Tiphaine Beliot, "French Urban Politics: Making the Theoretical Approach Concrete" (12 June 2013)

First of all, I wanted to say that I am really happy to write about the urban politics and might admit that this day was one of my favorite, full in emotion, with the discovery of the French transportation system(!) and above all an impressive testimony.

The first part of the day was dedicated to the French urban politics and then the visit at La Duchère thet made concrete this theoritical approach. Lila Combe made an interesting overview of the different urban politics that took place in France since the 50's and the housing crisis in France, impelled both by the baby-boom but also by the workers of the empire called to work in France in order to reconstruct the country after WWII. We learnt that the 'Grands ensembles' who were built in order to solve the housing crisis, inspired by an ideal of social mixity soon became a trap for those who lived there and did not have the economic ressources to moved creating social protests that soon became riots.

In order to respond to this social unrest, several plans were proposed promoting social development among the actions : the creation of priority areas for education, of housing improvement, local prevention councils... But after new riots in the 1990's, it was decided to focus on two main points : the economical development and the urban renewal policy. The economical aspect was tackled with the creation of tax free zones in order to attract new investments among the most popular reform and the urban renewal was divided into several points : the destruction of some huge buildings, the construction of non-social housing, the displacement of some social housings, the creation of new streets. One of its most well-known success is La Duchère that we visited afterwards.

The visit was nice, and the new district looked amaizing, but this method rised several questions mainly about the social aspects that was eclipsed in the project. I was also wondering in what way the deplacement of people into richer areas would make their situation evolved. I know (mainly because I lived the situtation) that it exists a geographical discrimation when entering into the job market, but is it really a solution to move the people ? I think taht the evolution of their situations might pass through social aspects, because it is a special distress which is not only economical. To conclude, I think it is a good first step for the suburbs but before claiming victory, I might admit that I prefer to wait for a moment in order to observe the evolution of the situation.

The second part of the day was amazing, we have the opportunity to meet Toumi Djaïdja, who created the March for equality and agaisnt racism in 1983 after the death of several young men killed by the police. The emotion is difficult to transmit when writing, I will just rise two aspects of the meeting : the modesty and humility of the men who came to speak to us and the hope that they give us conveying a great message : against discriminations we are all equal and we need to fight together forgetting our ego and there is no small fight.

To finish, we had an overview of the social movements of immigrants and descendants of migrants in order to fight for their rights. Tthese actions can be divided into three separate waves : the first from the 60's to the late 70's with the first migrant mobilizations, the second during the 80's and the failure of attemps to impose a hegemonic mobilization and finally since the 90's the scattering of the mobilization. What really stroke me is the fact that the first generation were already asking for the creation of mosques and of class of arabic while it is said in the media that France is becomming 'islamized' the last years, whereas it appears that the revendications that are made today are the same than in the 70's. A striking point was also the fact that it is mainly the politization or the recuperation of some social movements that scattered the movement.

To put in a nutshell, this day was amaizing and really motivating, it showed us that it is better to be unified in order to fight against discrimation. I will finish with a phrase that Toumi said : « A leader is not always at the front », let think about it for any action we take part in !"