Territorial Scales
The neighbourhood : definition
The neighbourhood is a “part of the city where we walk or said otherwise, quite obviously, it is a part of the city where we do not need to go as we are already there” (Georges Perec).
Most of the time, the neighbourhood concept is the result of mechanisms of morphological, economic and social differenciations affecting urban spaces following the development of cities. Usually, the identity of a neighbourhood depends more on the sociological context than a geographic definition based on the topography or the ground occupation…
Recent analyses of the city have shown that the social treatment of neighbourhoods is no longer sufficient. Even if the city or conurbation constitutes a favoured terrain for urban studies, the neighbourhood is a living entity where a good part of everyone’s life is played out: diversity in the neighbourhood, its integration in the city, the conservation and promotion of its heritage (natural, historic, human), the quality of life of its inhabitants, and the social ties, constitute fundamental axes of a local policy based on sustainable development.
The HQE²R approach aims at asking questions about all of the needs of a neighbourhood and its population and at identifying problems, whether economic or social and environmental. It must emphasise a long-term thought process on the future vocation of the neighbourhood and look for solutions to making the neighbourhood a structured area based on social relations, with a function in the city and a capacity for the cooperative production of goods, services and spiritual direction.
Even
if a neighbourhood does not have an ambition to become autonomous
and, even less, to live self-sufficiently, sustainable neighbourhoods
which simultaneously highlight the management of resources6
and space, the quality of life and the participation of their
inhabitants allow meaning to be given to neighbourhood life
and raise the awareness of their inhabitants that their neighbourhood
has a future and a role to play in the city; these are sustainable
neighbourhoods.