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The middle classes in the city - new Anglo-French (ESRC/ANR) funded research

2 March 2010

Parisian apartments

Parisian apartments

In what ways do middle-class city dwellers participate socially and politically in different types of neighbourhood and what impact does this have on urban politics and policies? ‘The middle classes in the city - social mix or just ‘people like us’? A comparison of Paris and London’ is a new 3-year study which will address this question by looking at the contemporary social and political characteristics and activities of the urban middle classes in these two cities. Professor Gary Bridge from the Centre for Urban Studies at the School for Policy Studies leads the UK-based research team working alongside a team of research colleagues in France to compare urban neighbourhoods in Paris and London.
Terraced house in UK

Terraced house in UK

Funded under an Anglo-French bilateral initiative by the ESRC and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), the study will include a range of neighbourhood types in each city: inner city gentrified (not socially mixed); gentrifying (socially mixed); suburban; exurban and gated communities. It will ask to what extent the middle classes compare or contrast across these different locations in terms of their social relations, and political attitudes and engagements by looking at key areas such as schooling, the use of public services and neighbourhood activism.

Awarded £500,000 by the ESRC, the UK research team includes Professor Tim Butler from Kings College, London, and two research assistants. The French team is led by Professor Marie Helene Bacque (U Nanterre) and includes Yankel Fijalkow (U d Maine); Eric Charmes (Paris 8) Stephanie Vermeersch (CNRS-Paris Valdeseine) Lydie Launay (d’Evry) and is funded to an equivalent amount by ANR.

The research will consist of in-depth interviews with middle-class residents and key informants in each neighbourhood as well as an analysis of relevant documents that discuss middle-class identity and activity in these cities.  The study will draw out the implications of the findings for urban politics and policies and compare these with the role the middle classes are assumed to play in these policies at neighbourhood, city, national and transnational scales.

The project starts in April 2010.