Île-de-France faces most of the problems that confront other big metropolitan regions in the West, and has to respond to largely similar challenges. The size of the metropolis, its density and its economic power mean that – as with London and New York – it is primarily attractive for economic rather than residential reasons. In this chapter, I propose to set out the main problems and challenges facing Île-de-France in terms of a fundamental tension between, on the one hand, an economic attractiveness and competitiveness that some consider to be in decline and, on the other hand, a rise in social and territorial inequalities that is perceived as a threat to the development of the metropolis. This choice is explained by the fact that these two problems and challenges are espoused by powerful coalitions of actors of roughly equal strength, which have long championed different views on what public policies to follow, on their territorialization and on reforms in the governance of Île-de-France, as we will see in the upcoming chapters.

More recently, the environmental question has become part of the debate, but that debate remains dominated by the dichotomy between competitiveness and rising inequalities, and it will also be presented in the light of that division. Unsurprisingly, it is questions of housing and transport that lie at the heart of the matter. In this sense, Île-de-France is no different from its big international rivals. These questions, which I will tackle in greater detail below, relate both to the doubts concerning the French capital's economic performance and to the emergence of an increasingly less inclusive city. They form a system.

For this reason, this chapter is divided into two parts. The first provides a summary of the main issues affecting the region today: housing, mobility, environment, socio-territorial inequalities, attractiveness and competitiveness are all covered, one by one. The second part shows how these problems generate challenges in terms of economic attractiveness and competitiveness, on the one hand, and the fight against inequalities, on the other. Questions such as air pollution, climate change and the region's resilience to different risks are tackled in the next chapter, which deals with the policies implemented to combat these problems and challenges.