Metropolitics

The electoral effects of social divisions in French cities

Jean Rivière & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-07-02T04:50:00Z

According to many commentators, France's major cities are bastions of support for the parliamentary left when it comes to election time. However, Jean Rivière's analysis of the situation – far from confirming these kinds of simplifications that contrast city-dwelling “bobos” on the one hand with “suburbanites” on the other – invites us to reconsider the electoral geography of French cities by examining them at polling-district level, revealing their socially composite nature.
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- From the Field / inequalities, vote, elections, mapping, cartography, neighborhood effects, metropolitan areas, urban geography

Local elections as seen by the social sciences

2014-06-11T04:50:00Z

Municipal election campaigns are key moments in the cycle of local politics. The authors of the series of articles presented here show that they also represent a fertile ground for the social sciences, revealing the ways in which local political systems operate and evolve. Following the French municipal elections of March 2014, the articles in this series offer an exploration in time and space – both geographical and social – of “municipal issues”.
Much has already been said and written about

- Series

The grandeur and decadence of the suburbs

Violaine Girard & Jean Rivière & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-09-18T09:58:19Z

Periurban areas emerged in the 2000s as “new” spaces indicative of recent changes in French society – the weakening of the middle classes, the rise of the far right, etc. However, these spaces, which have been put under the microscope since the 1970s by geographers, sociologists and political scientists, cannot be reduced to the simplistic image promulgated by the media every election season.
Translated with the support of the Institut Français Dossier : Urban studies in France
“One fine

- Debates / periurban, vote, suburbs, elections, middle classes

Mapping votes and social inequalities: the case of Paris and its inner suburbs

Jean Rivière & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-06-27T13:39:13Z

Analysing local contexts can prove particularly enlightening when it comes to understanding electoral processes, whether in terms of party-political mobilisation or in terms of the choices voters make. In the inner Paris suburbs, as we shall see, voting patterns are very much structured by the geography of social inequalities.
Following any kind of ballot, electoral maps are sure to proliferate across the media, and the 2012 French presidential election was no exception – especially as

- Essays / Paris region, inequalities, Paris, vote, elections, mapping, cartography, Greater Paris, electoral geography

Maps and opinion polls

Joël Gombin & Jean Rivière & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-06-06T08:34:00Z

Presidential elections – a crucial moment in the democratic life of France – generate all sorts of analyses that seek to interpret and decipher voting behaviour. Joël Gombin and Rivière highlight the limits of opinion polls and the risks of monocausal geographical analyses, instead advocating an innovative approach that is able to situate voters' choices within their territorial contexts.
As with previous ballots, the 2012 presidential election proved to be the perfect opportunity for public

- Essays / vote, elections, opinion polls, mapping, cartography, electoral geography

The media construction of the suburbs in France: looking back on the 2007 presidential campaign

Jean Rivière & Sylvie Tissot & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-05-23T17:38:34Z

In the run-up to the recent French presidential elections, the question of la banlieue – the (generally poor) suburbs that ring every major city in France – barely warranted a mention. In 2007, however, it was a central issue in the election campaign. An analysis of articles in four major national dailies reveals the extent to which the media have helped construct a specific image of the suburbs based on disorder and incivility.
In the aftermath of the recent French presidential elections,

- Essays / working-class neighborhoods, media, suburbs, elections, banlieue