Metropolitics

From “Black City” to “Slum City”: The Importance of Image in Saint-Étienne

2017-09-20T05:00:00Z

In December 2014, an article in the French daily newspaper Le Monde painted a highly negative portrait of the city of Saint-Étienne, in south-eastern France, generating considerable controversy and intense mobilization. Vincent Béal, Christelle Morel Journel and Valérie Sala Pala place these reactions within the context of a long history of image-related stakes in local society and politics, and highlight the contrasting approaches adopted by inhabitants and local elites in response to the

- From the Field / France, media, image, Saint-Étienne, mobilization, shrinking cities, post-fordisme, urban decline, urban shrinkage, degrowth, shrinkage, stigma, stigmatization, post-Fordism

Building a Multifaceted Campaign for Public Higher Education

Stephen Brier & Michael Fabricant — 2016-10-04T06:39:27Z

In their new book, Austerity Blues: Fighting for the Soul of Public Higher Education, Michael Fabricant and Stephen Brier trace the waning support for public higher education and its deleterious effects on students, faculty, and American society at large. Here, they reflect on what helped the Professional Staff Congress at the City University of New York win the most recent round in the fight for public higher education at a time when greater access to public universities is sorely needed to

- From the Field / participation, inequalities, United States, media, New York, public policy, protest, education, public action, public education, mobilization, higher education, university, austerity, budget cuts, public investment, CUNY

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

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