Presentation

Esplanade Nathalie Sarraute. Credits: Mourad, Pop-Part project participant

A Participatory Research Project in Île-de-France

The study focuses on two working class districts in the Paris region, the La Chapelle-Marx Dormoy district in the 18th arrondissement of Paris and the city centre of Saint-Denis in Seine-Saint-Denis. It is conducted through a participatory research approach and integrated into the Pop-Part project led by the LAVUE laboratory (UMR CNRS 7218). It is also based on the results and feedback of a comparative survey on the production of youth culture in working-class and immigrant neighbourhoods, based on the experience of young people (16-25 years old) in four neighbourhoods – two in the Paris region (Aubervilliers and Pantin) and two in Montréal (Saint-Michel and Little Burgundy) (see MapCollab research project for more information).

From the perspective of youth, this study will examine the social and urban reconfigurations underway in working-class neighbourhoods in a metropolitan context.

By apprehending the experiences of young people, girls and boys, from their territorial anchors, their trajectories, their social representations and by placing them in a past and present history of working class neighbourhoods, this study aims to grasp the contradictory dynamics that contribute to these reconfigurations.

It is based on a threefold approach: (1) starting from the experience of young people; (2) understanding metropolitan space from the point of view of working class neighbourhoods; (3) co-producing research with young people and building with them the audio-visual and digital tools for their appropriation from a citizen science perspective. The study thus addresses methodological, epistemological and theoretical issues.