Vincent Béal

Vincent Béal is an assistant professor in sociology at the University of Saint-Étienne (Université Jean-Monnet Saint-Étienne), where he is the director of the Department of Political and Territorial Studies (Département d’Études Politiques et Territoriales – DEPT). He is a researcher within the Triangle joint research unit (UMR CNRS 7363). His work focuses on territories, local policy, and the restructuring of state intervention, with a particular interest in the connection between spatial and political issues, by analysing the transfprmations of public action in towns and cities in decline and in "left-behind" places.

His latest publications: Déclin urbain. La France dans une perspective internationale (ed., with N. Cauchi-Duval and M. Rousseau, Éditions du Croquant, 2021); Plus vite que le cœur d’un mortel. Désurbanisation et résistances dans l’Amérique abandonnée (with M. Rousseau, Grevis, 2021); Sociologie de Saint-Étienne (with N. Cauchi-Duval, G. Gay, C. Morel Journel and V. Sala Pala, La Découverte, 2020).