36.
77
Here, by authories, I mean both préfet de police, Gabriel Delessert (1794-1858) and his successor, Jacques
Trouvé-Chauvel (1805-1885). See Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne, 39-40.
78
Chevallier, Le Paris Moderne, 36.
79
Alain Corbin, Women for Hire, Prostitution and Sexuality in France after 1850. (Harvard University Press,
Cambridge: 1990).
80
Ruth Harris, Murders and Madness, Medicine, Law, and Society in the Fin de siècle, (Clarendon press, Oxford:
1989), 248.
 22

officials not only down the social scale, on lower classes feared as uncouth and insalubrious, but
also upwards, on aristocrats often regarded as sexually promiscuous, gustatorially insatiable and
morally suspect. ” 81 Here, disease is considered as a product of history. “The diversity of
signification attached to disease itself holds equally for the means employed to prevent and
contain its spread.” Likewise, for Foucault, there is always the “sociability” in the attending to
the ill: “Disease can be cured only if others intervene with their knowledge, their resources, their
pity [...]; the illnesses of some should be transformed into the experience of others.”82
In this sense, the nineteenth-century French hygienists campaign in inculcating healthy
lifestyle and better personal hygiene was a very classed effort. Public hygiene reforms were
largely guided by ascending bourgeois ideology that advocates for hard work, rationality, and
practices of moderation. That is to “make the hygienic habits of the urban middle classes the
standards to which all could be held.” While many have written about the bourgeois anxiety over
the insalubrious living conditions of the urban lower class, some argued in particular that the
collective effort in dealing with contagious disease helped to promote “civilized behavior,” and
foster better personal hygiene. 83 For bourgeois hygienist of the day, the unhygienic habits of the
lower class were the major threat to the health of the city.
Sharing the same passion as the hygienists for building a more livable city, Louis-
Napoleon III decided to transform medieval Paris into a modern city. He hired Baron Haussmann
as the master for his grand project. With full support of the emperor, the Baron demolished two-
thirds of the buildings, wiping the dark alleys off the map, along with houses that “kill.” He gave
Paris broad Straight-lining Boulevard, and urban space filled with sunlight and fresh air.
However, it would be rather inaccurate to assume that Napoleon III and his Préfet de la Seine
orchestrated the transformation alone. Apart from the will of the emperor and his master planner,
we also need to acknowledge the power wielded by various medical and political elites and
understand how and in what ways their discourses notably that of the hygienist discourse played
an important role in the spatial reorganization of Paris in the second half of the nineteenth
century.
What came out of the decade long effort to rebuild Paris was the transformation of old
Paris into a bourgeois space where the physical and social boundaries of the city were re-
negotiated. The relation between space and power produced a different set of meaning that was
loaded with class implications. In fact, historians have studied the relationship between urban
space and state power. For example, Foucault identified the beginning of eighteenth century as a
81
Peter Baldwin, Contagion and the State in Europe 1830-1930, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2004), 5
82
Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic, An Archaeology of Medical Perception (New York: Vintage, 1994), 84.
83
John Goudsblom, “Zivilisation, Ansteckungsangst und Hygiene: Betrachtungen über ein Aspekt des europäischen
zivilisationsprozesses,” in Peter Gleichmann et al., eds., Materialen zu Norbert Elias’ Zivilisationstheorie
(Frankfurt, 1977), 216-18.
 23

key moment of modern urban history in which government sensed the potential of architectural
and territorial management in social control.84 It was until eighteenth century that the political
aspect of architectural design came afore in cities where political power developed a system of
governmentality.85
Specifically, he notes “the city was no longer perceived as a place of privilege, as an
exception in a territory of fields, forests, and roads. The cities were no longer islands beyond the
common law. Instead, the cities, with the problems that they raised, and the particular forms that
they took, served as the models for the governmental rationality that was to apply to the whole of
the territory.”86 Taking the example of Paris, almost all of the major threats of the nineteenth
century expressed themselves in urban space, in the crowded space for housing the poor, on the
street, and near monumental buildings.
In Margins of City Life: Explorations on the French Urban Frontiers, 1815 – 1851, John
Merriman pointed out that spatial marginalization often suggests social marginalization.87 Taken
the example of faubourg88 in the first half of nineteenth century France, John Merriman argues
that peripheral position of faubourg made it both the “dumping ground” for everything and
everyone rejected by the city from the center and an area of fear where middle class men and
women projected their fear for violence and crime. 89 In this sense, physical and social
marginality worked together to produce exclusion. Yet, the images of the “fearsome faubourg”
were rather fluid and malleable: They were the prostitutes and vagabonds, during the First
Empire; the industrial workers or the “new barbarians” for the political elites of July Monarchy.

84
Rabinow, “Space, Knowledge, and Power,” 239.
85
In the publication of Sécurité, territoire, population et Naissance de la biopolitique, featuring the lectures
Foucault delivered at Collège de France between 1977 and 1979, “gouvernementalité” remained the central notion.
“La gouvernementalité est un néologisme inventé par Foucault qui vient ainsi élargir le champ lexical des langages
du politique. Par cette désignation, il saisit et signifie la matérialité étatique en marquant la volonté de s’attacher
aux pratiques de l’État plus qu’à sa théorie ou à son essence. Le gouvernement est pour lui un substantif
fonctionnant comme un verbe transitif direct : le gouvernement des autres ou encore le gouvernement de soi. À
l’opposé de la gouvernance qui peut être bonne, mauvaise, mondiale ou locale, la gouvernementalité exclut tout
épithète. Il s’agit d’un concept qui renvoie à l’effectuation plus qu’à l’intention, à la concrétisation plus qu’au
programme. Reprendre à son compte le concept de gouvernementalité aujourd’hui est une manière d’élargir le
champ des empires des actions et des techniques de gouvernement, de repérer le degré d’étatisation de la société.
C’est aussi mesurer les paradoxes du libéralisme contraignant qui implique plus de liberté et de bien-être, par le
biais des technologies de pouvoir d’autant plus efficaces qu’il faut « gouverner moins ».” Roselyne Ringoot,
“Questionner le discours avec Michel Foucault. Actualisations théoriques et actualité éditoriale,” Mots. Les
Langages du politique, 94 (2010) :202, acessed May 12, 2014. doi :10.4000/mots.19887.
86
Rabinow, “Space, Knowledge, and Power,” 241.
87
John Merriman, The Margins of City Life : Explorations on the French Urban Frontier, 1815-1851, New York
and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
88
As John Merriman demonstrated, “faubourg” had an important role in French urban social history as it provided
housing for large agricultural population and factory workers in eighteenth and nineteenth century.
89
Merriman, The Margins of City Life, 59 - 79.
 24

The middle class fear of the working class “others,” hidden in the peripheries of the city, were
translated into more policing control of the faubourg and other boundary regions.
On the other hand, discourse played an important role in the configuration of space and
power relationship. As Foucault notes, “educational and psychiatric institutions, with their large
populations, their spatial arrangements, their surveillance systems, constituted, alongside the
family, another way of distributing the interplay of powers and pleasures.”90 Thus, just like the
classroom of the educational institutions, psychiatric ward for the aliénistes, and prison in the
carceral system, hygienic housing offers the spatial construct for articulating bourgeois ideals in
France. In addition, the early nineteenth-century French hygienist campaign in inculcating
healthy lifestyle and better personal hygiene was also voiced in a classed language that strived to
make the hygienic habits of the urban middle classes the standards for all. 91 Just like the
unhygienic habits of the working class, the logement insalubre was considered as major threat to
the health of the city by the bourgeois hygienists. The power of the hygienist discourse aided
Haussmann and the emperor to clear away all kinds of barriers on the policy level, giving the
administration the ultimate control over the expropriation of individual properties. 92
After all the turbulence of June 1848, Napoleon III was determined to prevent another
revolution, street insurrection and any form of urban riots. Fully aware of the strategic value of
the city center, the emperor instructed his planner to “confiscate” the center area (la Cité,
Châtelet-Hotel de Ville), while building boulevards and barracks to contain riots in case of an
uprising. As historian Jordon Porter notes, “the boulevards isolated the ‘dangerous classes’ from
the bourgeoisie and at the same time cut them off from the center of the city which was cleansed
of its riotous population.”93 Furthermore, the annexation of Paris banlieue served to “bring the
entire urban sprawl under one administrative umbrella and thus deprive the Paris poor of the
reinforcement from the suburbs.”94 The will to execute spatial control over the city landscape
manifested in the ways in which new boulevards cut across or demolish old streets, producing
new borderlines for the îlot, which in turn became the new texture of the Haussmannian city.

90
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, (New York: Vintage, 1990), 46.
91
Peter Baldwin, Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830-1930, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
92
One article of the law of 1850 concerning the logement insalubres, gave the administration, or le préfet de la
Seine a definitive power on matters of expropriation of buildings on the streets of reconstruction. A more specific
example would be le percement de la rue de Rivoli en 1851, in which a decree was ordered saying, « dans tout
projet d’expropriation pour l’élargissement , le redressement ou la formation des rues de Paris, l4administration
aura la faculté de comprendre la totalité des immeubles atteints, lorsqu’elle jugera que les parties restantes ne sont
pas d’une étendue ou d’une forme qui permettre d’y élever des constructions salubres. » Reference to “Spéculation
et Société : les grands travaux à Paris au XIXe Siècle”by Alain Faure in Histore, économie et Société (2004) 23-3,
444.
93
David Pordan, “THE CITY: Baron Haussmann and Modern Paris,” The American Scholar 61-1 (1992), 100.
94
Ibid.
 25

One of the key features in the Haussmann project was its treatment of îlot that produced
uniform façade, with geometrical accuracy. What Haussmann imposed here was a rational,
geometric spatial order that cohered to the aspirations of Modernity. Just like the hygienist’
belief in the power of Pasteurism science in winning the battle against microbes, it is the
scientific and rational division and planning of the îlot that made ways for a modernist conquest
of the medieval city. It was the scientific, and ultra-rational approaches to compartmentalize
each individual unit in a Haussmann îlot that marks its distinctiveness, for example, “chaque
parcelle est tracée rigoureusement à la perpendiculaire de la rue; La ligne de partage à
l’intérieur de l’îlot est la bissectrice de l’angle des rues et une ligne médiane qui encaisse les
irrégularités géométriques.) “ 95 Thus, the Haussmann îlot was produced with geometric
precision and such conformity that masked the whole city with homogeneity. It was a
homogeneous bourgeois space, with references of continuity and proximity to the neighboring
îlot or monumental architecture. Moreover, the secluded nature of interior cour of the apartment
unit reiterated the bourgeois norm of privacy where passages to the private lives of individuals
were denied to the neighbors.
Yet, beyond the neat cut and clear divide operational strategy on the part of the planner,
there is the more powerful assimilative discourse of l’îlot Haussmannien. Looking into the
spatial experience of the îlot, we are to find that the imposing force of assimilation behind the
orderly façade the îlot, operating on both the inhabitants of the space and the passersby whose
everyday practice of space involves incorporating Haussmannian aesthetics of order and
geometrical precision, accepting the mask of conformity and homogeneity as “norm.”
Meanwhile, the stylistic monotony of îlot, pronounced the expectations of its designers. What
they wanted to inspire the Parisians was not so much of an upward movement towards the
middle class, its entitlement to grandeur and “excess.” Rather it’s a move towards leveling the
playing field of a growing body of middle class population in the west side of Paris.
Indeed, oftentimes, bourgeois discourse negates or excludes membership of certain individuals
while articulating a solitary belonging.
Rendering a critique to the Bauhaus group, Henri Lefevre contends that the “audacity” of
Bauhaus group only brought about “worldwide , homogenous and monotonous architecture of
the state, whether capitalist or socialist […] If there is such a thing as the history of space, if
space may indeed be said to be specified on the basis of historical periods, societies, modes of
production and relations of production, then there is such a thing as a space characteristic of
capitalism – that is, characteristic of that society which is run and dominated by the

95
Philippe Panerai, Jean Castex, Jean-Charles Depaul, Formes Urbaines de L’îlot à la Barre, (Marseille: Editions
Parenthèse, 1997), 32.
 26

bourgeoisie.”96 That is, the construction of a homogeneous and unitary bourgeois space in Paris.
That homogenous force is the very concept expressed in the Haussmann transformation of Paris.
While the materiality of orderly, rational, homogenously masked conformity, it also reproduces
the same of social relationships, bourgeois values, and inequalities imbued in the space of
bourgeois household.
Thus what the Haussmann transformation of Paris achieved on the micro-level was a
profound découpage with the medieval city, by broadening the streets and allowing for more
spacious monumental squares. Yet, on the macro-level, “such revision consists of installing an
entire new system inside the city; structuring a new code of behavior, a new rationality, a
complex and dialogic configuration of human activities in the space. (“Cette révision consistait
non pas à exploiter les mécanismes de croissance existants, ni à développer des éléments dont il
suffisait d’amplifier les qualités propres, mais, comme si l’histoire était coupée, à l’instaurer à
l’intérieur de la ville et au mépris du tissu existant un système entièrement nouveau; « à émettre
un nouveau code de comportement, une nouvelle rationalité, à la fois complexe et dialectique
dans la configuration de l’espace des activités humaines. »)”97
Long before Louis-Napoléon came into power, he had proclaimed his ambition to solve
the social problem on several occasions. Whether following an idealistic streak or merely
generating materials for his propaganda machine, Louis- Napoléon showed his interests in the
misery of the people, while publishing the most famous writing that gave bonapartisme a social
twist, De l’extinction du paupérisme (1844).98 At the time, Louis-Napoléon reached out to the
workers and peasants, addressing their concerns, which turned out to be rewarding for the prince
in exile. On 10 December 1848, Louis Napoléon won the presidential election of the Second
Republic, receiving majority votes born out of direct universal suffrage. To carry out his
promises for social progression, Napoléon III purchased land to construct social housing for the
workers of Paris. There was a personal conviction of the emperor throughout the Second Empire
to ameliorate living conditions of the working class as part of the overall plan to modernize
France.
By the time Baron Haussmann took over the plan for rebuilding Paris in 1853, the
faubourgs surrounding city center (such as Saint-Honoré, Saint-Germain, Saint-Antoine, Saint-
Marceau) have already been annexed to Paris. Yet, Haussmannian urban renovation became
social transformation not just for the middle class Parisians, but also for the working class

96
Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 126.
97
Philippe Panerai, Jean Castex, Jean-Charles Depaule, Formes Urbaines de L’îlot à la Barre, (Marseille: Editions
Parenthèse, 1997), 30.
98
The writing of De l’extinction du paupérisme helped Napoléon III to gain support from his electorate even when
he was still the prisoner at Ham. He smoothly mixed the personal destiny and political programs. In resisting the
regime of Louis Philippe who imprisoned him, he is fighting on behalf of the French people.
 27

population who were evicted from the center where the houses were no longer affordable. For
example, “of the 102 buildings constructed in 1860 by la Campagnie Immobilière des Frères
Péreire at boulevard Voltaire, situated in a eastern faubourg, only 19% of the houses were
affordable for working class families.”99 The fortifications of Adolphe Thiers in 1840, already,
incorporated a dozen of neighboring communes of Paris, such as Belleville, Passy, Les
Batignolles, La Chapelle, Vaugiraud, La Villette, Charonne, Auteuil, etc. In 1860, these
communes were further annexed to Paris under Haussmann’s order. Yet, his politics in the
annexed region were of rather ambiguous nature: On the one hand, Haussmann wanted to remain
the west of Paris bases of bourgeois parisien, with faubourgs aisés right next, creating a city
center where the rich found themselves together; On the other hand, he wanted to drive away
factories and their poor workers through taxed incurred by annexation, in order to realize the mis
en valeur of the annexed region.100
Haussmanization of Paris sent the working class towards the outskirts of the city,
marking the physical and social marginalization. To talk about social marginalization of working
class in tandem with the spatial or physical peripherialization of the quartier populaire, we have
to consider the issues of logements salubres posed by working class population to the city.
Before Haussmann’s project, quartier populaire was read through the tainted lens of its
contemporary middle class population. Insalubrious housing not only poses threat to public
hygiene, it also gave rise to the hygienist discourse that targeted the working class quartiers as
the congregation of all sorts of social vice that deserved the attentions of the state and subsequent
police control.
Viewed in this perspective, the birth of Cité Napoléon spoke of the emperor’s concern
with the wellbeing of the working class population, mixed a conscious (or unconscious) effort to
contain and assimilate what was known as the “dangerous class.” Under the direction of architect
Marie- Gabriel Veugny, the Cité was built in 1853, providing 200 well-ventilated hygienic
apartments, all of which were structured around a central garden, une jardin cour, with water
fountain, green plants and gas lantern. On the ground floor, there are washroom, dry-room,
bathhouse, kindergarten, primary school, along with shops and boutique. On top of these
communal services, there is also free medical assistance available. The structure of the Cité was
built in ways to ensure the maximum circulation of fresh air and availability of sunlight. Both
passage way from apartment to apartment and the staircases connecting different floors were

99
Alain Faure, “Spéculation et Société : les grands travaux à Paris au XIXe Siècle,” Histoire, économie et Société
(2004) 23-3, 445.
100
Ibid., 447.
 28

widely built, spattered with sunlight coming through from overhead glass roof, projecting the
illusion of being on the street, rue-galerie.101

The blossoming of public and private initiatives in intervening in the domain of workers
housing, at the turn of the twentieth century, has to be understood in the context of nineteenth
century hygienist crusade against insalubrity across Europe. The exigency of building a hygienic
state came into the front, after the cholera outbreaks in 1832 and 1849. European medical
professionals of the day were faced with the common threat on the health and vitality of the
national body. It is to the interests of the state to maintain a healthy and robust populace to
engage in productive activities and the defense of nation in times of wars.102 Yet, insalubrity and
diseases plagued European cities in nineteenth century. Growth in industrialization rates only
made matters worse by drawing in large numbers of rural exodus to the cities where no adequate
housing could meet the demands of migrant laborers. Facing the great plight that inflicted
working class and lower class most, medical men waged war against the microbes. The triumph
of Pasteurism in the laboratory did not stand alone in the field of science and medicine. In the
process of pasteurization, as Bruno Latour argues, nineteenth century hygienists made use of the
scientific knowledge to fuel social reform that transformed the understanding of what a society
should be like. 103

HBM Legislation and Social Reformers of Musée Social

In France, the great defeat of 1870-1871 also set the tone for hygienist policies of the
Third Republic. Subsequently, the last two decades of the nineteenth century were marked by
concerted effort of French doctors for social and moral regeneration of the French stock. 104
While trying to prevent the epidemic outbreaks, the preventative approach of eradicating îlot
insalubre goes in parallel with measures of vaccinations. In 1905, Paul Juillerat, following a ten-
year investigation wrote the report “La Tuberculose et l’Habitation” along with prominent
architect Louis Bonnier, on the occasion of International Congress of Tuberculosis. The reports
concluded two principles: 1) the mortality rate in Paris corresponds to the height of the
residential building; 2) Residents of the lower-level apartments are more prone to be afflicted by
tuberculosis than the higher-level residents. On 8 March 1906, the municipal council of Paris

101
Jean-Marc Stébé, Le Logement Social en France, (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1998), 40.
102
Foucault has articulated the concept of “biopolitics” as ways for the nation to control the lives and deaths of its
populations.
103
Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France, (Harvard University Press, Cambridge: 1993), 38.
104
The regeneration aspiration can also be gauged by the popularity of temperance movementin France.
 29

designated six “îlots tuberculeux” based on the report of Juillerat and Bonnier. This number
would expand to seventeen by 1920.105 The remedy for curing insalubrity, proposed by hygienist
architects, in building construction is the presence of fresh air and the profusion of sun light.
Yet, the legislators for salubrious housing were conscious of the objections from advocates of
private property and anti-interventionist.106 It is in such environment that policy initiatives for
salubrious housing (logement salubre) came into being. However, State intervention of housing
projects remained largely as uncharted water. Until 1880, the realm of social protection and
social assistance remains limited to private initiatives. 107 Such approach is further bolstered by
economic liberalism on the one hand, and the fear of state socialism (étatisme) on the other hand.
While Léon Say was minister of finance, the fear for socialism reached its highest point when
fifty socialist delegates took seat in the legislative election of 1893.108 What the liberals feared
the most is that the citizens of the Republic would fall for the socialist promises of improved
public services, while unconscious of the heavy debt incurred. 109 Moreover, liberals and the
conservatives alike believed that universal suffrage created conditions for the politics of
expropriation, where the parties were ready to sacrifice private property and the principles of the
protections of the individual.110
In fact, when Société Française des habitations à bon marché was first created in 1889
following private initiatives, it defied any guidance from the state. Two statesmen of the Third
Repubic were at the center of such initiatives: Jules Siegfried and George Picot. These two social
reformers believed that private initiatives should suffice for fighting against social problems.
Siegfried worked with the premises that once provided with proper housing, workers would be
transformed into ideal citizens who are responsible, autonomous, cohering to the demands of
republican civic engagement. Picot also held that the possession of a property would enhance
moral characters of the people. Picot, however, was concerned with the consequences of
allowing state intervention into matters of the household, especially threatening the traditional
place of the father figure: “lorsque l’État accomplit un service privé, entre dans la vie intime, il
absorbe la personnalité, il l’asservit, il arrive à la domestiquer. Cette transformation en enlevant
au père son rôle, dissout et brise le mobile de toute la force morale : la famille.”111 Fear for
socialism, coupled with a sense for social justice, Siegfried and Picot drafted a legislative text,
proposing the construction of habitation à bon marché (HBM).

105
Simon Texier, Paris contemporain, 23.
106
Jean-Marc Stébé, Le logement social en France, 36.
107
André Gueslin, L’état, l’économie et la société française XIXe – XXe siècle, 100.
108
Jean-Marie Mayeur, La vie polique sous la troisième république, 158.
109
Delalande, Les batailles de l’impôt, 139.
110
Ibid., 140.
111
Horne, Le Musée Social, 272.
 30

The legislative project proposed by Siegfried was working to a lot of extent the serve to
justify the new political regime, as the rhetoric of the reformers incorporated the Republican
solidarity of Le Play, as well as the argument that housing reforms boost social cohesion,
allowing for state intervention into the private sphere of family lives.112 The discourse of the
republican reformers of the Third Republic contained a mixture of old and new elements,
according to Janet Horne, exemplified by the Jules Simon at the meeting of SFHBM, “qu’on se
place au point de vue de la solidarité sociale, ou des principes de fraternité chrétienne, que l’on
envisage la question si angoissante de la dépopulation, que l’on considère qu’il y a un intérêt
général à améliorer les situations sociales pour éviter les luttes de classes et les révolutions, ou
bien que le sentiment du devoir nous pousser à travailler pour les autres, il est certain que la
question du logement est l’une des plus graves que notre civilisation ait à résoudre.”113
One of the article of the legislative text made possible savings bank (Caisse d’épargne)
and bank for official deposit (Caisse des dépôts et consignations) to provide funding for the
construction of HBM. Yet, the text approved by National Assembly soon faced considerable
hostility in the Senate. While the developers of HBM housing projects would enjoy tax relief, the
construction should follow hygienic requirements. The law of Siegfried passed in 1894 does
require each department to establish its own office of HBM, leaving room for private
development. It would wait until 1906 that radical socialist Paul Strauss, following the steps of
Siegfried and Picot, proposes a new legislation that makes it obligatory to establish a patronage
committee in each department of France.114
Soon after the passage of 1894 law, Jules Siegfried spearheaded yet another initiative,
uniting different actors for solving housing issues. In 1889, during the Universal Exposition,
Jules Siegfried organized the first Congrès international des habitations à bon marché.115 After
this congress, Société française des habitations à bon marché (SFHBM) was created in Paris,
with Jules Siegfried as the president. Reuniting figures such as George Picot and Emile
Cheysson, SFHBM would become one the network that spurred the development of Musée
social, while actively advocating for legislative reform.116 Founded in 1894, Musée Social was
established to tackle the “question sociale,” aiming to improve the “moral” and material
conditions of workers. Its origin, as Janet Horne, demonstrated, could be traced back to the
universal exposition of 1889, which in itself was connected to the rational thinking of

112
Horne, Le Musée Social, 271.
113
Ibid., 270.
114
Jean-Marc Stébé, Le logement social en France, 52.
115 Horne, Le Musée Social, 265.
116 Ibid., 269.
 31

Enlightenment. 117 The initial objective of the Musée, as Frédéric Le Play envisioned, was to
provide a rather permanent place for the different forms of exhibits of and documentations on
industrial products and social economic conditions. Transformed from Fondation Chambrun,
Musée social became a place where networks of civil associations meet, where elites of the Third
Republic solve social questions, where documentations of social movements in France or abroad
are preserved. 118 Horne concludes that “si le Musée Social fut un centre de conservation, il
devient surtout – grâce à sa bibliothèque, ses sections, ses missions d’études, et ses services de
conseil – lieu actif de consultation, d’échange, de réunion et de recherche indépendante qui
incarnait un esprit de service public.”119
During the first few years, the Musée was considered as bearing significance towards the
development of social sciences, as well as the role of the state and the incurring crisis of
liberalism. 120 As historians pointed out, many republican social reformers gathered at Musée
social, in a common endeavor to find solutions for the “question sociale.” At the time, around
ninety members were united at the Musée, including industrialists, workers, and members of the
parliament, public officials, as well as savant universitaires.121 A closer look at the founding
members, alone side le Comte de Chambrun, we will find Jules Siegfried as president of the
Comité de direction, Émile Cheysson as vice-president, as well as historian Georges Picot, who
was known for his hostility towards socialism at the time. 122 Janet Horne recognizes the
heterogeneous composition in the initial members, showing a majority of conservative and
moderate republicans, as well as a minority number of radicalists, represented by Léon
Bourgeois and Paul Guieyess.123 Finally, the Musée would form connections with the socialist
movements, as spearheaded by Léon de Seihac, directeur du Service industriel et ouvrier du
Musée.124
Another militant in social housing legislation is conservative republican Alexandre Ribot,
deputy of Pas-de-Calais. Ribot proposed a legislative text in 1908 that gives the possibility to
build “workers’ garden” (jardins ouvriers) through the finance of real estate credit union, société
117
Janet Horne, Le Mouvement social : bulletin trimestriel de l'Institut français d'histoire sociale. 1961. P. 48.
(accessed through Gallica).
118
Ibid.,. 65.
119
Ibid.
120
Ibid.
121
See Christian Topalov, Laboratoire du Nouveau Siècle, (Paris : Éditions de l’École des Hautes Études en
Sciences Sociales, 1999). See also “Le Musée social à l’origine : les métamorphoses d’une idée,” Le Mouvement
social : bulletin trimestriel de l'Institut français d'histoire sociale. 1961. P. 66. (accessed through Gallica).
122
Janet Horne, Le Mouvement social : bulletin trimestriel de l'Institut français d'histoire sociale. 1961. P. 66.
(accessed through Gallica).
123
“Des représentants du libéralisme et du christianisme social; de l’école leplaysienne et du solidarisme ; des
syndicats réformateurs et du mouvement coopératif.” See Le Mouvement social : bulletin trimestriel de l'Institut
français d'histoire sociale. 1961. P. 67. (accessed through Gallica).
124
Ibid.
 32

de crédit immobilier. Priest and social reformer Jules Auguste Lemire, elected deputy of
Hazebrouck, is another supporter such initiative. In 1897, Lemire established the society la ligue
du coin de terre et du foyer, with the objective of allowing each family to enjoy the natural and
divine need to possess a piece of land and its own property. Such conviction was largely driven
by the pursuit of family value and moralizing potential of owning property.125 The advocacy of
Ribot and Lemire would further impact on the garden city movement in the inter-war years when
Henri Sellier led campaigns for building garden city projects that closely related to the principles
outlined by Lemire two decades earlier.
Yet, the important milestone for social housing legislation comes with the law of
Bonnevay of 1912. It would mark the beginning of state intervention in social housing
construction. It states that the public (pouvoir public) not only has the right to intervene, but also
the obligation to act. In the projet de loi submitted for discussion on 21 november 1911, it states
that “in order to steer the unfortunates people away from lurking slums and the material and
moral miseries that they engender, it is important to make public intervention obligatory.” (Pour
arracher les personnes peu fortunées au taudis qui les guette, et aux misères matérielles et
morales qu'il engendre, nous avons pensé que les pouvoirs publics avaient non seulement le
droit, mais le devoir d'intervenir résolument.) 126 The law proposed by Laurent-Marie Bonnevay
allowed for communes and departments to establish a public office in charge of the construction
and management of salubrious housing, carrying out the cleaning–up of existing insalubrious
houses.127 In solving housing problems, Bonnevay adopted an approach close to the socialists,
while taking notes of the insufficiency in private initiatives and emphasizing on the importance
of the state.
In economics terms, what the social housing legislation aspired to do, as perceived by
conservatives of the time, would amount to a kind of redistribution of wealth, a highly
contentious subject amongst the liberal and socialist politicians. Though it is important to note
the emergence of an important political thought establishing the principle of social solidarity as a
point of reference to both fiscal and social policies. Represented by Léon Bourgeois, Alfred
Fouillé and Célestin Bouglé, this political thinking directly pointed to the relationship between
the individual, the society and the state. It proposes fiscal and social reform that would warrant a
progressive taxation on income, retirement plan for workers and peasants, compensations for
work related injuries and accidents. Radical socialist party throughout the 1900s adopted such

125
Stébé, Le logement social en France, 54.
126
Projet de lois modifiant et complétant la loi du 12 avril 1906 sur les habitations à bon marché. 2 e séance du 21
novembre 1911. http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/Bonnevay/Projet-de-loi-1368.pdf
127
Stébé, Le logement social en France, 55.
 33

political doctrine of “solidarism”. 128 While trying to find a third way between liberal
individualism and collectivist socialism, Léon Bourgeois developed a solidarity doctrine based
on his absorbance of Pasteur’s contagion theory. According to Bourgeois, isolated individual
does not exist. Both the rich and the poor are exposed to the same kind of biological and social
vileness.
Despite the seeming continuity in housing legislations from 1890s to 1910s, the
legislators and social reformers did not aim to reach for the same social category. La question
sociale means different things to different groups of reformers. For Louis Napoléon, Cité
ouvrière de la rue Rochechouart signifies his personal conviction in improving the workers’
living environment, as part of the struggle against pauperism on the one hand. On the other hand,
the workers housing project appeals directly to the working class, in a way to alleviate the
tension amounted after the harsh suppression of 1848. At the time, Louis-Napoléon was still the
president of the Second Republic. The support from working class electorate was important to
the stability of his regime. Different from Napoléon III, the philanthropists of the late nineteenth
century and the beginning of the twentieth century were more influenced by social doctrine of
equality and fraternity in saint-simonism,129 as well as the prevailing economic liberalism of the
time. Meanwhile, in drafting legislations on the construction of HBM, the statesmen of the Third
Republic advocated for urban policies that aimed at citizens rather than at working class alone.
The legislations for building salubrious housing benefited not only the workers, but also virtually
everyone affected by unhealthy housing, both above and below the social stratum of the
workers.130
Instead of remedying pauperism, the new legislations in 1890s are preventative in nature.
They address to the need of those who are provident, in the framework of “prévoyance sociale.”
For example, the 1906 legislation states that: the local chapter of HBM committee is titled as the
patronage of “habitation à bon marché” and “prévoyance sociale.” (“Les comités locaux
d’habitations à bon marché prenaient le titre de comité de patronage des habitations à bon
marché et de la prévoyance sociale.”)131 The assurance provided through housing would help
people to guard against physical and moral hazards. With the reorientation of the beneficiary
128
Nicolas Delalande, Les Batailles de l’impôt, 171.
129
In Histoire des Idées Socialistes, Noelline Castagnez-Ruggiu introduces the concept of Saint-Simonism, named
after Claude – Henri de Saint Simon (1760-1825). Saint-Simon proposed new social order that positions
industrialists or the producers at the top of the hierarchy, including “les agriculteurs, les artisans, les fabricants, et
manufacturiers, les banquiers et négociants, les savants et artistes.”(p. 11) His doctrine states that, “l’industrie n’est
qu’un seul et vaste corps dont tous les membres se respondent et sont pout ainsi dire solidaires; ”(p. 11) Reverting
the power relationship between the industrialists and political elites, Saint-Simon called for the industrialists to take
over executive power, in order to administrer and plan the work of production. See, Noelline Castagnez-Ruggiu,
Histoire des Idées Socialistes. (Paris : Editions La Découverte, 1997).
130
Susanna Magri,“Des « ouvriers » aux «citoyens modestes »,” 35.
131
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/Bonnevay/Rapport.pdf
 34

from workers to the less fortunate people, “personne peu fortunée” the working class in 1890s
were equipped with political power, and in a different position from that of the Paris
Commune. 132 In fact, it was argued that the legislations in 1890s elevated the status of the
workers to citizens.133
Meanwhile, the terminology chosen was rather important: The law promulgated in 1894
employed the term “habitations à bon marché,” which was borrowed from an earlier concept of
“l’État à bon marché” of the republicans in the effort to legitimize taxation. 134 Throughout
nineteenth century, the specter of the extravagant spending regime haunted the republicans.
Faced with the criticism and suspicion of the liberals, republicans of the Third Republic
employed the notion of “l’État à bon marché” to conjure up an image of an efficient state
through administrative reform to reduce bureaucracy. The choice of the word “marché” is also
far from accidental, as it tried to relate to the beliefs of the refractory liberals who held that the
state should not intervene in economic activities, that the market is capable of regulating the
economy on its own. Using the term HBM instead of “habitation sociale,” the legislators were
able to avoid to a certain extent the hostility against socialism, sensitive to conservatives.
Before direct state intervention into housing construction was granted, private initiatives
sponsored by industrialists and philanthropists were the main channels for solving housing
problem. The projects of Rothschild foundation were particularly interesting. Founded in 1904,
Rothschild Foundation135 proposed to contribute 10 million francs for the construction of HBM.
In the board of the directors of the Foundation, there are the staunch defenders of housing
reform: Jules Siegfried, George Picot, Émile Cheysson and Henri Nénot.136
From 1904 till 1914, the architects affiliated with the foundation developed a new type of
housing structure.137 Embracing an experimenting spirit, the visionaries chose three locations to
carry out their ideas, all in populated centers and close to working place of the future tenants: rue
de Belleville, rue du Marché-Popincourt, rue de Prague.138 Notably, the Rothschild foundation
organized a contest for the construction on the third site, rue de Prague, in 1905. The requirement
for the concours de la rue de Prague centered on the equipment for the apartments as well as the
general ambiance of the building.139 Heeding the call of Paul Juillerat, the architects working
with Rothschild Foundation followed closely the hygienic regulations of construction. (All the
rooms should be equipped with at least one window facing the sun. No courtyard to be
132
Magri, “Des « ouvriers » aux «citoyens modestes »,” 36.
133
Ibid..
134
Nicolas Delalande, Les Batailles de l’impôt, 117.
135
Fondation Rothschild pour l’amélioration des conditions de l’existence matérielle des travailleurs.
136
Simon Texier, Paris Contemporain, 24.
137
Ibid., 24-25.
138
Ibid.
139
Ibid.
 35

constructed; No confined space without a window.)140 The two laureates of the contest Adolphe-
Augustin Rey and Henry Provensal realized their project in 1909.
The period of social housing construction administered by Rothschild Foundation has its
unique esthetic standard, as it follows the doctrine art social. The concept of art social has its
origin in nineteenth century, in the work of William Morris, who argues that the beauty of an
object can only be expressed when it coincides with its use by the laboring class “(La cause de
l’art est la cause du peuple)”. Architects who embrace the concept of art social, represented by
Frantz Jourdain, Hector Guimard and Henri Sauvage, believed in the mélange of “beauty” and
“hygiene.” It is such hygienic aesthetic standard that worked as the guidelines for the
construction of the housing project at rue de Prague of Rothschild foundation, as well as la rue
Trétaigne.141

140
« les chambres doivent avoir au moins une fenêtre au midi ; prohibition des cours ou des courettes ; Pas d’espace
clos si petit soit-il sans une fenêtre. »
141
Jean-Marc Stébé, Le logement social en France, 58.
 36

The Problem of Lotissements and its Political Stake in Paris Banlieue

While nineteenth century housing crisis was most closely linked with the hygienist
campaigns to give light, fresh air and comfort to disease-riddled logements insalubres, another
wave of crisis would present itself to the statesmen of the Third Republic at the dawn of the
Great War. The phenomenon of compartmentalizing the land, or the lotissement, in Parisian
region could trace its origin in the first half of nineteenth century. It was largely understood as
the undertakings of grande bourgeoisie or the dominant class in search for class distinction and
villégiature bourgeoise, by means of building pavilions for summer residence in the forest west
and east to Paris 1830-1850.142 Aspiring for the life style of grande bourgeoisie, the middle class
would soon follow the trend and join in the acquisition of lotissements. Yet, classe populaire was
excluded from such endeavour, by elevated price level and the location of Paris West, both
serving as key markers of social status. Although gradually, at Saint-Maur and Franceville for
example, there would be more and more classe populaire settling in the lotissements, making
popular class imitations possible.
By 1914, the consensus of a housing crisis was established as the demographic growth of
Paris banlieue reached its peak. Meanwhile, working class French witnessed a series of
transformations that would mark the abandonment of the proximity to working places in the city,
while turning to suburban areas for the residence, avoiding the vices of urban lives.143 Moreover,
commuting (migration pendulaire) between work place and residence was made possible by the
legislations that set up the standard of eight-hour workday, as well as the installation tramway,
linking the city with its suburban territories. 144 It was during 1910-1920 that the phenomenon of
lotissement generalized in Parisian banlieue, so much so that at the beginning of the 1920s,
nearly 9 000 hectares of lands were turned into 200 000 parcels in the vicinity of Paris.145
The spontaneity of such development profoundly modified the landscape of the Parisian
banlieue, not only on a regional level but also on that of the commune, altering internal spatial
structures of the commune, erasing administrative frontiers, displacing the central areas in the
commune. 146 As a result, new urban centers replaced old ones alongside the railways, showing

142
Annie Fourcaut, La banlieue en morceaux, la crise des lotissements défectueux en France dans l’entre-deux-
guerres, (Grâne : Créaphis Éditions, 2000), 27
143
Fourcaut, La banlieue en morceaux, 63.
144
Ibid.
145
Ibid., 77.
146
Ibid., 83.
 37

how the means of transportation could map out its power in the spatial transformation of the
communes.147
The disastrous situation and the grievances of the mal-lotis soon grabbed the public
attention. Social reformers, hygienist, religious authorities as well as politicians alike formed
alliance for alleviating the misery of the lower class people, isolated, and “drowning” in the
scraps of lands with no infrastructure, no facilities for clean water or any efficient ways of public
transportation. Religious figures such as father Lhande soon turned this matter of misery into a
rallying point for philanthropic interventions of the Catholics. Under his calling, the Christian
charitable organizations would mobilize vast actions to purchase lands, building churches and
chapels, nursing homes as well as schools, with the donations given to priests for their work in
banlieue. For politicians, immediate actions were required to regulate the rampant growth of
lotissements in Paris banlieue where all kinds of misery were possible. Evoking the century-old
myth of “fearsome-faubourg,” problems of lotissements défecteux would soon be interpreted
through the prisme of an impeding communist take-over of the suburbs, strangling Paris with a
“red-belt” (ceinture rouge) of communes voting for Communist Party. Yet, the situation was
more complex, since the very nature of the acquiring private property and becoming property-
owners would seem contradictory to the doctrine of “class-struggle” set by Communist Party in
the 1910s.
To make matters worse, the First World War swept away 315 000 houses through its
sheer damage, turning housing shortages into a full-on crisis, becoming the most pressing issue
in the years following 1919. Yet, many would argue that authorities were slow to react.148 A
series of legislations in response to the crisis of lotissements défectueux would took place. To a
certain extent, the Cornudet law of 1919 constitued a first response. Based on the propositions of
Jules Siegfried of 1 July 1908, François Cornudet proposed a piece of legislation in 1919,
requiring each residential group to submit a development plan (Plan d’aménagement,
d’embellissement et d’extension) to the office of municipal hygiene, (bureau d’hygiène
municipal). 149 Yet, the judicial framework of Cornudet law lacked sufficient financing
channels.150 The revision of 19 July 1924 law, therefore, the specified the responsibilities of the
land scheme developers for buidling basic infrastructures, making sure that all lands sold would
be well equipped.151 However, we would have to wait until the law of 15 March 1928 to target

147
Fourcaut, La banlieue en morceaux, 104.
148
Roger-Henri Guerrand, Christine Moissinac, Henri Sellier, urbainiste et réformateur social, 75.
149
Fourcaut, La banlieue en morceaux, 183.
150
Guerrand, Moissinac, Henri Sellier, urbaniste et réformateur social, 75.
151
Fourcaut a élaboré que la loi de 1924 instaurait une logique de renforcement de contrôle, basée sur l’égalitarisme
républicain sous Troisième République. Cela nous semble important pour comprendre l’enchaînement des
législations.
 38

directly at problems of lotissements défectueux. Born in a context of political anxiety over a

Communist take-over of Paris banlieue, the law proposed by Albert Sarraut made possible state
subsidiary for lotissements défectueux created before 19 July 1924. 152 Finally, the last piece of
legislation fighting against lotissements défectueux came to light on March 1952. It gave power
to the national commission of lotissements défectueux to “operate” on problematic districts.153
Facing the crisis of 1928, Historian Annie Fourcaut argues, both politicians and
technocrats resorted to the new practice of urban planning, while establishing a Comité supérieur
de l’aménagement et de l’organisation générale de la région parisienne (CSAORP). Henri Prost,
President of French Urban Planner Society (Société des urbanistes français), took charge of
CSAORP, reshaping the boundaries of the region, resulting the first Paris regional plan on 14
May 1934.154 Approved by the decree of 22 June 1939, the new plan set the limit of Paris to a 35
km radius from Notre-Dame.155
“From the time of the French Revolution till 1878, the mayors of the communes were all
appointed by the pouvoir central.” 156 Caught in the crossfire of communist and socialist
ideological struggle, socialists of the SFIO (Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière) had
long held steadfast to its political doctrine, one that was explicitly against the taking over of
power.157 During the Toulouse Socialist Congress of 1908, Jean Jaurès had elaborated a theory
for socialist députés to work with the republican system in furthering the cause of the working
class. “Socialists, as Scott Lash points out, emerged as the pre-eminent party of orthodox
Marxism and of the majority of Guesdists, as well as the most attractive home for the
Jaurèsians.”158 After the scission of the 1920 Tours Congress, the internal affairs of the “Vieille
Maison” was in such order that it championed Jules Guesde’s doctrines over those of the Jean
Jaurès. Then it should come as no surprise that advocating for taking ministerial responsibilities
was a taboo. 159 Yet, one fraction of the socialists, represented by Henri Sellier and Antonin
Poggioli took the stand for a return of Jaurès reformist doctrine, namely achieving reforms

152
La loi Sarraut met à disposition un mécanisme de double financement : « L’état subventionne en fait 50 % de la
dépense à effectuer. Le département crée une Caisse départementale d’aménagement des lotissements défectueux,
qui emprunte l’argent et prête aux lotis la moitié de la dépense qui n’est pas couverte par la subvention de l’état. »
153
Fourcaut La banlieue en morceaux, 203.
154
Ibid., 215.
155
Ibid., 216.
156
Paul Claval, “De Haussmann au musée social,” in Aux Débuts de l’Urbanisme Français, (Paris: L”Harmattan,
2001), p. 13.
157
Founded in 1905, SFIO would split into two groups after the scission in 1920 in Tours. The majority would
become Section française de l’internationale communiste (SFIC), which later turned into French Communist party;
while the remaining minority stayed as SFIO, was named as “the old house (Vieille Maison).”
158
Scott Lash, The Militant Worker: Class and Radicalism in France and America, (New Jersey : Associated
University Press, 1984), p. 217.
159
Aude Chamouard, « Du conseil municipal à la Chambre des députés : la tentation réformiste des élus socialistes
français dans l'entre-deux-guerres », Histoire@Politique 1/ 2011 (n°13), p. 59-61.
 39

without a proletariat revolution. The Jaurèsian would persist and see its ways through the
realizations of the various projects and undertakings of municipal reformist in the interwar years.
Most of the socialist mayors, Aude Chamouard argues, seek gradual evolution towards
revolution by improving the living conditions of the working class population, yet doing so all
within the confinement of democratic system of the Third Republic, under the framework of
republican laws, which they intend to follow and change from within. In fact, a number of
socialist Mayor-MP (deputés-maires) claimed seats in the Parliament, expanding the socialist
influence from local offices to the national level of parliamentary politics, with the hope of
transforming capitalist state from the inside, by applying socialist laws to improve the living
standard of the workers. One of the prominent features and a recurrent theme in the rhetoric of
municipal socialism is the constant emphasis on doing away with the “old orders” that poisoned
the capitalist society, and building on its ashes a new society that withholds the hope for
achieving social justice.160
Set off on the path to build a new society, socialist mayors distinguished their
municipalities by engaging in the construction of “ideal cities,” 161 eradicating slums, building
schools, hospitals, day-care centers and free-clinics (dispensaire). Yet, such efforts were
conducted in less explicit manners, in order to avoid taking a contentious position with the
préfet. For example, some municipal councils would systematically have their residents, who
found themselves under the criteria for receiving social assistance benefit, enlisted for social
assistance, in order to force the government to increase the threshold for social assistance
qualification.162 Meanwhile, there was also other ways to assert influence over the government.
In the words of the historian Aude Chamouard, “municipal space constitutes a kind of crossroad
between local and national questions with people relaying between the two levels. The reformist
experience in socialist communes has national repercussions because the socialist town
councilors expect to influence the government and chambre des députés.” 163 In fact, these
socialist mayors and members of parliament (MP) would bring their local experience to the

160
Official journal of the Chambre des députés, P. 242, published on 24 january 1928. Cited in Chamouard Aude,
« Du conseil municipal à la Chambre des députés : la tentation réformiste des élus socialistes français dans l'entre-
deux-guerres », Histoire@Politique 1/ 2011 (n°13), p. 59-61.
161
A major model for such ideal city is the garden city, or “cité-jardin”, a British model introduced to France in the
interwar years by Henri Sellier and George Benoit-Lévy.
162
See Aude Chamouard, « Du conseil municipal à la Chambre des députés : la tentation réformiste des élus
socialistes français dans l'entre-deux-guerres », Histoire@Politique 1/ 2011 (n°13), p. 59-61.
163
“L’espace municipal constitue ainsi un lieu de rencontre entre projets locaux et questions nationales grâce à
l’existence de personnalités relais entre le local et le national. L’expérience réformiste du pouvoir dans les
communes socialistes a, de plus, des répercussions nationales puisque les édiles entendent, par leur action,
influencer les Chambres et le gouvernement.” quoted from Aude Chamouard, « Du conseil municipal à la Chambre
des députés : la tentation réformiste des élus socialistes français dans l'entre-deux-guerres », Histoire@Politique 1/
2011 (n°13), p. 59-61.
 40

national political arena, especially in the making of several important social reform legislations
of the interwar years. Experiences as Mayor-MP (député-maires) at the municipal council, and
participation in Parliamentary commissions prepared them for taking part in the government of
the Left, Front Populaire. 164 Yet, such political experience could hardly shake the socialist
doctrine of SFIO. The socialists were divided when it comes to the question of taking power:
“the map of distributing political mandates showed a clear division between the socialists of the
provinces in favor of participating in governing power and those that situate in Paris and
Guesdist federations (department of Nord and Haute-Vienne), against the participation.”165 Many
remained loyal to the doctrine of SFIO in the crisis of 1933, in a vote to decide if Albert Bedouce
would take the minister position, as Minister of Public Work.166
There was one person at the center of the socialist-mayor networks, on the local, national
as well as international level: Henri Sellier, the most prominent member of SFIO in the first half
of the twentieth century. There is no coincidence that Sellier was nominated the Minister of
Public Health in 1936 under the government of Front Populaire. The career trajectory that he
took, very much geared him towards a relentless pursuit for the improvement of public health for
the working class in Parisian banlieue.
Historians have uncovered two political figures asserting significant influence over Henri
Sellier: Édouard Vaillant, a socialist thinker and communard, and Jules-Louis Breton, a
parliamentary reformer and député of Cher (1898-1921).167 While serving at Conseil Municipal
at Vierzon, Vaillant distanced himself from insurrectional movement after the fall of the Paris
Commune. Vaillant held firmly that the new SFIO should not be a party for reforms, but a party
for class conflict, refusing to form any kind of alliance as he believed that the objective was to
build a “collectivist or communist society through the socialization of means of production and
exchange.”168 Further more, the revolutionary doctrine of Vaillant was built on his conviction
that “good health and well-being are the fundamental rights of citizens, especially the working
class.” 169These were the material basis for the political conquest for power of the working class.
It was precisely in the municipalities that such endeavor would be carried out through the

164
Ibid..
165
See Aude Chamouard, « Du conseil municipal à la Chambre des députés : la tentation réformiste des élus
socialistes français dans l'entre-deux-guerres », Histoire@Politique 1/ 2011 (n°13), p. 59-61.
166
Ibid..
167
See Roger-Henri Guerrand, Christine Moissinac, Henri Sellier, urbaniste et réformateur social, (Paris : Éditions la
Découverte, 2005). Also Emmanuel Bellanger, “Du socialisme au Grand Paris solidaire, Henri Sellier ou la passion
des villes,” Histoire urbaine 2/ 2013 (n° 37), p. 31-52.
168
Roger-Henri Guerrand, Christine Moissinac, Henri Sellier, urbaniste et réformateur social, (Paris : Éditions la
Découverte, 2005), P. 20.
169
Laura Lee Downs, Histoires des Colonies de Vacances, p. 138.
 41

management of municipal services. 170 Vaillant and Breton had asserted great influence over
Sellier in advocating for municipal autonomy and choosing the commune as the basic unit for
working class actions.171As Renaud Payre observed, Sellier awakened the communal endeavors
cherished by Édouard Vaillant in the socialism, all the way believing in making the commune the
heart of political and administrative organization.172
Meanwhile, Sellier’s argument for municipal reform was colored with a kind of
communal corporatism. 173 He argued that commune should not be viewed as a political
organism, but rather a living cell.174 The prevalence of organicistic view of social organization
explained the invested interest in managing the population with territorial based identities.
Sellier’s communal corporatism was much inspired by the writing of Maxime Leroy, 175 in La
Ville Française, in the search of a scientific organization of communal regime. Influenced by
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Leroy advocated for establishing a model of “urban federalism,”
according to which the state would be transformed into a “federation of cities.” 176 The
conclusion drawn by Leroy in La Ville Française was that, in order for cities to become
legitimate places for political decision making, the advancement of municipalism, mayors should
give some serious thought to a more scientific ways of governing the city.177
After being defeated on his own turf, Sellier wrote a letter to Marcel Déat, the editor in
chief of journal L’Oeuvre 178 on 16 April 1942. Titled “Sur la Réforme Municipale”, Sellier
conveyed his deepest conviction for an administrative reform based on communal corporatism
for the purpose of reviving the French nation in the letter, so much so that Sellier would cite
Maxime Leroy to argue that “municipal services will regenerate the state because they will give
citizens new ways to take actions, with new hopes and inventions” ([les services municipaux]
régénéreront l’État parce qu’ils auront donné aux citoyens de nouveaux moyens d’agir en
commun et, partant, de nouveaux motifs d’invention et d’espoir).179 The advantage of communal
corporatism is a territorialized vision of public management, in which individuals are situated in
their own locales and professions, that they would no long just be a “dossier in the forest of

170
Such as water, gas, electricity, school, hospitals, social housing, clinic and municipal police.
171
See Emmanuel Bellanger, “Du socialisme au Grand Paris solidaire, Henri Sellier ou la passion des villes,”
Histoire urbaine 2/ 2013 (n° 37), p. 31-52.
172
Payre, “Une république des communes,” 149.
173
Ibid., 145
174
Ibid.
175
Maxime Leroy was also a friend of Édouard Fuster.
176
Ibid., 147.
177
Ibid.
178
L’Oeuvre is the organe of Parti National Populaire.
179
Renaud Payre,Une république des communes, p.163.
 42

binders.”180 Despite the difficulty in Déat’s political situation, his conviction for municipalism
was summarized in his campaign for “commune, famille, métier” (commune, family and
profession).181
Sellier’s vision of municipal reform would be appropriated by later socialist to come. For
example, Robert Lainville, director of the departmental affaires of the préfecture de la Seine,
who played an active role in the post-war years, pursued the “old agenda” of municipal
autonomy of the IV Republic, according to Renaud Payre. 182 Historian Julien Cahon,
demonstrated how the campaign discours of Max Lejeune, mayor of Abbeville (1947-1989),
employed recurrent theme of reformist socialism.183 In fact, Cahon notes that, Lejeune would
reincorporate Sellier’s argument on the productivity of socialism at the municipal level, all the
while positioning himself as the “administrator”: “ my program is to study all the questions for
departmental administrators: improving housing conditions, roads, transport, local schools and
physical exercise facilities for school children, assistance for cultivating workers’ gardens and
the elderlies” 184 Interestingly, Lejeune re-used the arguments and social assistance programs
hashed and rehashed by previous socialist mayors, without specially labeling himself as part of
the party candidate. Otherwise called the “city hall party” (le parti des mairies), French
socialism’s “marriage” with the municipality would mean opting-out off other ways of political
implantations, such as through workers’ unions and enterprises. The particular form in which
French socialism exerts control is through the network of associations that connected the
working middle class and their mobilizations.185 In another study of the socialist implantation at
the local level in Roubaix, Rémi Lefebvre points out that it was no accident the socialist party

180
Mémoire of Marcel Déat, Bibliothèque Nationale, département des manuscrits, papiers M. Déat, p. 193, cited in
Renaud Payre, Une république des communes, p.151
181
Marcel Déat was part of the neo-socialists who split from SFIO in 1933. In La Gauche en France 1900- 1981,
Jean Touchard argues that it would be unfair to characterize Déat as « crypto-fasciste », that he left SFIO because of
he was seduced by the model of national-socialism.
182
See the article by Renaud Payre, Les désillusions réformatrices, le thème de la réforme municipale dans la France
de l’après-seconde guerre mondiale, Revue française d’administration publique, 2003/4 no. 108, p. 593-602.
183
Julien Cahon, « Max Lejeune. Du socialisme réformiste au centrisme réformateur », Histoire@Politique.
Politique, culture, société, n° 14, mai-août 2011, p. 5.

184
Original text in French : “Mon programme, c’est l’étude de toutes les questions qui se posent aux administrateurs
départementaux conscients de leur tâche: l’amélioration de l’habitat, […] de la voirie, des transports, […] la
construction de locaux scolaires et l’aménagement d’installations sportives destinées aux enfants des écoles, le
développement des œuvres post-scolaires et sociales, […] l’aide aux jardins ouvriers, l’aide aux associations
sportives, […] la solidarité sociale en faveur des vieux […].” As quoted in Julien Cahon, « Max Lejeune. Du
socialisme réformiste au centrisme réformateur », Histoire@Politique. Politique, culture, société, n° 14, mai-août
2011, 5.
185
Rémi Lefebvre, « Le socialisme Français soluble dans l’institution municipale ? Forme partisane et emprise
institutionnelle : Roubaix (1892- 1983)», Revue française de science politique, 54( 2004), 237-260, 259.
 43

was identified for and foremost at the commune, a symbol of French republicanism. 186 In
Lefebvre’s analysis, the socialist implantation of the municipality was a mutually constitutive
process in which socialist institution had transformed itself by reaching into the level of the
commune. 187 Such analysis further explained the raison d’être of French socialism and its
intimate history with municipalism.
A major component of municipal socialism in interwar France was the establishment of
inter-municipal collaboration and socialist mayor solidarity. In the case of the communes of the
Department of Seine, Henri Sellier would again find himself in the center of the endeavor to
establish inter-communal network that covered a whole host of facilities, e.g., gas, water,
electricity and waste management. Seated at the General Council (Conseil Général) from 1910 to
1940, Sellier used his political influence to advocate for municipal reform, making the commune
the primary locale for social changes. Aside from Sellier, there was also a group of longest-
serving socialist mayors in Paris banlieue, for example, Eugène Thomas, mayor of Kremlin-
Bicêtre (1897-1919); Jules Cuillerie, mayor of Alfortville (1904-1922); Jean-Baptiste Sémanaz,
mayor of Pré-Saint-Gervais (1904-1914); Lucien Voilin, mayor of Puteaux (1912-1925); Albert
Thomas, municipal counsel of Champigny-sur-Marne). 188 The purpose of building socialist
mayor solidarity was to establish a coalition in defending common interests of the banlieue, by
doing away with traditional township loyalties and consolidating public services.
Alongside Henri Sellier, we found a circle of his friends, all of whom assert influences in
their own milieu: architecture, public health, urban planning and economy. For example, senator
Steeg, radical-socialist party deputy member; Architect Alfred Agache, financial guru baron
Eichthal, Édouard Fuster economic historian, André Morizet, socialist militant. 189 Sellier
maintained close ties with mayors of Paris banlieue. One network of socialist mayors was the
mayors’ Union of Department of Seine, or Union des maires de la Seine (UMS), established in
1925, through which many of its members accumulated political titles, joggling duties of conseil
général, député, senators and members of the government at the same time.190 The organisation
demonstrated a kind of mayoral corporatism. Sellier also involved himself in networking with
mayors of European cities, such as the affiliation with Union internationale des villes et des
pouvoirs locaux. Another important network was the Union of Socialist Suburb Municipalities
(Union des municipalités socialistes suburbaines), established on 7 January 1920, where Sellier

186
Ibid., 239.
187
Ibid., 241.
188
As cited in “Du socialisme au Grand Paris solidaire, Henri Sellier ou la passion des villes, ” Histoire urbaine 2/
2013 (n° 37), 31-52.
189
Roger-Henri Guerrand, Christine Moissinac, Henri Sellier, urbainiste et réformateur social, Paris : Éditions la
découverte, 2005, p. 72
190
Ibid. UMS was dissolved during Vichy regime.
 44

served as secretary general. 191 He strived to enlarge the network to a national federation of
socialist municipalities. And still, the spread of associations would not stop at the French border.
Among the many congresses took place during the interwar period, international cities
union (Union internationale des villes), in which Henri Sellier was the vice-president, would
prove to be a primary platform for exchanging experiences of municipal administration,
especially for advancing inter-municipality. It is through such forms of exchanges that Sellier
developed his preferences for the American and German model of communal management.192 A
cultivated interest in Germany drove Henri Sellier to examine the role of “bourgmestre,” one
that masters the balance of power and knowledge in management.193 In the case of city manager
in the American mode, Sellier saw in it, the potential of developing a liberal profession, one that
should be accompanied by professional training, in order to acquire scientific knowledge in city
management. The new task of forming a bastion of municipal personnel, equipped with adequate
administrative knowledge and solid mastery “science communale” would soon dawn on Sellier,
bringing him to create the first school of urban studies in France, école départementale des
hautes études (E.H.E.U.) in 1919, where a section on “administrative development
(perfectionnement administrative)” was created in 1922, which would later become l’École
nationale d’administration municipale (ENAM).194 It was based on the model of E.N.A.M. that
other schools of municipal administration would come into being in Lille (1930), in Strasbourg
(1931) and in Lyon (1936).195
Historian Emmanuel Bellanger studied the first process of professionalization of
municipal secrétaire de mairie-instituteurs (SM-I) who had not receive formal administrative
training.196 It was with the rise into power of the generation of socialist mayor, particularly that
of Henri Sellier and his influence from Maxime Leroy that the need to train a new batch of
professional administrators by the state came into afront. Such initiative was built in the context
of normalizing the relationships between the municipalities and their personnel, in the sense that
the creation of E.N.A.M. would directly account for the surge in the number of municipal
hires.197 The school was created with the political current of municipal interventionism, at the

191
Ibid..
192
Renaud Payre, “« Une république des communes » Henri Sellier et la réforme municipale en avril 1942,” Genèse,
2000/4 no. 41, p.153-54.
193
Ibid., 154
194
Henri Sellier brought the matter of creating E.H.E.U. to the attention of Conseil général de la Seine.
195
Renaud Payre, Les désillusions réformatrices, 596.
196
“Cette première professionnalisation est indissociable de l’action municipale des maires radicaux et radicaux-
socialistes de la Belle époque, pères de la bienfaisance laïcisée, précurseurs des coopérations intercommunales et
bâtisseurs du premier domaine communal à vocation éducative, hygiénique et festive. Sous leur mandature,
l’activité municipale se déploie dans des hôtels de ville triomphants et investit les centres anciens et leurs quartiers
périphériques en mutation. ” Bellnager, L’École nationale d’administration municipale. 150- 151.
197
Ibid., 148.
 45

convergence of préfectoral and municipal representatives, conserves, radical-socialist, socialist

as well as communists, in the pursuit for the rationalization of communal management. 198 It’s
worthwhile to note that during three generations from 1930 to 1970, the graduates of E.N.A.M.
were able to occupy the positions of the sécretariat général of around one hundred communes.199

198
Bellanger, L’École nationale d’administration municipale, 149.
199
Ibid, 150.
 46

Garden City Movement and the Interventions of Office Public d’HBM du

Département du Seine

The concept of “garden city” has long been considered as the brainchild of British urban
planner Ebenezer Howard. Yet, Howard owed his idea to several eighteenth-century social
reformers and republican thinkers of communitarian tradition. It was the utopian hope of
redeeming the old world through communitarianism and social reconstruction that gave birth to
the concept of “garden city,” an ideal community that Howard would also name as “new
Jerusalem.”200 In early nineteenth-century, there was a resurgent of communitarian enthusiasm
that captivated European societies a century earlier, when colonization efforts were considered as
experiments of approaching an utopian society. The eighteenth-century fervor for experimental
community was fueled by the kind of naturalist thinking that pronounced an inevitable
decadenceof the urban and industrial European civilization, as it grew away from the natural
state of being. Deformed by greed and lust, it was believed that western society had to be saved
by establishing new colonies both at home and in the new world where social experiments can be
carried out, under the theoretical guidance of the “Age of Reason.” Viewed in this way, the
“garden city” concept reflected a transition from earlier radical ideas of community
experimentations to early twentieth-century state-engineered social reform.201
During 1872-1876, American trance speaker Cora Richmond and her spiritual teachings
of the doctrine of the “New Dispensation” had a significant impact on Howard who had suffered
a religious crisis while living in Chicago.202 A prominent figure in the reemergence of Modern
Spiritualism, Richmond was concerned with America being corrupted by materialism, that the
American society had abandoned the sense of community and brotherhood. Closely associated
with communitarianism, Modern Spiritualism “combines the occult with a commitment to social
reform and rational inquiry.” 203 What Howard gained from New Dispensation’s spiritual
experience in the 1870s was the sense that life has a higher purpose in which humanity as a
whole should work towards an altruistic end. 204
Another issue that would influence Howard greatly was the debate on “Land Reform”
and its prominent figure American writer Henry George and British social reformer Alfred

200
The was the idea of thinking Garden City as starting colonies at home first appeared in a speech given by
Ebenezer Howard at Farringdon Hall meeting in 1893, where he expounded his plans for experimental community
and purchasing a piece of land at the outskirt of London.
201
Stanley Buder, Visionaries and Planners: The Garden City Movement and the Modern Community, (Oxford
University Press, Cambridge: 1990), 5.
202
Buder, Visionaries and Planners, 8.
203
Ibid., 10.
204
Ibid.,11.
 47

Russel Wallace. Following a period of rethinking of the industrial revolution, the issue of Land
Reform gained attention in urban policy reform in 1880s, along with the revival of socialist
agitation and the issue of land nationalization. Meanwhile, the 1880s also witnessed the
reemergence of the communitarianism practice, a trend that would last until the beginning of the
twentieth century. Different from the utopian impulse in the earlier wave inspired by the work of
Robert Owen, the second phase of communitarianism considered planned community as the cure
for unbridled urbanization as well as the expansion of consumer society. The idea was to curb
migration flow from countryside to urban areas, making cities smaller in scale.
Meanwhile, it was believed that the model of cooperative commonwealth “home
colonies” introduced “social regeneration through voluntary associations and social
experimentation,” an idea embraced by radicals and socialists alike. 205 In fact, such cooperative
model was closely related to Owen’s model of industrialvillage where industrialists would
provide adequate housing and living environment for workers. In particular, Howard was also
influenced by socialist ideas and cooperative common wealth scheme advocated by Edward
Bellamy and Howard’s pastor Flemmings Williams. 206 In fact, Howard had, himself,
experimented with the model of cooperative housing in that the families of Howard and his
brother Harry had share a big house together, as Howard realized that he couldn’t afford a place
as large and well situated on his own. 207 Constantly struggling financially, what Howard
experienced, along with other lower middle class Londoners, was the incongruence that the great
material advances brought by industrial revolution failed to meet their expectation of the level of
material pleasure and ease particular to an age of great technical innovations.
Yet it was not solely out of personal frustration and aspirations that Howard came up
with the concept of “garden city” to gain access to better housing and “respectable”
neighborhood. The “cult of domesticity” of the Victorian era as well as the population boom and
advances in transportation in the later half of nineteenth century all played a role in the spreading
of the concept of “garden city” internationally. Moreover, the rise of the emphasis on home life
went hand in hand with the development of urban and industrial society where families tend to
live away from the city center in order to separate home life from urban problems. Howard’s
visions were best explained in theoretical forms in his book, Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real
Reform, published in 1898. “Tomorrow reflected both society’s concern with the rise of an urban
civilization and the concomitant hope that the social cataclysm this seemed to portend could be
avoided.”208 It is important to note that in his book Howard considered garden city as first and

205
Buder, Visionaries and Planners, 22.
206
Ibid., 36-37.
207
Ibid., 29.
208
Ibid., 64.
 48

foremost as an experiment in collective land ownership, only secondarily as a planned

community to tackle the vices of big cities. It is revealed here that, in fact Howard evoked a kind
of reform of rather radical tradition that spoke the language of “self-help and volunteerism”
instead of a “paternalistic state” that takes everything over.209
Howard’s idea of reform wouldn’t be able to materialize without the support and
lobbying effort of the Garden City Association created in 1889. It would later change its name
into Garden Cities and Town Planning Association in 1909, again into Town and Country
Planning Association in 1941. The name changes would somehow embody the ideological
climate of the era of reform, from Victorian liberalism to welfare socialism.210 A functionalistic
view of such professional association suggests that there was a “need to fill a new vacuum in
industrial society between the individualism of the family in a market-based economy, and the
collectivism and bureaucracy of the State,” driven by moral order and political affinity.211
The first garden city project at Letchworth was realized in 1903. The idea was to form an
associated housing, a planned community based on ideas of efficiency and social cooperation.
The interest for associated housing first came out in 1885 when Robert Owens posited it as a
communitarian alternative to traditional housing that led to the family’s isolation from the
community. While the passage of the 1909 Housing and Town Planning Act provided the
legislative framework for Garden City Movement, Howard had to wait till the end of the Great
War to the see the realization of the second garden city at Welwyn in 1919. Yet again things
would change after the legislation of the New Town Act of 1946. Its passage represented the
intentional effort on the part of the state in building new cities. During the interwar years,
Frederic Osborn chairman of Town and Country Planning Association had already started
planning for public policy advocacy in building towards a postwar program new town program
that would direct “urban dispersal out of large cities into planned new communities.”212 Osborn’s
planning of the new town program was endorsed by the Greater London Plan of 1944, which
“called for the decentralization of the capital’s population and industry.”213
Before Howard’s garden city concept was left to the margins of planning history in
Britain, it gained significant momentum spreading to continental Europe and the United States.
By WWI, Garden City associations existed in eleven countries. While different national culture
and influence shaped each country’s Garden City movement, the concept itself “spoke to a very

209
Buder, Visionaries and Planners, 25.
210
Dennis Hardy, From Garden City to New Town, Campaigning for Town and Country Planning, 1899-1946,
(Alexandrine Press, Oxford: 1991), 3.
211
From Garden City to New Town, 7.
212
Buder, Visionaries and Planners, 181.
213
Greater London Plan was led by Patrick Abercrombie who designated ten possible sites for new towns within a
twenty- to twenty-five-mile radius of central London.
 49

generalized apprehension provoked by the proliferation of great cities in Western civilization and
the very real problems of health and housing this posed.” 214 “Class and ideological divisions
sundered most European societies, and the Garden City movement’s emphasis on social harmony
through the cooperation of classes held appeal.215” Similar to the British case, it was during the
progressive era in the U.S. between 1897 and 1917, a period marked by concerns with social
issues, that a mood of reform and civic responsibility engulfed much of the urban middle class
that “garden city” concept was introduced in the states.
The French version of Howard’s Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform was
published in 1903. Afterwards, it was Charles Gide, a professor of social economics at the
University of Paris, who advocated Howard’s concept in France. Gide’s former student George
Benoît-Lévy organized the French Garden Cities Association. And Gide himself would chair a
study of nineteenth-century cooperative communities, as he was more attracted by the idea of
“reform through moderation, cooperation, and community,” rather than the designing principles
of the Garden City themselves. The French architects didn’t accept Howard’s idea in whole,
rather they resisted the low density and open planning: “Suburban communities on the English
model held little appeal to Parisians who prided themselves on urban grandeur and the café life
of their boulevards.”216
Like the British model, the spread of French garden city movement has to be read
through the ideological and political context of the era, in particular in view of the interplay
between liberalism and interventionism. From the beginning of the twentieth-century untill the
dawn of the Great War, it was still the philanthropic drives of the industrialists who initiated
construction projects for solving urban housing problems, mainly targeting working class
families, e.g. Rothschild Foundation.217 It was until the passage of the law Bonnevay in 1912
that the public fond was authorized for building social houses at the local level. A decade of
legislative efforts later, the city garden concept was finally put into practice following the lead of
Henri Sellier, the head of the Office public d’HBM du Département de la Seine (OPHBM) at the
periphery of Paris, “Dugny, Drancy, Nanterre, Cachan, Arcueil, Les Lilas, Gennevilliers,
Bagnolet, Stains, Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, Champigny, Le Plessis-Robinson, Chêtenay-Malabry,
Suresnes, Drancy-la-Muette,”1921-1939.
The OPHBM was created, with the promulgation of the presidential decree of 18 July
1915. Under the general direction of Louis Bonnier in the framework of the extension of Paris,
Henri Sellier worked to select locations for building garden cities of Greater Paris (Cités-jardins
214
Buder, Visionaries and Planners, 133.
215
Ibid.,134.
216
Ibid.,138.
217
Dumont Marie-Jeanne, Le Logement Social à Paris (1850-1930). Les Habitation À Bon Marché, (Margada,
Liège :1991).
 50

du Grand Paris). Different from the British model, the garden cities of the Great Paris never
achieved the level of autonomy as Hampstead. Some of the projects were too close to Paris to
escape its influence; others were too far away from Paris to make use of its public services. The
goal as sketched out by Sellier was not to tackle housing problem in the narrow sense, but rather
to respond to the necessity of building a rapport between the individual and the
community.218More of a pragmatist than Charles Fourier, Sellier aspired to build an experimental
prototype of urban habitat.219Meanwhile, similar to the visionaries of the garden cities in Britain,
Sellier also wanted to achieve social and moral elevation of the residents, believing that scientific
advancement warrants individual happiness.
The construction of garden cities under OPHBMDS was also part of the regional
planning of Paris.220 In 1919, the contest for Paris expansion (Le concours pour l’extension de
Paris) already spoke the language of establishing an agglomeration comprised of Paris and its
banlieue. Yet, the plan to create a Paris region was studied carefully from 1928 to 1932. With the
creation of Comité supérieur d’aménagement et d’organisation de la région parisienne
(CSAORP) on 24 March 1928, the term la région parisienne was officially coined. “Presided by
Louis Dausset, the committee is comprised of five sections: planning, legislation, finance, public
service, and housing.” 221 Notably, Henri Sellier administered the housing section of the
committee. Henry Prost and Raoul Dautry prepared a regional plan after studying the geography,
housing and transportation network of Paris region. Prost noted that the regional planning should
work closely with the urban transformations taken place inside Paris, like the eradication of
slums.
Finally, the Loucheur law of 1928 made possible a new type of social housing. As
minister of Travail et de la Prévoyance Sociale, Louis Loucheur drafted the piece of legislation.
It would guarantee public financing of the construction of 260 000 houses, 200 000 HBM and
60 000 immeubles à loyer moyen.222 It was the need of providing housing for the middle class
that brought out the new type of housing with more spacious and more comfortable apartments
than HBM.223 Such apartment would also include a private bathroom. In an article published in
the journal Architecture d’aujourd’hui in 1935, Henri Sellier provided a review of the status quo
of workers’ housing initiatives in France.224 Particularly he discussed the impact of Loucheur
law. He warned the architects that the excessive concerns of the manufacturing cost (prix de

218
Jean-Marc Stébé, Le Logement Social en France, 67.
219
Ibid.
220
Ibid., 71.
221
Simon Texier, Paris Contemporain, 76.
222
Jean-Marc Stébé, Le Logement Social en France, 66.
223
Ibid.
224
« Le logement ouvrier contemporain» in L’architecture d’aujourd’hui, vol.6, 1935, 7-8.
 51

revient) would lead to a public funding of a return to the building of ghettos and caserne
(logement militaire) with public funding. What is also interesting in Henri Sellier’s 1935 article
is the confluence of professional discourse of architects and the political discourse of the
statesman. The journal formed a platform of exchange and communication of expert knowledge.
It is through such channels of deliberation among architects, introducing projects across Europe
that ideas of urban planning were shared, that a body of knowledge could be consolidated.
Believing in the power of scientific progress and hopeful of the modern and rational architecture,
Henri Sellier ended his article by emphasizing the role of “la Science Urbaniste,” in the
transformation of old quarters of the city, developing suburbs and satellite cities, as well as
rational construction.
 52

Part II. The Consolidation of a Discipline: Teaching of urban

studies during the first half of the twentieth century

Historians have pointed out that the foundation of E.H.E.U. in 1919 came out of the
“temporary needs resulting from the devastation of the war and the need to form the municipal
personnel for the application of the Cornudet law on urban extension and beautification.” 225 For
instance, Baudouï argues that “la continuité des hommes d’une institution à l’autre témoigne en
premier chef de la continuité et de la pérennité d’un message se situant bien avant 1919 nous
permettant ainsi d’affirmer que la création de l’EHEU peut être également considérée comme
l’aboutissement et la consécration d’idéaux largement formulés avant 1918 et dont seules les
destructions de la guerre et la nouvelle législation « technicienne » de l’urbanisme accélèrent la
mise en place.”226 The continuity of the reformers involved in the process of transformation,
from Institut Géographie et d’Économie Urbaines de la Ville de Paris, approved by the
legislation of 26 December 1916, through a brief existence as Ecole Supérieure d’Art Public de
la Ville de Paris in 1917, and then E.H.E.U., eventually to I.U.U.P., suggests that the
establishment of the teaching of urban studies is a collective endeavor, uniting group of
“protagonistes” who seize opportunities for the institutionalization and the consolidation of a
discipline. 227

Legitimizing a Category of Scinece: From E.H.E.U to I.U.U.P

The first, and for a long time the only, institution for incubating the first generations of
urban planners in France, École des hautes études urbaines (E.H.E.U) was created following the
Cornudet law in 1919. Cradle of urban studies, E.H.E.U. started off building a discipline between
art and science.228 To tell the history of the foundation of I.U.U.P, one is bound to retrace the
myriad connections of its founding members with the networks of social reformers at the
beginning of twentieth century France, in which we find again Henri Sellier, the central figure in
the early years of the school. Delegate at the Seine department health and public hygiene council

225
Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 143.
226
Ibid.
227
Ibid.
228
Grégory Busquet, Claire Carriou, « Entre art et science, l’histoire à l’Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris
(1919-1971) », Espaces et société, 2007/3, no. 130, 57-70.
 53

(Conseil d’hygiène publique et de salubrité du département), president of Workers Housing

Commission and Paris Extension Commission, 229 administrateur-délégué of Office
départemental des HBM, Sellier was particularly active between 1912-1918, engaging with the
city officials of Paris. Because of the strategic positions Sellier took at Conseil général, he was
personally involved in the foundation of E.H.E.U. Propelled to master the form of knowledge of
managing the territory and the cities, Sellier sought in urban studies the solution to social
problems (“cause sociale”), and the building happy households.230 Specifically, he recognized
the teaching and the circulation of knowledge and practices of city management as precursors for
legislation and setting up legal framework of action. He argued that the difficulties that officials
encountered in France in the execution of the new methods of organizing French agglomerations
were attributed to gaps in the organization of teaching and administrative as well as legislative
actions, in comparison with Britain, the United States, and Germany.231
Sellier soon advocated for the creation of E.H.E.U., for the teaching of urban studies
alongside his friend Marcel Poëte, historian of Paris, librarian and chief curator of Bibliothèque
des travaux historiques de la Ville de Paris (B.T.H.V.P.) in 1903, where Poëte organized a series
of conferences on the history of Paris, open to both general public and young people with
specialization in urban history. From 1914 to 1948, Poëte remained in the position of the chaire
du séminaire d’histoire de Paris de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études, located at rue Michelet
of Sorbonne University. 232 In 1916, the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris was
transformed into Institut d’Histoire de Géographie et d’Économie Urbaines (I.H.G.E.U.) and
then École d’Art Public de la Ville Paris, which was the predecessor of E.H.E.U..233 It was here
that Poëte formed alliance with Henri Sellier in the endeavor of making urban studies a new
discipline in the 1920s. Affiliated with Conseil Général, E.H.E.U. becomes the incubator for the
first generations of urban planners as well as administrative professionals in France.
The decree by the president of the Republic (1913-1920) Raymond Poincaré, on 29
December 1924, ordered the affiliation of Institut d’Urbanisme to the faculty of law and letters
of the University of Paris (Facultés de Droit et des Lettre, Université de Paris).234 Between 1921
and 1924, E.H.E.U. negotiated terms of integration into University of Paris, a matter that
concerned the status of urban studies in higher education. The teaching objectives of the school
were made clear in the 7th issue of La Vie urbaine. Organisation et fonctionnement Institut

229
La Commission des habitations ouvrières et du plan d’extension de Paris.
230
Roger-Henri Guerrand, Christine Moissinac, Henri Sellier, urbaniste et réformateur social, 75
231
Ibid., 76
232
Calabi, Marcel Poëte et le Paris des années vingt, 17.
233
Roger-Henri Guerrand, Christine Moissinac, Henri Sellier, urbaniste et réformateur social, 76
234
“Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, no.7, p. 5
 54

d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris. 235 : “the teaching involves the whole set of subjects,
relating to the studies of the city, administrative, social and economic organization of the city, its
planning, beautification as well as extension. The teaching will be conducted in scientific, utility-
oriented and apprehensible fashion.”236
The foundation of I.U.U.P. was also closely connected to the fate of the urban studies as a
category of science. Compared to studies such as history or law, urban studies seem to be
standing on unsteady grounds. The scientificity of planning and administrative science had not
been fully instituted, or legitimized. 237 More importantly, at the beginning of the discipline,
urban studies had to rely heavily on the network of modern social reformers and their
advocacies.238 Early urban planners did not simply content themselves with developing planning
technics, instead, they were eager to establish a science of the cities (science des villes). At the
time, the main ideas for thinking and conceptualizing cities and urban lives were inspired by two
ways of viewing urban lives, organicism and culturalism.239
First, the idea that cities inherit and embody a whole set of historical identities presented
came out of the nineteenth century culturalist perspective, as it was developed by British
architect Augustin Pugin, John Ruskin and William Morris. 240 Particularly, those who were
inspired by John Ruskin believed that “it was the imperfections in contemporary urban forms
that forbid individuals to be happy.”241 William Morris propagated this doctrine in Britain in
1870s and 1880s, while Ebenezer Howard took it to the next level.242 The second group of ideas
articulated a certain totality and collective entity which lead to an organic view of cities and
urban lives. It echoed the teaching objectives of I.U.U.P. that treat the urban agglomerations as a
“living organ that evolves across time and space” (L’agglomération urbaine envisagée comme un
organisme vivant qui évolue dans le temps et dans l’espace). 243 The model of cité-jardin was
based on the correlations between the organization of cities and the comportments of the
residents in the sense that changes in urban environment would have impacts on moral

235
See Figure. 1 for the front and back cover of this issue.
236
“Son enseignement se rapporte à l’ensemble des matières visant l’étude des villes, leur organisation
administrative, économique et sociale, leur aménagement, leur embellissement et leur extension. Il a un triple
caractère scientifique, utilitaire et vulgarisateur. ”“Organisation et fonctionnement,” Institut d’urbanisme de
l’université de Paris, no.7, 5.
237
Gérard Chevalier, “L’entrée de l’urbanisme à l’université : la création de l’Institut d’urbanisme (1921-1924)”,
Genèses, 2000/2, no.39, p. 99
238
Gérard Chevalier, “L’entrée de l’urbanisme à l’université”, 99.
239
Chevalier, “L’entrée de l’urbanisme à l’université,” 106.
240
Ibid., 107.
241
Paul Claval, “De Haussmann au Musée Social,” in Aux Débuts de l’Urbanisme Français, (Paris: L”Harmattan,
2001), p. 22.
242
Ibid.
 55

characters.244 Connecting studies of art and urban science, I.U.U.P. made the studies of history a
priority.245 The course incorporates examples from the past to illustrate present situations, while
indicating solutions for the future. 246

Teaching Methods: between Theory and Practice

The beginning of E.H.E.U. was characterized by debates surrounding the choice between
scientific-oriented and professional-oriented teaching approach.247 The teaching at I.U.U.P. was
organized in five sections: Evolution of Cities; Social Organization of Cities; Administrative
Organization of cities; Economic Organization of Cities; Art and Technique of City
Constructions; Administrative Development.248 Marcel Poëte was the first Director of I.U.U.P..
Among the teaching faculties, we find: Josephe Barthélemy, chargé de conférences, professor
and director at Sorbonne; Édouard Fuster, professor in charge of teaching social organization of
cities; Gaston Jèze, professor and legal expert in charge of the administrative organization of
cities, along with Louis Rolland, professor at Faculty of law; Auguste Bruggeman, director of the
Union des villes et communes de France, professor in charge of economic organization of cities;
Léon Jaussely, and Louis Bonnier, Henri Prost, as well as Jacques Gréber, in charge of teaching
art and techniques of the construction of cities; In particular, Bruggeman held classes on the
“principles of garden city and its application in England.” Léon Jaussely, often understood as
under the influence of Patrick Geddes and his method of combining survey, analysis and
mapping, taught the classes on the constitutive elements of city and “cité-jardin” and “faubourg-
jardin.” 249 Architect, Gréber made a name for himself in the U.S. for the plan (1917-1919) of
Benjamin Franklin Parkway, “which made Philadelphia the most French city in the America,” by

244
Chevalier, “L’entrée de l’urbanisme à l’université,” 107
245
Busquet Grégory and Carriou Claire, « Etre art et science, l’histoire d’Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris
(1919-1971), Espaces et sociétés, 2007/3, no. 130, p. 58
246
Objet de l’enseignement : “Son programme constitue une véritable synthèse de l’organisation de la ville
recherchant les exemples du passé en vue de constater l’état présent et d’indiquer les solutions d’avenir dans des
questions infiniment complexes en ce qu’elles touchent le phénomène moderne de l’urbanisation, ” “Organisation et
fonctionnement,” Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, no.7, 15.
247
Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 20.
248
Section évolution des villes ; Section organisation sociale des villes ; Section organisation administrative des
villes ; Section art et technique de la construction des villes ; Section de perfectionnement administratif.
249
Jean-Yves Puyo, “L’Urbanisme selon Léon Jaussely,” in Aux Débuts de l’Urbanisme Français, (Paris:
L”Harmattan, 2001), 119. Henri Sellier « École des Hautes Études Urbaines », La Vie Urbaine, no. 5 (1920), 196.
As cited in Daniel Matus Carrasco, p. 22.
 56

emulating the Champs-Élysées in Paris. 250 Finally, Henri Sellier would be teaching the
organization of public services in the Paris banlieues.251
The teaching of the section of Evolution of Cities, under the direction of Marcel Poëte,
focused on urban forms in relation to geography and topography. A number of classes were
given during field trips to various districts of Paris. 252 The teaching of the section of Social
Organizations of Cities included the origin, composition and characteristics of the urban
population.253 The course examined the mental and moral factors, economic factors, sanitary and
demographic factors in the constitution of urban crisis, then searching for preventative measures
that could alleviate the stress imposed by urban problems. 254 Specialist in issues of social
security and professor of prévoyance et assistance sociale at Collège de France, Édouard Fuster,
collaborated with Paris city hygiene service inspector, doctor George Guilhaud, in teaching the
core courses of this section.255 It is also worthy to note the extensive connections that Fuster
obtained through his work at Section d’hygiène urbaine et sociale du Musée Social, “where he
collaborated with Mining engineer German Édouard Grüner on the legislations for social
protections of workers under the Bismarckian doctrine.”256 As historian Rémy Baudouï pointed
out, Fuster was more familiar with the work of Maurice Halbwachs, thus immersing himself in
the « salubriste » tradition.257 Fuster’s class in social organization of the city treated the city as a
place for enacting social policies, instead of viewing it as a socially organized entity. Becaused

250
Paul Claval, “De Haussmann au musée social,” in Aux Débuts de l’Urbanisme Français, (Paris: L”Harmattan,
2001), 12.
251
Other teaching faculties include: George Guilhaud, chargé de conférence. Robert Lainville, chargé de cours.
William Oualid, chargé de conférences. Marcel Poëte, Professeur. Louis Rolland. Chargé de conférences. Henri
Sellier, chargé de conférence. François Sentenac, chargé de conférences. Emile Graille, Chargé de cours suppléant.
Léon Hermann, chargé de conférences. “Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de
Paris, 22.
252
“Organisation et fonctionnement,” Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, no.7, 18.
253
Ibid., 19
254
It would seem in this process that establishing orders and regulations, in economic, social and cultural actions is
of great importance: “On étudie le milieu dans lequel doit s’élever la maison et les conditions indispensables que ce
milieu doit remplir pour que la santé des habitants soit sauvegardée. … Largeurs des rues, hauteurs des maisons,
nature du revêtement du sol, système d’écoulement des eaux et matières usées, modes des plantations d’alignement
dont l’influence sur la salubrité des maisons et considérable. Puis on vient l’exposé des dangers du bruit et des
trépidations causés par la circulation des véhicules et les moyens de les atténuer. Les poussières et les moyens d’en
diminuer les inconvénients sont également examinés. Il paraît surtout indispensable d’insister tout spécialement sur
l’action toute-puissante de la lumière solaire, le plus efficace destructeur des microbes pathogènes.” See in
“Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, no.7, p. 19.
255
“Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, no.7, p. 21. See also Rémi
Baudouï, « La discipline de l’urbanisme et la ségrégation sociale », La Ville Divisée, les ségrégations urbaines en
question France XVIIIe –Xxe siècles. (Crâne : Créaphis, 1996), p. 169
256
Fuster was also a member of the permanent committee of the work accident. See Rémi Baudouï, « La discipline
de l’urbanisme et la ségrégation sociale », La Ville Divisée, les ségrégations urbaines en question France XVIIIe –
Xxe siècles. (Paris : Crâne : Créaphis, 1996), p. 169
257
Ibid.
 57

of Fuster’s position as Président de l’Office départementaldu placement et de la statistique du

travail, his teaching approach relied heavily on statistical evidence, on data collected from
bureau d’hygiène of the municipality, including informations on birth and death rate, marital
rate, immigration and emigration trends.
Section of administrative organization of cities, under the direction of Gaston Jèze,
provided a set of classes that dealt with the political and administrative aspects of urban
science. 258 In this section, important questions of municipalities, including its financial
management, roads and city extension were explored. Henri Sellier, as the mayor of Suresnes,
held conferences on the organization of public services of Parisian banlieue. It was in this series
of conferences that Sellier discussed the potential of intercommunalité in solving the problems of
“Grand Paris”, through an examination of communal practice and the development of
syndicalism regarding major public services, such as water, gas and electricity. He would further
advocate for the “intercommunalisation” of administrative personals in order to facilitate the
department-wide integration of public services. 259 Major part of the class was devoted to the
repercussions of the presence of pouvoirs publics on the liberties of local officials (libertés
locales), and the question of the mayors of Paris, the deliberative body of municipal council;
Moreover, the questions of lotissements, Grand Paris and the octrois would also be examined in
light of the situations at the time.
In the teachings of the economic organization of cities, law professor William Oualid
held complementary conferences on municipalism and its causes, tackling various social and
economic issues that contributed to the complexity of municipalism. 260 For example, how to
manage the increasing budgetary needs of the municipality; Politically, how to enlarge and
democratize the electoral college through female universal suffrage; Demographically, how to
cope with the increasing population and its needs in hygiene and esthetics of urban lives; or the
judicial problems that would require reflections on whether the communes have the right to
engage in commercial and industrial development on its own. 261 The objective of the course was

258
Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, 21.
259
Ibid., 22.
260
Ibid., 27.
261
“Ces causes sont au nombre de trois principales : 1. causes financières, besoins accrus des budgets municipaux ;
difficulté de les alimenter à l’aide des ressources ordinaires ; des financements publiques, c’est-à-dire l’impôt
arrivé au point de saturation ou l’emprunt exceptionnel ou trop onéreux et nécessité de songer aux ressources
d’économie privée, notamment aux revenus du domaine industriel ; 2. causes politiques, élargissement et
démocratisation du collège électoral par l’universalisation du droit de suffrage et son attribution aux femmes ;
revendications correspondantes des classes ouvrières ou initiatives spontanée de municipalité interventionnistes
encouragées dans cette voie par l’exemple de l’Etat ; 3. Causes économiques et sociales ; urbanisation rapide du
XIXe siècle et conséquences quantitatives et qualitative de celle-ci, une population plus nombreuse ayant des
besoins plus étendus en volume et plus raffinés en nature esthétique, hygiène, aération que ceux d’une population
 58

also to familiarize students with the use of financial analysis tools, interpreting statistical index
in official reports. Moreover, Auguste Bruggmeman,262 chief of the OPHBM and major defender
of the garden city model elaborated that, “[la cité-jardin est] est comme une ville conçue après
un plan préalable permettant l’exercice de l’industrie, garantissant une habitation saine à tous
ses occupants, d’une dimension susceptible d’offrir le plein essor des relations sociales, d’une
population dont l’importance est limitée à l’avance, entourée d’une ceinture agricole, la terre
restant propriété publique ou commune et gérée par la collectivité, toutes garanties étant prises
pour assurer le maintien des mesures élaborées en vue du bien-être général.”263
In the section of economic organization of cities, the classes were set out to review the
“irrational” use of lands in the past and envisage advantages of proper management of the
economies of cities would bring to the community.264 Looking for answers in the past forms of
agglomeration such as workers’ colonies, phalanstères and familistères of industrialists of the
eighteenth and nineteenth century, the course presented the reason why over populated
metropolitan industrial cities should be decongested, and do away with the excessive pressure for
ever-higher real estate prices. It was here that the British model of garden city was introduced,
with a focus on “economic experience that allows for the residence of the city to share the
excess value (plus-value) gained through their presence on the land.”265 In the teaching of the
garden city model, theoretical framework and the anticipated results would be discussed as well
as the difficulties in creating the first garden city, with special attention to the of land ownership
scheme at Letchworth.266
The section on art and techniques of building the cities (l’Art et technique de la
construction des villes), directed by architects. Léon Jaussely and Jacques Gréber, focused on
questions of land distribution, esthetic elements in construction, how meeting new needs of
urban lives. In this class dedicated to art urbain, professors argued that the improved
transportation system, capitalistic production, and all what the twentieth century endeavor for
“progress” made the modern agglomerations losing its natural charms, while replacing it with

rare ou clairsemée.” See Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, no.7, p. 27-
28.
262
Auguste Bruggeman would become the chief of Le titulaire de l’enseignement principal de cette section
d’organisation économique, Auguste Bruggeman, assumait de surcroît les fonctions de directeur de l’enseignement
de l’IUUP (et de secrétaire de son conseil d’administration).
263
Rémi Baudoui, “La discipline de l’urbanisme et la ségrégation sociale.” In La Ville Divisée, 170.
264
Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, 25.
265
“Une véritable expérience économique dont le résultat doit être de réserver aux habitants de la ville le produit de
la plus-value acquise par le sol que leur présence a mis en valeur.” Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut
d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, 25.
266
Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, no.7, p. 26.
 59

artificial esthetics, such as the beautification efforts.267 Thus, the purpose of the course was to re-
enact harmonious urban esthetics through the studies of circulation, land distribution, hygiene,
management of public space and residential districts.268 Moreover, from the faculty assignment
of this course, one could see the emphasis on the technical skills, as architects always taught the
course. 269 “From 1920, architect Léon Jaussely was in charge of teaching the theoretical
foundation of the course, while Jacques Gréber in charge of the practical application of theories.
In 1927, Jaussely quit the teaching body, bringing Louis Bonnier, Henri Prost and Jacques
Gréber in charge, in which Bonnier took over the theoretical part and Prost the technical aspects
of the planning and construction of the city. Gréber continued with the practical application
section, which dealt with questions of landscape architecture and aesthetics.”270
Finally, the section of administrative development (perfectionnement administratif)
examined questions such as legislative efforts with a focus on commune, while offering classes
on civil law and basic administrative skills. As the employees at the city office and secretary
personnel should not limit their knowledge only to previous legislations, but also command a
more general knowledge, which would help them understanding the day-to-day operations in the
public office. The section of administrative development would soon be organized under the
name of École Nationale d’Administration Municipale (E.N.A.M.). According to Emmanuel
Bellanger, such initiative was anchored in the context of normalizing the relationships between
the municipalities and their personnel, in the sense that the creation of E.N.A.M. would directly
account for the surge in the number of municipal hires.271
Another important part of teaching at E.H.E.U. and I.U.U.P. involved the conferences on
residential hygiene (“l’hygiène de l’habitation”), taught by Paul Juillerat. The conferences took
place on 14, 21 and 28 February 1920. Juillerat started with a lecture on how modern hygienists
should consider various elements of urban life, including air, water, and sun light, street, sewage
system, noises, etc. Then he presented his opinion concerning the differences between individual
and collective housing, paying special attention to studies of different parts of the house, “soit les

267
“L’industrie, l’ère du capitalisme, la vie concentrée ver la production, la folie de la vitesse, l’économisation
systématique du temps, le développement des moyens de transport rapide, enfin tout ce que les hommes du XXe
siècle appellent « le progrès », a fait de nos agglomération urbaines et modernes, des organismes utilitaires d’où le
charmes, l’agrément naturel des villes anciennes, semblent absolument bannis. La notion de l’esthétique artificielle
est née; la nécessité d’un plan dit « d’embellissement » est apparue, alors qu’auparavant elle eût été un
pléonasme !”See in Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, no.7, p. 30.
268
Organisation et fonctionnement”, Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris, 32.
269
Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937 ,” 19-20.
270
Ibid.
271
Emmanuel Bellanger, L’École nationale d’administration municipale. Des « sans-grade » devenus secrétaires
généreux. Politix. Vol 14 , no. 53 2001, p 145-171, pp. 148.
 60

murs, « les parties souterraines », le rez de chaussée, les chambres, le séjour, les aérations, la
cheminée et les moyens de combustion, l’évacuation des eaux usées et la question sanitaire.”272

The first decade of teaching urban studies was considered a time of experimentation, as
Rémi Baudoui argued.273 Yet, the teaching was inspired by an impulse to focas on the social
dimension of urban issues, while putting forward the British model of garden city as well as the
legal framework for municipal reform.274 “La démarche culturelle du projet urbain de l’EHEU et
de l’IUUP est entièrement inscrite dans cet attachement formulé par les enseignants aux
principes d’une science des villes décrite par Patrick Geddes dans ses deux ouvrages
fondamentaux : « city development » et « cities in evolution ».” 275 Another unifying singular
characteristic of the teaching at I.U.U.P. was captured in Marcel Poëte’s course on Evotion of
Cities. The course did not fit in the category of a classical history course at university level, nor
to fulfill any professional objectives. 276 Rather, it was considered as instrumental in instilling
organicism in teaching urban studies.
Pioneer in engaging in “expérimentations pédagogiques” of the urban history of Paris and
its institution through public service, Marcel Poëte was the most influential figure in propagating
organicistic view of urban lives at I.U.U.P.277 While Poëte took the teaching assignment for the
course of Evolution of Cities, the pedagogical orientation was considered as under the influence
of “culture positiviste,” “forming connections between several disciplines, history, geography,
archeology as well as sociology.” 278 As historian Donatella Calabi had pointed out, Poëte’s work
“Comment s’est formé Paris, réécriture de Formation et évolution de Paris,” propelled by a
theoretical pursuit, demonstrated a strong influence of Bergson, where Poëte’s thesis

272
Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 128. “Au nom de cette positivité supérieure du
salubrisme, l’hygiénisme ne peut être considéré comme la seule science du foyer domestique. Paul Juillerat en
déterminant un lieu de solidarité entre l’état de l’habitation et son environnement, en élargit l’usage à l’ensemble
du périmètre urbain. C’est sans nul doute par cette faculté à sortir d’une simple analyse de l’hygiène de l’habitation
que s’affirme l’originalité de son enseignement. S’il intègre les réflexions de ses contemporains sur la nécessité
d’une évolution des coulées d’air et de lumière – et des îlots – qui doivent également s’aérer et s’ouvrir pour les
mêmes raisons – Paul Juillerat a tôt fait de situer sa réflexion sur le terrain du débat entre maison individuelle et
maison collective. Paul Juillerat se donne ainsi l’occasion d’affirmer son attachement pour le premier modèle qui
garantit au mieux selon lui les conditions d’une vie hygiénique meilleure. Son adhésion aux principes de la cité-
jardin est surtout pour le moyen d’affirmer sa pleine adhésion à la politique déployée par la Préfecture de la
Seine.” (Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 130)
273
Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 73.
274
Ibid., 74.
275
Ibid.
276
Ibid., 125.
277
The term of “expérimentation pédagogique” is referenced to Donatelle Calabi’s book Marcel Poëte et le Paris
des années vingt, aux origines de “l’histoire des villes.”
278
Calabi, Marcel Poëte et le Paris des années vingt, 17.
 61

conceptualized the city as an individual or a living organism.279 His organicistic views can be
best gauged in Une vie de cité. Paris de sa naissance à nos jours: “On ne saurait envisager à
part l’un de l’autre l’état économique et l’état social d’une ville, ce dernier dépendant du
précédent, ni séparer l’aspect que présente une cité de ses conditions de vie économique et
sociale, car la fonction crée l’organe et, en l’espèce, la physionomie d’une agglomération est la
résultante de ces conditions d’existence, sa forme exprime sa nature propre.”280
In fact, many historians argued that Poëte was influenced by Évolution créatrice of
Henri Bergson. 281 Among them, Donatella Calabi argues that Poëte was influenced by two
concepts: “changement ininterrompu” and “transition continue.” 282 Moreover, Calabi also
pointed out the shared conviction between Poëte and Patrick Geddes in locating the social nature
of urban organization: “la ville est avant tout la communauté qui l’habite, une entité qui
comprend des structures et des fonctions matérielles et immatérielles.”283 Both were involved in
professional organizations: Geddes worked for Town Planning Institute; while Poëte was
engaged in the Société française des architectes. Meanwhile, Busquet and Carriou have argued
that by 1937 the change in the faculty members at I.U.U.P. also demonstrated the different
approaches taken by professors --- from the vitalist view of the cities as represented by Poëte;
towards the Pierre Levedan’s understanding of urban history as a processes of solving urban
problems, with a vision of urban production centering on the actors.284
The composition of teaching faculty would not remain unchanged throughout the years.
In the time period concerning this study, 1937 is the year major changes took place, presenting
an important point to take into account while analyzing the intellectual production of the students
in the years afterwards.285 While faculties such as Bonnier, Poëte and Oualid left their teaching
positions, along with Pierre Remaury et Robert-Henri Hazemann confirmed their resignation,
new hires were made, including Pierre Lavedan, Étienne de Groër, Gaston Bardet and Henri
Bahrmann. 286 Moreover, Auguste Bruggeman resigned because of deteriorating health issues,
seeing his course on Organisation économique de villes, taken up by Oualid. 287 Meanwhile,
Remaury replaced Bonnier in the teaching of l’Art Urbain or Art et technique de la construction

279
Ibid., 24.
280
Marcel Poëte. Une vie de cité. Paris de sa naissance à nos jours. Tome I. La jeunesse. Des origines aux temps
modernes. (Paris : Picard, 1924), ii. As cited in Payre, 19.
281
Donatelle Calabi, Marcel Poëte et le Paris des années vingt, aux origines de “l’histoire des villes,” (Paris:
L”Harmattan, 1997); See also Renaud Payre in “Un savoir « scientifique, utilitaire et vulgarisateur».”
282
Calabi, Marcel Poëte et le Paris des années vingt, 72.
283
Ibid., 73.
284
Busquet and Carriou, “Entre art et science,”68.
285
See Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 4-9.
286
Bardet and Bahrmann were in fact previous graduates of the I.U.U.P. See Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en
Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 28.
287
Ibid.
 62

des villes; Hazemann replaced the diseased Dr. Gommès in the teaching of l’Hygiène de
l’habitation; Pierre Lavedan replaced then diseased Marcel Poëte in the teaching of l’Évolution
de villes; Étienne de Groër took up the position of chargé de conferences, lecturing on the
principles of cité-jardin and its realizations in Britain; Gaston Bardet became assistant, Henri
Bahrmann et Marcel Chappey became chefs des travaux techniques de la section Art et technique
de la construction des villes.288

La Vie Urbaine: milieu of Reformers

The journal, and official organ of I.U.U.P., La Vie urbaine, provided important
pedagogical materials for teaching urban studies. Alongside Musée Social, La Vie urbaine stands
for another institution for the exchanges of ideas of urban reform. Created by the decision of the
Conseil Municipal of Paris on 26 December 1919, La Vie urbaine aimed to diffuse the
publications of what is known then as the Institut d’Histoire, de Géographie et d’Économie
urbaines.289 Among the contributors of La Vie urbaine, there are Camille Vallaux, Marcel Poëte,
Louis Bonnier, Léon Jaussely, all of whom were also faculty members at I.U.U.P.. These
contributors, Renaud Payre argues, belonged to the same circle of “nébuleuse Sévigné,” while
making the journal the “crystallization” of such network. 290 Situating in between scientific
knowledge and reformist actions, the journal served as the primary locale for the transformation
of knowledge concerning the questions of “urban reform through education, activism as well as
political actions.”291 At the early years of the journal, it was considered as a place for forming
reformist community, as represented by the location of its office at 29 rue de Sévigné, also
known as the location for bibliothèque des travaux de la ville de Paris since 1916.292 By 1925,
the journal became official organ of I.U.U.P., as faculties of Université de Paris staffed its
editing board.293

288
Ibid..
289
Vincent Berdoulay, Paul Claval, dir, Aux Débuts de l’Urbanisme Française, (Paris : L’Harmattan, 2001), 95.
290
Renaud Payre, “Un savoir « scientifique, utilitaire et vulgarisateur» : la ville de La Vie urbaine, objet de science
et objet de réforme (1919-1939), ” Genèses, 2005/3, no. 6, p. 5.
291
Payre, “Un savoir « scientifique, utilitaire et vulgarisateur»,” 11.
292
Ibid., 10.
293
Ibid., 13.
 63

Figure 1. Front and back covers of the 7th issue of La Vie urbaine. Organisation et
fonctionnement Institut d’urbanisme de l’université de Paris

Source : Institut d'urbanisme de Paris, Bibliothèque historique Poëte et Sellier

 64

Figure 2. Cover of La Vie urbaine (1920), introducing editorial board members: Louis Bonnier,
Henri Sellier, Auguste Bruggeman, Marcel Poëte.

Source : Institut d'urbanisme de Paris, Bibliothèque historique Poëte et Sellier

 65

La Vie urbaine faced competition from the journals such as Urbanisme, created in 1932
with Jean Royer and Henri Prost as main contributors, La quinzaine urbaine, the organ of Union
des villes et communes de France created in 1921.294 According to Payre, these journals were
close to La Vie urbaine, yet none of them was as squarely rooted in the academic world.295 La
Vie urbaine sit at the crossroad of a number of associations of urban reform, such as
“l’Association pour l’étude de l’aménagement et de l’extension des villes (section française de la
Fédération internationale des cités-jardins et de l’aménagement des villes), la Renaissance des
cités, la Fédération nationale des offices publics d’HBM ou encore l’Union des villes et
communes de France.” 296 Moreover, many have argued that La Vie urbaine had contributed
significantly to the legitimization of urban studies to be part of the serious science and its
transformation into a scientific discipline.297
Aside from La Vie urbaine, one can not leave out the important role Musée Social played
in forming the intimate circles of social reformers and intellectuals, officials of the Republic.One
key element in connecting Musée Social with the teaching, especial that of the cité-jardin, at
I.U.U.P. was the pursuit of espaces libres, and espaces verts of Alliance d’hygiène sociale and
Fédération nationale de la mutualité française (FNMF).298 Christian Topalov argued that with
the creation of the Société Française des architectes-urbanistes in 1913, cité-jardin found itself
in a new context of interpretation, one that incorporated the pursuit for espace libre, as argued by
Forestier since 1906. On the one hand, it represents a city where there is abundant open space of
vegetation; on the other hand, it serves the purpose of a rational planning for the growth of urban
agglomeration.299 The parallel between the preservation of green space and the model of cité-
jardin, allowed for the involvement of Benoit-Lévy as secretary, while Jules Siegried served as
the president of the section. By 1911, the Section d’Hygiène Urbaine et Rurale represented one
third of the members of the entire Musée. Among them, there were public health professionals,
294
See Guelton, “De la cité-jardin à la cité-linéaire,”24. Also Payre, “Un savoir « scientifique, utilitaire et
vulgarisateur»,” 13. Rémi Baudoui also wrote on the competition : “Est-ce pour cette raison qu’elle sera bientôt
concurrencés sur deux flancs ? D’un côté, par les bulletins de l’Union des villes et communes de France –Section
française de l’Union internationale des villes -, pour tout ce qui concerne les points d’actualité, renseignements
pratiques et conseils sur la gestion urbaine. De l’autre côté, par la revue Urbanisme, qui fera une large place aux
comptes-rendus de terrain, aux débats sur la composition urbaine et la démarche du projet. ” (Baudouï, La
Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 152.)
295
Payre, “Un savoir « scientifique, utilitaire et vulgarisateur»,” 14.
296
Ibid., 10.
297
See Renaud Payre, “Un savoir « scientifique, utilitaire et vulgarisateur» : la ville de La Vie urbaine, objet de
science et objet de réforme (1919-1939), ” Genèses, 2005/3, no. 6.
298
Horne, Le Musée Social, 287.
299
Christian Topalov, Laboratoire du Nouveau Siècle, (Paris : Éditions de l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences
Sociales, 1999), 25.
 66

architects, local and national political leaders. There were all together six doctors in the section,
including Paul Juillerat, who was in charge of the inspection of tuberculosis for the city of
Paris.300
Beforing joining the Section d’Hygiène Urbaine et Rurale, many faculty members have
already involved with Musée Social.301 For example, Edouard Fuster had worked on publications
regarding social economy and issurance issues with Edouard Grüner.302 In fact, once invited, the
faculty members of E.H.E.U. and I.U.U.P. would join Musée Social and its Section d’Hygiène
Urbaine et Rurale : “Henri Prost en juin 1911 pour les félicitations de la section obtenues à
l’occasion de son premier prix au concours international institué pour le choix du plan
d’extension de la ville d’Anvers… Jaussely en 1914 au moment de la réflexion sur le
fortifications, Gréber l’année suivante après sa conférence sur les plans d’urbanisme dans les
villes américaines. William Oulid sera le seul enseignant à rejoindre ses confrères après la
création de l’EHEU. ”303 The political convictions of the faculties of I.U.U.P. and E.H.E.U. were
not under the sole influence of Musée Social and its Section d’Hygiène Urbaine et Rurale,
making it difficult to group the professors in an unifying ideological umbrella. 304

Already in 1903, member of the Musée Social, doctor Albert Calmette proposed that in
all French cities, fortification walls should be removed and replaced by parks and the installation
of public health facilities for the health benefit of lower income families.305 In 1904, with the
help of Fuster, the Alliance d’hygiène sociale was established, as a laboratory of ideas and forum
for advocacy, it united F.N.M.F., S.F.H.B.M., Association des cités-jardins, Association central
française contre la tuberculose.306As Horne notes, this alliance demonstrates that:

“la réforme sociale s’était donc déplacée de l’hygiène sociale aux cités-jardins : se
trouvant d’abord tournés vers le logement, puis vers la ville elle-même, comme cible

300
Horne, Le Musée Social, 291.
301
Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 145.
302
Ibid.
303
Ibid.,, 147.
304
“Depuis le réformisme patronal en passant par les Le playsiens, les adeptes de la doctrine de Lyautey ou bien
encore les doctrines sociales de l’église, le projet social-démocrate d’un réformisme socialiste à la Henri Sellier ou
à la André Morizet, il n’y a de préoccupation en ce nouveau siècle que pour tenter de résoudre les risques de
décomposition de la société auquel tout contemporain ne peut qu’être rapidement confronté quelque soit par
ailleurs ses positions idéologique. [...]C’est donc cette nature même de ce rassemblement réformiste qui d’ailleurs
ne recouvre selon nous aucun syncrétisme particulier, que se rattache à la fois une pensée réformiste socialiste –le
solidarisme à la Gaston Bourgeois et le coopératisme à la Charles Gide – un réformisme social-démocrate à la
Henri Sellier, un réformisme radical-socialiste à la Gaston Jèze un réformisme catholique-social à la Louis Rolland
et même un réformisme de centre-droit à la Joseph-Barthélémy.”(Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes
Études Urbaines, 147)
305
Horne, Le Musée Social, 283.
306
Ibid., 284.
 67

privilégiée des activités réformatrices. Par la suite, ils concentrèrent leurs efforts sur les
problèmes plus vastes de la santé publique, des parcs, de la planification urbaine, du
zonage, du rôle des municipalités et de l’architecture publique. Ils devaient finalement
tenter de réformer les structures gouvernementales elles-mêmes. Ces nouvelles approches
de la réforme sociale et urbaine donnèrent le ton au programme du musée dans le domaine
de l’hygiène publique au moins jusqu’en 1919, quand la première loi française sur la
planification urbaine – la loi Cornudet, dont le texte avait été esquissé principalement
dans les sections du Musée Social – fut approuvée par la chambre des députés.”307

Moreover, Musée Social had funded two study trips of Benoit-Lévy to Britain and the
United States for visiting the early projects of cités-jardins in these two countries. Meanwhile,
Jean-Yves Puyo points out that, Léon Jaussely, a key figure of I.U.U.P. faculty, assisted on a
regular basis the meetings at Musée Social, where he wrote several reports on the reconstructions
of cities damaged by the war 1914-1919.308 Jaussely also participated along side Louis Bonnier
and Georges Risler in the making of the first regional planning map of Paris with the
Commission Supérieure d’Aménagement, d’Embellissement et d’Extension.309 Key figures such
as Henri Sellier and Louis Bonnier found themselves in several circles of reformers. For
example, Louis Bonnier was president of the French division of Comité franco-belge
d’enseignement de l’urbanisme, “created under the initiative of M. Helleputte Minister of
Travaux Publics de la Belgique.”310 Bonnier was also member of the editorial board of La Vie
urbaine, from 1925 to 1925, while also connected to Association française pour l’étude et
l’aménagement des villes (AFEAV), Préfecture de la Seine, as well as E.H.E.U.311

Mémoire de fin d’étude, from Student to Peer

In order to understand students’ intellectual production in the early years of E.H.E.U.,

one needs first look into the composition of students. In a report of 1919, Sellier presented the
institution as a departmental service designed for and foremost for the municipality of Paris and
its banlieue, knowing that those come from communes banlieusards are of minority. 312 As Rémi
Baudoui reminds us, the initial objective of E.H.E.U. was to train administrative personnel of the
communes, in the Paris region.313 From 1919 to 1922, students enrolled were 100% french.314

307
Horne, Le Musée Social, 283-84.
308
Jean-Yves Puyo, “L’Urbanisme selon Léon Jaussely,” in Aux Débuts de l’Urbanisme Français, (Paris:
L”Harmattan, 2001), 120.
309
Puyo, “L’Urbanisme selon Léon Jaussely,”121.
310
Ibid.
311
Payre, Un savoir scientifique, 12.
312
Emmanuel Bellanger, l’École nationale d’administration municipale. Des « sans-grade » devenus secrétaires
généraux. Politix, vol 14. No. 53 (2001), 154.
313
Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 46.
 68

Only starting from 1923, there were incoming foreign students. 315 The number of students
enrolled in the first few years varied in drastically: “294 students enrolled in 1919, 62 in 1920,
183 en 1921, 114 in 1922, 103 in 1923.”316 Some students were graduates from École Spéciale
d’Architecture (E.S.A.), where they had created independent projects ex nihilo, while preparing
for concours de sortie. What differentiated the projects from E.S.A. and those of E.H.E.U and
I.U.U.P. was that the students could choose their thesis subject. As Matus Carrasco notes that the
student admissions were rather flexible, for even without an E.N.A.M. diploma or certificate in
administrative and financial studies, the entrance exam committee would grant all the necessary
certificates, allowing prospective students to pursue study at I.U.U.P. 317 Yet, those who were
architect, engineer, or public servant (fonctionnaire) were in privileged positions.318 Moreover,
among those who had already received a diploma in architecture, a majority came from Société
des Architectes diplômés par le gouvernement (D.P.L.G.).319 For example, this was the case for
Jeanne Boulfroy who wrote about the problems of modern cities in 1939.
For those of the students who were public servants (fonctionnaire), many of them were
alumni of E.N.A.M. who decided to enroll in urban studies and write a thesis. Bellanger tells us
that, “parmi les étudiants en thèse, et pour la période de 1922 à 1937, 24 étudiants signalent être
fonctionnaires à formations diverse, soit le 16% ; parmi eux, 9 sont anciens diplômés de
l’E.N.A.M., soit le 6%, cependant il faut tenir compte que « entre 1922, date de la première
soutenance de thèse, et les années 1940, ces « modestes » employés de services publics, diplômés
de l’E.N.A.M., représentent 17 % des thésards de l’I.U.U.P.”320 This was the case for Germaine
Leymarie, who was Sous-chef du Service de Secrétariat Général et de comptabilité à l’OPHBM
of Département de la Seine and Germaine Bardy, who was a social assistant. 321 In her 1926
thesis, Germaine Leymarie wrote about the social organization of the cité-jardin. Defended her
thesis in 1938, Germaine Bardy also chose a subject closely connected to her professional

314
Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 46.
315
Ibid.
316
Emmanuel Bellanger, l’École nationale d’administration municipale. Des « sans-grade » devenus secrétaires
généraux. Politix, vol 14. No. 53 (2001), p. 154. Bellanger writes: « [cette école d’études urbaines et
d’administration municipale] est en effet investie principalement par des étudiants des facultés, de l’École des
Beaux-arts, de l’École spéciale d’architecture, de l’École des travaux publics ou de l’École des Mines, par des
salariés des régies de la compagnie du gaz et de la société des transports en commun de la région parisienne (TCRP),
par des employés d’administration privées et par des fonctionnaires de la préfecture. »
317
See Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 39.
318
Ibid, 40.
319
Société des Architectes diplômés par le gouvernement was founded in 1895.
320
BELLANGER (Emmanuel), “Administrer la « banlieue municipale ». Activité municipale, intercommunalité,
pouvoir mayoral, personnel communal et tutelle préfectoral en Seine banlieue des années 1880 aux années
1950,”Thèse Université de Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint- Denis, 2004, Volume 3, 918. As cited in Matus Carrasco, “La
Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 42.
321
See Katherine Burlen, Citadin-Citoyen, 109.
 69

experience, namely “Le Service social dans les H.B.M. et notamment à l’Office Public d’H.B.M.
du Département de la Seine.”
Now, previous scholars have provided insight into the origin of the exercise of mémoire
de fin d’étude. For example, Rémi Baudouï argues that the birth of the I.U.U.P. mémoire could
be traced from a meeting of Comité de perfectionnement on 23 March 1921, where Auguste
Bruggeman proposed that for those students who had attended the four fundamental classes
during two years of study could send to the school secretariat a project of thesis on a question
related to the teaching of the school.322 The situation in 1921 would dictate that the four teaching
faculties of the fundamental courses, namely, Poëte (Évolution des villes), Fuster (Organisation
sociale des villes), Jèze (Organisation administrative des villes), and Jaussely (Art Urbain) had to
give their approval before students could proceed to the thesis project.323
Yet, there were still some elements of ambiguities. For example, not all students were to
finished a thesis. “Seuls 44% des étudiants de seconde année ayant réussi leurs examens –
toutes promotions confondues de 1919 à 1931 – réalisent une thèse de fin d’études.”324By the
1930s, the procedure became more explicit, in that students who succeeded the exams of the
second year would prepare a thesis whose subject was to be decided with a professor chargé de
conférence.325 Such project should allow students to demonstrate research ability and mastery of
knowledge taught in the classes of the previous two years.326 At the time of the exam, students
were called in for a public defense of their work, after which, the jury committee would
deliberate and decide the grade to attribute and whether to grand the diploma.327 Finally, the
establishment of fin d’étude projects demonstrates the abandonment of a pure reliance of the
system of exams and certificate that characterize the period of 1919.328
Meanwhile, the choice between students and director of the thesis also merits attention.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the director of the thesis was oftentimes the same person presiding the
thesis defense jury. The reason for such arrangement was that student could actually choose on
322
“Dès ce début d’année 1920, la méthode mise au point l’année précédente sur la validation de l’enseignement
est affinée. Sans remettre en cause cette notion même de certificat, le Comité de perfectionnement envisage la
nécessité de créer un système dual de validation des cours fondamentaux permettant de signifier expressément les
enjeux des divers cours institués : la possession des certificats concernant les branches évolution des villes et art
urbain doit être l’occasion d’octroyer un brevet d’aménagement des villes ; la possession des certificats se
rapportant à l’enseignement organisation sociale des villes et organisation administrative doit quant à elle donner
lieu à l’octroi du brevet d’administration municipale. Seule la possession des deux brevets donne lieu à l’octroi du
« diplômé d’urbanisme ». ” Rémi Baudoui, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 16.
323
Ibid.
324
Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 61.
325
Archive de l’Institut d’urbanisme de Paris. Tome 1 Comptes-rendus du Comité de perfectionnement et du
Conseil d’administration, p. 106-107. As cited in Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 36.
326
Ibid.
327
Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 34.
328
Ibid., 32.
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his own, the president of the jury for his thesis defense.329 Often, there was a strong link between
professional experience of the professor and the subject of research of the student, while
choosing director of thesis. Between 1922 and 1937, it was discovered that Marcel Poëte and
Louis Bonnier were the main faculty members that supervised the greatest number of student
work. 330 Students working on evolution of cities would ask Marcel Poëte as thesis directors;
whereas, for Bonnier, students working on all kinds of projects would solicit him.331 Yet the
majority of the works supervised by Bonnier was on a city project (Projet d’une ville).332 Among
the theses chosen by this study, for example, Bonnier directed André Blond who wrote a thesis
on “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation et la cité d’habitations populaires” (1928).333
The different works under Bonnier’s supervision actually carved out precisely the scope of his
responsibilities as inspecteur général des services techniques d’architecture et d’esthétique at
Préfecture de la Seine: “Extension, esthétique et hygiène de l’habitation constituent les
principaux thèmes à l’honneur.334 Compared to Bonnier, Prost and Fuster supervised relatively
fewer students, most of whom chose subjects close to the class of social organizations of the city,
as taught by Prost and Fuster.335 It is worth noting that Sellier, Rolland, Sébille all supervised
very few theses.336 Finally, the matches between theses and professors, Baudouï argues, were
entirely related to the professional competence of the professors.337
In a study on the use of bibliographical source of I.U.U.P. students’ theses (1922-1937),
Daniel Matus Carrasco recognizes the interwar period as a time of producing a web of
legislations, establishing institutions, consolidating knowledges on urban studies, as well as
applyin during 1920s and 1930s were not merely research work; To the contrary, they were first
and foremost a pretext that allows professors of E.H.E.U. and I.U.U.P. to examine the potential
of a candidate to become practitioners, a candidate who could potentially become a peer, instead

329
Baudoui, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 325.
330
Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 55.
331
Ibid.
332
Ibid.
333
Ibid.
334
“André Blond propose comme sujet de thèse, l’Esthétique et hygiène de l’habitation de la cité d’habitation
populaire, » Dragomir Popovitch, celui concernant « les habitations à bon marché de la ville de Belgrade », Raoul
Sarre pour sa part travaille sur le « projet d’aménagement, d’embellissement et d’extension d’une petite
agglomération provençale, les Arcs (Var) ». D’autres travaux reflètent cette dimension opérationnelle de
l’architecte-fonctionnaire : Jules Regenstreif avec son « Urbanisme et tuberculose. Contribution à l’étude de
l’hygiène et de l’habitation » dont des extraits seront publiés dans le Mouvement Sanitaire, ou encore de Paul
Hornstein, « Quelques directives sur l’aménagement de la ville de Ploesti(Roumanie)». ”See Baudoui, La Naissance
de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 67.
335
Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 56.
336
Ibid.
337
Rémi Baudoui, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 66.
 71

of a researcher.”338 This means that the main objective of thesis writing during the first decade of
E.H.E.U. was to gauge the characters of the students and their potential to become practitioners
rather than a researcher. This seemingly echoes, the arguments made by Gérard Noiriel in the
article “Le jugement des pairs. La soutenance de thèse au tournant du siècle,” where the chief
objective was to select peers, rather than that of selecting savants. 339
This study selected ten students’ theses out of the entire theses defended between 1922
and 1969, surrounding a particular subject matter, la cité-jardin, and social housing, by
extension. It does not take into account the wide variety of subjects chosen by students. In this
matter, other historians have provided an overview of the subjects matters for mémoire de fin
d’étude. 340 For example Roger-Henri Guerrand notes that the first batch of theses treated
primarily two subjects: “l’histoire et l’aménagement des villes” and “les grands services publics”
(including, les transports, le traitement des ordures). Rémi Baudoui points out that, a number of
theses chose to deal with foreign cities, such as the work of Constantin Mikaesco (1927) and
Carlos Della Paolera (1928); 341 while others chose subjects beyond the boundaries of an
agglomeration. 342 For certain cases, students had a personal connection with a particular subject,
which was the case of Raoul-Louis Puget, Berthe Leymarie, Germaine Bardy and Raymond
Choquer.343 For others, the director of the thesis played an important role, as Rémi Baudoui
suggests : “ l’effet de mimétisme engendré par l’adoption par l’élève de la problématique et des
thèmes de recherche de son enseignant.” 344
Matus Carrosco has also proposed to divide the subject matters chosen into two major
categories: 1) A classical historical study of the city, following the theme of Evolution of Cities;
2) A study of a specific project that deals with Plan d’aménagement, d’extension et
338
He writes that: “À notre regard, la thèse en urbanisme des années 1920 et des années 1930 n’est pas uniquement
un travail de recherche, au contraire, elle est avant tout un prétexte qui permet aux enseignants de l’E.H.E.U. et de
l’I.U.U.P. examiner un candidat qui cherche à devenir un practicien, un candidat donc, qui cherche à devenir un
pair et qui ne cherche pas à devenir un chercheur. La thèse en urbanisme, en tant qu’exercice pratique, permet de
comprendre les caractéristiques des étudiants et permet d’expliquer le choix des sources utilisées.” (P. 3, Tome I)
339
Gérard Noiriel, « Le jugement des pairs. La soutenance de thèse au tournant du siècle. » Genèse, 5(1991), 132-
147.
340
See the work of Rémi Baudouï, Daniel Matus Carrasco, Roger-Henri Guerrand and Christine Moissinac.
341
Carlos Della Padera (1928), Contribution à l’étude d’un plan d’aménagement, d’embellissement et d’extension de
Buenos Aires, Etude sur l’évolution de la ville, directed by Marcel Poete.
342
Such as the thesis of Camille Depaule on « Les Sociétés d’Habitation à Bon Marché et l’Urbanisme » ( 1925),
and that pf the Maurice Clauzier on « la cité-jardin du port d’aerobus de la Métropole Urbs » ( 1922) , Michel
Gérard on « participation du personnel à la gestion des cités-jardins de la Compagnie du Nord » (1926) et celle de
Raoul Puget intitulée « Du préssant besoin d’une cité-jardin pour les classes moyennes » (1928). See Baudouï, La
Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 62.
343
According to Baudouï’s interview with Roger Puget, the son of Raoul-Louis Puget, his father consulted with his
director Cassen at compagnie des Chemins de fer for possible thesis topic. The latter pointed Puget towards the
direction of designing a cié-jardin for the “middle classes.” See Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes
Études Urbaines, 197-98.
344
Baudouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 65.
 72

d’embellissement des villes. 345 Specifically, project category includes works that concern the
future of cities, their regulations and development.346 In order to better contextualize the studies
dealing with projects of Plan d’aménagement, d’extension et d’embellissement des villes, Matus
Carrasco suggests to attend to the impact of the Cornudet law of 1919. In fact, in the legislative
text of the Cornudet law, there was a double-objective, combining the need for
professionalization of the communal administrative and establishing urban studies as a discipline
of science.347 Both Marcel Poëte’s course on “Evolution of the City” and Léon Jaussely’s course
on the “Urban Art” involved teaching the Cornudet law.
Meanwhile, in the project category, there was also a whole host of projects that aimed to
design a “city ex nihilo,” or as Gréber understood, projets de rêve with yet undeniable
pedagogical value.348 This is demonstrated by the thesis of Jean Arvis “La cité-jardin et la ville
moderne. Transformation en cité-jardin d’une commune rurale de la région parisienne
(Commune de Wissous)” (1941), André Blond “L'Esthétique et l'hygiène dans l'habitation et la
cité d'habitations populaires” (1928), as well as Albert Lucas’s thesis on “Cité satellite créée à
l’occasion d’une exposition international de 1ère classe” (1936), in which Lucas stated at the
very beginning that the purpose of his work was to explore the possibility of such a project
regardless of its feasibility in reality.349
In terms of the structure of the theses, Rémi Baudouï provides somes significant insights,
based on a careful study of the theses defended between 1919 and 1930. Baudouï found out that
there was a certain norm in writing the thesis, regardless of the authors and the thesis directors:
350

“La première partie du mémoire est toujours général. Elle rassemble les matériaux
historiques décèles au cours des investigations. De portée somme toute limitée en terme

345
Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 16.
346
“Nous avons identifié quatre entrées pour cette catégories. Une première entrée vise à identifier les thèses qui
portent un portent un « Projet Plan d’aménagement, d’extension et d’embellissement des villes (P.A.E.E.) proposé
par l’auteur », une deuxième entrée vise à identifier les thèses qui portent un « Projet de ville proposé par l’auteur
», une troisième entrée vise à identifier les thèses qui portent un « Projet d’aménagement (et projet d’architecture) »
et une quatrième et dernière entrée vise à identifier les thèses qui portent un « Projet réglementaire ». Il s’agit des
catégories différentes, mais parfois en rapport dans la mesure où un P.A.E.E. peut contenir à la fois un projet
d’aménagement et un projet réglementaire.” See Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 16.
347
Rémi, Baudouï, Aleth Picard, « Portrait d’une École. L’institut d’Urbanisme de Paris, 1919-1989 : 70 ans
d’enseignement de l’urbanisme », Urbanisme, no. 228 (1988), 78. As cited in Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en
Urbanisme de 1922 à 1937,” 18.
348
Jacques Gréber, , “Utopies et réalités en urbanisme », L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, Vingt ans d’urbanisme en
France et Afrique du Nord, no. 3 (1939), p. 46. As cited in in Matus Carrasco, “La Thèse en Urbanisme de 1922 à
1937,” 24-25.
349
Lucas wrote that “Nous pensons qu’il n’est pas indispensable de faire un mémoire inutilisable pratiquement pour
obtenir vos suffrages.” P.7.
350
Badouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines,. 67.
 73

d’analyse, elle déroule le matériau de la recherche sans offrir les principes d’un
recentrage du propos autour d’une problématique clairement cernée. S’appuyant sur une
biographie type, elle rappelle au premier chef que la culture urbanistique de l’époque se
rapporte dans la plupart des cas à quelques noms pilotes, symbolisant au premier chef un
éclectisme dont le noyau central est composé des écrits des propres enseignants de
l’EHEU et de l’IUUP. Citons ainsi pèle-mèle Louis Bonnier, Marcel Poëte, Henri Sellier
et Ebenezer Howard, Camillo Sitte, Henri Sellier, Raymond Umwin et… Le Corbusier.
Quelques citations littéraires, historiques ou théoriques souvent présentées avec pour seule
référence le nom de leurs auteurs, émaillent l’ensemble du propos. La seconde partie
souvent plus solide s’appuie fréquemment sur un bon outillage statistique et sur une
exploitation consciencieuse et rigoureuse des documents administratifs.[…]La troisième
partie plus délicate – tant elle doit déboucher dans le meilleur des cas sur une proposition
concrète d’aménagement – apparaît plus difficilement maîtrisée. L’importance des
propositions « utopiques » et des résolutions techniques à la limite de professions de foi
sociales, rappellent la difficulté d’obtenir cet ajustement entre connaissances générales et
solutions concrètes.”351

Moreover, Baudouï argues that early theses tend to be an all-encompassing intellectual effort,
handling a wide range of topics at the same time:

“A travers le recensement des sujets traités et la formulation de ses titres, retenus au cours
des années 1920, il semble bien que la thèse de l’EHEU et de l’IUUP ait eu l’ambition
d’être tout cela à la fois :un laboratoire de réflexion et de prospective politique et sociale –
ce que traduit les nombreux thèmes exploratoires du municipalisme ou de la participation,
de l’exploration des services urbains, ou des champs d’une utilité certaine de l’urbanisme
comme le thermalisme l’hygiénisme – un territoire d’évaluation de pratiques réformistes
en cours – thèses sur différents services urbains et organismes parapublics à lorigine
d’une pratique du logement social – ou le simple lieu de confrontation de connaissances
sur le fait urbain – rôle essentiel de nombreuses monographies de villes françaises et
étrangères -.”352

Table 1. presents a complete list of ten students’ theses that serve as the main body of
primary source for this study. The table provides information on the students’ first and last
names, their directors of thesis, year of thesis defense, title of thesis as well as the professional
occupation of students before or during their studies at I.U.U.P. However, the last part of
information was inattenable in some cases. For example, no information was found for André
Blond, Albert Lucas as well as Marie-Antoinette Vallier. This lacking in the information on
personal trajectory of theses graduates of I.U.U.P. points a direction of future research. While
investigations into the socio-economic status of these graduates went beyond the scope of the
current study, it is important nonetheless to know at least their age and previous professional
training that students received before joining I.U.U.P.

351
Badouï, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 68.
352
Ibid., 65.
 74

Table 1. List of ten students’ theses dating from 1926 to 1950

Year Last Name First Name President of jury Student Profession Thesis Title
1926 LEYMARIE Berthe, Germaine Edouard Sous-chef du Service Organisation sociale des cités jardins du
née FUSTER de Secrétariat Grand Paris.
BLANCHARD Général et de
comptabilité à
l'O.P.H.B.M. du
Département de la
Seine
1928 BLOND André-Charles- Louis Unknown L'Esthétique et l'hygiène dans l'habitation et
Emile) BONNIER la cité d'habitations populaires.
1928 PUGET Raoul-Louis. Edouard Agent de la Du pressant besoin d'une cité jardin pour les
FUSTER Compagnie du classes moyennes Sa réalisation envisagée
Chemin de fer du sur les communes de Domont, Ecouen,
Nord Piscop, et Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt,
1935 ADAM Alexandre Henri Architect La Question de l'habitation et son influence
SELLIER sur l'urbanisme.
1936 LUCAS Albert (Sylvain, Henri Unknown Cité satellite créée à l'occasion de
Charles) PROST l'exposition internationale de 1ère classe.
1938 BARDY Germaine Roger PICARD Social Assistant Le Service sociale dans les H.B.M. et
notamment à l'Office Public d'H.B.M. du
Département de la Seine.
1939 BOULFROY Jeanne, Andrée- Etienne Architect Le Problème de la ville moderne : la cité
Auguste DE GROER jardin.
1941 ARVIS Jean Georges Unknown La cité jardin et la ville moderne.
SEBILLE Transformation en cité-jardin d’un
commune rurale de la région parisienne.
1949 VALLIER Marie-Antoinette Pierre Unknown L'Art urbain dans les cités-jardins et les
Mlle (Louise) REMAURY quartiers-jardins.
1950 CHOQUER Raymond (Paul, Henri-Roger Rédacteur à Le Confort dans les habitations à bon
Maurice) HAZEMANN l'OPHBM de la Seine marché.
 75

Figure. 3 Front cover of Berthe Leymarie’s thesis “Organisation sociale des cités jardins du
Grand Paris.” (1926)

Source : Institut d'urbanisme de Paris, Bibliothèque historique Poëte et Sellier

 76

Figure. 4 Front cover of Alexandre Adam’s thesis “La Question de l’Habitation et son Influence
sur l’Urbansime” (1935)

Source : Institut d'urbanisme de Paris, Bibliothèque historique Poëte et Sellier

 77

Part III. Analysis of Discursive Representations in I.U.U.P. Theses

Plurality for Urban forms, Laboratory of Ideas

In students’ mémoire de fin d’étude, there is a plethora of urban forms perceived as

possible solutions for solving urban problems, including cité-jardin, cité-linéaire, faubourg-
jardin, banlieue-jardin, village-jardin.353 Each of these models would find more or less unified
definitions in student’s theses. However, their relationship with one another is far from clear.
Were they all valid planning models? To answer this question, one needs to first look at the
discussions and debates among early thinkers of urban studies on how to treat the various
planning models. Among the debates on the ambiguity in the definitions, most prominent one
concerns cité-jardin and its adaptation in France. Benoit-Lévy, fervent advocate for
implementing rational planning models in France was, actually been accused of having betrayed
the economic and social functions in the original Howardian concept, by retaining merely the
residential function. Once deprived of its social function, cité-jardin was no more than banlieue-
jardin.354
Many historians would blame Georges Benoit-Lévy for the blurring of the distinctions
between cité-jardin and banlieue-jardin. For example, in a re-edition of the French version of
Garden Cities of To-Morrow, Ginette Baty-Tornikian355 argued that “la proposition patronale de
gestion sociale hygiéniste couplée d’une esthétique pittoresque et naturaliste trahit la
proposition coopérative et municipaliste d’Ebenezer Howard.”356 Annie Fourcaut also criticized
the rather patronizing characteristics in Benoit-Lévy’s interpretations of cité-jardin, stating that
“de ces reportages à travers les cités-jardins et les cités patronales du monde entier, […]
rapporte l’idée que la cité-jardin est une cité pavillonnaire financée par les industriels, offrant
aux classes populaires un milieu sain permettant de préserver la race.” 357 In La Cité-jardin
(1904), Benoit-Lévy wrote that the key feature of the English model of garden city was its ability

353
For the purpose of clarification and differentiation, Marc Bédarida would publish clear definitions of cité-jardin,
village-jardin and banlieue-jardin, in Plaisir et intélligence de l’urbain in 2011.
354
As discussed in the thesis of Mayalène Guelton « De la cité-jardin à la cité-linéaire. Georges Benoit-Lévy :
parcours d’un propagandiste idéaliste (1903-1939). Defended 16 juin, 2008 at Université de Versailles Saint-
Quentin-en Yvelines. Guelton referenced the work of English historian Anthony Sutcliffe who pointed out that
Benoît-Lévy’s adaptation of Howard’s model was read as an endeavor to plan cities in a rational manner, instead of
building an “ideal city.” (p.10)
355
Maître-assistante retraitée, ENSA de Paris-Belleville ; Chercheure associée au laboratoire IPRAUS
356
Guelton, “De la cité-jardin à la cité linéaire,” 11.
357
Annie Fourcaut, « La cité-jardin contre le lotissement ? », Urbanisme, no. 309, numéro social XXe siècle,
novembre-décembre 1999, 23, as cited in the dissertation of Mayalène Guelton, “De la cité-jardin à la cité-
linéaire,”11.
 78

to bring out “social peace” to the factories: “C’est autour des usines aujourd’hui que doivent se
créer des centres de vie sociale, c’est aux industriels de créer les nouvelles Cités […] ”358 This
narrow definition proposed by Benoit-Lévy understood cité-jardin solely in terms of its utility to
industrialists. In one sense, the early model of cité-jardin proposed by Benoit-Lévy, was close to
the idea of industrial village. Yet, by the time of the concours de cités-jardins of 1911, Benoit-
Lévy proposed a redefinition of cité-jardin by introducing the notion of “lotissement modèle.”
Georges Risler incorporated this definition in a 1913 report, where he explicitly stated that
creating a new city would no longer be the solution, but to connect the cités with big cities
through effective transportation networks. 359 Moreover, during the annual HBM congress in
June 1914, Henri Sellier further specified that the lesson to be drawn from the English
experience was one of “extension méthodique des agglomérations urbaines, par les Faubourgs-
jardins.”360
While Seller and Benoit-Lévy had different things to say regarding planning models, the
disparate opinions on how to apply planning models manifested in the writing of students’
theses. In general, students focused on the feasibility of different models and their coherences
with Howard’s doctrines, as shown in the work of Boulfroy (1939), Arvis(1941), Vallier(1950),
Lucas(1936) and Blond(1928). In her thesis “Le problème de la ville moderne: La cité-jardin”
(1939), Boulfroy labored to define cité-jardin, banlieue-jardin, and village-jardin. She gave a
definition of the banlieue-jardin:

“Les innovations de la cité-jardin ont été imitées dans l’aménagement de petits ou grands
lotissements à proximité des grandes villes: ce sont les banlieues-jardins. La banlieue-
jardin généralement construite par la municipalité ou des organismes plus ou moins
officiels à la périphérie de la ville n’est constituée que de quartiers d’habitation dont la
population travaille à la ville : elle représente donc pour le travailleur le cadre de la vie
familiale dans le calme et le repos. ”361

Boulfroy held that banlieue-jardin provided only a temporary solution to the problem of big
cities, while cité-jardin remained a better solution for coping with problems of congestion in
modern cities. 362 A precursor of cité-jardin, Boulfroy states, village-jardin was considered to
serve the need of workers in the close vicinity to factories and serve the needs of industrialists
for their workers. Boulfroy seemed to have a clear schema for applying these models, even for
358
Georges Benoit-Lévy, La cité-jardin (1904) , 7-8, as cited in Topalov, Laboratoires du Nouveau Siècle, 24.
359
Georges Risler, « Note sur le mouvement actuel de l’habitation ouvrière en Angleterre », Bulletin SFHBM, vol
23, no. 2 (1913), p. 240, as cited in Laboratoire du Nouveau Siècle, dir. Christian Topalov, 27.
360
« Les cités-jardins, leur portée sociale, leur caractère, leur organisation » in Georges Risler, J. Dépinay, M.
Dufourmantelle, La question de la reconstruction des villes et des villages détruits par la guerre, (Paris, 1916), 127.
As cited in as cited in Laboratoire du Nouveau Siècle, dir. Christian Topalov, 28.
361
Boulfroy, “ Le Problème de la ville moderne,” 3.
362
Boulfroy,“Le Problème de la ville moderne,” 168.
 79

transplanting them to the colonies: “Des banlieues-jardins pourront se développer autour des
villes de colonization déjà ancienne ou autour de capitales. Des villages-jardins s’édifieront près
d’une industrie dans une région colonisée depuis longtemps déjà, et en pleine prospérité, ou en
avant-garde à l’abri d’un poste militaire dans les régions encore fermées à la colonisation.”363
Revolving the same topic of cité-jardin and cité- moderne, Arvis’ thesis established a
hierarchy among different planning models proposed, in which cité-jardin was ranked as the
highest. He pointed out that cité-jardin stood on the path towards the future of urbanization,
finding itself in the spectrum that started with cities of the past, moving forward, unstoppably
towards cities of the future. The transition towards cité-jardin was inevitable, Arvis held, from
the historicity of a past projecting into an imminent future: “le chainon fleuri qui unit le passé à
l’avenir, c’est le mariage de la ville et de la campagne.”364 Recognizing that cité-jardin has a
particular form on its own, Arvis discouraged any modifications of the model.365 For example, he
pointed out that none of the cité-jardin constructed in Paris banlieue included an agricultural
belt, a “betrayal” to the original Howardian model.366
In terms of the variations among faubourgs-jardins, banlieues-jardins, village-jardin,
Arvis evoked the differentiation made by Howard, in that cité-jardin would be the only model
that maintains its financial independence. 367 At the same time, cité-jardin distinguishes itself
from an agglomeration by having one constructor, and including all classes of society. 368 In
regards of the added value (plus value), the collectivist vision in the organization of cities
dictates that all values gained should belong to the community as an entity, instead of to
individuals. Despite Arvis’ effort to clarify these differences, he used “cité-satellite” and “cité-
jardin” interchangeably: “On trouve la solution dans les cités-jardins satellites. Ce sont des
cités-jardins du même type que la cité-jardin primitive, mais d’importance moindre et située à
des distances telles que de grandes exploitations agricoles puissent se développer entre elles.369
When it comes to questions of whether to keep the authentic British “garden city,”
Boulfroy and Arvis both agreed that no modifications should be made. They criticized the
misplaced emphasis on cité, when appropriating the British model into cité-jardin, as the French
adaptation puts “city” first and “garden” second, a reversal of the British model with the
“garden” in the primary position. A real cité-jardin, writes Boulfroy, “est une ville complète
vivant par elle-même, indépendante de toute agglomération, devant servir de modèle à
363
Ibid., 204.
364
Arvis, “La Cité-jardin et la ville moderne,”12.
365
Ibid., 23.
366
Ibid., 81ter
367
Arvis, “La Cité-jardin et la ville moderne,” 82. Here, Arvis uses faubourg-jardin and banlieue-jardin
interchangeable.
368
Ibid., 13-14.
369
Ibid., 23.
 80

l’aménagement des villes modernes.”370 In a similar light, Arvis writes: “En français nous avons
traduit le mot « garden city », (cité-jardin) c’est à dire une cité avec des jardins, dans ce cas
c’est la cité qui domine la composition, alors que l’esprit du fondateur de la cité-jardin, la
première valeur est donnée au mot « garden » et ensuite au mot « city », il conçoit la cité dans la
nature. ”371
Meanwhile, other students have blended the concept of cité-jardin with one of their own
creation. Proposing an independent project, André Blond advocated for a cité populaire as an
improvement of the model of cité-jardin. Blond held that cité-jardin lacked the scale necessary
for the social organizations of modern cities, therefore unable to remedy the problems of over
population of big cities.372 He argued that the free space at the center of the cité-jardin does not
help to set up businesses. For him, cité-satellite, as shown in the extension plan of the Australian
city Adelaide, seemed to be more promising alternative. 373 Blond states, “Il faut élargir les
tentacules de la ville à une telle distance qu’elles permettent à chaque zone d’activité ou
d’habitation de prendre son plein essor, au milieu d’une atmosphère assainie. Il vaut mieux
plutôt que d’essayer de transporter une petite ville dans la campagne, isolée, donner à la grande
ville de telles proportions que la campagne soit incluse dans la ville.”374
In a similar light, Albert Lucas also proposed an original model of cité-satellite in his
timely project (1936), defended one year before the international exposition of 1937. Lucas
proposes to construct a cité-satellite on a piece of undeveloped land, intersecting with La
Courneuve, Stains, Dugny, le Bourget and Saint-Denis. 375 The objective of the project is to:
“[…] établir un projet de cité satellite, siège, momentanément, d’une manifestation concrétisant
les progrès de la technique, et qui dès la fin de l’exposition puisse vivre comme une ville
normale, avec ses habitants, ses services généraux, ses finances, son administration.” 376
Moreover, Lucas’ project followed the utilitarian doctrine in the teaching of I.U.U.P., as it
pursued an afterlife in the years proceeding to the Exposition. Despite the pursuit of originality in
his project, Lucas used the term cité-satellite and cité-jardin interchangeably, while specifying
the location chosen for his project: “Cherchez à l’intérieur de ces surfaces, un terrain,
homogène, libre, vierge de toute servitude, dont les dimensions permettent la réalisation
immédiate d’un projet complet de cité-jardins…vous aurez ainsi découvert qu’à quelques

370
Boulfroy, “Le Problème de la ville moderne,” 2.
371
Arvis, “La Cité-jardin et la ville moderne,” 12-13.
372
Blond, “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation,” 24.
373
« Malgré tous les avantages que présente la création au centre de la ville d’une pareille surface d’espaces libres.
Je ne conçois guère la réalisation pratique d’une cité rationnellement aménagée pour l’activité commerciale, basée
sur cet évidement du centre. » (Blond, “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation,” 24).
374
Blond, “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation,”26.
375
Lucas, “Cité satellite créée à l’occasion de l'exposition internationale,” 70.
376
Ibid., 26.
 81

kilomètres au Nord de la Porte de la Villette, le département de la Seine possède un magnifique

domaine de plusieurs centaines d’hectares.”377
Aside from the discussions of alternative models of city planning, students have also
highlighted the architectural debate on street alignment between two camps of theories, one
represented by “urbaniste culturaliste,” Camillo Sitte and Raymond Unwin; the other by
“urbaniste progressiste,” Le Corbusier.378 In this divide, the “urbaniste culturaliste,” rejected
the use of symmetry and straight lines, while triomphing “l’utilisation des sinuosités naturelles
du terrain, des incidences du soleil et des vents dominants, dans le but d’obtenir le plus grand
confort possible pour l’usager; une approche esthétique, puisée dans l’analyse des cités du
passé, etc.” 379 After interviewing Paul Henri Dufournet, I.U.U.P. graduate, Rémi Baudoui
concludes that “despite the presence of the works of Le Corbusier, l’architecture fonctionnaliste
remained a taboo subject, so much so that none of the teaching faculties would even mention
it.”380
While the professors at I.U.U.P were cautious at pronouncing doctrines of functionnalist
doctrines, students, on the other hand were rather moderate in taking their positions. For
example, in her 1949 thesis studying the role of cité-jardin as an urban form, and its influence on
the landscape of urban agglomeration, 381 Marie-Antoinette Vallier discussed the evolution in
urban studies, from the search of pittoresque of Sitte and Unwin, with “tracés libres aux lignes
sinueuses et souples,” to a more modernist construction, with geometric and regular
composition, as represented by the work of Le Corbusier.382 After reviewing the pros and cons of
both models, Vallier concluded by suggesting a combination of the two: “une combinaison de
voies droites et de voies courbes unit aux avantages pratiques de la ligne droite les qualités
pittoresques des tracés irréguliers.”383
The tendency to mix different models and experimenting with new models was not
limited to student’s practices alone. Similar impulse for experimentation with different ideas of
urban planning as well as various forms of urban development could also be found among early
377
Lucas, “Cité satellite créée à l’occasion de l'exposition internationale,” 40.
378
In the Anthology of Urban studies, Françoise Choay characterizes Camille Sitte and Ebenezer Howard as part of
the representatives of “urbaniste culturaliste,”with Le Corbusier, Tony Garnier and interestingly Georges Benoit-
Lévy, as “urbaniste progressiste.”
379
Jean-Yves Puyo, “L’urbanisme selon Léon Jaussely,” In Aux Débuts de l’Urbanisme Français, dir.,Vincent
Berdoulay and Paul Claval, (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001), 122.
380
Baudoui, La Naissance de l’École des Hautes Études Urbaines, 74.
381
Vallier writes : “Mais notre étude sera limitée au rôle des cités-jardins dans l’art urbain, dans l’aspect du paysage
des agglomérations urbaines.” Vallier, “L’Art urbain dans les cités-jardins,” 1.
382
Vallier writes : « […] les conceptions des urbanistes ont, comme la vie, beaucoup évolué. Alors que Sitte et
Unwin préconisaient la recherche du pittoresque, nombre d’urbanistes actuels recherchent d’abord moyen de donner
à l’homme moderne des logements conformes à la vie moderne dans des paysages aux lignes sobres, où la plante a
une large part. » (Vallier, “L’Art urbain dans les cités-jardins,” 18, 36.)
383
Vallier, “L’Art urbain dans les cités-jardins,” 38.
 82

urban planners. One that best exemplified the case was Benoit-Lévy’s advocacy for cité-linéaire.
Proposed by Spanish engineer Arturo Soria y Mata, cité-linéaire was considered a theoretical
product that was designed to solve urban congestion, by allowing the city to sprawl indefinitely,
while reducing the density of urban space and doing away with the tradition city center and the
centrifuge movement.384 While Charles Gide first referenced to cité-linéaire in an article on cité-
jardin in 1907 at Revue économique internationale, he “saw it as the solution of urban
congestion.”385 In 1913, Hilarión González del Castillo, representing Compañía Madrileña de
Urbanización, introduced the concept of linear city at the International Art of Construction of the
City and Municipal Organization Congress at Gand. The same year, Benoit-Lévy translated this
model into French with the publication of La cité liéaire, nouvelle architecture des villes.386
Benoit-Lévy suggested to “combine the advantage of cité-jardin and cité-linéaire in order to
reinvigorate « nos pauvres races de citadins dégénérés en les mettant plus près de la
Nature. ».”387 He compared the two models by stating that the cité-linéaire was like “la cité-
jardin déroulée à l’infini, mais avec beaucoup plus d’espace et de possibilités.”388
Meanwhile, the model of cité-linéar, not unlike cité-jardin, was measured in its potential
of solving the issues of workers’ housing, yet within the principle of mixité sociale.389 However,
starting from 1920s, Benoit-Lévy believed that cité-jardin was no longer the singular answer to
solving the problem encountering urban planning. By 1927, he insisted on the necessity of
combining cité-jardin and cité-linéaire as instruments for regional development.390 As a result of
this bifurcation, Christian Topalov points out, “la cité-jardin est de moins en moins représentée
comme une « ville idéale », mais plutôt comme l’un des instruments de la mise en œuvre pratique
du plan d’extension: le modèle perd en centralité ce qu’il gagne en évidence routinière.”391
Many historians have evoked the experimental nature of the application of “garden city”
in France. For example, Katherine Burlen examined how pouvoir local had used the concept of
cité-jardin as a tool for experimenting solutions for communal issues. She writes that, “la cité
jardin devenait […] le révélateur expérimental, d’une théorie déjà bordée politiquement par les
courants socialistes du début du siècle: la cité-jardin ne devenant ainsi, qu’une démonstration

384
Guelton, “De la cité-jardin à la cité linéaire,” 233.
385
Ibid., 233.
386
Ibid., 236.
387
Ibid.
388
Benoit-Lévy, « Est-il nécessaire de construire ? », Congrès technique international de la maçonnerie et du béton
armé-Rapport des sections, Paris, Chambre syndicale des entrepreneurs de maçonnerie, ciments et béton armé de la
Ville de Paris de département de la Seine, 1928, p. 5. As cited in Thèse de Mayalène Guelton, p. 246.
389
Guelton, “De la cité-jardin à la cité linéaire,” 241.
390
Ibid., 248.
391
Topalov, Laboratoire du Nouveau Siècle, 25.
 83

pratico-sociale d’un savoir-faire s’avérant comme politique.” 392 Meanwhile, Eric Verdeil
examined the use of cité-jardin for making liminal space between cities and countryside. 393
Verdeil notes that suburban space became a place of experimenting urbanization, allowing for a
new conception of city, by ways of incorporating nature and green space. 394 In this sense, the
1939 mapping of the Comité supérieur d’aménagement et d’organisation générale de la région
Parisienne, under the supervision of Henri Prost, made the space in between city and country
side, “un lieu d’expérimentation urbaine.”

Hygienic Aesthetics of the Elites

Aside from the various statements students made in terms of the forms of urban
development and models of urban planning, another recurring theme in the writings of students’
theses concerned the question of aesthetics and hygiene. The works of André Blond and
Raymond Choquer best demonstrated the ways in which hygienic requirements and aesthetic
concerns were, often times, combined. In a thesis dealing exclusively with questions of aesthetics
and hygiene, Blond wrote that: “esthétique, hygiène, ces deux sciences qui se complètent et fixent
les règles relatives aux biens les plus précieux que possède l’homme, la santé et la beauté de ce
qui l’entoure, sont les deux principes essentiels sur lesquels repose cet art nouveau par sa
désignation mais ancien par les buts qu’il poursuit, l’Urbanisme.”395 That is to say, for Blond,
hygiene and aesthetics were two centerpieces of urban planning: “L’urbanisme, c’est tout à la
fois l’hygiène du logement, l’art de l’habitation, la mise en œuvre de tous les organes qui créent
et entretiennent la vie sociale de la cité.”396 He also emphasized the needs for correcting the lack
of aesthetic consideration in the hasty construction of the industrial age. While talking about
administrative intervention of the state, Blond argued that more than the hygienic regulations for
construction, there should also be aesthetic standards set up for observation.397

392
Burlen, Citadin-Citoyen, 77.
393
See Eric Verdeil, “La limite ville-campagne dans les projets d’aménagement de la région parisienne de 1919 à
1939.” In Aux Débuts de l’Urbanisme Français, dir.,Vincent Berdoulay and Paul Claval, (Paris: L’Harmattan,
2001).
394
Eric Verdeil, “La limite ville-campagne dans les projets d’aménagement de la région parisienne de 1919 à 1939.”
In Aux Débuts de l’Urbanisme Français, dir.,Vincent Berdoulay and Paul Claval, (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001), 211.
395
Blond, “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation,” 1.
396
Ibid.
397
“nous voudrions qu’il ne soit pas accordé seulement sur l’observation des règlements de salubrité, mais aussi,
selon l’exemple donné par l’Allemagne, sur les qualités esthétiques de l’immeuble à construire. Il ne faut pas tolérer
plus longtemps que sous prétexte de liberté on puisse défigurer n’importe quel site pittoresque, n’importe quel coin
charmant, par des constructions d’une infâme laideur. ” (Blond, “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation,” 16).
 84

In the chapter on “De l’ameublement et de la décoration populaires,”Blond wrote on the

difficulty in designing working class furniture: “le mauvais gout des masses inéduquées rebutent
les meilleures intentions. […] Mais il est temps de créer un art pour le peuple auquel l’éclosion
et la vulgarisation du modernisme de caractère simple ont peut-être ouvert des horizons
artistiques. ”398 He further characterized the status quo of working class internal furnishing as a
“poor brother of the bourgeois style” : “Si nous entrons dans les intérieurs ouvriers, qu’y
voyons-nous ? Des meubles de pacotille aux moulures compliquées, singeant on ne sait quel
style de décadence, caricatures d’Henri II de Hollandais, de Louis XV… l’incohérence et
l’incompréhension des besoins domestiques règnent en maîtres. […] Le style bourgeois a son
frère pauvre.”399 What Blond looked for here was an art that is rational and utilitarian at the same
time, different from furnitures that were “à bon marché, d’un mauvais goût parfait.” 400 He
proscribed that the “proletarian art should not engage in futile mediocrity, rather it should seek
beauty in lightness (clarté) and cleanness.”401 Hygienic criteria should be closely linked to the
working class art; the furniture should be designed in such a way that made its maintenance easy.
402

Emphasizing on the importance in combining hygiene and aesthetics, Blond stated that
“il est pourtant un fait incontestable, c’est que le point de vue esthétique a une étroite
corrélation avec la salubrité et la sécurité publiques. Toutes les belles cités sont en même temps
les plus saines.”403 That the bedrock of his ideal habitat, la cite d’habitation populaire, was, in
fact, inseparable from hygienic and aesthetic rules. According to Blond, the success of such
model resides on the bourgeois responsibility of elevating the poor out of their misery, because
once the middle class deserts a neighborhood it would set off the physical and moral decadence
of the residence: “En provoquant la désertion de la population aisée.[L’enlaidissement d’une
commune] rend la situation financière difficile, il détermine ainsi l’impossibilité de toute
amélioration en vue de l’hygiène et bientôt la déchéance physique et la misère morale de la
population ne tardent pas à s’en suivre.” 404 Blond insinuated that the results of such
deterioration would be “révolutions et épidémies sociales,” as demonstrated through a quote he
took from Professor Schmoller: “Il faut réveiller de leur sommeil les classes possédantes. Il est
temps de leur faire comprendre que les sacrifices qu’on va leur imposer ne sont qu’une

398
Blond, “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation,” 174.
399
Ibid., 174.
400
Ibid., 174.
401
Blond writes that “L’art prolétarien ne doit pas s’encombrer de futilités médiocres et doit surtout tirer sa beauté
de la clarté et de la propreté.” (Blond, “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation,” 174)
402
“Dans un art populaire, l’hygiène surtout doit trouver son compte.” (Blond, “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans
l’habitation,” 174)
403
Blond, “L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation,” 20.
404
Ibid., 21.
 85

assurance modeste contre les révolutions et les épidémies sociales.”405 To a large extent, the
writing of Blond reflected the doctrine of the “scientific” management of cité-jardin, in which
social policies were rationalized through the applications of hygienic and aesthetic standards,
elevating the moral characters of the residents, as well as cutting construction costs and lowering
resident density, among other matters.
In a similar light, in a thesis focused on the question of comfort, Choquer worked with
the central premise that all men, indifferent to the social situations, deserved comfort at home.406
He argued that by returning to nature, we could distinguish the “true comfort” from the false
ones, all the while finding out how and in what ways house should satisfy the needs of people,
with its physiological, spiritual and social dimensions.407 It was not only important to maintain a
clean household, but also to maintain corporal hygiene: “la propreté corporelle n’est qu’un
élément du besoin d’hygiène. Les facilités d’entretien doivent permettre une netteté parfaite du
logis avec un minimum de peine. Les nettoyage des vêtements et des chaussures, le lavage et le
séchage du linge demandent des dispositions appropriées.” 408 Moreover, by studying the
residential environment of human being, Choquer gave his understanding of the needs of
mankind: “La demeure doit protéger contre les intempéries l’animal humain, sa compagne, ses
petits. Elle doit lui permettre de préparer et d’absorber sa nourriture et de se livrer aux travaux
variés qu’il doit effectuer. Elle doit lui assurer le calme et la tranquillité nécessaires à son repos.
C’est aussi, en effet, un refuge contre les périls extérieurs.”409
After presented the general arguments on why comfort is important to modern family
lives, Choquer then proceeded to the question of achieving comfort in HBM through the
education of residents. For Choquer, the habits of the residents posed significant problems in
moving towards achieving comforts and aesthetics.410 Here came, then, the imperative need for
educating the users of the space: “Il faut encore que ceux-ci aient pleinement conscience de
l’importance de leur logis, qu’ils soient disposés à consentir les sacrifices pécuniaires
nécessaires pour l’obtenir, et qu’ils sachent faire un bon usage des installations mises à leur
405
Ibid., 237-238.
406
“Tout homme, sans considération de situation sociale, a droit à une existence pleinement humaine dont le confort
de l’habitation est un facteur important. ” (Choquer, “Le Confort dans les habitations à bon marché,” 30)
407
“l’habitation devra satisfaire aux besoins de l’homme, considéré sous son triple aspect d’être physiologique,
d’être spirituel et d’être social.”
408
Choquer, “Le Confort dans les habitations à bon marché,” 22.
409
Choquer’s functionalist view of the residential space could, arguable, be under the influence of Le Corbusier,
whose work La ville radieuse (1935) was referenced in the bibliography. « Pour être salubre, elle doit protéger
contre les excès du climat et en utiliser tous les éléments favorables. Elle doit être assez vaste pour que tous ses
occupants y trouvent place sans gêne et sans promiscuité. » (Choquer, “Le Confort dans les habitations à bon
marché,” 21) Choquer continues to say that “Il faudra donc rechercher quel est l’espace nécessaire à chaque
fonction, et ne pas céder, là non plus, à l’habitude et à la tradition. ”(Choquer, “Le Confort dans les habitations à bon
marché,” 21)
410
Choquer, “Le Confort dans les habitations à bon marché,”31.
 86

service.”411 Choquer argued that the even with well-equipped comfortable apartment, it would
still deteriorate when “socially and morally deficient” families took occupation. The most
condescending characterization in Choquer’s thesis would be the part in which he noted, that
twenty-five years after the creation of the first cité-jardins by OPHBM, a certain “relèvement du
niveau moyen peut-être constaté; les familles que leur genre de vie rendait indésirables sont
moins nombreuses.”412 Choquer evoked the image of socially backward families, who could be
elevated out of their “backwardness” through the contact with “model families”: “Il n’est pas
interdit de penser que le contact et l’exemple de familles convenables y est pour quelque chose.
Aux familles socialement arriérées, il est possible d’offrir des locaux plus rudimentaires,
jusqu’au moment où leur évolution permet de les mieux loger.”413 Yet paradoxically, Choquer
proposed, in an explicit matter, to offer “socially-backward” families a place more “rudimentary”
to match their mental and social capacity, until they were evolved enough to be fit in better
houses.
Choquer’s aesthetics stated that only the elite could find occasions for spiritual elevation,
even amidst his lower existence. He wrote that, “seul un être d’élite peut trouver dans
l’abaissement de ses conditions d’existence, l’occasion de son élévation spirituelle.”414 Clearly,
for Choquer, it is only the role of the elite to engage in aesthetics creations, the others could only
contemplate beauty: “Si l’activité esthétique ne peut guère se manifester par la création que chez
des sujets d’élite, la contemplation de la beauté reste accessible à tous.” 415 Yet the burdens on
the elites were such that they had to respond to the catastrophes of the war, notably the inhuman
conditions suffered by victims of the concentration camp: “La promiscuité, l’incertitude, les
privations, les souffrances subies dans les camps de prisonniers ou les camps de concentration
ont fait se révéler d’admirables personnalités.”416
Here, what Blond and Choquer understood as the necessary needs for aesthetics and
hygiene for working class homes not only demonstrated the influence of hygienist discourse but
also a blend of bourgeois discourse on class distinction, as the bourgeoisie was considered as the
pillar of society in maintaining the social order. The need to instill hygienic and aesthetic
standards in the minds of the working class families transformed the sheer concerns of the public
health, commonly seen in the nineteenth century hygienist arguments, into the goal of morally
uplifting the working class through the exercises of self-restraint, education. After capturing the
elitist discourse in combining the pursuit of hygiene and aesthetics, the textual analysis of this

411
Ibid., 32.
412
Ibid.,34.
413
Ibid.
414
Ibid., 23.
415
Ibid., 24.
416
Ibid., 23.
 87

study presents another major discourse of the time, one that carries the weight of socialism, as
conveyed through the writing of students’ theses.

Social Service and Social Surveillance

As part of the initiatives for improving the living standards of the working class
population, socialist municipalities would not only install a series of social assistance program,
but also start a phase of institutionalization and professionalization for the mass education at the
dawn of the First World War.417 The Catholic Union of Health Service was created in 1925.418
Three years later, the first International Congress of Social Service was held in Paris. The decree
of 1938 would create a diploma for social services assistant, recognized by the state, composed
of a three-year training and internship program. The professionalization of social service
witnessed the shift from infirmière-visiteuse to social service assistant (assistants de service
social), a shift towards a medicalized social service that sent nurses back to hospitals.419
The process of municipal modernization went hand in hand with the rise of welfare state
and the subsequent social control exercised through social assistance programs.420 The concern
for demographic growth in inter-war France was anything but a small matter. As historian Laura
Lee Downs notes that the “sanitary defense” of the nation was of top concerns.421 Importantly,
the specter of “dégénérescence” (or degeneration) would keep haunting the French decades after
the “strange defeat” of 1871. 422 Many social ills, such as alcoholism, syphilis, tuberculosis,

417
See Jean-Claude Richez, « L’éducation populaire à l’épreuve du service social : les rendez-vous manqués (1930-
1950), Gisèle de Failly et Nicole Lefort des Ylouses», Agora débats/jeunesses, 2011/2 No. 58, p. 55-72.
418
Union Catholique des Services de Santé.
419
Jean-Claude Richez wrote that, “la figure de l’assistante sociale est celle qui fédère les compétences et les savoir-
faire de l’infirmière visiteuse, des travailleuses sociales et l’identité de base à acquérir avant toute spécialisation.”
« L’éducation populaire à l’épreuve du service social : les rendez-vous manqués (1930-1950), Gisèle de Failly et
Nicole Lefort des Ylouses», Agora débats/jeunesses, 2011/2 No. 58, p. 57.
420
See the work of Richard Rodger on case of the Scottish cities “Les villes écossaises illustrent au mieux ce cas de
figure que l’histoire urbaine nous a rendu familier. En même temps qu’il en décrit les initiatives pionnières, Richard
Rodger rappelle les interprétations devenues classiques d’une action qui combine, ici comme ailleurs, prise en
charge publique et mobilisation de l’entreprise privée : encadrement des groupes ouvriers et contrôle social exercé
à travers le social welfare portées au jour ne sont pas exclusives l’une de l’autre, ni forcément contradictoires ; leur
coexistence explique la marche en avant de politiques locales qui sont loin de mettre toutes au premier rang les
objectifs sociaux. ” Magri Susanna, Pinol Jean-Luc. Municipalisme, Genèses, 10, 1993, p. 4-5, PP. 4. In the case of
Parma in Italy, as Carlotta Sorba, shows that the rationalization of municipal administration revealed shifts in the
relationship between voters and elected officials, the offer of collective services such as job security, replaced the
old regime of quid pro quo in the local clientelism.
421
Laura Lee Downs, Histoire des colonies de vacances de 1880 à nos jours, (Paris: Edition Perrin, 2009 ), 132.
422
The expression of “ étrange défaite ” was first used by Marc Bloch, in treating the defeat of 1940. Anne Cova
borrowed this usage from Marc Bloch. See Anne Cova, Féminismes et néo-malthusianismes, sous la IIIe
République : « la Liberté de la maternité », (Paris : L’Harmattan, 2011), 22.
 88

divorce, criminality, delinquency, abortion, prostitution, pornography as well as de-

christianization, individualism, and lack of patriotism were all considered as the attributing
factors for “dégénérescence.”423 Historians argued that in the 1930s, the deep rooted concerns for
demographic growth and maintaining healthy bodies were so acute that the argument in favor of
the quantity over the quality of the French stock would reached overwhelming consensus, uniting
political parties from Catholics, Radicals to Socialists alike.424 As the Minister of Public Health,
Sellier explicitly urged to “protect the race against the certainty of degeneracy and destruction
foretold by the deplorable statistics on birth rates, disease and death.” 425 Many would term
Sellier’s model of municipal services, as “participatory urbanism,” with a close link between the
bureau of municipal hygiene and social service, a structure that echoed Sellier’s ambition of
“developing social services from cradle to deathbed.”426 Under Sellier’s direction, a system of
municipal services was established, ranging from social control, demographic census, social
assistance and protection, to education and leisure activities.427 To write about municipal social
services in Suresnes, one has to mention the link between popular education and the pioneering
role taken by De Gisèle de Failly (1905-1989), person in charge of social service at Suresnes,
under the leadership of Henri Sellier. 428 The social service office at Suresnes had close
collaboration with the city secretary-general Louis Boulonnois, who oversaw the Municipal
Hygiene office, children’s social service and Samaritans service for adults.429
As Katherine Burlen argued in Citadin-Citoyen, a closer look at the social experimental
programs at Suresnes would indicate the very nature of Sellier’s initiatives, which were to “build
modes of social organization through urban planning, in order to give birth to urban citizen of
tomorrow.”430 In fact, the ideas of using “urbanisme,” the new body of knowledge, were already
filtered through the new generation of urban administrators at I.U.U.P. that the circulation of

423
Cova, Féminismes et néo-malthusianismes, 22.
424
Richard Sonn, “ ‘Your body is yours:’ Anarchism, Birth Control, and Eugenics in Interwar France”, Journal of
the History of Sexuality, vol. 14, No. 4, October 2005.
425
Originally in Prophylaxie antivénérienne, October 1936, cited in “Pro-Natalism and Hygienism in France, 1900-
1940. The example of the Fight against Venereal Disease”, Population, vol. 64. No.3 p.479
426
“Je compte développer le service social du berceau à la mort. Il assurera à l’individu et à sa famille, la solidarité
nationale et matérielle de la Nation.” Katherine Burlen, “Henri Sellier et la doctrine de Suresnes.Techniques du
social et services urbains”, 267, cited in Villes de banlieues, directed by Emmanuel Bellanger, (Paris: Créaphis
Édition, 2008), 98.
427
Emmanuel Bellanger, Villes de banlieues, (Paris: Créaphis Édition, 2008), p. 100.
428
De Gisèle de Failly was also known for taking the position as the fonder of Centres d’entraînement aux méthodes
d’éducation active (CEMEA).
429
Louis Boullonois was known for his role in promoting “science communale” and general social service.
“Services samaritains de l’âge adulte”is mentioned in Jean-Claude Richez, « L’éducation populaire à l’épreuve du
service social : les rendez-vous manqués (1930-1950) , Gisèle de Failly et Nicole Lefort des Ylouses», Agora
débats/jeunesses, 2011/2 no.58, p. 55-72, pp. 59.
430
Katherine Burlen, Citadin-Citoyen, Citoyenneté politique et citoyenneté sociale, (Paris : L’Harmattan, 2003), 9.
 89

Sellier’s doctrine is effective. 431 Among the myriad network of social services provided by
municipalities, one that most exemplifies the mayoral cooperation is the colonie de vacance, an
initiative first put into place by the radical socialist of Victor Dietrich in Suresnes. The socialist
mayoral cooperation and the professionalization of municipal service would come to its high
point towards the end of 1930s.
The socialist advocacy for assistance was well reflected in the writing of student theses at
I.U.U.P. , especially in the work of Germaine Bardy and Berthe Leymarie. In a thesis titled “Le
Service Social dans les H.B.M. et notamment à l’Office Public d’H.B.M. du Département de la
Seine” (1938), Germaine Bardy mobilized large amount of sources from professional journals in
the milieu of social reformers, for example Service Social, and Le Mouvement Sanitaire, Le
Musée Social, to argue for the importance of social service in HBM. Additionally, Bardy also
referenced writings of doctors and municipal officials, for example the book Henri Sellier and
R.H. Hazemann co-authored Hygiène et Service Social (1936), Le Service Social (1929) written
by doctor Armand-Delille, La Municipalité en Service Social “Suresnes” written by Louis
Boullonnois, the Social Service conference in 1938. From Bardy’s use of sources, one can gauge
the circulation of expert knowledge in professional venues, which would confirm the
collaborations among hygienists, social workers and city officials. Bardy also cited the article
“Les oeuvres d’hygiène Sociale et les H.B. M dans le Département du Doubs”, which would
directly point to the concept of “social hygiene,” one cherished by Henri Sellier. In 1914, during
a session meeting of Conseil Général of the department of Seine, Henri Sellier openly advocated
for the cause of social hygiene: “L’hygiène n’a plus seulement pour ambition la guérison et la
prévention des maladies du corps et de l’esprit mais, dans son aspect social, elle revendique
comme fin le plein épanouissement physique, intellectuel et moral de l’individu dans le cadre de
la communauté humaine sans le sacrifier à la collectivité et réciproquement.” 432 For Sellier, the
concerns for public health were articulated in the objective of the “preservation of the race.” In
1924, the National Office for Social Hygiene (Office National d’Hygiène Sociale) was built on
the initiative of Justin Godard, and led by Georges Risler as the Office chairman. The office
collaborated with the major associations on fighting social diseases, such as tuberculosis,
alcoholism, syphilis, etc.433

431
In the thesis “La cité d’habitation populaire” (1928), André Blond writes that “l’urbanisme, qui est la science et
l’application de ces règles, a été bien défini par l’urbaniste belge M. Werwinghen lorsqu’il le définit ainsi : si
l’urbanisme est une science appliquée, qui tend à faire le cadre matériel d’un ordre social nouveau.” (Blond,
“L’Esthétique et l’hygiène dans l’habitation,” Introduction-1.)
432
Conseil Général session 1914, cited in Réformateur social, p. 45.
433
See “Pro-Natalism and Hygienism in France, 1900-1940. ‘The example of the Fight against Venereal Disease”,
Population, vol. 64. No.3 p.479
 90

Yet the legal framework allowing for social assistance actions taking place in the private
households was established years earlier: the late nineteenth century hygienists campaigning
would bring about the legislation in 1879, proposing the creation of the Bureau d’hygiène
communal. 434 Next, the law of 1884 gave significant power to mayors in areas of sanitary
organizations. Yet the real progress came with the law of 1902, which is based on the proposition
of Jules Siegfried, allowing for the expropriation of the insalubrious housing, setting up hygienic
standards so that sanitary inspectors could render visit to individual households, checking
compliances with the set standards. Boulfroy and Bardy have both discussed such inspections in
detail.
Meanwhile, the urge for prescribing social medicine through education and preventative
measures was acute in both of their writings. For example, in the thesis “Le problème de la ville
moderne : la cité-jardin” (1939), Boulfroy stated that “les organisms d’hygiène sociale et de
prophylaxie sont nécessaires à la vie de la cite.” 435 While emphasizing the education of the
habitants, Bardy argued that only through the aid of education we can prevent HBM from turning
into a “taudis moderne.” Although not all the residents would respond well to education, Bardy
noted, some residences were rather intransigent, like the ones from Gennevilliers. 436 Further,
Bardy characterized these intransigent families as contagious: “ces familles apportaient leurs
maux physiques, moraux, mentaux, sociaux et risquaient de contaminer les faibles et même les
bien portants. ”437 Meanwhile, Bardy discussed the establishment of the FOYER, in 1924, that
united the social services establishment of the cites-jardins of OPHBM (l’Office Public des
Habitations de la Seine).438 In this discussion, one could see there was clearly a surveillance
aspect intended for the job of social service assistant: “Les assistants, sont, en quelque sorte, les
délégués de l’Office dans les cités. En effet, leurs visites leur permettent la surveillance des
logements, au point de vue tenue et propreté.”439 Going beyond the scope of surveillance, the
social service assistant could very well intervene herself 440 : “Si l’assistante constatait des
travaux qu’il serait urgent d’exécuter, dans l’intérêt du bon entretien de l’immeuble, elle
pourrait elle-même les faire inscrire sur le registre des réclamations.”441 Further on, Bardy gave
a precise description of the job expected to be carried out by the assistant: “Ces visites sont, en

434
See Roger-Henri Guerrand, Christine Moissinac, Henri Sellier, urbaniste et réformateur social, (Paris : Éditions la
Découverte, 2005), p. 46.
435
Boulfroy, “Le Problème de la ville moderne,” 2.
436
Bardy, “Le Service social dans les H.B.M,” 16.
437
Ibid., 4.
438
Ibid., 11.
439
Ibid., 15.
440
In the text, Bardy used several terms interchangeably , “l’assistante,” “chargée des enquêtes concernant les
retards de loyers,” “la visiteuse .”
441
Bardy, “Le Service social dans les H.B.M,” 17.
 91

quelque sorte, des enquêtes qui permettent une connaissance aussi complète que possible de la
famille, mais chaque cas est spécial et varie avec la complexité de la nature humaine. L’enquête
s’enrichit à chaque visite, mais il faut se garder de vouloir tout connaître d’un coup, savoir
regarder autant qu’écouter, étudier les richesses morales des familles, distinguer entre un
désordre momentané et un désordre habituel.”442
Yet, the main objective of such inspection was to detect “anormaux” (“abnormalities”),
including “fléaux sociaux, des maladies contagieuses, des anormaux.” 443 Bardy used the
statistics of the residence to show the total number of residence, the mortality rate and the
number of the cases of tuberculosis, cancer, suicide as well as alcoholism, through the use of
charts.444 In her use of the statistical evidence, the number of cases of the “anormaux” in 1937
was alarming: “nous n’avons pû obtenir, à ce sujet, que les résultats de 1937, mais les chiffres
que nous citons prouvent par eux-mêmes l’importance de la question au moment où elle se pose
et peut être encore davantage pour l’avenir de la famille et même pour celui de la race.”445
Although it is unclear what Bardy meant by the “anormaux”, it is no doubt that, according to her,
these “anormaux” cases should be watched, inspected, and be dealt with. As Bardy noted, to a
certain extent, social services meant social surveillance, for the benefit of the family and by
extension for the race, in which prevention is the key.446
“”The quasi-nativist discourse in Bardy’s writing reflects a kind of deep concern for
robust bodies in the 1930s. In fact, scholars have written about the rising nativist concerns for the
robust bodies of the French stock, especially in the socialist discourse in the 1930s. 447 Bardy’s
work (1938) should be evaluated in the period proceeding to the Vichy national revolution, in
which the conservative ideology would further exploit the use of social assistance for the purpose
of surveillance. Under the name of providing social assistance, the social workers or “visiteuse”
would have considerable power over the procedure, the scope within which a family living in the
cité could receive assistance: “Aucune famille n’est signalée à une œuvre privée quelconque
avant que l’assistante n’ait établi très exactement le budget et fourni des renseignements sur la
moralité et la mentalité, les besoins et surtout les efforts de la famille. ”448 The concerns for bad
habits of the parents were particularly acute, even the inertia of unemployed would attract the
watchful eyes of the social workers. In their weekly meetings at the Office, the visiteuses

442
Bardy, “Le Service social dans les H.B.M,” 20.
443
Ibid., 21.
444
Ibid., 22.
445
Ibid., 23.
446
Ibid., 24.
447
Clifford Rosenberg, Policing Paris : The Origins of Modern Immigration Control between the Wars. (Ithaca :
Cornell University Press, 2006).
448
Bardy, “Le Service social dans les H.B.M,” 26.
 92

exchanged views on difficult cases as well as to present the interests for the life in the foyer: “un
gros intérêt pour la vie même du foyer.”449
By studying social assistance programs in the garden cities, Bardy contributed a section
examining the management of leisure of the residence of the cité-jardin, while extending the
need for medical inspection to cover engagement of leisure activity. She wrote, “la surveillance
médicale étant exercée, les visites à domicile permettant de suivre la famille dans son foyer, il
fallait compléter ces œuvres par l’utilisation rationnelle des loisirs, partie éducation, partie
distraction.”450By recalling the social law of 1936, which gave workers more leisure time, Bardy
took the argument one step further, stipulating that it was the duty of social services to help
workers managing their leisure time. The duty fell squarely on the shoulders of the social
workers in such a way that they should carry out the inspections with religious rigor: “Chaque
travailleuse sociale tend à faire de son métier non pas un simple gagne-pain mais un
apostolat.”451 Bardy also cited Henri Sellier, arguing that the best social workers would share the
same social origin, adapt in understanding the psychology of the people they try to help.452
Many of the activities carried out were under the name of social assistance and medical
inspection, omnipotent reasons for “inviting” oneself into the lives of the residents. The
“invisible hand” of the state seemed to have reached into every aspect of the organization of
people’s lives. Perhaps, the most intruding of all measures recommended was the one that
allowed the social services to instruct mothers how to better maintain their households:
“Apprendre aux mères à mieux tenir leur foyer, ce qui donne à la famille des chances de stabilité
et de bonheur. Préparer les fillettes à leurs rôles, aidant ainsi à la constitution de futurs foyers
heureux. Rechercher les distractions pour les heures de loisirs détournant ainsi la jeunesse de
pentes dangereuses. Aider quand le malheur frappe tout de même parce qu’à ce moment le
secours n’est qu’une compensation passagère à des forces perdues qu’il faut reconquérir.”453
Following the logic of preventative measures, it was never simply the teaching of household
maintenance; rather there were always other matters at stake, such as avoiding the slippery slope
of losing young girls to dangerous distractions, by occupying their leisure time to learn about
maintaining household. For each proposition to learn and cultivate, there was the allusion to a
negative conjuncture of the “if not.”

449
Bardy, “Le Service social dans les H.B.M,” 32.
450
Ibid., 40.
451
Ibid., 47.
452
Bardy writes: “Le travail social est une véritable carrière mais il ne peut être efficace que dans la mesure où la
mentalité de l’assistante sociale est adaptée à la psychologie de celui sur lequel elle exerce son action. Les
meilleures travailleuses sociales seraient celles qui seraient sorties du même milieu, qui auraient partagé les mêmes
souffrances que ceux sur lesquels s’appliquera son action.” Ibid., 53.
453
Ibid., 51.
 93

Bardy further advanced her arguments on the heraditary nature of social disease: “ La
travailleuse sociale [sic] ne peut perdre de vue qu’il est des différences individuelles
indéracinables parmi les hommes; il y a la maladie engendrée par le taudis, par le chômage, par
la misère par les fléaux sociaux, il y a les tares héritées ou acquises, il y a les déchéances ;”454 In
conclusion, Bardy wrote, “Il y a urgence à défendre la race, dans tous les domaines, contre la
certitude de dégénérescence et de destruction que les lamentables statistiques de la natalité, de
la maladie et de la mort, laissent apparaître.”455 What she argued for was an emphasis on the
social aspects in urban studies: “on se rend compte de l’importance d’un urbanisme qui serait
réellement social.”456 Again, the use of urban studies was strongly connected to the fate of the
nation, by fighting against the dégénérescence. The social services program, as prescribed by
Bardy, was in fact an outlet for expressing racial and nativist concerns.

Pro-nativist City planning under Vichy Regime

Historian Janet Horne has noted that all the discussions on the need for creating public
parks, sports ground as well as advocating for physical exercises played out in the nationalist
discourse of “national hygiene” before the First World War. 457 For example, Jules Ferry and
Paul Bert advocated for open-air exercises as part of the reform of primary school in 1877.458
Moreover, the discursive strategies of the defenders for the preservation of green space revealed
an anxiety of the imperial power of France.459 In this nationalist and imperialist construction of
sports, leaders such as Georges Risler believed that “la France devrait promouvoir un nouveau
modèle masculin plus vigoureux afin de produire une nation forte.” 460 That is to say, the
confluence between national interest and public hygiene had marked its need for a physical
rebirth before the Great War.
By the time of the Marshal Pétain’s National Revolution in 1940, social Catholicism
formed alignment with the men of literature, military forces to inculcate a return to natural
“order” that reinforced the binary identity construction of femininity and masculinity, calling for
the return of femme au foyer, family values the culture of individual sacrifice, and re-establishing
the “natural” differences between men and women.461 Yet, what was doubly troubling in the

454
Bardy, “Le Service social dans les H.B.M,” 52.
455
Ibid., 84.
456
Ibid., 85.
457
Ibid., 297.
458
Ibid., 298.
459
Ibid.
460
Ibid.
461
See Muel-Dreyfus, Vichy et l’éternel féminin.
 94

hygienism of National Revolution is the collision between moral decorum and physical
conditions. To such an extent that medicine became the lens through which politicians would
reason relationship between hygiene, society, education of body: “la vie morale est conditionnée
dans son exercice par l’état organique ; inversement, la vertu a valeur biologique ; la morale est
donc ipso facto conjointe à la médecine, […] Mais quel champ d’action retrouve ainsi la
médecine ! Que de domaines à surveiller, d’activités à guider, dans la famille, dans l’éducation,
l’enseignement, le sport, le travail, l’urbanisme, l’architecture…”462Nothing is more telling of
the relationship between the medical professionals and the state in the 1940s than what Serge
Huard wrote in 1942 in which he maintains that the doctors should no longer preoccupy
themselves with healing but rather with the mission of educating health. Huard wrote that, “les
tendances nouvelles de l’hygiène individuelle [qui] sont de déveloper le sens social de l’individu
et sa mission dans l’effort collectif d’amélioration générale.”463
This excessive concern for national rebirth can also be gauged in the writings of the
students of I.U.U.P. In the 1941 thesis, titled “La cité-jardin et la ville moderne: Transformation
en cité-jardin d’une commune rurale de la région parisienne,” Jean Arvis argued that modern
city planning should mind the prosperity of its residence as well as regenerating the French race:
“la prospérité nationale n’est possible que si la famille elle même prospère. Or le bonheur et la
prospérité ne sont pas les hôtes des taudis où s’étiole toute une génération ; dans la cité-jardin
la race deviendra plus vigoureuse et les hommes meilleurs.” 464 For Arvis, managing urban
population is closely linked with the fate of the nation: “Le développement énorme et incessant
de Londres, le dépeuplement des campagnes au profit de la ville, […] en effet les résultats
étaient désastreux, mortalité, morbidité très élevés, la santé de la nation se trouvait fortement
diminuée, il en résultait un affaiblissement de la race.”465
Similarly, in a 1950 thesis on the question of comfort in Habitations à Bon Marché
Raymond Choquer concluded that comfort was the basis of physical and mental health of the
residents at HBM. 466 Yet, going beyond the technical enquiries for achieving comfort, Choquer
explored the social implications for having a comfortable residence, by linking, again, the
science of urban planning with the fate of the nation. Choquer wrote: “le problème du confort de
l’habitation populaire n’est plus seulement d’ordre technique, mais surtout économique et
social. Sa solution, dans le cadre plus vaste des questions de l’habitation et de l’urbanisme, est

462
Raymond Postal, « Introduction », France 41. Cited in Francine Muel-Dreyfus, Vichy et l’éternel féminin, 294.
463
Serge Huard, Preface of the book by P. Dolore, L’éducation et la santé, (Paris: Flammarion, 1941), p. As cited in
Vichy et l’éternel féminin, 297.
464
Arvis, “La Cité-jardin et la ville moderne,” 9.
465
Ibid., 16.
466
The pro-nativist language found in the writing of Choquer was first written in 1946, right after the end of the
Second World War.
 95

un élément essentiel du relèvement du pays et de la sauvegarde de la race.”467 In Choquer’s text,

family values were magnified, connecting closely with nativist reasoning: “le logis ne doit pas
être conçu seulement pour l’homme considéré en tant qu’individu, mais encore et surtout pour la
famille, qui reste la base, la cellule initiale de notre société. [...] il faut bien se persuader qu’il
n’est pas de politique démographique efficace sans une politique de l’habitation. ”468 It was
evident that the concerns were far larger on the social dimension, than that of sheer
technicalities.
In the thesis titled “Le problème de la ville moderne : la cité-jardin” (1939), Boulfroy
also devoted a significant portion of her thesis on the social fonctions of cité-jardin. For
example, focusing on the role of labor, Boulfroy stated that, “idleness is the origin of all things
bad”469 Holding a very much idealized vision of cité-jardin and its social functions, Boulfroy
attributed cité-jardin the capacity to reduce unemployment, a social “disease” of modern
society. 470 She used Letchworth as an example, showing that indeed there was no
unemployment, and neither prostitution nor alcoholism in the garden city of Letchworth. What
Boulfroy characterized cité-jardin in this instance, was the social medicine, based on
preventative measures, for fighting social diseases that would debilitate the French nation.
Similarly, in a thesis titled “L’Organisation Sociale des Cités-Jardins du Grand
Paris”(1926), Berthe Leymarie, quoting directly from Charles Gide, wrote that, “le logement est
non seulement la condition préalable du confort, mais de la santé, et dans une certaine mesure,
de la moralité.”471 For Leymarie, the problem of housing was also one that beared moral and
social significance, by using the word “maladie sociale.” The racially charged discourse would
reappear when Boulfroy stated in the latter section of her thesis, a quasi-nativist function of the
cité-jardin and its derivative forms: “Le village-jardin a une vie sociale plus importante que
celle de la cité-jardin. Il poursuit plus que celle-ci un but eugénique. Les rapports entre les
habitants sont plus étroits, en raison de la promiscuité dans le travail et du nombre restreint
d’habitants.”472

467
Choquer, “Le Confort dans les habitations à bon marché,”10.
468
Ibid., 25.
469
Boulfroy, “Le Problème de la ville moderne,” 15.
470
Ibid., 17. “Alors que l’époque moderne est en proie à ce terrible fléau qui entraine bien des maux: le chômage, la
cité-jardin apporte un remède à cette crise. ”
471
Leymarie, “Organization sociale des cités-jardins du grand Paris,” 4.
472
Boulfroy, “Le Problème de la ville moderne,” 174.
 96

Class, Race and Gender in the Representations of Cité-jardin

As the textual analysis above has shown, many of the “statements” concerning the
seemingly “specific” and “neutral” subject, namely cité-jardin, are in fact, constructed in relation
to notions of class, race and gender. For example, what Blond (1928) and Choquer (1950)
considered as criteria of hygiene and aesthetics, were not a pure suggestion of what should be
regarded as a“clean” or “aesthetically appealing” household. Rather, their understanding of and
their professional opinions of what ought to be considered “clean” and “aesthetically appealing”
were constructed around the notion of bourgeois responsibility. That is, when Blond (1928)
wrote about the need for the elites to inculcate aesthetics for the working class, he was engaging
in a kind of representation that constituted a subject matter, which was the working class, as
dependent, unable to manage their own households, open to assimilation, 473 rendering it in a
disadvantaged position in relation to the “elites,” who were capable, independent, responsible for
helping the working class. Such characterization of working class dependency warranted, to a
certain extent, middle class actions and state interventions.
Moreover, on the question of what cité-jardin was destined for, many students
articulated through the notion of class. For example, Lucas (1936) noted that,“tout a été fait,
dans l’espoir de donner à l’électeur l’impression que son « député » ou son « conseiller » s’est
préoccupé de son sort, l’intention n’a pas même été émise pour une classe de la société
dite “classe moyenne ”-qui partant de la bourgeoisie peu fortunée va jusqu’au petit employé aux
fins de mois pénibles. Malheureusement pour la défense de ses droits elle ne s’intéresse que très
peu à la politique « pure ».”474 Another example, in Puget’s thesis “Le pressant besoin d’une
cité-jardin pour les classes moyennes” (1928), the sociological question Puget posed was to
interrogate the necessity to examine the role of “classes moyennes,” for the state and the danger
of their decline. Puget’s objective was to improve two current projects, the cités-jardins de la
Compagnie du Chemin de fer du nord, and the cité-jardin pour les “classes moyennes” à
Ecouen-Piscop. In this thesis, Puget advocated for attending to the housing needs of the middle
class, as it plays an important role in stabilizing the social order.

“La masse populaire est amorphe et moutonnière, elle a la force, mais ne sait pas la
diriger, sans l’appoint directif de la bourgeoisie, aucune révolution ne peut avoir lieu: il
faut que la populace trouve des cadres dans la petite bourgeoisie et des dirigeants ailleurs
que dans son sein pour pouvoir aboutir à un mouvement qui s’impose; sans guide, la

473
The potential for assimilation came up when Boulfroy suggested to put “model families” together with the
troubled ones so as to morally uplift “backward families.”
474
Lucas, “Cité satellite créée à l’occasion d’une exposition internationale,”19.
 97

colère populaire fait des mouvements tumultueux, plus ou moins sanglants, mais
sporadiques et sans lendemains.”475

Moreover, recognizing the fuzziness in the limits of “classes moyennes,” Puget gave a
tentative definition that includes “tous ceux qui, sans être riches, possèdent une certaine aisance;
tous ceux qui, sans être toujours leurs maîtres, sans être obligatoirement complètement
indépendants, ont cependant une certaine liberté; tous ceux, surtout, qui sont ou qui seront un
jour prochain, dans une situation aisée, à l’abri du besoin, et aussi indépendant que le permet la
complexité actuelle de la vie en société.”476 Such categorization included, small artisans, small
business owners, people with liberal professions, as well as intellectuals, public and private
employees, more generally, all those who did well in saving themselves for retirement, and who
are property owners.477 Such an extensive definition of “classes moyennes” left out only those
who reply on social assistance and “les potentats de la richesse” to the two separate ends of the
spectrum.478 Puget’s characterization of the bourgeois is worth analyzing as it captures the innate
willingness of the bourgeoisie to distinguish itself from the parasitical aristocracy and the
proletariat, through the notion of “bourgeois virtuosity” (vertu bourgeoise). “Il ne suffit pas de
naître avec de l’argent pour être un « bourgeois », il faut en avoir l’esprit de suites dans les
affaires et le courage au travail, si non, l’argent s’envole vite et l’on redevient prolétaire.”479
Perhaps, the most revealing statement on the inner-connection between the construction
of class and race is to be found in Boulfroy (1939), while she discussed the ways in which to
apply the model of cité-jardin to the colonies, especially for the need of the colonizers:

“Pour les Européens, la cité-jardin peut être un lieu de repos et de civilisation occidentale
dans un climat tempéré, distinct du village indigène. Madagascar a ses banlieues-jardins
et ses cités satellites.Elle peut être également une station de repos dans un pays malsain,
une station de tourisme d’hivernage : Héliopolis, cité satellite du Caire, fut créée dans ce
but pour 30.000 européens. [...] D’abord, l’urbanisme colonial préconise avec juste
raison, la méthode de la ségrégation, c’est à dire la séparation distincte de la ville
européenne, de la ville indigène. Le respect des mœurs et coutumes indigènes y est
observé, en même temps que peuvent être prises des mesures d’hygiène, de sécurité et
confort, pour les deux races de civilisations différentes, qui vivent côte à côte.D’autre part,
le besoin de vivre en société, s’y fait sentir chez les colons transplantés de leur pays natal ;
dans cette société, ils se trouvent en contact avec l’esprit et la civilisation occidentale. Ils
se groupent et forment une cité, où sont cultivées les coutumes européennes ; la conception
de la cité-jardin répond bien à ce but.”480

475
Puget, “Du Pressant Besoin d’une Cité-Jardin,” 59.
476
Ibid., 28-29.
477
Ibid., 30.
478
Ibid.
479
Ibid, 32.
480
Boulfroy, “Le Problème de la ville moderne,” 188.
 98

The objective set out by Boulfroy for building cité-jardin, which would be the equivalent of
“station climatérique” 481 in the colonies was for the colonizers to better deal with difficult
climes: “Le pavillon unifamilial, faisant partie d’une cité-jardin, qui lui offrira les plaisirs et les
cultures physiques, intellectuelles et morales, fournira le meilleur abri au colon.”482

Here, although Boulfroy aimed to discuss the feasibility of cité-jardin in the colonies, the
way in which she reasoned for its application was conveyed through the hygienic measures and
the notion of comfort. Even if she was talking about spatial segregation of “les deux races de
civilizations différentes,” class was already tangled up in the configuration of power relationship
between the indigenous and European community, as implicated through the discourse on
hygiene and comfort:

“En Afrique du Nord, partout a été appliqué le principe de ségrégation. Par ségrégation,
on entend, non la separation, mais le détachement de la ville indigène et de la ville
européenne, pour des motifs hygièniques, politiques et esthétiques. Les villes européennes
sont divisées en zones strictement différenciées. Des villes indigènes ont été entièrement et
hygièniquement construites dans le caractère si attachant du pays, à côté des villes
européennes. Les constructions sont en tourbe, sorte de terre argileuse, malaxée avec de la
paille ; les charpentes sont en troncs de palmiers, et les toitures en terrasses dans ces pays
où il pleut rarement. ”

Why proposing cité-jardin for the Europeans, Boulfroy assigned the “less perfect” village-jardin
to the indigenous people: “Dans cette étude, nous n’avons songé qu’à l’habitation pour
européens, pour qui la cité-jardin est une formule neuve et pleine de promesses. Cependant,
l’indigène peut profiter de l’expérience due à la civilisation occidentale, et des villages jardins
pour indigènes peuvent être édifiés;”483 Here, the differentiation in planning models suggests a
differential power relations between the europeans and the indigenous, one represented by the
use of a more advanced type of spatial arrangement, compared to the other.

Not only race could overlap with class in representations of cité-jardin, so does the
construction of gender. Notions of gender was bound up with class when Bardy (1938) discussed
the necessity to teach mothers how to maintain their households, as well as the needs to prepare
young women for their future roles as femme au foyer, emphasing the importance of having a
foyer heureux. These were the very same kind of exercises that were used to morally uplift the
working class family out of their misery. For Bardy to write about the importance of social

481
Boulfroy, ,“Le Problème de la ville moderne,”188.
482
Ibid., 188.
483
Ibid., 203.
 99

assistance program, just as for Blond to write about aesthetics, it was an effort to construct the
role of women in society, along with the family values.
The nativist concerns expressed in the writing of Leymarie (1926), Bardy (1938),
Boulfroy (1939), Arvis (1941) and Choquer (1950) demonstrated a tendency to understand
questions in urban studies through a medical lens, and articulate housing and planning issues
through medical language. The need of guarantee hygiene, aesthetics and comfort in housing
sector was reasoned through the fear for social degeneration. The fate of the nation depended on
the health of corps national, connecting individual interest to that of the national and collective
as a whole. Such reasoning was further bolstered by the spread of organicistic view at I.U.U.P.
For example, Adam’s thesis (1935), under the direction of Henri Sellier, articulated the
relationship between the individual and the collective in an organicistic view of the city: “[…] ce
n’est que seulement la combinaison des différentes unités en relation avec leur besoin collectif,
avec les différentes construction servant à ce but, ont réussi de créer une entité organique, une
ville digne de ce nom et qui était en harmonie avec les besoins de la société.” 484 Another
example can be found in the text of Choquer (1950) on the organization of space: “Une maison
n’est pas isolée, indépendante du site. Même en pleine campagne, la demeure ancestrale répond
à des conditions très strictes, dictées par le climat, le sol, le folklore. Dans les agglomérations,
elle est la cellule initiale d’un corps vivant, la cité, et exige d’être étudiée dans son cadre.”485
This articulation of interdependent relationships between the parts and the whole coheres
with the particular understanding of social reformers of the late nineteenth century who viewed
organism as capable of developing its social and economic functions. At the same time, we
question if there would be any connection, tangentially, between the diffusion of organicism in
the teaching of I.U.U.P. and Sellier’s municipal corporatism with the kind of “psychological
determinism” 486 during Vichy regime, following the principles of subordination, in which
individuals must yield and sacrifice for the good of the collective.
Meanwhile, the use of prescriptive language in most of students’ writings cannot go
unnoticed, as it suggests how power is at work here. For example, statements of “what people
ought to do” run through major sections of Choquer’s thesis (1950), even when referencing
arguments made by others. Many of these statements were tainted with paternalistic language,
not unlike what is often used between doctors and patients, suggesting a differential power
relationship, through the constitution of an anonymous collective of “others” who live in the cité,
who deserved the attentions of city planners and social workers. For example, Choquer argued
that manual workers need intellectual guidance, to be provided with libraries, classes and

484
Adam, “La Question de l’habitation,” 7-8.
485
Choquer, “Le Confort dans les habitations à bon marché,” 37.
486
The term “psychological determinism” was used by Muel-Dreyfus in Vichy et l’éternel feminine.
 100

conferences for their intellectual upbringing. 487 While writing about spatial arrangement,
Choquer (1950) prescribed private space for members of he family, even for children, as an echo
to the bourgeois discourse on separate sphere488: “le logement doit être permettre, à volonté, la
réunion de tous les membres, les fêtes, et aussi, l’isolement de certains d’entre eux, selon les
moments et les circonstances. Même les enfants, doivent avoir la possibilité de jouer ou de
travailler, sans être dérangés, et sans être pour cela une gêne pour les parents.”489Statement like
such constituted a power relationship that put Choquer in a favorable position of producing
knowledge by rendering the manual workers and working class households the “object” of such
knowledge. In a similar light, when Bardy (1938) wrote about the responsibility of the visiteuse,
the importance of social assistance program in maintain social orders, as well as the task of
detecting “anormaux” while carrying out the inspections in working class families, her discourse
re-appropriated the kind of discourse that functions with the categories of norms and
differentiations, not unlike when a psychiatric doctor decides if a patient is mentally ill. Finnaly,
as Foucault tells us, whenever norm is established, so does differential power relationship, which
circulates through various forms of discourses, through transformations and dispersions.
This circulation of power best manifests itself in the process of gaining legitimacy, as
was the case for the “new” discipline of urban studies. While it needs to differentiate itself from
neighboring bodies of knowledge, it also “borrows” or appropriates the inherent power structure
within the discourse of hygienism and socialism. It is through this process of appropriation and
re-appropriation that power structures are established. The various ways in which discursive
practices, through teaching , thesis writing, laboring to consolidate the “new” knowledge on and
the “new” discipline of urban studies have taken on elements from discourses of hygienism,
socialist assistance, bourgeois distinction, all of which reference to a certain power relationship,
in relation to class, race and gender. Such forms of discursive transformation, re-appropriation,
and the morphing of various discourses, resulting from the exercise of the grouping of
“statements” as Foucault defines, are at the center of this project.
Moreover, what the groups of statements that the body of knowledge on urban studies
have formed would be what Foucault characterizes the building of discursive relationships,
which are at the limit of discourse. In L’Archéologie du Savoir, Foucault writes: “[Les relations
discursives] sont en quelques sortes à la limite du discours: elles lui offrent les objets dont il
peut parler, ou plutôt elles déterminent le faisceau de rapports que le discours doit effectuer
pour pouvoir parler de tels et tels objets, pour pouvoir les traiter, les nommer, les analyser, les
487
“L’activité intellectuelle des travailleurs manuels, qui a souvent besoin d’être éveillée, aidée et guidée, peut,
plus facilement qu’au logis, se développer par des cours, des conférences, des bibliothèques. ” (Choquer, “Le
Confort dans les habitations à bon marché,” 39.)
488
Reference to the private/public sphere of the 19th century bourgeois society.
489
Choquer, “Le Confort dans les habitations à bon marché,” 26.
 101

classer, les expliquer. ” 490 It is through the very action or process of representation that the
constitutive relationship between discourse and its object is established, however unstable this
relationship would become. This process decides how and in what ways the object should be
“treated, named, analyzed, classified and explained.”

490
Foucault, L’Archéologie du savoir, 67.
 102

Conclusion

Through textual analysis of the students’ theses, at I.U.U.P., this study demonstrated the
potential of applying Foucault’s theory to a concrete body of texts, unraveling class, race and
gender relations, while examining constructions of power. It demonstrated how, despite popular
presumptions, the model of cité-jardin, did not become the de facto urban form, unchallenged,
since its introduction to France. As the students’ theses (1926-1950) have reflected, the teaching
of cité-jardin was coupled with other forms of planning, such as village-jardin, banlieue-jardin,
cité-satellite, etc. Textual analysis also demonstrated a pulpable spirit for experimentation with
different planning theories. Moreover, the theses by Leymarie (1926), Bardy (1938), Boulfroy
(1939) showed how, even before the start of Vichy period, notions of robust bodies, anxieties
over national and social health and the “cult” of the family values had already surfaced in elite
discourse. Textual analysis has also shown how issues of planning method and housing
construction, along with social services were articulated through medical language.
If the nineteenth century question of public hygiene was still centered on disease control,
hygiensm in twentieth century, articulated through aesthetics and comfort, on top of notions of
healthfulness, was more preoccupied with social order. The period of municipal socialism saw
the appropriation of the hygienist arguments for salubrious housing, green space and public
space by the socialists, to build public facilities,491 set up social assistance programs, all of which
demonstrated a real power to administer and to govern the population. What were originally the
responsibilities of the médecin-hygiéniste are now handed to the state, the governing body. The
discursive formation that operated behind the curtain of consolidating a new body of knowledge,
gathering legitimacy for a new discipline of science, was intertwined with theories of
organicism, combining the biological, with the medical and the social. Following Foucault’s
method of archeology of knowledge, this study was able to capture moments of transformation
of hygienist discourse through socialist discourse in combining constructions of class, race, and
gender identities, to consolidate the power of the administrators, and the state by extension.
Meanwhile, the students’ theses have demonstrated a re-appropriation of earlier urban
reformers’ ideas on how to improve lives in the city. In the texts of students’ thesis, there are
ample examples of references students made to the works of their professors. For example, Lucas
referenced Auguste Bruggmann and Henri Sellier in articulating the idea that cité-jardin was

491
These constructions were not only limited to social housing, but also included gymnasiums, schools, such as
Ecole de pleine air de Suresnes.
 103

really designed for enacting social transformation. Also in Vallier’s thesis, she incorporated
professor Jean Lebreton’s concept of cité-naturelle.492 Moreover, the circulation of ideas does
not limit itself among professors and students, but also among students themselves. For example,
in Vallier’s 1949 thesis on “L’Art urbain dans les cités-jardins et les quartiers-jardins,” she
referenced previous I.U.U.P. students’ theses: including Arvis’ thesis “La cité-jardin et la ville
moderne. Transformation en cité-jardin d’une commune rurale de la région parisienne
(Commune de Wissous)” (1941); Bardy’s thesis “le service social dans les H.B.M. et notamment
à l’Office Public d’H.B.M. du Département de la Seine” (1939); Boulfroy’s thesis“Le problème
de la ville moderne : la cité-jardin”(1939); Leymarie’s thesis “Organisation sociale des cités-
jardins du Grand Paris”(1926).
The intertextuality in the discourses concerning urban studies should be understood
within the context of the inter-connectedness of different milieu of social reformers. Professional
journals and international congress served as important venues for the circulations of ideas of
urban planning. 493 As the analysis of students’ theses has shown, ideas and models of city
planning were translated from theories and experiences of other countries. Later on, these ideas
were circulated among early thinkers of urban planning in France, which would further find their
ways into the teaching of the first generations of planners at I.U.U.P. For example, throughout
student thesis from 1926 to 1950, the ten theses examined all demonstrated the ability to
mobilize statistical evidence through surveys in making planning proposals. The method of
“survey before planning” originated from Scottish sociologist Patrick Geddes, was borrowed by
Le Play to build a science of managing the cities.494
While this study uncovered the archival source from the I.U.U.P. students’ theses from
1926 to 1950, it remains limited in terms of the use of primary sources as the scope of the
research question, namely concerning cité-jardin and social housing, only select ten texts out of
the hundreds of thesis written during this period. It does not provide an all-encompassing view of
the intellectual productions of the students. And precisely because of such limitation in the
sample of the writing, it is difficult to assess if thesis supervisors have a certain proclivity
towards working with particular projects, or if students working with the same supervisor has a
distinctive commonality. Another limit of this study resides in the difficulty in locating more

492
Vallier, L’Art urbain dans les cités-jardins, 20-22.
493
Mayalène Guelton mentioned in her thesis that in December 1924, the English journal of Garden Cities and
Town Planning translated an article from La Cuidad Lineal, introducing the Soria’s theory to England. (239)
494
This includes reinvigorated debates on “workers’ housing, campaigns to bring down the rent, as well as a
redistributing of roles of private initiatives, municipalities as well as the state, preservation of free space, campaign
against insalubrious housing, the definition of norms of comfort as well as the creation of cité-jardin.” Antoine
Savoye, “Pensée Leplaysienne et questions urbaines dans la réforme sociale (1881-1914): du logement ouvrier à
l’aménagement des villes.” Vincent Berdoulay, Paul Calval (dir.), Aux débuts de l’Urbanisme Française. (Pars:
L’Harmattan, 2011). 74.
 104

information on the students involved: only five out of ten students were provided with brief
introduction of personal information. It remains rather obscure in seeing how professional
experiences and personal convictions of the students factor in their choices of the research
subject, as well as the ways in which they consider certain aspect of the questions of urban
planning.
While the model of cité-jardin was most studied in the western context, in Europe and
United states, attention should also be directed to its application in the colonies. As Boulfroy’s
thesis (1939) showed, theories of cité-jardin had a unique place in colonial architecture, which
could pave ways for future research, on the role of cité-jardin in colonial spatial segregation, and
the construction of “Europeanness.” Moreover, this study engaged almost exclusive the
discursive aspect of the subject matter, while leaving the spatial aspect unattained. However, a
study of discursive representation of a spatial form, cité-jardin, could never really be void of its
spatial constructions. Given the specificities of the primary source, many of the theses were
furnished with elaborate maps and planning sketches. Thus, a combination of spatial theory, such
as Lefebvre’s concept of “social space” would further enrich the analysis on power and strategies
of appropriation. This study does not mobilize substantive amount of primary source in
reconstituting the elite discourse in other venues of circulations, for example, in professional
architectural journals as well as municipal archives, to identify and compare the different ways in
which key figures of social housing advocates as well as promoters of cité-jardin articulate their
understanding of key issues concerning hygiene, social assistances as well as matters of the
management of city in general.
 105

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