France: Centrality or Proximity, Consumption or Culture?

International audienceThe idea of the neighbourhood as a planning unit has not been prominent in France. Post-war reconstruction of housing took place around the existing town centres, in the large cities often as huge housing complexes – grands ensembles. In time these housing estates were provided with health and sports facilities, child care and residents’ meeting rooms – an embryo of neighbourhood community places. Today, the tension between centrality and mobility and proximity and identity is plain for all to see. On one hand there are the mega-structure shopping centres, serving as nodes for the whole metropolitan area, on the other hand there is a call for smaller local centres to provide convenience stores as well as sociable spaces. These centres are especially needed in the poor neighbourhoods, but there they are also threatened by the privatization of services. Some observers note that the bad conditions and the sterile environments of the grands ensembles was one of the causes of the unrest in French housing estates in 2005