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Sociology of Paris

ECTS : 3

Volume horaire : 18

Description du contenu de l'enseignement :

Throughout history, Paris has been described as the city of lights by many outside and inside commentators. As one of the main capital cities in Europe, Paris has attracted a wide diversity of residents, economic investments, and cultural activities across the centuries. Yet, less is known about Paris unique urbanization, the complex political and administrative relations between Paris, Greater Paris and the outer suburbs in Ile de France, and the rise of social and spatial inequalities in highly differentiated territories and neighborhoods in the metropolis.
This course aims to introduce students to qualitative field studies and sociological works produced in France and abroad about the Paris metropolis. More specifically, the course will build on the ways urban planners have conceived urban neighborhoods as social laboratories. The first weeks of the course will be devoted to studying how Paris in the 19th century and early 20th century became a highly polarized city,
whose boundaries slowly encroached upon the surrounding towns and villages. Drawing from a historical sociology approach, students will learn about the massive urban planning efforts undertaken to delimitate main avenues according to the Haussmanian plans and create urban parks such as Montsouris and the Buttes Chaumont, as well as relegating industrial territories to the periphery. The course will then move on to studying spaces of marginality and the spatial production of inequalities in and around Paris throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Specific attention will be brought to theories and notions of ethnicity, race, assimilation and housing segregation and students will study the term "ghetto" to depict stigmatized territories in the post-Keynesian State. The course will also allow students to analyze case studies pertaining to bourgeois spaces and the social production of exclusivity and privilege in spaces such as the 16th arrondissement. Last but not least, the course will explore case studies about Greater Paris in the 21stcentury, showing how the Paris metropolis is an ever-changing urbanscape. Students will learn about the new Grand Paris Express metro project and how it will impact territories far beyond the administrative boundaries of Paris. Processes of gentrification and the production of highly differentiated real-estate markets and their socio-economic impact will be studied. Students will learn about how residents of these territories renegotiate their daily lives during these new urban planning initiatives and how tensions over new real-estate projects such as eco-districts (écoquartiers) renew interrogations over social integration, political ecology and gentrification. This course is on Moodle. 1 Introduction to Sociology in Paris 2 A critical take on Haussmann: Housing Reform and the Production of Urban Spaces in the 19th century 3 Urban marginality Part 1. The "Zone" in the 1950s-1970s and the making of the Paris ring road 4 Urban marginality Part 2. New hopes, new fears. The public housing estates and their legacies 5 Urban marginality Part 3. The "banlieue" as territorial stigma: processes of racial and social relegation 6 Urban marginality Part 4. Immigration, diversity and working-class neighborhoods in Paris 7 The spatialization of the bourgeoisie Part 1. The gradual embourgeoisement of Paris over the late 20th-early 21st centuries 8 The spatialization of the bourgeoisie Part 2. The discreet charm of the High Bourgeoisie: Spatial Monopoly and Social Exclusion 9 The spatialization of the bourgeoisie Part 3. "Staying Bourgeois". Upper-middle-class gentrifiers moving to the first ring of Paris suburbs. 10 Paris and the Grand Paris Part 1. Contested spaces. The Paris Olympics 2024 and gentrification 11 Paris and the Grand Paris Part 2. New real-estate development and the case of ecodistricts 12 Final exam

Compétence à acquérir :

The course is structured as an advanced reading seminar in English: students will be able to improve their oral and writing skills in English and acquire specialized vocabulary in English pertaining to the social sciences. 
Students will also learn about the methods of qualitative field study.

Mode de contrôle des connaissances :

- Read all of the assigned texts each week: read the assigned readings every week and answer the questions
- Posting comments (20%). Students will post a short position paper about the assigned readings each week on the online forum dedicated to the course. Each week, students will be responsible for reading and taking notes on the assigned readings before coming to class. Students are asked to post their comments on the readings (3-4 lines) no later than 24 hours before the start of the course session. The comments are designed to provide students with the opportunity to raise any questions they might have on the readings before class. Students may criticize the texts, answer their fellow students (and thus bounce back on previous comments) or draw parallels with personal readings in the social sciences. The comments may also provide a short, detailed analysis of any section of the assigned readings.
- Curating the seminar (30%). Students will be divided into eleven groups. Each group will deliver one graded presentation during class. The group of students will be required to present a document (photograph, press article, in-depth interview, etc.) and introduce the discussion. 
Students will be required to: 1. Present the document to the whole class for 15-20 minutes 2. Analyze it carefully and provide some historical context and/or discuss the arguments in close connection with the reading 3. Wrap up their thoughts and ideas in a conclusion 4. Lead the 
discussion for 15 minutes. It is recommended that presenters consult the online forum postings and engage with them as a way to start the discussion.
- Final exam (during 50%). Students will sit a written exam based on the readings and notions acquired during the class. The exam will take place on Week 12. 
The passing grade for a course is 10/20.
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory. Students are expected to attend all classes, arrive on time, and stay for the entire session. Repeated absences or lateness may affect the final grade.
Class Participation
Active participation is encouraged, as it contributes to making classes more engaging and instructive. Students are expected to come prepared and contribute thoughtfully to discussions. When participation is part of the course assessment, it is evaluated based on the quality of contributions rather than their quantity.
Exam Policy
Students are not allowed to bring any materials into exams, except those explicitly authorized by the instructor. Unexcused absences from exams or failure to submit assigned cases will result in a grade of zero when calculating final averages. All exams must be submitted at the end of the examination period.
Communication and Grading
All questions or concerns regarding grading or course policies must follow the official procedures. No direct negotiation with instructors about grades or assessments is permitted.  
Be aware of the rules in Université Paris Dauphine about plagiarism and cheating during exams. All work turned in for this course must be your own work, or that of your own group. Working as part of a group implies that you are an active participant and fully contributed to the output produced by that group. 

Bibliographie, lectures recommandées :

Document susceptible de mise à jour - 01/04/2026
Université Paris Dauphine - PSL - Place du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny - 75775 PARIS Cedex 16