Full Description
The Poplars housing development in suburban Paris is home to what one resident called the "Little-Middles" - a social group on the tenuous border between the working- and middle- classes. In the 1960s The Poplars was a site of upward social mobility, which fostered an egalitarian sense of community among residents. This feeling of collective flourishing was challenged when some residents moved away, selling their homes to a new generation of upwardly mobile neighbors from predominantly immigrant backgrounds. This volume explores the strained reception of these migrants, arguing that this is less a product of racism and xenophobia than of anxiety about social class and the loss of a sense of community that reigned before.
Contents
Illustrations, Tables, and Maps
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. The "Good Old Days"
Chapter 2. Children of the projects in quest of respectability
Chapter 3. Suburban Youth
Chapter 4. "They're very nice, but...": Encountering new foreign neighbors
Chapter 5. A vote of the white lower classes?
Appendices
Appendix I: Interviews cited in the book
Appendix II: Documents and sources
Bibliography
Index
