Walking in the suburbs: urban glue for disarticulated territories? Re-discovering the resources of a territory.: A case study of Nanterre (Paris suburbs)

International audienceThe old suburbs of many European cities are often disarticulated by major physical and psychological barriers (motorways, highways, factories…) which hinder the population from walking. Moreover, many of these spaces have a very negative image, and are at least perceived as lacking of any resource or interest which would motivate taking a walk to discover them or even just cross them. This is the case of the territory of Nanterre, near Paris (France), which is cut in about 15 sub-territories by two motorways, two rapid transit lines, highways, industrial grounds, a prison… Those territories have a very autonomous functioning, and walking from one of them to another is quite rare: it seems difficult or even impossible and doesn’t make much sense for many. On the other hand, there are many good grounds for walking in this suburb: -many of its about 80000 inhabitants work in the nearby major office centre of La Défense-the Seine goes through Nanterre with a very pleasant riverside-many of the about 30000 students of the University of Nanterre (Paris 10) have time to take a walk to the Seine, to parks, to restaurants in the old city of Nanterre,-many of the about 80000 workers on the territory of Nanterre are interested by a lunch walk to parks, restaurants… Our work aimed at characterizing the uses and the representations of the territory of Nanterre by these very different populations, their mobility patterns and their identification of resources on the territory of Nanterre. Our first result was the confirmation of very differentiated, segmented uses, and the ignorance of many potential resources, even if they are very near (less than a ten minutes walk) because of negative images and of what seems to be clear discontinuities in the city structure.Our second and major result was the identification of resources by the group of the inhabitants of Nanterre: in-depth investigations showed the existence of major public spaces which polarize the walking patterns of the inhabitants, for different social uses, at different times of the day.Characterizing the uses of the inhabitants is the occasion to rediscover this suburban territory and its qualities. On this ground, it is possible to formulate planning proposals with the city council: these proposals go along with existing, if discreet, walking practices