Metropolitics

An American in Marseille

Olivier Gaudin & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-03-17T06:00:00Z

In his latest work, Marseille, Port to Port, the New York-based ethnographer William Kornblum paints a rich and vibrant sociological portrait of France's second city.
Marseille through the kaleidoscope
William Kornblum, emeritus professor at the City University of New York, is a sociologist renowned for his work in the field of urban ethnography, devoted to subjects ranging from a group of Harlem teenagers (Kornblum and Williams 1994) to, more recently, the New York subway's 7 Train, which

- Reviews / Marseille, New York, urban sociology, sociology, ethnography, urban ecology

“Welcomed with Closed Arms”: The Everyday Abandonment of Asylum Seekers in Marseille

Béatrice Mésini & Assaf Dahdah & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-04-01T05:00:00Z

Asylum policies in France are torn between welcoming and dissuasive measures, and appear ambivalent. Béatrice Mesini and Assaf Dahdah's investigation in Marseille paint a picture of a “welcome with closed arms.”
In France, the right to asylum was introduced in the Constitution of 1793: "the French people shall give asylum to foreigners banished from their homeland for the cause of freedom"; and in the preamble of the Constitution of the Fourth Republic in 1946: "Any person persecuted because

- From the Field / Marseille, sans-papiers, asile, droit, migrants

The Flea Market of Marseille

Michèle Jolé & William Kornblum — 2016-05-17T05:00:00Z

Marseille's flea market (“marché aux puces”) lies at the heart of a vast urban renewal project that could end up wiping the market off the map for good. Michèle Jolé and William Kornblum, who have both adopted Marseille as their hometown, explore the loss that the transformation of this veritable institution would represent for the city's residents and, more generally, for the northern neighborhoods (“les Quartiers Nord”) of Marseille.
“The more we gain distance from the center, the more the

- From the Field / public space, urban renewal, market, Marseille, retail, commerce, informality, urban project

Visual Sociology: Re-Imaging Marseille's Housing Projects

William Kornblum — 2015-07-10T04:50:00Z

New York sociologist William Kornblum has brought back pictures of the Marseille Northern Housing Projects—the infamous “Quartiers Nord”—that dispute the stereotypes of urban chaos distributed by the media. He also takes a step toward an ecological contextualization of these neighborhoods in the general topography of this Mediterranean city.
La Visitation is a mid-size housing project (or cité) located in the hilly northern industrial neighborhoods of Marseille, France. From these

- From the Field / France, banlieue, housing projects, Marseille, visual sociology

Transport as both a function and a facilitator of metropolitan development?

Aurélien Delpirou & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-02-12T05:50:00Z

In Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the development of public transport is a central element of the metropolitan projects currently under way. However, the challenges to be tackled and the approaches adopted differ significantly from one city to another. Here, Aurélien Delpirou compares the three situations and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of their respective strategies.
As part of the major territorial shake-up presently under way in France, a new type of intermunicipal body is set to

- Essays / Île-de-France, Grand Paris, public transportation, Paris region, governance, Marseille, Paris, transport, Lyon, metropolis, Greater Paris, mass transit, rapid transit, Rhône-Alpes

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

2014-10-22T04:50:00Z

Challenging the idea that demolishing housing estates is all it takes to eradicate the social problems with which they are associated, the authors here instead argue for collective housing schemes to be recognised as heritage assets so that they can be renovated and returned to their original function as places of good-quality housing.
Today, it is acknowledged that for the last 30 years or more – ever since the first riots in the Lyon suburbs and what the media at the time referred to as

- Debates / France, banlieue, segregation, housing, housing projects, Marseille, social housing, housing estates, Lyon, suburbs, heritage

Ethnic discrimination in social housing

François Bonnet & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-03-12T05:50:00Z

Valérie Sala Pala has investigated the extent to which ethnic criteria come into play in the allocation of social housing in Marseille in France and in Birmingham in England. In her recent book, she presents a detailed analysis of discriminatory processes that questions the usefulness of the notion of racism.
Valérie Sala Pala's book considers the way in which ethnic criteria are employed in the allocation of social housing in Marseille (in France, the nation of republican universalism) and

- Reviews / France, housing, racism, Marseille, social housing, United Kingdom, discrimination, minorities, Birmingham (UK), race, England