The invention of the ordinary city as a heritage and tourist place: the case of a new town, Cergy-Pontoise (France)

Résumé En

This chapter proposes a reflection on the emergence of the ordinary city as a tourist and heritage space in the case of Cergy-Pontoise, one of the new cities built from the 1960s on the outskirts of Paris. Its location on the outskirts of the world's leading tourist metropolis, its architectural and urban history, and its social and political recompositions make Cergy-Pontoise a relevant field of observation for the tourism of ordinary places, the central theme of the book.For some years now, this "tourism" has been closely linked to institutional practices and initiatives from "civil society" (in this case, associations and academia). These initiatives, most often from outside the territory, converge in their desire to enhance new urban spaces and promote more "democratic" conceptions of heritage in a militant spirit. According to a paradigm that is now globalised, they set up the inhabitant as the central figure of urban tourism, and the ordinary city, the space of everyday life, as the new archetype of the "authentic" tourist place. However, these initiatives remain highly regulated and dependent on public policies, which ultimately leave little room for civil society initiatives in the field of tourism. This contrasts with other aspects of urban life in Cergy-Pontoise (cultural life, contemporary music, etc.): it can no doubt be explained by the weight of a long tradition of tight control over Cergy-Pontoise's image; this case thus bears witness to the very uneven development of so-called alternative forms of tourism in the metropolitan peripheries.