Infrastructures urbaines et participation publique : le cas de la modernisation de la rue Notre-Dame
This master's thesis is an analysis of participative mechanisms in the planning of road infrastructures in urban zones. The modernization of Notre-Dame Street, in Montréal, for which a decision has yet to be made, and which has been the object of controversy over the past thirty years, serves as a case study.  In order to arrive at a compromise, elected representatives agreed to have several actors participate in public consultations. The analysis centers around requests formulated by participants in the course of these consultations. While the requests that were made were quite similar, they were also very different, thus rendering the actors' other characteristics irrelevant from an analytical standpoint. Municipal and provincial representatives were then placed in a difficult position if they were to modernize the main highway. This entailed arriving at a sociopolitical compromise. In fact, three main discourses characterized the debate. Each of them dismissed, in various ways, matters related to social regulation and public policy. This analysis finally illustrates the limits of public consultation on actors' participation.
discours public participation governance urban highway discourses