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Rage and Fire in the French Banlieues

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Urban Uprisings

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology ((PSEPS))

Abstract

What has been enthusiastically heralded as the ‘urban age’ has turned out to be an era of ‘urban rage’ as well (Dikeç, forthcoming). Since at least the turn of the century, a wave of urban anger has taken a global dimension: From Cairo to Baltimore, London to Istanbul, one city after another experienced uprisings, leaving in their wake even more rage which seems unquenchable either by the extent of destruction or the severity of oppression. If this is what our urban futures hold for us, then I believe we need to take these incidents seriously, because their geographical expansion and increased intensity suggest a deepening of problems, perhaps most sharply manifest in cities where inequalities have been widening.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I realise that problems such as high unemployment are also mobilised by right-wing groups as grievances. If it could be shown that these groups suffer disproportionately from such problems because of who they are or where they live, and also that their mobilisations are based on a principle of equality rather than on the privileging of ‘natives’, then they would fall within the remit of my focus on urban uprisings as politics.

  2. 2.

    Cited in Badlands, p. 46.

  3. 3.

    Cited in Badlands, p. 48.

  4. 4.

    See the excellent essays in Vradis and Dalakoglou (2011).

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the editors for their invitation to contribute to this book, and for their constructive and valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecole d’Urbanisme de Paris and LATTS, Paris, France

    Mustafa Dikeç

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  1. Mustafa Dikeç
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. J.F. Kennedy Institute for North America, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Margit Mayer

  2. University of Gothenburg, Goteborg, Sweden

    Catharina Thörn

  3. Department of Sociology & Work Science, University of Gothenburg, Goteborg, Sweden

    Håkan Thörn

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© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

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Dikeç, M. (2016). Rage and Fire in the French Banlieues . In: Mayer, M., Thörn, C., Thörn, H. (eds) Urban Uprisings. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50509-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50509-5_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-50492-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-50509-5

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