The Emergence of a Parisian Suburb: Aubervilliers During the Industrial Revolution

Abstract

The stated theme lies at the intersection of two areas of research, namely the industrial revolution in France and the history of contemporary Parisian suburbs. Methodologically, it is a multidisciplinary study combining economic history, social anthropology and historical geography. In terms of sources, it is dominated by local history. The author explores three interrelated aspects of the topic: industrialisation, urbanization, and multiculturalism. The typology of the Parisian suburbs as a socio-historical phenomenon, drawn from many years of observation, is focused on Aubervilliers, an economically developed commune with a predominantly impoverished immigrant population in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, known for its left-wing influence, Islamic groups and youth crime. The case of Aubervilliers shows the belated nature of the industrial revolution in France, its protracted character aggravated by the shortage of labour and minerals, which led to the intensive use of immigration and raw materials of “animal origin”. The progressive transformation of the old rural burg into an industrial city reveals the sustainability of rural-urban symbiosis as a feature of the country's development after the eighteenth century revolution. The author emphasises the importance of the link to Paris and the metropolitan authorities' policy of removing harmful industries and the working population from the city in the formation of industrial suburbs. In the integrity of the formation of industrial suburbs the author reveals the particularities of the urban economy and habitat, characterises the working and living conditions of workers, notes the formation of immigrant neighbourhoods and the specific features of the integration of different immigrant communities into French society.