On the 22 november at 14:00,  Thesis Defense of Charles Reveillere

Tomorrow is far away, and today it is already too late
Living and governing dislodgement in two working-class areas awaiting urban renewal 

Thesis co-directed by Claire Lemercier, research director at the CNRS (Centre de sociologie des organisations, Paris) and Jérôme Pélisse, professor at Sciences Po Paris (Centre de sociologie des organisations, Paris)

Summary 

This work focuses on two popular areas of private and social housing in Marseille targeted by urban renewal projects. The daily lives of the inhabitants are put on hold: will they have to move, when, where and how? In the name of a possible future demolition, the day-to-day maintenance is reduced, letting buildings and public spaces deteriorate.

This thesis analyses dislodgement as a process whose brutality plays out over the long term. It begins with a description of the experience of waiting lived by the inhabitants, which is so tough that it often makes them consent to leave even before the administrations have to force them to do so. First, this thesis shows what form of public action produces such a situation. Then, I investigate the power relationships that determine the distribution of symbolic and material goods at stake in dislodgement.

By articulating a processual framework of analysis and a spatial comparison, I identify two types of government of popular areas, which allow for more or less negotiation. Three angles of analysis emerge. Firstly, the relationship between power and predictability: how is the control of time distributed and what does it do to the relationships between residents and the administrations that displace them? Secondly, the practices of intermediation: while waiting for official counters, alternative ways of accessing goods are set up. Intermediaries produce rules of distribution structured by relationships of domination which differ from those usually observed. Finally, the links between the internal fragmentation of popular social space and the practices of the administrations.

More specifically, the thesis studies the different aspects of clientelist government: as a form of popular reappropriation of relations with administrations, as a lever for maintaining social peace and as an instance of conflictual politicisation. The study is based on the longitudinal analysis of data produced by two ethnographies of popular spaces, interviews (with residents, administrations and intermediaries) and the collection of written sources.

Contact : charles.reveillere@sciencespo.fr