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Le Parlement Intempestif du Label Euralens

“The Untimely Parliament of the Euralens Label”: Creation, animation and fictionalization of a Parliament. 

The Euralens association was created in 2009 with the aim of accelerating the dynamics of projects in the former Mining Basin territory of Pas-de-Calais, starting with the arrival of the Louvre in Lens. Inspired by the approach of the IBA Emscher Park, which has earmarked 150 projects to transform and regenerate the industrial valley of the Ruhr, Euralens has initiated the Label Euralens, designed to promote exemplary operations which fall within large regional frameworks such as the ecological and social transformation of the territory.

Since its initiation, more than 60 projects have been earmarked. From these projects, thematic forums were born (eco-friendly urban projects, economy and training, culture and tourism, energy, etc.), as well as actors collectives, and new, more ambitious projects. Three purposes galvanize the collaboration between Euralens and Cyril Blondel (researcher in political geography at the University of Luxembourg) and the POLAU-pôle arts & urbanisme (“urbanism and arts centre”):

  • Accounting for a year of field research effected by Cyril Blondel in the frame of the European research project RELOCAL (Resituating the local in cohesion and territorial development), the Euralens territory being one of the 33 sites studied in Europe;
  • Accompanying reflexivity and shared evaluation of the label in order to identify improvement axes;
  • Creation of a forum to enable the emergence of a concrete pathway for the future of the Euralens territory and its regeneration.

From these issues, Cyril Blondel and the POLAU elaborate on April 4th 2019 the staging of a fictive assembly with the proposition for a Parlement Intempestif du Label Euralens (P.I.L.E.), uniting local actors, labelled initiative holders and institutional actors.

If Euralens was animated by a Parliament, if we were representatives of its dynamism, how could we talk? With which rules? Which grievances would we share? What propositions would emerge?

Summary written by the pOlau, translated by University of Luxembourg.
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