Segregation and Estigmatization of the Disadvantaged Neighborhoods in France

Abstract

This article, after analyzing the genesis and decline of disadvantaged neighbourhoods with social difficulties, studies the phenomena of segregation and stigmatisation of this kind of neighbourhoods in France. Nowadays, these neighbourhoods tend to be defined as ghettos, which have become the central socio-political problem of French society. The media and political speech are fed by their exclusion, urban violence, delinquency of young people, family submissiveness, insecurity and community fallback. Therefore, it becomes necessary to study the territorial stigmatisation and the strategies of social avoidance, provided that the bad reputation of these neighbourhoods leads their neighbours to have ambivalent attitudes and to withdraw in the family sphere. All this is not incompatible with a strong sociability, solidarity and organisation of community life.