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A sociologist in Paris. |
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by Thierry PAQUOT
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| The study Paris et l'agglomération
parisienne (1952) edited under the leadership of Paul-Henry
Chombart de Lauwe (1913-1998) constitutes the first great work in
the field of social urban anthropology. This incomparable research
is now a reference work, presenting at the same time snapshots of
Paris and an experimentation of new methodological tools (aerial
views, districts' monographs, "dynamic" cartography -
that is to say making connections between different parameters -
unstructured interviews, research-action, commented bibliographies,
etc.).This survey takes into consideration the greater part of the
existing works, whatever their subjects may be, contemporary or
historical, in France or abroad, and has a specific purpose : the
"active" comprehension of the different ways of life of
the citizens. Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe devotes himself to an
applied sociology, some may say a "committed" one… |
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Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe : French urban sociology, between morphology
and structure. |
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by Jean-Pierre FREY
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While, in the incipient French urban
sociology, Henri Lefebvre overtly favoured a holistic approach of
the urban space as a privileged field of the study of class struggle,
Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe, whose main interest was also to analyse
the underlying processes at work in the inhabitants' daily lives,
chose to concentrate on the architectural and urban context of working-class
family life. His aim, which was to bring the needs and aspirations
of the people to the awareness of authorities and technicians, led
him to gain close acquaintance with the realities of the field,
the specific needs of the social groups involved and the material
configurations of space.
Jean-Pierre Frey proposes a rereading of the works of Chombart and
his team with the concepts of social and urban morphologies as its
main themes ; he points out the daring and judicious ideas of this
work, as well as the many ambiguities and prudent views involved
in a line of research primarily intended for urban development decision
makers.
With respect to such (still) central issues as segregation or the
delimitation of social groups in or by space, Frey also underlines
Chombart's concessions to the technocratic ideology, which in turn
weighed on the elaboration of the conceptual objects of urban sociology. |
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The Chicago School. A scientific adventure to rediscover. |
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by Armel HUET
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| It has been said that Paul-Henry Chombart
de Lauwe, pioneer of urban sociology, had a certain intellectual
affiliation with the Chicago School. The current edition of Espaces
et Sociétés looks at this relationship. The Chicago
School was late in being recognized in France, having only moderate
success and its influence is often misinterpreted. Diverging opinions
still exist about its methodologies, especially concerning the theoretical
orientations which it created, as well as the vision it generated
of the city as a natural and cultural system. It is true that the
variety of its work, stretched over a large period of time, often
makes it difficult to perceive the coherence of the theoretical
problems posed. This article follows Kurtz's division into three
periods, adding on a fourth (after 1945), showing how the Chicago
School's influence continues to be seen in the affirmation of the
interactionist school of thought. |
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Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe, a sociologist on TV, 1957-1960. |
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by Marie-Françoise LEVY
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| With the introdution of television in
France in the 1950's, programme manager Jean d'Arcy's ambition is
to make use of this new image broadcasting technique to rally the
French and to reforge natioanal unity. In this context, Paul-Henry
Chombart de Lauwe contributes to devise and produce one of the first
series of documentary films television broadcasts between 1957 and
1960. This original experience bears the marks of the social scientist
and of his team's efforts. The approach, the issues and the principles
developped in the sociologist's works find here their application
in a well thought out film adaptation. The observation of a "
social life unity " and of distinct social groups constitutes
the common theme linking the " tour around 1950's France "
to which Chombart de Lauwe both contributes through the scientist
dimension of his written works and through the form of his commitments. |
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Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe's urban sociology : a thought at work
in the South. |
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by Yves PEDRAZZINI
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| Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe is well
known in France and in the rest of Europe as a pioneer of applied
anthropology in the 1930's, and for having participated, after the
war, to the "invention" of urban sociology. Yet, another
aspect of his works is developped in southern countries, Latin America
among anothers. There, he was able to inaugurate an area of researches
along with social scientists working in the field, and particularly
involved in the cultural transformation of heir society ; it is
also in the south he expressed the principles of "action-research"
grounded on the participation of people, rich or poor, to the projects.
If can therefore be said he is not foreign to the current recognition
of neighborhood, inner cities, barrios or favelas culture. |
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For a spatial eth(n)ology of space. |
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by Philippe BONNIN
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| This article proposes to re-examine the
history of the concepts we use to think out the living conditions,
the house, the city and more generally the relation between a society
and its space, during the second half of the 20th century. Insisting
on the context in wich the movement of ideas has developped, it
avoids the reduction of this history to a few slogans, and refuses
to forget the existence of alternative schools of thought once proposing
a more complex and qualified way of thinking. It refers to Paul-Henry
Chombart de Lauwe to underline how apprehension of space can greatly
benefit from the primacy of direct field observation, or from the
study of relations between material and symbolical forms of social
life, representations and aspirations, and living conditions in
the first place. To conclude, it questions anew the possibility
for an eth(n)ology of space. |
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Localised social work and economic constraints. Investigation in
voluntary social centres of Lille area. |
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by Maryse BRESSON
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This paper explains how financial constraints
contribute to the transformations of social work described by sociologists.
Territorial and/or community work is preferred to traditional social
work aiming at "target groups". An investigation in social
centres (centres sociaux) in Lille area shows how project funding
negotiations with many partners introduce market oriented practises,
specifically in staff management. The local federation of social
centres approves these new procedures, but social activists strongly
object.
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Landmarks and territorial construction : Which methods of analysis
to understand the relations between town and mountain in Grenoble
and Chambéry ? |
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by André-Frédéric HOYAUX
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The aim of this paper is to explain how
the landmarks which the individuals pretend to use for dealing with
space of their daily life prove to be a significant construction
of space, both in terms of an appropriation of space by the individual
and in terms of a belonging of this individual to a social group.
The landmarks, when they are considered as precise visual elements
of space, seem therefore to play the role of a mileage of the indefinite
stretch of land and thus to formalize for each individual a territory
which brings in a joint way a structure to functional and symbolic
delimitations both in spatial and social spheres. In this sense,
the landmarks become material fragments of this territory and sometimes
an expression of its globality. However, beyond these natural and
social conditions which have an influence on this territorial construction,
it seems necessary to clarify an irrepressible and non-contingent
part of them which appears to belong to the human individual himself
and to the meaning which he gives to himself concerning his being
in the world.
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