Metropolitics

Spaces of Inclusion and Exclusion: Algerians in Paris, France

Elizabeth Nelson — 2022-10-04T05:00:00Z

In the context of contemporary French republicanism, how do Algerians in Paris assert their identities and negotiate spaces of inclusion and exclusion in the public sphere?
The social and spatial integration practices of Algerian immigrants and their descendants living in Paris, France, illustrate local-level integrative practices that often involve feelings of unease related to living and working in an environment where a French/white/secular identity is normative and pervasive. French

- From the Field / Algerians, Paris region, Paris, France, Île-de-France, banlieue, exclusion, inclusion, space, republicanism

In Search of Grand Paris: Pierre Mansat on the Eve of the June 2020 Municipal Elections

Magda Maaoui & Pierre Mansat — 2020-06-26T05:00:00Z

Magda Maaoui interviews Pierre Mansat, former deputy mayor of Paris and a founding father of “le Grand Paris” (the metropolitan authority for Greater Paris), about Grand Paris and the limits of political action at the municipal level in light of the upcoming municipal elections.
Less than a week before 12 million Parisians vote in the second round of elections for their mayors and their municipal councils, which has now been delayed from March 22 to June 28 owing to the coronavirus lockdown,

- Interviews / Grand Paris, Grand Paris Express, Greater Paris, Paris region, Paris, Île-de-France, France, banlieue, suburbs, metropolitan areas, metropolitan restructuring, metropolis, territorial equality, territorial reform, governance, local governance, metropolization, coronavirus, Covid-19, public transportation, transport, mass transit, intercommunality

Covid-19, War, and Working-Class Neighborhoods

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Oliver Waine — 2020-06-05T05:00:00Z

The residents of France's working-class neighborhoods, accused of exacerbating the coronavirus pandemic through their supposed “incivility,” have been the target of speeches that have sought to reactivate the fantasy of the urban ghetto. In reality, however, multiple sources of inequality—housing, health, transportation—have in fact made lockdown especially difficult in housing projects and exposed their residents to a greater risk of infection.
The epidemic that is sweeping the planet is an

- Debates / inequalities, Covid-19, coronavirus, lockdown, housing, social housing, housing estates, housing projects, banlieue, suburbs, working classes, working-class neighborhoods, overoccupancy, health, transport, public transportation, mass transit, France, pandemic

How the Youth of the Banlieues See the Gilets Jaunes

2020-04-24T05:00:00Z

Do the “Yellow Vests” and the youth of France's banlieues share a common vision of the inequalities and discrimination that divide contemporary societies? A roundtable discussion organized as part of research on participation in working-class neighborhoods sheds light on the ambivalent views that certain young people in these areas have regarding the Gilets Jaunes movement.
Since the beginning of the Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) movement, in October 2018, a number of commentators have noted

- From the Field / banlieue, suburbs, gilets jaunes, youth, collective action, mobilization, working-class neighborhoods, working classes, demonstrations, protest, discrimination, Paris region, Île-de-France, France, Paris

Aubervilliers: Portrait of a Working-Class Suburb

Anaïs Albert & translated by Oliver Waine — 2020-02-21T06:00:00Z

The republication of an early-20th‑century realist novel set in the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers brings the industrial towns of the pre-war era back to life—their smells, their health risks, but above all the lives of their inhabitants—offering today's readers a veritable ethnographic immersion into this working-class town.
Although today largely forgotten, except by historians of the working classes, Léon Bonneff was a major figure of social investigation in the early 20th century.

- Reviews / Aubervilliers, Paris, Greater Paris, France, Île-de-France, Paris region, industry, suburbs, banlieue, pollution, health, work, working classes, history, urban history, literature, environment, workers, blue-collar workers, manual workers

Can Cannabis Be Legalized in France Without Inflaming the Banlieues?

Christian Ben Lakhdar & Aymeric Reyre & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-07-05T05:00:00Z

France is a place of paradoxes: cannabis is widely consumed, and yet legalization does not seem to be on the cards, despite successful measures implemented elsewhere. This reluctance is linked in particular to a fear of destabilizing local economies in working-class neighborhoods. Aymeric Reyre and Christian Ben Lakhdar highlight the unfounded nature of this argument, and use evidence from other countries to underline the potential benefits of such reforms.
While the wind of legalization has

- Debates / drugs, drug dealing, legalization of cannabis, urban economy, banlieue, housing estates, housing projects, social housing

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

Photography, Ethnography and Exhibitions in the Projects

Camilo León-Quijano & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-01-11T20:56:26Z

Pictures taken by photographer and sociologist Camilo León-Quijano with the initial aim of understanding the sporting experience of a female rugby team in a Paris suburb led to a broader project and exhibition called The Rugbywomen. In light of this, we consider the heuristic advantages of photographic practices for ethnographic research.
How can photography be used to study the social world, and in particular the experiences of residents of a suburban town? This is the question that led me

- From the Field / banlieue, suburbs, Sarcelles, Paris region, Île-de-France, sport, photography

The Americanization of French social movements? Community organizing and its discontents in the banlieues

Julien Talpin — 2017-06-29T05:05:00Z

In this second of two articles, sociologist Julien Talpin discusses the importation to France of American traditions and practices of community organizing. Despite the successful cross-cultural transfer of methods that allow groups to tackle racial issues, which have been difficult to accommodate within the French activist paradigm, American-style community organizing has encountered resistance from the left. Practices imported from the US may nevertheless influence French civil society more

- From the Field / France, banlieue, participation, social movement, race, mobilization, community organizing, French politics, L'Alliance Citoyenne, Studio Praxis, Graines de France, Movement for Black Lives, Soros Foundation, ACORN

What's the matter with the banlieues? Exploring the importation of the American community organizing tradition by French social movements

Julien Talpin — 2017-06-22T07:00:00Z

With the eclipse of the once-powerful Communist and Socialist Parties in France, and these parties' traditional roots in the country's white working class, the residents of long-neglected blue-collar and immigrant suburbs (banlieues) have had little political voice. In recent years, some have turned to the American tradition of community organizing as a way to build power independently. In this first of two articles, Julien Talpin explains the different ways in which activists from the banlieues

- From the Field / France, banlieue, participation, social movement, race, mobilization, community organizing, French politics, L'Alliance Citoyenne, Studio Praxis, Graines de France, ACORN