Social stakes of urban renewal: Recent French housing policy

The social implications of urban restructuring, especially the spatial approach of urban renewal, are important indicators for the building stock, as this impacts on demolition and reconstruction. The social stakes of urban renewal reside in both its political intent and its social effects. Ongoing socio-economic difficulties have led to a shift in French public policy on disadvantaged neighbourhoods, moving from the promotion of local social and economic development to an increasing fear of concentrating local communities or 'ghettos'. Social mix has become a policy objective for these neighbourhoods, and urban renewal as the means to achieve it. Although the effects of this policy are currently hard to assess, three social stakes can nonetheless be identified, partly based on the results of ongoing research at Les Minguettes, a suburb of Lyon, France. First, contemporary urban renewal tends to erode the stock of affordable housing, without bringing noticeable improvements in housing conditions. Second, this policy weakens the inhabitants' social capital, a resource strongly locally anchored in working-class milieus. Finally, social mix tends to transform local forms of coexistence in unpredictable ways, with no guarantee of the anticipated positive cooperation between locals and newcomers.