Metropolitics

Masculine Sports and “Respectable” Men in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Carine Guérandel & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-03-12T06:00:00Z

In a work rich in ethnographic material, Akim Oualhaci questions how socialization through sports contributes to the reconfiguration of masculinities in working-class neighborhoods in France and the United States.
Studies on the social construction of masculinities—a quite recent but very productive field of research—often focuses on the world of sports, considered an effective space for gender-based socialization. Akim Oualhaci's book is a continuation of this work and specifically analyzes

- Debates / sport, working classes, working-class identity, working-class neighborhoods, social class, ethnography, youth, masculinity, gender, socialization, suburbs, banlieue, ghetto, Paris region, New York, France, United States

Closed Quarters

William Helmreich — 2016-12-13T06:00:00Z

As we contemplate an era marked by official hostility to fair-housing laws, we would do well to heed the distinction between forced and voluntary segregation. Tracing the construction—both literal and cultural—of the ghetto, Mitchell Duneier's new book is a sensitive guide to the scholarship and history of Jews' and Blacks' intersecting paths through it. William Helmreich reads and reviews the work through his own reflections on contemporary New York City.
In today's world, the word ghetto is

- Reviews / ghetto, gentrification, segregation, racism, United States, New York, discrimination, minorities, race, ghettoization, race relations

“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

The importance of the neighborhood in Chicago and elsewhere

Eliza Benites-Gambirazio — 2014-03-19T05:55:00Z

The latest work by Robert Sampson, released to positive reviews, shows the sustainable effects of internal social dynamics within neighborhoods in terms of the vulnerability of their residents and the reproduction of these dynamics over time. It calls for action to be taken as a matter of priority to change the way social life is organized in underprivileged neighborhoods.
Published in 2012, Robert Sampson's book immediately became a must-read of American sociology for those who are

- Reviews / ghetto, segregation, Chicago, inequalities, United States, neighborhood, Chicago School, neighborhood effects

Quotas of foreigners in social housing: a legacy of the Algerian War? Les Canibouts, Nanterre (1959–1968)

Marie-Claude Blanc-Chaléard & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-04-11T07:29:45Z

Was it better to concentrate or disperse Algerians during the Algerian War? In the course of the conflict, both strategies were defended in terms of police action and integration. For Algerians accommodated in standard social housing, dispersal was the preferred solution, justifying the implementation of a quota system limiting the number of foreign residents in each housing complex.
---- Series: How the Algerian War shaped French cities Sonacotral, the National Construction Company for

- Essays / ghetto, immigration, Nanterre, housing, social housing, Algerian War

“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

Homosexual City, Homophobic Banlieue?

Éric Fassin & translated by Christina Mitrakos — 2011-03-09T06:30:00Z

Is homophobia prevalent in social housing projects? Is sexual orientation the new divide between civilizations? Éric Fassin shows how condemning sexism in the banlieues not only reinforces the opposition between “us” and “them,” but also contributes to fueling it.
In 2009, two books on homosexuality in the banlieues were published. The subtitle of Homo-ghetto, written by Franck Chaumont, and published on October 1st, describes “gays and lesbians in the projects” as “the stowaways of the

- Debates / ghetto, banlieue, homophobia, racism, gender, homosexuality, race, gay, LGBTQ+

The New French Ghettos

Hervé Marchal & Jean-Marc Stébé & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2010-12-16T10:53:18Z

Are housing projects in France – particularly the French slums euphemistically termed Zones Urbaines Sensibles (ZUS for short) – comparable to American ghettos: i.e. enclaves of poverty resulting from geographic and ethnic segregation? While some insist there is no comparison between the two, the authors of the present article argue that current ethnic segregation processes in France are increasingly producing fully-fledged ghettos.
The question posed here is whether the term “ghetto” applies

- Debates / ghetto, ethnicity, segregation, housing projects, social housing, housing estates, race