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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Socio-spatial dynamics and ways of living of urban spaces : comparison of Besançon, Mulhouse and Strasbourg

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The spatial distribution of urban functions and populations is not random, this distribution canhighlight inequalities which call into question our democratic societies based on the principle ofequality. This principle is based on the relationship between the “social” and the “spatial” whichmainly consist in investigating social disparities in urban areas and what is perceived as an injustice byindividuals. To understand these socio-spatial dynamics, we focus our research on the urban history ofBesançon, Mulhouse and Strasbourg as well as the relations between the inhabitants and theirresidential environment. Using large geo-localized databases from INSEE, we study the spatialdistribution of households and its evolution over a period of nearly twenty years (1990-2007). Inaddition, we seek to observe the various ways of living of the residents of Besançon, that is to say theirresidential logics and their spatial practices and representations via field surveys. Thus, this thesis isbased on a double approach: the first one is macroscopic, historic and quantitative and the second oneis microscopic and qualitative. The study presents the socio-spatial structures of the studied cities andthe trajectories of districts (more exactly the IRIS: the smaller census area) in order to show thedifferent trends of evolution (gentrification, pauperisation...) in a comparative perspective. Specificfactors of evolution are also linked to the location of the studied cities as well as to their urban andsocial functions, their internal organisation and their size. The field surveys, for their part, revealseveral behavioural rules that we compare considering the social diversity of districts. Thisinformation collected from surveys is more subjective, but it completes the census data and gives themmeaning. Finally, we show that the membership of a socio-spatial group does not determinesystematically residential behaviours.