English-French glossary on urban renewal
2009
| English | French | Definition |
| Bottom up | Du bas vers le haut/Descendant | A principle in urban and spatial planning as well as organisation that basically means the development „from the single to the general” and refers to different instruments of participation. Often used in combination with top-down processes (See:counter flow principle and top-down). |
| Brownfield | Friche industrielle | Urban land that has been previously developed and used for industrial and/or service (e.g. transport) purposes but has been abandoned for a while. The old buildings might still exist but are in very bad condition, the land is pretty often contaminated. |
| City Council | Conseil Municipal | In the cities they are the elected bodies of local authorities. Local governments generally include the mayor the counsellors (See: Participation |
| Civil organisation | Association de la société civile | Registered charities, development non-governmental organisations populating the civil society |
| Civil society | Société civile | The arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and values |
| Community | Groupe local | A social network or group of interacting individuals usually concentrated into a defined territory, its members have some relations that are communal. |
| Compensation | Indemnisation | A symbolic restitution of properties confiscated during the communist period: the compensation did not achieve the total value of the property: In some countries (Germany) it had been realised in money, in others (Hungary) in forms of vouchers. |
| Co-ownership | Copropriété | Different owners in one building, with a common ownership. |
| Cooperative housing | Habitat coopératif | Co-operative housing (or co-op housing) is owned and maintained by a non-profit, non-governmental housing organisation in which residents have a share, but residents are not owners of their flats. See: in former state socialist countries cooperative housing was a popular form of housing before 1990, where dwellings were constructed by state firms or cooperative enterprises for sale through the local councils. |
| Cultural heritage | Patrimoine culturel | Qualities and attributes of places that have aesthetic, historic, scientific or social value for past, present or future generations. These values may be seen in a place’s physical features, but importantly can also be intangible qualities such as peoples associations with, or feelings for a place. (See: heritage) |
| Decentralisation | Décentralisation | Transfer of central competencies towards the local units of public administration |
| Discrimination | Discrimination | Classifies people into different groups in which group members receive distinct and typically unequal treatments and rights within the society without any rational justification. |
| Disempowerment | Absence de reconnaissance | Inhabitants of a particular neighbourhood are increasingly treated as clients and not as participants. |
| Displacement | Délocalisation d’habitants / relogement | The process by which people are removed involuntarily from their homes or neighbourhoods This procedure is the more general related to urban regeneration or other type of urban investments that are in the mean time the origins of gentrification processes. (See: gentrification). |
| District | Arrondissement | Admonistrative unit within the city |
| Empowerment | Renforcement des capacités de catégories dominées /Développement du pouvoir d’agir | Literally ‘giving power to’, a term which is used to describe residents’ involvement and active participation in neighbourhood affairs and decision making in which they are living. |
| Exclusion | Exclusion | The process when a social group is being squeezed out to the margins of society, leading to its disempowerment. |
| Exclusion - Economic | Exclusion économique | When the process of marginalisation is related to the low economic position of the given social group. |
| Exclusion - Social | Exclusion sociale | When the process is related to the special position of the group within the society (ethnical, racial, religious etc.) (See: discrimination) |
| Gentrification | Gentrification / embourgeoisement | The process of neighbourhood upgrading by relatively affluent incomers (yuppies) who move into a poorer neighbourhood in sufficient numbers to displace lower-income groups and transform its social identity. |
| Heritage | Patrimoine | A building or a neighbourhood that represents a special value for the past, present and future development of the city. If the building or neighbourhood is recognised officially as , special rules and restrictions will be available for its reconstruction / rehabilitation or renewal. (See: Cultural heritage) |
| Historical districts | Quartiers historiques | Historic districts are usually older parts of cities with central location where the buildings and the landscape belong to national heritage. (See: Cultural heritage) |
| Historical monument | Monument historique | Any site, object, building, structure or group of structures of particular historic significance to the city. |
| Housing rehabilitation | Réhabilitation de logements | The process of giving back the original value of housing after decay |
| Housing stock | Parc de logements | The ensemble of housing units. |
| Inclusion | Inclusion | The process of the integration of a social group within the majority society. It is often the objective of social based urban regeneration programs. The inverse of exclusion |
| Integrated urban renewal / urban development | Renouvellement / développement urbain intégré | A complex development / renewal of a neighbourhood, taking into account, appart form the physical aspects of urban development also other (soft) elements, such as social cohesion, culture and cultural heritage, economy, employment, environment, sustainable developemt, etc. since the 2007-13 planning period, integrated urban development plans are the basis of neighburhood renewal programs to be financed under the operational programes of the European Union (ERDF/ESF) |
| Land-use | Occupation des sols | The function and the type of construction applied on urban plots. On the level of the entire city, it permits the differentiation of functional areas and serves as a base for urban policies. (See: land-use plan) |
| Large housing estates | Grands ensembles | The most visible and uniform product of post-war housing construction and urban planning. High-rise housing estates were located mainly on the periphery of cities, often built by local authorities, to provide modern housing for the lower classes. In Eastern Europe, they were mostly constructed by prefabricated elements. |
| Local authority | Collectivité locale | Local authorities are equivalent to municipalities. They provide local government and public services for a city or city district (township). (See Municipality) |
| Minority | Minorité | A culturally or ethnically distinct social group within the majority society |
| Modernisation of housing | Modernisation /Réhabilitation des logements | Improvement of the standard quality of housing |
| Multiplier effects | Effets multiplicateurs | Shorthand for the process when success breeds success. |
| Municipal housing company | Société municipale de logements | Municipal enterprise owning and administrating the municipality’s housing stock. |
| Municipality | Municipalité | Municipalities are in most countries the lowest administrative units with directly elected political councils. |
| Neighbourhood | Quartier | Diffuse concept of urban district |
| NGO | ONG | Non governmental organisation: non profit based civil organisation of public utility, in principle independent of any political/governmental authorities. |
| Owner Association | Association de propriétaires | Legally based interest group of inhabitants owning one or more housing units. |
| Owner occupied housing | Logement occupé par son propriétaire / Propriétaire occupant | Where member of a household owns a house or an apartment where the household lives. |
| Partnership | Partenariat | Financing-based cooperation of different actors in a development project. Special form: Public-private partnership (PPP) |
| Participation | Participation | Involvement of residents in local events, groups and processes in ways that make sense to them in building their social resources, including consultation as well as participation in decision making and management. (See: consultation) |
| Poverty | Pauvreté | Relative measure within a society, being the state of having income and/or wealth as low as to be unable to maintain what is considered a minimum. |
| Prefabricated housing | Logement préfabriqué | Housing constructed by prefabricated elements, the basis of housing estates of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. |
| Preservation | Préservation | Creatively maintaining the historic built environment in cities and controlling the landscape component of which it is an integral part. Preservation helps to maintain identity, educates people about history… |
| Privatisation of Housing | Privatisation de logements | The sale of public (state or local government) owned housing stock to private investors: persons or companies. |
| « Socially Integrative City » Program | Politique de la ville | Subsidy-Program set up by the federal government as well as by the federal states to support urban policies especially in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods |
| Restitution | Restitution | One form of privatisation in the former state socialist countries after 1989-90. The term refers to the return of state property (including housing) to its legal owners or their heirs from whom the right of ownership was violated by the communist authorities after World War II. In some East Central European countries restitution was fully or partly implemented (e.g. East Germany, Czech Republic), in others it was combined with other forms of privatisation (e.g., Baltic states, Poland). In Germany it was legally fixed in the Act for the Regulation of Unresolved Property Issues (Property Act) (Gesetz zur Regelung offener Vermögensfragen) that is part of the Unification Treaty. |
| Restoration | Restauration | The process of giving back the original physical form of a building. |
| Roma | Roms | The group of romas is the most important ethnical minority in East-central European countries |
| Social housing | Logement social | Housing where the access is controlled by the existence of allocation rules favouring households that have difficulties in finding accommodation in the market. |
| Social integration | Intégration sociale | Social cohesion |
| Social mix | Mixité sociale | General term for neighbourhoods in which different social strata live side by side. |
| Social segregation | Ségrégation sociale | Separation of different social groups within a given society. |
| Social sustainability | Développement social durable | Addresses the question of how societies can shape their modes of change so as to ensure the preconditions of development for future generations. (Becker et al. 1999). Related to principles as social integration, social cohesion, social mix. |
| Social urban renewal | Renouvellement urbain social | Urban renewal aiming the reinfording of the local society, based on the particpation of localinhabitants. A notion created by the Budapest Municipality in 2005 on the bases of the idea of integrated urban renewal programs. |
| Spatial Policy | Aménagement du territoire | Public policy treating and combining the territorial impacts of different sectoral policies (environment, transport, education, health, housing etc). All sectors have some aspect of , although this is usually not made explicit. |
| Stigmatisation | Stigmatisation | Negative branding of a ®neighbourhood and its residents. |
| Strategic approach | Approche stratégique | New approach in urban policy that has evolved with the appearance of the concept and practice of urban regeneration. |
| Sustainable development | Développement durable | Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need” (UN Our Common Future, 1987) |
| Tenant Association | Association ou amicale de locataires | Legally based interest group of inhabitants living in rented housing. |
| Top down | Du haut vers le bas/Ascendant | A principle in urban and spatial planning as well as organisation that basically means the application of existing general ideas for single cases. Often used in combination with bottom-up processes. |
| Urban planning | Aménagement urbain | Is related to the conception on urban development and to the implementation of urban policies |
| Urban competitiveness | Compétitivité urbaine | The degree to which cities can produce goods and services which meet the demand of wider regional, national or international markets |
| Urban decay / urban decline | Dégradation urbaine | The process when parts of the city become run down and undesirable for residents to live in. |
| Urban regeneration | Renouvellement urbain | Integrated vision and action which leads to the resolution of urban problems and which seeks to bring about a lasting improvement in the economic, physical, social and environmental condition to an area that has been subject to urban decay. |
| Urban renewal | Rénovation urbaine | General concept involving repair, rebuilding and rehabilitation of run down urban areas which result in improvements in physical qualities of neighbourhoods. |
| Urban policies | Politique urbaine | An ensemble of actions and approaches determined by different objectives, aims and interests related to the urban development. |
| Urban restructuring | Restructuration urbaine | Changing of the social, economic or spatial structures of a city |
| Value | Valeur | Socially shared ideas about what is good, right and desirable. |
| Wasteland | Friche | Lots of land especially in inner-urban locations that fell out of use (smaller dimension than brown field and not necessarily related to industry) -->friche industrielle, brownfield |