Abstract
During the last decade, the emergence of urban social movements such as the Occupy Wall Street, the Indignados, and Taksim Park protests nurtured an important literature in social sciences (Nichols 2009; Castaneda 2012; Fahmi 2009). These contributions emphasize the role of networked social movements and the emergence of hybrid spaces based on large-scale mobilizations which in some cases became emblematic (Castells 2012). Using mobile and Wi-Fi technologies, social movements transformed local contests into more global spaces of mobilization and audience. However, if a large amount of literature has examined networked social movements, only a few studies have paid attention to less visible, low network-connected social movements, with little media coverage occurring in deprived neighborhoods. There, mostly poor and sometimes undocumented residents, facing urban renewal and regeneration programs, contest, mobilize, and organize.
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- 1.
Program National de Rénovation Urbaine.
- 2.
Introduction to the City Orientation and programming Act (2003).
- 3.
125,000 inhabitants in 2010.
- 4.
Perpignan is ranked fourth French poorest city (31.5% of the city population live below the poverty line in 2015).
- 5.
In program de la rénovation urbaine, Convention partenariale Ville de Perpignan & Agence Nationale de la rénovation Urbaine, p. 6.
- 6.
Ibidem.
- 7.
In Le Monde, June 10th 2005, “Perpignan, un brasier mal éteint”, A. Chemin (https://www.lemonde.fr/a-la-une/article/2005/06/10/perpignan-un-brasier-mal-eteint_660551_3208.html).
- 8.
Quoted by the author, interviewed in January 2008.
- 9.
Interview with residents, Cité de Clodion, March 2017.
- 10.
Interview with Mireille, Neighborhood activist, February 2008.
- 11.
PNRU project officer, cited by residents, February 2008.
- 12.
Interview with the PNRU project officer, March 2008.
- 13.
Ibidem.
- 14.
Interview with residents, Cité Nouveau Logis Les Pins, February 2017.
- 15.
- 16.
Adam Nossiter, “Catalan Gypsies, Unique and Embattled, Resist as Homes Are Reduced to Rubble”, in New York Times, August 18, 2018 (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/world/europe/catalan-gypsies-perpignan-france.html).
- 17.
Interview, August 2018.
- 18.
See the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Perpignan-la-ville-est-%C3%A0-Nous-763586100476642/
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Giband, D. (2021). “The City Belongs to Us!”: Claiming Social Rights and Urban Citizenship in the Face of Urban Renewal Programs in a Mediterranean French City. In: Fregolent, L., Nel·lo, O. (eds) Social Movements and Public Policies in Southern European Cities. Urban and Landscape Perspectives, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52754-9_6
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