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Refounded Neighbourhoods and Spatial Justice: The Inhabitants’ Attitudes Towards Urban Segregation

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Identity, Justice and Resistance in the Neoliberal City

Abstract

Drawing from 55 in-depth interviews with residents of the new-build neighborhoods of Courbevoie and Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) carried out in 2004-2008, Bruno Cousin analyze their sense of spatial justice, as well as the arrangements and compromises they display when their residential choices and their attitude towards local integration are challenged. By focusing on a segment of the upper-middle class that chose to live in new, remarkably socially homogeneous neighborhoods this chapter offers an unprecedented insight into the justifications, attempted justifications, and refusals to justify themselves of a population playing an active role in the upkeep and increase of urban segregation. It also shows that the distinction between classical liberalism and neoliberalism is crucial when analyzing precisely the subjective meaning-making and the sense of justice of the denizens of contemporary cities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I would like to thank Luc Boltanski, Edmond Préteceille, Marco Oberti, Enzo Mingione, Arnaldo Bagnasco, Anne Raulin, Sébastien Chauvin, Tommaso Vitale, Michèle Lamont, Nicolas Duvoux, Jacques Rodriguez and Gülçin Erdi for their advice or comments on previous versions of this chapter.

  2. 2.

    The refoundation process and the areas I call in this chapter refounded neighbourhoods correspond to what is sometimes referred to as ‘new-build gentrification’ (Davidson and Lees 2005, 2010; Butler 2007). But because, like other scholars, I am averse to the indiscriminate use of the term ‘gentrification’ to indicate all forms of local social upgrading, I prefer ‘refoundation’. On the differences between traditional bourgeois neighbourhoods, refounded neighbourhoods and gradually gentrified neighbourhoods, see also B. Cousin and Serge Paugam (2014). In addition, on refounded neighbourhoods in Milan (Italy) see B. Cousin and Edmond Préteceille (2008) and B. Cousin (2012, 2014a, 2016b).

  3. 3.

    According to the socio-spatial typology and the detailed description of Paris’ urban mosaic elaborated by Edmond Préteceille (2003) using 1999 census data, the area I studied in Levallois was part of type SBE (espaces de la bourgeoisie à prédominance de chefs et cadres d’entreprise), while the two I studied in Courbevoie were classified as type SCE (espaces des cadres d’entreprise et ingénieurs, chefs d’entreprise et professions intermédiaires des entreprises). Among the 18 types identified by Préteceille, SBE was the second most socially selective, with an average of 46.1% of managers and professionals within its economically active population, while SCE was the fourth with an average of 33.5%. SCE, however, was the type the most distinctly characterised by an overrepresentation of private sector executives.

  4. 4.

    Of course, questions also avoided using value-laden words such as ‘discrimination ’, ‘segregation’ or ‘diversity’. On the relation between any discourse that is not strictly private with a critical space, which by definition demands justifications , see Jürgen Habermas (1985 [1981]).

  5. 5.

    On the different regimes of action (including the regime of justification), see Luc Boltanski (2012).

  6. 6.

    Furthermore, the combination of data-gathering through in-depth interviews and direct observation, because it allowed me to partially test the credibility of the respondents, helped to lower the risk of attitudinal fallacy (Jerolmack and Khan 2014; Lamont and Swidler 2014).

  7. 7.

    On symbolic boundaries , see Michèle Lamont (1992) and M. Lamont and Virág Molnár (2002).

  8. 8.

    For an introduction to analytic political philosophy, see, for instance, Will Kymlicka (2001).

  9. 9.

    Conversely, none of the Levallois respondents saw the ubiquity of CCTV in their municipality as a problem. They all considered that since they had ‘done no wrong’, surveillance was not an issue.

  10. 10.

    With many apartment block buildings of 12 or 13 floors, the Faubourg de l’Arche has 15,000 residents (around 13,000 at the start of my research) spread over 38 hectares: a population density almost twice that of the Paris average within the périphérique ring road.

  11. 11.

    The linear relation between the forms of the public spaces and their respective (and intended) functions, which prevents their conversion to another purpose, as well as the sequential organisation of daily time shared by most residents (Cousin, 2013) mean that public facilities are used by most people at the same time, exacerbating the feeling of overcrowding and shortage. On linearity and sequentiality, see Richard Sennett (1990).

  12. 12.

    On the concept of negative liberty, see Isaiah Berlin (2002).

  13. 13.

    On the criminalisation of the poor as a central element of neoliberalism , see, for instance, Loïc Wacquant (2009).

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  1. Sciences Po, Centre d’études européennes (CEE), CNRS, Paris, France

    Bruno Cousin

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS-CITERES, Tours, France

    Gülçin Erdi

  2. Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Yıldırım Şentürk

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Cousin, B. (2017). Refounded Neighbourhoods and Spatial Justice: The Inhabitants’ Attitudes Towards Urban Segregation. In: Erdi, G., Şentürk, Y. (eds) Identity, Justice and Resistance in the Neoliberal City. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58632-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58632-2_4

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