Review of the "Capsule" meeting between Policy makers and Reseachers on the key topic: The management of urban wastelands

As part of the CO MISCIB's “MODELING, SIMULATING AND EXPERIMENTING THE URBAN” First Scientific Days, a “ closed-door ” sequence was organized, a time dedicated to the discussion between Science and Politics.

Organized by the Science and Society Department of the Université Lumière Lyon 2, and supported by the European project ENGAGEgreen, this capsule event was designed to encourage dialogue between researchers and politicians.

The first phase consisted in letting researchers and politicians exchange views on the theme of “ Management of urban wasteland ”, a subject that was both open and technical, in order to give the discussion the freedom to develop. This was followed by a presentation in open session, thanks to Pierre Houssais, Director of Prospective and Public Dialogue at the Metropole de Lyon, who had the difficult task of relaying this exchange to the public; helped by a graphic presentation proposed by Constance Ruiz, Anthropologist, Ergonomist and Artist, to open the debate.

This experimental dialogue enabled us to bring together different viewpoints and experiences, and to address issues from often distant worlds. We were pleased to welcome - Agnès Thouvenot, Deputy Mayor of Villeurbanne, responsible for ecological transition, urban planning and housing - Marc Uhry, in charge of Prospective and Social Transformation, City of Villeurbanne, - Rachel Linossier, Professor of Urban Planning at Université Lumière Lyon 2, Researcher at Laboratoire Triangle, and - Elena-Bianca Botea, Professor of Anthropology at Université Lumière Lyon 2, Researcher at Laboratoire LADEC.

These exchanges brought out common ground, shared questions and experiences, as well as complementary perspectives.  
In addition to the observations made, the meeting revealed a shared desire to extend the dialogue, as part of a more upstream, long-term approach to urban development projects.

The common objective: to better understand each other in order to act more proactively.