Metropolitics

The complex representations of working-class residential towers

Rachid Kaddour & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-02-26T05:55:00Z

Rachid Kaddour's analysis of the trajectory of perceptions of the Plein‑Ciel tower in Saint‑Étienne in south-eastern France shows that certain housing tower blocks can take on a system of representations that is far more complex than the often deprecating views presented in discourse intended to legitimize urban renewal.
---- Series: The Resurgence of Towers in European Cities The general image of towers in France is still very much associated with blocks of working-class housing, owing to

- From the Field / France, monument, housing projects, urban renewal, housing estates, towers, representations, Saint-Étienne

“Grands Ensembles”: Retracing a History of Rejection

Stéphane Füzesséry & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-01-15T05:55:00Z

From its very beginnings, the urban model of the “grand ensemble” – the large-scale high-rise housing estate – has appealed to film-makers. For half a century, these films have not only recorded and established image-types but also changed people's representations of these neighbourhoods – and, more generally, their rejection of them.
Reflections – and doubts – concerning urban policy in France currently abound, particularly on the direction that should be taken by the second phase of the

- Reviews / Île-de-France, Paris region, housing projects, urban policy, urban renewal, housing estates, suburbs, neighborhood, representations, cinema

How journalists see “the suburbs”: lifting the veil on a cliché

Julie Sedel & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-09-10T04:55:00Z

“La banlieue”: in France, few terms convey such a clear and constant image: high-rise social housing, young men “of immigrant background” without work, a culture of violence... Why is it that such stereotypical and stigmatising representations of what is in fact a highly diverse reality are so enduring? Following fieldwork in the France 2 newsroom, Jérôme Berthaut offers a certain number of explanations. Here, Julie Sedel, author of Les Médias et la Banlieue, reviews his findings.
In La

- Reviews / banlieue, media, suburbs, ethnography, TV news, inner city, representations