Metropolitics

The Black Middle Class, or the Harsh Reality of the American Dream

Sylvie Tissot & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-01-24T06:00:00Z

The suburbs of the United States, once the epicenter of racial segregation, are now home to more African Americans than ever. Drawing on her investigation of the New York suburbs, Orly Clergé demonstrates the considerable heterogeneity and fragility of the Black middle classes in a society structured by racism.
One particularly evocative type of place sums up all the stereotypes of African Americans: Black ghettos. Orly Clergé's book The New Noir seeks to challenge the way Black people in the

- Reviews / United States, suburbs, middle classes, history, racism

Europe and the Question of Social Class

Gilles Laferté & translated by Oliver Waine — 2020-05-29T05:00:00Z

A recent French work addresses the issue of social class in Europe, considering the different profiles and distribution of working, middle and upper classes across the continent. Gilles Laferté contends that, by posing the question of whether a unified European social space exists, this study stimulates debate on the most relevant geographical scales—local, national, transnational—for analyzing social structure.
Étienne Penissat, Cédric Hugrée and Alexis Spire's book, Les Classes sociales en

- Reviews / social class, working classes, middle classes, upper classes, Europe

The “ordinary” Italian suburbs: exploring the apartment buildings of the middle classes

Thomas Pfirsch & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-12-11T06:00:00Z

Through the detailed histories of 23 apartment buildings and their inhabitants, a team of historians and architects show how Italy became a society of homeowners during the boom of the 1950s and '60s. This book sheds light for the first time on the history of this little-known aspect of the private housing sector that nevertheless concerns the majority of Italian households, and highlights the – often underestimated – role played by public policy in its development.
As the debates on urban

- Reviews / homeownership, housing, developers, Rome, housing estates, Italy, middle classes, Milan, Turin, self-segregation, owner-occupiership, co-ownership, condominium

The grandeur and decadence of the suburbs

Violaine Girard & Jean Rivière & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-09-18T09:58:19Z

Periurban areas emerged in the 2000s as “new” spaces indicative of recent changes in French society – the weakening of the middle classes, the rise of the far right, etc. However, these spaces, which have been put under the microscope since the 1970s by geographers, sociologists and political scientists, cannot be reduced to the simplistic image promulgated by the media every election season.
Translated with the support of the Institut Français Dossier : Urban studies in France
“One fine

- Debates / periurban, vote, suburbs, elections, middle classes