Metropolitics

Visualizing “Superdiversity” in New York City

H. Jacob Carlson — 2022-11-08T06:00:00Z

A new set of visualization and mapping tools focused on “superdiversity” shows the complexity and intersectionality of New York City. These tools will be useful for scholars, policy-shapers, journalists, and many others.
“Superdiversity” refers to how assigned categories of racial difference and national origin have become much more complex. Highlighting these multiple layers of diversity was the goal of an international team of researchers. Steven Vertovec (Max Planck Institute) and Daniel

- Essays / superdiversity, diversity, New York, United States, hyper-diversity, social diversity, mapping

Social Diversity in Gentrified Neighborhoods: Child's Play?

Jean-Yves Authier & Sonia Lehman-Frisch & translated by Christina Mitrakos — 2015-12-04T05:55:00Z

How do children develop relationships? Do they meet children from socio-economic backgrounds other than their own? What are the effects of (much sought-after) social diversity among adults on the younger generation? This study of children's social relations in a gentrified neighborhood in Paris sheds light on these questions.
---- Series: Children in the City Since the 1980s, many large European and North American cities have been affected by gentrification: upper-middle-class households

- From the Field / gentrification, social diversity, Paris, children, neighborhood, sociabilities, parenting practices

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

Anne Clerval & Mathieu Van Criekingen & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-01-29T06:00:00Z

The debate on the causes, effects and extent of the “gentrification” of working-class neighbourhoods in the central areas of our cities has animated (and divided) the fields of geography and urban sociology for the last decade or so in France. This debate was reignited in September 2013 by the publication of a book by Anne Clerval titled Paris sans le peuple (“Paris Without the People”). In this article, Anne Clerval and Mathieu Van Criekingen reply with force to those fellow researchers and

- Debates / France, ghetto, gentrification, segregation, urban renewal, social diversity, suburbanization, periurban, metropolis, urban regeneration, metropolization, metropolitan areas, urban geography, urban sociology, depoliticization

Gentrification in Paris: the elite versus the people?

Colin Giraud & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-01-29T05:50:00Z

Anne Clerval's latest work on the gentrification of Paris, published in September 2013, caused quite a sensation in the French media. Based on a Marxist interpretation of urban change, it decries widespread gentrification that has gradually excluded the working classes from the French capital over the last 40 years. Here, Colin Giraud underlines the undeniable contributions made by this work, as well as its limitations and imperfections.
With municipal elections in France now less than two

- Reviews / gentrification, housing, working-class neighborhoods, urban policy, social diversity, Paris, working classes

Gentrification as a driver of social and racial tensions: the case of Brixton

Amélie Bertholet & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-10-16T04:55:00Z

(In)famous for the various riots that have occurred there since the 1980s, the working-class district of Brixton in south London has recently seen an influx of middle-class residents who prize the area for its diversity and tranquillity. However, as Amélie Bertholet shows, this trend does not mean the end of the area's troubles.
Brixton, a neighbourhood in the inner-London borough of Lambeth, has been marked by a strong Jamaican presence since the end of the Second World War. This “[ethnic]

- From the Field / gentrification, social diversity, London, violence, minorities

Racism: a blind spot in French urban sociology?

Élise Palomares & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-10-02T04:45:00Z

Why has the analysis of interethnic relations been so long ignored by French urban sociology? For Élise Palomares, although the fading memory of the Chicago School's legacy and a partial vision of social relations have meant that racism has been somewhat “off the radar” in France, recent work has opened up new avenues of research.
Translated with the support of the Institut Français Series: Urban Studies in France The city – the destination of predilection for migrants both national and

- Essays / banlieue, Chicago, racism, social diversity, suburbs, sociology, Chicago School, race

Are socio-spatial inequalities increasing in the Paris region?

2013-02-27T11:56:54Z

Although the Paris region remains the richest in France, the socio-spatial contrasts in this area are on the increase. A recent study into income disparities underlines the complex nature of changes in this regard since 1990: while the inner-ring suburbs have been marked by growing segregation and polarisation, the outer suburbs are less and less affected by poverty, which appears instead to be shifting beyond the regional boundaries.
Since the end of the 1990s, there has been a broad

- Essays / segregation, Paris region, social diversity, inequalities, mapping, cartography, Greater Paris, municipality

Social housing in Europe: the end of an era?

Noémie Houard & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-09-26T04:55:00Z

Although there is no single European model for social housing, there are nevertheless a number of common trends and features in most countries in Europe: delegation to local government, a new focus on fragile populations, reductions in the proportion of social housing. In France, the welfare state is tending to break with its “universalist” vocation in order to target action on increasingly vulnerable populations.
Most works and studies concerning social housing in Europe stress the diversity

- Debates / Europe, decentralization, social diversity, social housing, welfare state, right to housing

The history of social housing revisited

Christine Mengin & translated by Oliver Waine — 2011-11-30T09:38:43Z

Since the end of the 19th century, how have residents' wishes been taken into account by the public authorities responsible for building social housing? Through a series of case studies on housing policies and those involved in their implementation, this work, led by the historian Danièle Voldman, challenges a number of accepted notions and invites the reader to take another look at the history of social housing.
At a time when the political elite is calling housing policy into question and

- Reviews / HLM, housing, grands ensembles, housing projects, social diversity, social housing, housing estates

“Ghetto,” “Banishment,” “Neighborhood Effects.” A Critique of the “Ghetto” Image of French Housing Projects

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2011-03-23T06:30:00Z

Are residents of French housing projects really “banished” to their neighborhoods and kept in “confinement” there? Does living there have nothing but adverse effects on their integration into society? Pierre Gilbert argues that empirical studies to date fall far short of bearing out this portrayal of French housing projects as “ghettos”. And yet this very “ghetto” image has served as the basis for the overhaul of urban policy over the past decade and the ensuing urban renewal program in France.

- Essays / ghetto, segregation, housing projects, working-class neighborhoods, urban policy, urban renewal, residential mobility, social diversity, social housing, housing estates, neighborhood effects