France

From the Field

Dunkirk as a New “Laboratory” for Free Transit

Henri Briche & Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine - 29 June 2018

From September 2018, the public transport network in Dunkirk, France, will be free of charge for all users. Henri...

From the Field

Who Stays and Who Leaves? Residential Flows in French Shrinking Cities

Mathilde Rudolph - 1 November 2017

In focusing on residential flows, Mathilde Rudolph seeks to shed light on the processes of urban decline at play in...

From the Field

Shrinking Cities in France: The Cumulative Effects of Decline

Nicolas Cauchi-Duval & Frédérique Cornuau & Mathilde Rudolph & translated by Oliver Waine - 4 October 2017

In France, different shrinking cities have followed different trajectories. They nevertheless all have certain...

From the Field

From “Black City” to “Slum City”: The Importance of Image in Saint-Étienne

Vincent Béal & Christelle Morel Journel & Valérie Sala Pala & translated by Oliver Waine - 20 September 2017

In December 2014, an article in the French daily newspaper Le Monde painted a highly negative portrait of the city...

Essays

Urban Shrinkage in France: An Invisible Issue?

Rémi Dormois & Sylvie Fol & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 September 2017

Although the phenomenon of urban shrinkage affects a significant number of French towns and cities, it is an issue...

From the Field

The Americanization of French social movements? Community organizing and its discontents in the banlieues

Julien Talpin - 29 June 2017

In this second of two articles, sociologist Julien Talpin discusses the importation to France of American...

From the Field

What’s the matter with the banlieues? Exploring the importation of the American community organizing tradition by French social movements

Julien Talpin - 22 June 2017

With the eclipse of the once-powerful Communist and Socialist Parties in France, and these parties’ traditional...

From the Field

Rendering a Redeveloped France

Alex Schafran & Giorgia Aiello & Theresa Enright & Yohann Le Moigne - 7 June 2017

As urban redevelopment projects remake the Greater Paris region, it is impossible to separate an avalanche of new...

From the Field

Citizen Outsider: Racism, Marginalization, and Immigration in France

Jean Beaman - 31 May 2017

As refugee crises have emerged and immigration has increased in many regions of the world, several Western...

Reviews

Between Green Paris and Immigrant Paris: The Politics of the Jardins d’Éole

Maura McGee - 21 March 2017

As leaders in global cities reimagine and rebuild their metropolises as green capitals of the future, who has the...

From the Field

The French Republic and the Paris Spring

Gregory Smithsimon - 6 September 2016

Has the French Spring arrived yet? Gregory Smithsimon documents La Nuit Debout, a self-named social movement that...

Essays

The Wrecker’s Pick. The Rationales and Hidden Agendas of Urban Renewal in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Alain Faure & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 7 June 2016

Alain Faure, a scholar of the social history of cities, puts urban renewal into perspective. He questions the...

From the Field

Childhood Spent Waiting at the Gate

Adeline Perrot & translated by Oliver Waine - 1 April 2016

The recent opening of a holding area for “unaccompanied foreign minors” at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport reflects a...

From the Field

The complex representations of working-class residential towers

Rachid Kaddour & translated by Oliver Waine - 26 February 2016

Rachid Kaddour’s analysis of the trajectory of perceptions of the Plein‑Ciel tower in Saint‑Étienne in south-eastern...

Essays

Urban renewal and the “defensible space” model: the growing impact of security issues on the way our cities develop

Camille Gosselin & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 February 2016

In transforming the urban planning and architecture of social-housing estates, urban-renewal policies are not just...

From the Field

How Children Cope When Home is a Hotel

Erwan Le Méner & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 5 February 2016

Emergency housing in social hotels is affecting a growing number of families in the Paris region. How does this...

From the Field

Beyond the stadium: how “ultra” supporters fit into the urban space

Bérangère Ginhoux & translated by Oliver Waine - 11 December 2015

Based on an ethnographic survey conducted in Saint-Étienne, in south-eastern France, Bérangère Ginhoux shows how the...

Essays

Thirty Years of Urban Sociology

Christian Topalov & translated by Oliver Waine - 30 October 2015

What is urban sociology in France? Christian Topalov, one of the key players in the history of this discipline,...

From the Field

Visual Sociology: Re-Imaging Marseille’s Housing Projects

William Kornblum - 10 July 2015

New York sociologist William Kornblum has brought back pictures of the Marseille Northern Housing Projects—the...

From the Field

Exporting French-style “sustainable cities” to Morocco

Pierre-Arnaud Barthel & translated by Oliver Waine - 1 May 2015

In Morocco, environmental urban projects are the order of the day. For these projects, French expertise is being...

Reviews

Cities transformed by hygienism: 100 years of local innovation

Sabine Barles & translated by Oliver Waine - 27 March 2015

Hygiene is a “battle”, and the “hygienist revolution” of the 19th and early 20th centuries transformed our urban...

Essays

“I, you, he, she, we are all Charlie”: what feeling concerned means

Gérôme Truc & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 February 2015

The attacks that took place in Paris in early January have affected French society in a way never seen before, as...

Debates

“Gentrification or ghetto”: making sense of an intellectual impasse

Anne Clerval & Mathieu Van Criekingen & translated by Oliver Waine - 29 January 2015

The debate on the causes, effects and extent of the “gentrification” of working-class neighbourhoods in the central...

From the Field

In the Paris metro, hell is other people

Luke Haywood & Martin Koning & translated by Oliver Waine - 15 January 2015

In the medical field, it is not unusual for remedies prescribed to combat a particular condition to have...

Debates

Is rurality a thing of the past?

Philippe Dubourg & translated by Oliver Waine - 8 January 2015

In the era of globalisation and metropolisation, is rurality an old-fashioned concept, a thing of the past? The...

Debates

Using heritage status to combat segregation: the case of French housing estates

Marc Bertier & Hervé Marchal & Jean-Marc Stébé & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 October 2014

Challenging the idea that demolishing housing estates is all it takes to eradicate the social problems with which...

Essays

Territorial Equality in France: A Historical Perspective

Matthew Wendeln - 4 June 2014

Once the basis of French regional planning, the goal of national balance has made a comeback in France under the...

From the Field

Municipal socialism in France from the interwar period to the 1970s

Aude Chamouard & translated by Oliver Waine - 30 April 2014

“Municipal socialism” has marked the history of many cities in France (Lille, Toulouse and Bordeaux, to name but...

Reviews

Ethnic discrimination in social housing

François Bonnet & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 March 2014

Valérie Sala Pala has investigated the extent to which ethnic criteria come into play in the allocation of social...

From the Field

Coping with crowdedness in mass transportation

Martin Aranguren & Stéphane Tonnelat & translated by Oliver Waine - 26 February 2014

Riding overcrowded metros, tubes or subways with dozens of strangers in varying moods is routinely viewed as a...

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