Locating the Middle Classes in London and Paris

Abstract

The discussion in this chapter is informed by the two key research questions presented in the introduction about how the middle classes give identity to the areas in which they live and secondly, how they in turn derive their identities from living there. In other words, we present the different social and spatial morphologies of our research areas and how they help us understand how the middle classes relate to the city and the city region and to other social groups within these areas. The chapter is divided into four main sections, the first two of which are concerned with “locating the middle classes” theoretically (especially in the French and English research traditions), firstly, sociologically and, secondly, geographically. We then move on in the third section to identify their present and recent social geography in the specific contexts of Paris and London. This discussion is situated in the context of the changing dynamics of Paris and London as global cities. In the fourth section, we specify the ten neighbourhoods that form the basis of our study in which we discuss the rationale and basis of the comparison we draw between these neighbourhoods.