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Introduction

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The Making of the Banlieue

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Abstract

Urban neighbourhoods, where disadvantages cluster and notorious reputations reign, can be found in cities across Western Europe. Among the most prominent and infamous of such marginalized neighbourhoods are the French banlieues. Drawing on ethnographic research in the north Parisian neighbourhood 4000 sud, this book studies and disaggregates the French ‘suburban crisis’. It looks in particular to the interplay between place-making processes (Chapter 4), identity dynamics (Chapter 5) and violence (Chapter 6). The book documents a journey in time and space: a journey through the decades, and a journey from the city centre of Paris to the heart of the suburbs. This chapter serves as a preparation for that journey by familiarizing the reader with the main questions, characters and structure of the book.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an analysis of the 2005 events, see, e.g., Kokoreff (2008), Lagrange and Oberti (2006), Mauger (2006), Mucchielli and Le Goaziou (2006), Roché (2006), and Slooter (2007).

  2. 2.

    The episodes in November 2007 (Villiers-le-Bel), July 2009 (Firminy), July 2010 (Grenoble), July 2013 (Trappes), July 2016 (Beaumont-sur-Oise—Affaire Adama Traoré), February 2017 (Aulnay-sous-Bois— Affaire Théo ), July 2018 (Nantes) are among the ones that received the most political and media attention.

  3. 3.

    Simply taking the French case as representative for the rest of Western Europe, such as Wacquant, for example, proposes in his book Urban Outcasts (2008) is therefore problematic.

  4. 4.

    Both Police Chief Welten and Minister ter Horst referred to the 2005 episode of violence in France. See, e.g., Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant (18 October 2007): ‘Ter Horst verwacht geen Parijse toestanden’ (Ter Horst does not expect Parisian-style unrest). Retrieved from: https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/ter-horst-verwacht-geen-parijse-toestanden~b1de7801/.

  5. 5.

    In the Netherlands, some areas in the bigger cities, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, are quite prominently represented in the media and political debate as ‘unruly, problematic neighbourhoods’. Moreover, the Dutch government has developed and implemented policies that pay special attention and give financial support to particular neighbourhoods, such as the so-called Vogelaarwijken, Pracht/Krachtwijken or Aandachtswijken.

  6. 6.

    Formally known as Front National until June 2018.

  7. 7.

    See for different readings of these ‘terrorist attacks’, e.g., Kepel (2017) and Roy (2017).

  8. 8.

    See Bovenkerk (2014) for a comparative study that investigates the roots of the high crime rates among Moroccan youth in the Netherlands, while other European countries do not, or only to a lesser extent, seem to experience such a ‘criminality problem’ with second- and third-generation Moroccan migrants.

  9. 9.

    Égalité is part of the national motto ‘Liberté, Égalité , Fraternité’ (Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood) inherited from the French Revolution and mentioned in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. Laïcité is introduced after the 1905 law on the separation of church and state.

  10. 10.

    The 751 districts labelled by the state as quartiers sensibles and the more recently defined 1300 quartiers prioritaires are not located only in suburbs. ‘Paris intra muros’, for example, also includes a number of these neighbourhoods.

  11. 11.

    See for the full research report: http://dl.afev.org/communication/Observatoire2011/Afev_rapport_observatoire2011_cahierlorrain.pdf.

  12. 12.

    The question posed was: ‘Would you say, based on their behavior and their actions in society, that your view on youngsters is very positive, mostly positive, mostly negative or very negative?’ My translation: «Diriez-vous des jeunes, au travers de leurs comportements, de leurs actions dans la société, que vous en avez une image… très positive/plutôt positive/plutôt négative/très négative ?»

  13. 13.

    Exact question: ‘And more precisely, with regard to youngsters from the working class neighbourhoods, would you say that your image is very positive, mostly positive, mostly negative, very negative?’ My translation: «Et, plus précisément, concernant les jeunes issus de quartiers populaires, diriez-vous que vous en avez une image… très positive/plutôt positive/plutôt négative/très négative ?»

  14. 14.

    See Chapter 3 for an explanation of this data collection technique.

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  1. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Luuk Slooter

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Slooter, L. (2019). Introduction. In: The Making of the Banlieue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18210-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18210-6_1

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