Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 Introduction
The French case: a European exception?
Reified images of the banlieue and its young inhabitants
Beyond the dichotomy of ‘outside clichés versus inside reality’
A journey from Paris to the cité, a dialogue between theory and empirical data
Chapter 2 The Making of the Suburban Crisis by State Actors:
A Journey through the Decades Seen from Paris City Centre
Preparing the analysis: frames, practices and violence
Governmentality: frames and practices of governance
Violent events as turning points of founding phases
The changing governing frames and practices in four phases
Phase 1: 1950-70s from newly constructed sunny apartments to segregated stressed inhabitants
Phase 2: 1981 rodéos in Les Minguettes
Phase 3: 1990 Vaulx-en-Velin/Mas du Taureau
Phase 4: 2005 Clichy-sous-Bois and beyond
Conclusion
Chapter 3 Ethnographic Research: Discovery of the ‘Field’:
Walking from the RER Station into the Heart of Cité 4000sud
Exploring ethnography
Discovery of the ‘field’
Doing ethnography
Data collection: participant observation, interviews, neighbourhood mapping
Trust and tensions
The ‘zoo’: observing and the observee
Obstacles and golden rules?
A fly on the wall?
Conclusion
Chapter 4 The Internal Place-Making Process:
Claiming Space at the Bottom of the Balzac Building
French ghettos?
“A sociological absurdity”
“A sociological reality”
From a fixed definition of the ghetto to a liquid process of place-making
The Balzac drama: a multi-actor struggle about space
The internal place-making process: routines in everyday life
Routines of naming and narratives
Routines of ‘trainer’
Routines of surveillance
Conclusion
Chapter 5 Social Identification Strategies and the Dynamics of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’:
Navigating Life in Front of the Budget DIA-supermarket
Identities: definitions and tools
Studying ‘jeunes des banlieues/cités’
Three sets of social identification strategies
Dissociating strategies – Positional moves
Transforming strategies – Blurring, adding and transvaluing
Associating strategies – Inscribing victimhood and street life
Navigating strategies
Conclusion
Chapter 6 Manifestations and Interpretations of Violence:
Burning Cars and Dealing Drugs behind Le Mail
Violence: towards a better grip on a slippery concept
The manifestation and interpretation of violence
The manifestation of violence
Repertoire 1: Audience-oriented violence
Repertoire 2: Backstage–oriented violence
The interpretation of violence
The effectiveness of violence: the presence of absence
Conclusion
Chapter 7 Conclusion
