Habiter l’instabilité : la gentrification des quartiers de centre ancien au prisme des jeunesses populaires (Paris-Barcelone)

Against a backdrop of socio-spatial transformation in European metropolises, with the working classes being relegated from central districts, the production and regulation of urban public spaces is a major urban management issue. The impact of the social crisis on cities, as well as the recomposition of the wage society and the development of job insecurity, primarily affect the working classes and the generation entering the job market since the end of the 2000s. In both Paris and Barcelona, public policies concerning public spaces have been developing for several years, leading to the creation or transformation of urban squares where different social groups rub shoulders, provoking numerous conflicts of use. The production of urban public spaces is understood here as a “social product”, where subjects interact for the “collective possession and management of space”, addressing their design and management, linking a social, political and spatial analysis. The forms of co-presence in urban spaces give rise to a hierarchy of norms and uses that will be studied in this research. What hierarchies structure the organization of space? How do they translate into public space? What are their effects on the production of public space and on the ordinary political practices developed by young people in urban public spaces? This research is based on an intersectional approach, crossing two fields of study in Paris and Barcelona.