Families' residential and school choices

Families' residential and school choices. A comparative analysis of the Lille and Toulouse metropolitan areas

Audrey Chamboredon - Thesis defence on Wednesday, September 30th 2026 at Sciences Po.  

Examination committee:  Lorenzo BARRAULT‐STELLA (CNRS, Cresppa, Paris), Sonja KOSUNEN (SURE, University of Eastern Finland), Marco OBERTI (Thesis supervisor, Sciences Po - CRIS), Clément RIVIERE (CeRIES, University of Lille), Elise TENRET (Dauphine-PSL) , Agnès VAN ZANTEN (CNRS, Sciences Po - CRIS).

Based on a comparative monograph of two regional French cities, Lille and Toulouse, this thesis examines how middle- and upper-class families' residential and school choices are articulated over the course of their parental trajectory. It draws on a survey of ninety-three interviews conducted with parents in different neighborhoods of the two cities.

The thesis shows that the school market is more "liberalized" in the Lille metropolitan area and more "constrained" in the Toulouse metropolitan area. These differences shape the way families conceive of their school choices, the timing of these choices, and their relationship to educational authorities. However, they have only a marginal influence on families' propensity to factor the perceived quality of local schools into their residential choices. Parents often settle into housing while their children are still young, and at that stage give little consideration to school-related issues. The residential market appears to remain more constraining than the school market. Families from the cultural pole of the middle classes, those experiencing upward social mobility, and those from the economic pole of the upper classes with an attachment to private education are the most likely to factor school quality into their housing choices. Having children already enrolled in school also constrains parents' subsequent moves, as they are often reluctant to change schools mid-cycle. This issue is particularly salient for mothers following a marital separation and frequently leads them to arbitrate between residential mobility and daily mobility (i.e., commuting between home and school).