The Making of the Banlieue

An Ethnography of Space, Identity and Violence
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-3-030-18209-0
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 281 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 498 g

This book studies and disaggregates the "crisis of the suburbs" in Paris through the stories of inhabitants in 4000sud: a French suburban neighborhood. These stories have become pressing in the aftermath of the recent wave of terrorist attacks in France. The French banlieues are some of the most prominent and infamous examples of urban neighborhoods affected by vandalism, rioting, criminality and chronic poverty. Based on extensive ethnographic research, the book explores the making of the French suburban crisis as constituted both externally (by state actors) and internally, by young people at the street corner. It reveals how the French state’s understanding of banlieue violence, and subsequent policy measures, contribute to the creation and hardening of boundaries between "us" and "them". 
The book takes the reader on a journey from the city center of Paris to the heart of neighborhood 4000sud. It unveils how young suburban residents try to cope simultaneously with the negative images imposed on them from the outside, and the disciplinary expectations of their peers on the street. In search for identity and dignity they navigate life through diverging strategies: they escape the neighborhood, contest stereotypical images through (violent) protest, or confirm and act out the image of "gangster from the ghetto". Drawing on Urban Sociology, Human Geography, and Cultural Anthropology, this book offers new analytical vocabularies to understand the connections between place-making processes, social identity dynamics and violent performances. The book is written for a broad audience of students, scholars and policy makers interested in contemporary (sub)urban violence in Europe.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Slooter, Luuk

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Ethnographie
• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Humangeographie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments     

Chapter 1 Introduction          

The French case: a European exception?       

Reified images of the banlieue and its young inhabitants     

Beyond the dichotomy of ‘outside clichés versus inside reality’      

A journey from Paris to the cité, a dialogue between theory and empirical data      

Chapter 2 The Making of the Suburban Crisis by State Actors:

A Journey through the Decades Seen from Paris City Centre           

Preparing the analysis: frames, practices and violence          

Governmentality: frames and practices of governance          

Violent events as turning points of founding phases 

The changing governing frames and practices in four phases

Phase 1: 1950-70s from newly constructed sunny apartments to segregated stressed inhabitants   

Phase 2: 1981 rodéos in Les Minguettes        

Phase 3: 1990 Vaulx-en-Velin/Mas du Taureau         

Phase 4: 2005 Clichy-sous-Bois and beyond 

Conclusion     

Chapter 3 Ethnographic Research: Discovery of the ‘Field’:            

Walking from the RER Station into the Heart of Cité 4000sud          

Exploring ethnography          

Discovery of the ‘field’

Doing ethnography    

Data collection: participant observation, interviews, neighbourhood mapping

Trust and tensions      

The ‘zoo’: observing and the observee           

Obstacles and golden rules?   

A fly on the wall?      

Conclusion     

Chapter 4 The Internal Place-Making Process:          

Claiming Space at the Bottom of the Balzac Building

French ghettos?          

“A sociological absurdity”     

 “A sociological reality”         

From a fixed definition of the ghetto to a liquid process of place-making   

The Balzac drama: a multi-actor struggle about space           

The internal place-making process: routines in everyday life

Routines of naming and narratives    

Routines of ‘trainer’

Routines of surveillance

Conclusion     

Chapter 5 Social Identification Strategies and the Dynamics of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’:  

Navigating Life in Front of the Budget DIA-supermarket      

Identities: definitions and tools         

Studying ‘jeunes des banlieues/cités’ 

Three sets of social identification strategies  

Dissociating strategies – Positional moves     

Transforming strategies – Blurring, adding and transvaluing

Associating strategies – Inscribing victimhood and street life          

Navigating strategies 

Conclusion     

Chapter 6 Manifestations and Interpretations of Violence:  

Burning Cars and Dealing Drugs behind Le Mail     

Violence: towards a better grip on a slippery concept

The manifestation and interpretation of violence      

The manifestation of violence

Repertoire 1: Audience-oriented violence      

Repertoire 2: Backstage–oriented violence    

The interpretation of violence

The effectiveness of violence: the presence of absence         

Conclusion     

Chapter 7 Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Luuk Slooter is Assistant Professor in Conflict Studies at the History Department and the Centre for Global Challenges at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. In December 2015 he completed his PhD at Utrecht University and l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Until 2017, he was Assistant Professor at the Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management (Radboud University, Nijmegen), where he taught courses on terrorism, urban violence, and security policies.