Abstract
The process of gentrification in the peri-urban districts of French cities has scarcely been touched upon in recent research, which has hitherto seen the phenomenon as typically associated with core urban areas. The tendency has been to view the periphery through the lens of the social crisis of the banlieues. In contrast, the present article focuses on gentrification in the metropolitan area of Nancy (Grand Est region) as a development that also plays a role in municipalities around major cities and especially around regional metropolitan centres. Starting with a survey of current research approaches, the article first pinpoints some gaps and methodological imbalances that need to be tackled, before embarking on the case study of peri-urban Nancy. Statistical data and empirical surveys in the form of qualitative interviews indicate how Nancy's peri-urban districts have developed a logic of separation, exclusion and social decoupling – typical features of gentrification – particularly in connection with the construction of new single-family houses as a supplement to existing residential stock. Key questions here concern individual motives for choosing a particular residential location, and the creeping "segregation from above" that accompanies this process. The image of France's peri-urban spaces that arises from this study stands in explicit contrast to the received, markedly negative connotations of the "urban periphery".
Highlights
Gentrification in peri-urban spacesWhether in politics, the media or scientific research, any consideration of French cities beyond their core urban areas has tended to highlight the problematic socioeconomic and spatio-geographical developments in recent decades
The process of gentrification in the peri-urban districts of French cities has scarcely been touched upon in recent research, which has hitherto seen the phenomenon as typically associated with core urban areas
The present article focuses on gentrification in the metropolitan area of Nancy (Grand Est region) as a development that plays a role in municipalities around major cities and especially around regional metropolitan centres
Summary
The media or scientific research, any consideration of French cities beyond their core urban areas has tended to highlight the problematic socioeconomic and spatio-geographical developments in recent decades. Gentrification and urbanization as well as peri-urbanization tendencies in France have scarcely featured in research, significant changes – issuing by no means only in decline – have taken place in these areas over recent years These changes, embodying a transformation of received socio-spatial relationships, can be seen terms of the genesis of urban/rural hybrids (Weber/Kühne 2017; Kühne 2018). It is a question of revisiting the concept in order to investigate its role and that of other, similar developments in the current sociourban evolution of peri-urban spaces In pursuit of this goal we first look briefly at the current state of research on gentrification both in innercity areas of France and in the banlieues, taking account of wider peri-urban developments, in particular the role of the single-family house in this context (Section 2). A concluding summary (Section 5) highlights the main results of the inquiry
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