Suburbs

The suburbs is the urbanized peripheral zone around large a Ville.

General information

Attested as of the 13th century, the word suburbs has as a root that of Ban , term feudal meaning the territory under the jurisdiction of lord, where its decisions were the object of proclamations. Applying to a city, the term of suburbs started to indicate the extent of country, a Lieue or several miles - and the mile varied from one area to another - subjected to the capacity of command of a lord, and, more and more often of a municipality. It is necessary to challenge the etymology now current and tempting, but faulty: suburbs and banishment are two different concepts. The banishment is another derivative of the word round of applause - also think of expressions like " to be with the round of applause de" , or " to be in rupture of ban" -, and not of the whole of the word suburbs. The banishment was well a measurement of general interest; thus one can read in the universal Dictionnaire of Antoine Furetière (T. 1,1690): " He was banished city and of his suburbs, i.e. environs."

The “suburban” term appeared about 1890 at the time of a political polemic of nature between elected officials of Paris and elected officials of suburbs, the first showing the seconds to be the rural ones, delayed and reactionaries, " banlieusards". The term quickly lost much of its pejorative load to come to indicate the credits - workmen and especially employed - residing in suburbs and coming to work the every day in Paris by the railroads, the boats or the trams. What one is agreed to call the " migrations alternantes" or " movements pendulaires" are already important in Paris before 1914. “Suburban” this direction until our days kept.

It is following a long evolution, which starts at the beginning of the 19th century, that the word suburbs itself came from there, employed in the singular or, to indicate the popular quarters of the periphery of the big cities, particularly the units built after 1950 - “great units” or “cities” - and considered to concentrate today a population of nationality or, by the parents, of foreign origin, more especially of North Africa or, more recently, of Black Africa. The word is used as convenient designation, in the press and the language running, for the population known as " immigrée" whose integration with the remainder of the population is difficult, that it is because of the Chômage of mass appeared at the end of the Années 1970 or with various discriminations of which it is in general the object, precisely dependant on its origins and, especially, with its social status. Various synonyms close to the Euphemism, resulting besides from the administrative language, recently appeared, like “disadvantaged districts”, or even “the districts” very short.

Nevertheless the territories which correspond so that are, historically, geographically and administratively, the suburbs of the French big cities, are of a diversity, at the same time in the origin and the social status of their inhabitants, infinitely larger than than the use of the word implies. The “cities” themselves are not summarized with the images which the word suburbs little by little forged in the consciences. Thus opposition often made between French, considered suburbs popular and grounds of exclusion, and the Anglo-Saxon, considered suburbs suburban and populated by the middle-classes or rich person, is largely false. With Paris, the suburbs which initially developed, in first half of the 19th century, is the middle-class suburbs (Houses-Laffitte, Vésinet…), and it is to serve it that the Railroad appeared (Ligne of Paris with Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer); the suburban one played a considerable part in the construction and the settlement of many suburban zones starting from the end of the XIXe century, and, in the inter-war period, the phenomenon of the Lotissement S in suburbs even represented the principal offer of housing, popular or middle-class. The development known as “perish-urban”, today, is in the continuity of these movements. Remarks going in the same direction could be made in connection with other French cities.

One could thus advance the assumption of a history and an evolution parallels of the phenomenon of the urban suburbs in Europe and North America, but current, too disparate and too specialized knowledge, makes difficult such an approach, which goes against the stereotypes. The phenomenon could not in any case be included/understood without an analysis - either on a case-by-case basis or from a point of view of comparative study - of the whole of the agglomeration of which the suburbs are always recipient: evolution of the settlement of the downtown areas, development of the means of communication, role of the public policies (see the English " article; Urban renewal"), etc It is also appropriate of always being clear and precise on the administrative or usual definition, which besides can vary in time, of the suburbs about which one speaks, in order to avoid the blur which governs much speech where one mixes suburbs, periphery and suburbs (S).

In Germany

With the high density, one can find areas where many cities are touched between them without creating a true center. It is the case of the the Ruhr.

With the the United States and the Canada

The United States and Canada use the term of metropolitan area (“metropolitan surface”), whose definition varied during the last censuses, but which includes an agglomeration and the peripheral zones which are dependant for him from the professional and commercial point of view.

The small communities ( suburbs ) surrounding of big cities can be the built-in cities, with their own governments, or they can be not-recorded, with the governmental authority given to the county. A built-in community is often called a Ville, while a not recorded community is called a township (what is very different from their homonym in South Africa) or a village.

In the American Culture and the Canadian Culture, the suburbs had a connotation more positive than they have in France. They are often looked as being the places desirable to live for those in the middle-classes and rich person; the central cities frequently contain the poor classes.

In France

In France, the communes did not increase according to their agglomeration. Other cities were created by touching the central city. The first case was Paris with the close cities which were touched gradually. The French suburbs often have a pejorative connotation, and are regularly associated with poor, popular districts where a population resulting from the Immigration saw. This image should however be moderated. The suburbs indicate what is around the city, that includes/understands as well suburban districts as popular quarters. Thus Neuilly-sur-Seine for example belongs to the suburbs as well as Courneuve. One can cut out the Paris region in several zones. In the North-East are concentrated much " cités" , vestiges of old working and industrial zones. It is the case of the Seine-Saint-Denis and the the Valley-of-Marne. In the west, the population is generally easier, one also finds there the center of the businesses of Defense. The southern suburbs, are less homogeneous. Close to Paris, there are many impoverished districts (Bagneux, Vanves, the red hillock, Malakoff, Cachan, Fresnes, Massy…) intersected with residential zones (Glass-the-Bush, Antony, Seals…)

But the more one moves away and the more one can cut out the southern suburbs in two zones. On a side there are the edges of the Seine where gather working populations, it is where the large cities of the Essonne are observed (Évry, Courcouronnes, Grigny, the Corbeil-Essonne, Viry-Châtillon, Fleury-Mérogis…) and other side, suburban zones where gather easy populations (valley of the Beaver and Chevreuse).

See the Leitartikel: Riots of 2005 in the French suburbs

In Italy

The communes of the big cities such as Rome, have suburbs which are included in the commune. Thus there are still campaigns with the Périphérie of the commune of Rome.

In the DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (Country in the process of development)

Poor suburbs

Rural migration and urban Explosion

In the whole of the DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, the cities know an increasing attractivity. Indeed, unemployment, poverty in the campaigns and connect it availability of work encourage the peasants and their family to be migrated towards the cities. For example, Africa saw its population tripling between 1950 and 1995 whereas that of the cities was multiplied by new. She counted today 25 cities millionaires it could even reach about sixty in 2020. The residences of center town being too expensive for these new arrivals, the latter settled in the suburbs and thus enlarged the peripheries. One of the examples most obvious is the city of Cairo where the migrants arrived more than than the city envisaged it since they were obliged to settle at places where installation was not planned. Moreover the Natural increase being high in the DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, the increase in the population of the cities is felt more. The 14 cities which know the most considerable population growths in the world locate in the DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.

Consequences of these displacements of populations

The awaited residences are unfortunately not available in the majority of the cases and the migrants are thus obliged to place in a precarious way. One leads thus to the creation of Bidonvilles called also Favela in South America. These grounds are generally illegally occupied, and are very unhealthy: they are deprived of all infrastructures (electricity, running water, evacuation of waste water, transport, education, health…) and are often on marshy, sloping or unusable grounds for agriculture. The high human concentration and the lack of the most elementary hygiene let fear epidemics future devastators.

The resorption of the shantytowns consisted in pushing back still more far from the center town the families and inhabitants groups of these shantytowns. By thus dispersing the people, the networks of assistance and survival, founded on the relations between people, are broken. It is thus even more difficult for these inhabitants to leave this situation.

In South Africa, there exist also Township S. They are distinguished from the shantytowns because they are built into hard and have a legal existence. Their construction are often planned by the architects of the racial segregation (very large in South Africa in spite of the end of the Apartheid. The townships of South Africa gather the inhabitants of colors, mainly the Blacks and can count until nearly two million inhabitants as in Soweto.

Moreover certain suburbs are the theaters of wars and violences between the various ethnos groups which make the life of the inhabitants even more difficult. In Favelas poverty can even bring the formation of gangs which fight for the control of the city. Unemployment is very high there and there remains difficult even impossible to be left this situation without remuneration. The majority of employment is in the center town which is moved away and whose access is made difficult by the absence of transport. moreover the lack of education of the inhabitants does not support them in the search for an employment. They thus are often obliged to make work their children or to even sell them

Thus we arrive at a vicious circle: the migrants are obliged to settle in the shantytowns; as they are in the shantytowns, they do not have work; as they do not have work, they do not have money; as they do not have money it cannot pay studies with their children who them either will not be able to thus find work. According to the estimates of UNO, the ground counts more than one billion people alive in the shantytowns and 1,4 billion in 2020 will count of them is as much as Chinese. This number increases very quickly since 27 million people joins the shantytowns each year. Even if these figures cover the whole of planet, it relate to primarily the DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.

Rich suburbs

For a few years easy suburbs in the DEVELOPING COUNTRIES have appeared. Indeed, of the fortunate families wish to deviate from the center town to avoid pollution without approaching the poorer zones. These districts thus bring a social segregation: the easy minorities remain between them and are unaware of the other poorer layers completely. Certain residential districts resemble the districts of the American middle-classes curiously: suburbs. Indeed one find there a great number of identical houses having a Western architecture and what to practice the leisures of the Westerners. Certain millionaires choose even food in true Ghetto S. This insulation voluntary with for goal to defend their richnesses because the insecurity of these countries obliges the people having more money than the average to be protected. However, they benefit from this insulation to profit from installations from luxury and space from the suburbs. To obtain this place available, the poor are driven out even more far from the city and thus this handle of rich person business men can build villas on very large surfaces. For example, to Ouagadougou a surface of 1000 hectares was entirely dedicated to a district including/understanding only large villas and beautiful hotels. To protect itself more from the flights and the contacts with the remainder of the population, of the defensive systems are set up: bricked up walls, barbed wires, alarms and an intervention in the event of intrusion. The administration of the cities thus prefers to use much space for some having rich person of the influence main roads or international that for a majority of the poor.

Industrial suburbs

It is very difficult to generalize the situation of the industrial suburbs of the DEVELOPING COUNTRIES because there exists a very great variability between these various countries and the cities within the same state. Indeed, one can notice that Brazil belongs to the 10 larger industrialized countries in the field of the car, the armament and electronics whereas the industry of the Black Africa is very late and little diversified

However, the DEVELOPING COUNTRIES try in the majority of the cases to encourage industries of the countries developed to delocalize by proposing advantageous customs tariffications, privileged investments, an advantageous fiscal policy, workmen more qualified than before and a development of the infrastructures. One can also notice that Asian industry, especially Chinese and Indian, is rather dynamic. Indeed, it benefits from low price of the not qualified labor. The work conditions are not easy there: for example the Chinese workmen of the factory McDonald's worked until 11:00 /jour and 6j/semaine in addition to 70 overtime per month for wages lower than 75 dollars.

These workmen belong to the most disadvantaged social layers and thus live generally in the poor suburbs described previously. Moreover one notices that the industrial activity can have reflect direct on the population: pollution, lack of water… For example, the 52 factories Coca-Cola and the 38 Pepsi-Cola present in India pump 1 million and 1,5 million liters of water per day. Then, the pumping of the tablecloths practiced by these factories prevents the poor from being provided out of drinking water and of toxic waste are rejected. That threatens the environment and pubic health most fragile thus still that of the poor suburbs.

Use of the word suburbs in the press

It is more often used by the Parisian journalists. It makes it possible the latter to indicate of French of African origin without explicitly named: " young people of banlieue".

Sociology and history of the suburbs: bibliographical indications

  • Collective, With the margin of the city, in the middle of the company: these districts about which one speaks , the Paddle, 1997 (publication coordinated by Anne Querrien): report of a research program carried out on seven sites in procedure Social development of the Districts or convention of district of the Xe Plane, and based on two types of approaches: on the one hand, analysis of objective data on the living conditions; in addition, the study of the collective representations and individual perceptions.
  • Liana Mozère and Al , Intelligence of the suburbs , the Paddle, 1999: various contributions to analyze the practices living by dissociating usual approaches which propose the conflicts, the dysfunctions, even the Anomie supposed to reign without division in the districts said, according to the cases, disadvantaged, “significant” or “difficult”.
  • David Lepoutre, Heart of suburbs: Codes, rites and languages , Odile Jacob, 2001.
  • Jacques Donzelot, the spirit of the city: A policy vis-a-vis the crisis of the suburbs , Threshold, 2006.
  • Loïc Wacquant, Bet urban: Ghetto, suburbs, State , the Discovery, 2006.
  • Sylvie Tissot, " The State and quartiers" , The Threshold, 2007.
  • Yves Bodard, Suburbs, of the riot to the hope , Renewal of reading, 2007.

On the history of the French suburbs:

  • Michel Bochaca, suburbs of Bordeaux. Formation of a suburban municipal jurisdiction (about 1250 - about 1550) , Paris, the harmattan, 1997.
  • Jean Bastié, growth of the Parisian suburbs , Paris, university Presses of France, 1964,624 p.
  • John Mr. Merriman, With the margins of the city. Suburbs and suburbs in France 1815-1870 , Paris, Threshold, 1994,399 p.
  • Brownish Jean-Paul, Saint-Denis, the red city: socialism and Communism in working suburbs, 1890-1939 , Paris, Hatchet, 1980,462 p.
  • Alain Faure to dir., first commuters. At the origins of the suburbs of Paris (1860-1914) , Paris, Créaphis, 1991,283 p.
  • Annie Fourcaut to dir., One century of Parisian suburbs (1859-1964). Guide from research , Paris, 1992, Harmattan, 317 p. (rééd. 1996)
  • Annie Fourcaut, suburbs of pieces. The crisis of the defective allotments in France in the inter-war period , Grâne, Créaphis, 2000,339 p.
  • On the history of the word suburbs and its uses in France: Alain Faure, " A suburb, suburbs or the variation of the rejet" , in Jean-Charles Depaule to dir., words of urban stigmatization , Editions UNESCO/House of the social sciences, 2006, p. 8-39. Free remote loading starting from the page accessible by the bond

See too

Films

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • Seminar of the international College of philosophy 2006-2007 “Become-suburbs, political subjectivity and underground railway networks”
  • File on Suburbs and Class struggle in number 17 of the review International Socialism
  • File: " jeunes" : analyzes of a term used by the right-hand side and the left

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