The France of the Little-Middles: A Suburban Housing Development in Greater Paris: 1 (Anthropology of Europe, 1) - Softcover

Cartier, Marie; Coutant, Isabelle; Masclet, Olivier; Siblot, Yasmine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1789205204 ISBN 13: 9781789205206

Publisher: Berghahn Books, 2019

Synopsis

The Poplars housing development in suburban Paris is home to what one resident called the "Little-Middles" - a social group on the tenuous border between the working- and middle- classes. In the 1960s The Poplars was a site of upward social mobility, which fostered an egalitarian sense of community among residents. This feeling of collective flourishing was challenged when some residents moved away, selling their homes to a new generation of upwardly mobile neighbors from predominantly immigrant backgrounds. This volume explores the strained reception of these migrants, arguing that this is less a product of racism and xenophobia than of anxiety about social class and the loss of a sense of community that reigned before.

About this title

About the Authors

Marie Cartier is Professor of Sociology at the University of Nantes, researcher at CENS (Nantes Sociology Center, CNRS-University of Nantes). She is a former Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She combines ethnography and history to study the transformations of the working-class through employment and living spaces.

Isabelle Coutant is Researcher at CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), based at IRIS (Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Social Issues). Her research concerns how working-class people relate to institutions and urban ethnography.

Olivier Masclet is Associate Professor at the University of Paris Descartes Sorbonne Paris Cité and a researcher at the Center for Research on Social Connections since 2006. His research focuses on the cultural dimensions of class differentiation and contemporary working-class lifestyles.

Yasmine Siblot is Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris 8, and is member of the research center CRESPPA-CSU (Urban Societies and Cultures) (CNRS-University of Paris 8). Her research interests lie in social class, political sociology and migration studies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1789205204
• ISBN 13: 9781789205206
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224