CIAO DATE: 04/2009
January 2009
Centre for European Political Sociology
At the end of 1980s, the question of « quartiers sensibles » (at-risk neighborhoods) started being very publicized in France. It was not only the subject of many front page articles, but also the target of a new public policy aimed at promoting urban and social development in about 500 neighborhoods (Politique de la ville). I argue that such focalization on « quartiers sensibles » does not only result from increasing problems such as unemployment, poverty or juvenile delinquency. It also represents a major change in public policy. Focusing on « quartiers sensibles » directly contributed to the restructuring of the French Welfare State by centering its action on specific urban spaces rather than national territory, and on social links rather than economic reality, contrary to what Welfare State claimed to do during the Fordist period. The outbreak of November 2005 riots is inextricably bound up to the way some problems (like lack of communication and weakening social links) have been associated to the question of « quartiers sensibles » whereas the French model of integration, based on equality between abstract citizens, let some others (like ethnic discrimination) unquestioned.
Resource link: "French Suburbs": a New Problem or a New Approach to Social Exclusion? [PDF] - 1.2M