The French from “les banlieues” or the French you were never taught in school Originally the word “banlieue” comes from the Middle-Ages. At that time, you could only have the right to ban (right to justice) when living within a circle of a radius of 4km (une lieue) of the city. The word for right of justice (ban) is also the origin of the French word for pirate (forban) which designed people living outside the “ban” area. The suburb is the territory around a city center (le centre ville). The term is sometimes synonymous with dormitory town, mainly residential, but the suburbs usually host various activities and have its own centralities. The suburbs are often in France administratively independent municipalities, major cities, although they are increasingly clustered in communities of independent towns or not a main city. The notion of “banlieue” denotes different urban forms from the main city but can’t exist in total independence from them. In 1968, philosopher and professor of sociology * Henri Lefebvre in "the right to the city" criticize the manufacturing of suburbs and explains what distinguishes the city and suburbs. Today, in the media, "the suburbs" are often depicted through a prism of violence and crime, but it has not always been the case. The history of the suburbs stretches back two centuries, but their growth has mainly started to thirty glorious periods (“les trente glorieuses” is the name given by the French to design the period of between the 2 world wars) . But the most radical change was revealed after the Second World War, the period of reconstruction, where manpower was lacking and the French government had to rely on labor forces from French foreign colonies. Industrial areas grew and with them grew popular urban areas. This growth occurred in three stages: the industrial suburbs called les “faubourgs” up to the 1950s (there are still some traces of this), the red socialism and from the 70s the construction of large apartments blocks followed by the crisis . But what sociologists are most interest by nowadays is the energy, the presence of a common and stronger way of life and a solidarity network which is so different from the rest of the city. Feeling isolated, rejected, the suburbs have created little by little, their own culture with a new language that even the police have to learn today in order to communicate with its population. In the second part, we will learn to speak the language. Laurent End of the first part. * Henri Lefebvre member of the French Communist party, was excluded from a his Marxist trend.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 13:10:44 +0000
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