Abstract

The authors reconstruct the events surrounding the "municipal international" or more precisely the activity of the Union Internationale des Villes, as one of the possible political responses to the challenge of the urbanization of Western societies. Through study of the first decennia of the association's life, analysis of its activities, and identification of the numerous relationships that developed around the undertaking (among individuals, bodies and structures), the essay puts forward a number of hypotheses concerning the political and social goals pursued by the intermunicipalists between the two wars. These goals concerned mainly political aggregation, the image of municipal political action, and the figure of the administrator. But the congresses of the union were more than what was said during the meetings. The congresses brought a community of administrators and experts into being and gave it visibility.