Growth and Structure of Cities Senior Theses (2006-2007)

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Browsing Growth and Structure of Cities Senior Theses (2006-2007) by Author "Lynch, Sarah"

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    “Is Paris burning?”: The French Banlieue in crisis
    (2007-06-21T15:50:14Z) Lynch, Sarah
    Over the past twenty-five years, the French government has steadily implemented a program of urban policy (la politique de la ville) that targets working-class suburbs in decline (banlieues). The strategies underlying these policies have changed with each successive administration; dozens of policies have been enacted, each has been trumpeted as the key to solving France’s ongoing “urban crisis.” In general, these policies sought to address complex issues of poverty and social marginalization in the banlieues; individually, each policy was a response to those particular aspects of the urban crisis that had become most pressing at the time. By all accounts, each policy failed. Indeed, the fiery riots that swept through France in November 2005 convinced all social observers that the dysfunction of the banlieue is actually accelerating and intensifying. This thesis highlights the failure of French urban policy through the lens of three separate initiatives, each of which was chosen as representative of a distinct ideological stage in the evolution of la politique de la ville: Développement social des quartiers (DSQ, 1981), Pacte de relance pour la ville (PRV, 1996), and Plan de cohésion sociale (PCS, 2004). This thesis contends that the failure of la politique de la ville can be traced to a conceptual shift that occurred in the mid-1990s. This shift is apparent in the contrast between the assumption of the DSQ, in the 1980s, that the dysfunction in the banlieues reflected larger social problems within France, and the subsequent belief, of both the PRV and the PCS, that the banlieues themselves were the principal source of social dysfunction. This gradual articulation of the banlieues and their inhabitants as a problem has managed to shift the ideological focus of French urban policy from progressive social development to repressive social control. Presently, the emphasis is on pacifying the banlieues in the interest of national security. This thesis explores the reasons for that conceptual shift and traces its profound implications. In conclusion, this thesis argues that the official response to the radical question of citizenship that dysfunction in the banlieues continues to raise will determine the viability of French republican ideals into the twenty-first century.