Fantasies of State Power? French Banlieues and the Boundaries of Modernity, 1955-1973 A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2014 Ravi Hensman School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 2 Table of Contents List of Illustrations 3 List of Abbreviations and Special Terms 5 Abstract 9 Declaration 10 Copyright Statement 11 Acknowledgements 12 Introduction 13 Chapter One: Imagining the Banlieue 39 1. The grand ensemble as an imagined future, 1956-1960 45 2. The grand ensemble as a new present, 1961-1967 55 3. The grand ensemble as a failed past 1967-1971 72 Chapter Two: Constructing the Banlieue 87 1. Planning for aspiration or destitution? Les Courtillières 1957-1961 92 2. Dormitory estate or new urban core? La Courneuve, 1959-1963 106 3. Social engineering or urban engineering? Domestic space, 1961-1965 118 4. Destroying the grand ensemble , 1965-1971 128 Chapter Three: Claiming the Banlieue 142 1. Governing Pantin and Les Courtillières 1957-1961 148 2. Governing La Courneuve and the 4000 logements, 1960-1964 162 3. Assessing the grand ensemble community, 1969-1974 172 Chapter Four: Confrontation in the Banlieue 186 1. Cooperation and public cordiality, 1955-1963 193 2. An atmosphere of growing mistrust, 1964-1967 203 3. Banlieue protest and the ‘fortified state’, 1968-1973 221 Conclusion 235 Bibliography 245 Word count: 77, 366 3 List of Illustrations Figure 0.1 Photograph of Porte de Choisy, p. 23. Source: Eugene Atget’s Zoniers collection (1913), available online at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b3100004z/f42.item.hl.langFR. Figure 1.1: Photograph of ‘Dilapidated housing in the inner-banlieue ’, p. 50. Source: Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe, La Vie Quotidienne des Familles Ouvrières , (Gentilly, 1956), p. 176a. Figure 1.2: Graph of consumption patterns in Paris and the banlieues , p. 70. Source: Claude Cornuau, Maurice Imbert, Bernard Lamy, Paul Rendu, Jacques Retel, L’Attraction de Paris sur sa banlieue (Paris, 1965), p. 33. Figure 2.1: Photograph of Fonds d’Eaubonne towers, Les Courtillières, p. 96. Source: author’s own. Figure 2.2: Concept drawing from Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse, p. 98. Source: available online at http://www.archdaily.com/411878. Figure 2.3: Site map of Les Courtillières with main facilities, p. 99. Source: Geneviève Michel, Pierre-Jacques Derainne, Aux Courtillières: Histoires Singulières et Exemplaires (Paris, 2005), p. 91. Figure 2.4: ‘View of 4000 logements, La Courneuve’, p. 108. Source: available online at http://cites9-3.skyrock.com/77613602-Les-4000.html. Figure 2.5: Publicity image of the 4000 logements, p. 112. Source: poster produced by Office Public de la Ville de Paris, AMLC/C390. Figure 2.6: Floor plan for ground floor of Les Courtillières, p. 120. Source: Michel, Derraine, Aux Courtillières , p. 91. Figure 2.7. Floor plan of 6 room and 2 room apartments, La Courneuve, p. 124. Source: AMLC/C390. Figure 3.1: Publicity for Grand Bal de la Paix, La Courneuve, 1964, p. 171. Source: AMLC/4R9. Figure 3.2: Page from La Courneuve Summer Festival programme, 1973, p. 182. Source: AMLC/4R32. Figure 4.1: Pantin and La Courneuve within pre-1967 policing districts, p. 215. Source: zeemaps.com, author’s rendering. 4 Figure 4.2: Pantin and La Courneuve within their post-1967 policing districts, p. 216. Source: zeemaps.com, author’s rendering. Figure 4.3: Police dispersal in Pantin, La Courneuve and two Parisian arrondissements, p. 217. Source: Préfecture de Police, Rapport d’Activité 1968 (Paris, 1968), ADSSD/ 7W15. Figure C.1: Fenêtres urbaines at the barre Balzac, 4000 logements, p. 236. Source: available online at http://revue.prefigurations.com/31beton/31_godinCourneuve.htm. 5 List of Abbreviations and Special Terms ADSSD Archives Départementales de la Seine-Saint-Denis AMP Archives Municipales de Pantin AMLC Archives Municipales de La Courneuve AP Archives de Paris AUA Atelier d’Urbanisme et d’Architecture BAC Brigades Anti-Criminalité CAF Caisse d’Allocations Familiales CDI Compagnie Départementale d’Intervention CDIC Caisse des Dépots et Consignations CERM Centre d’Études et de Récherches Marxistes CFDT Conféderation Française Démocratique de Travail CGC Confédération Générale des Cadres CGT Confédération Générale du Travail CNAL Comité Nationale d’Action Laïque CNRS Centre Nationale de la Récherche Scientifique CSU Centre de la Sociologie Urbaine DGEN Délégation Générale à l'Équipement National DIV Délégation Interministerielle de la Ville EPHE École Pratique des Hautes Études FLN Front de Libération Nationale FO Force Ouvrière 6 GdP Gardien de la Paix GP Gauche Prolétarienne GPRA Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Algérienne HBM Habitation à Bon Marché HLM Habitation à Loyer Modéré INED Institut National d'Études Démographiques LAA Laboratoire Architecture Anthropologie MRP Mouvement Républicaine Populaire OAS Organisation de l'Armée Secrète OP Officier de la Paix OPP Officier de la Paix Principale OPHLM Offices Publics d'Habitations à Loyer Modéré OREAM Organisation d’Études d’Aménagement d’Aires Métropotaines ORGECO Organisation d’Études Coopératives PADOG Plan d'Aménagement et d'Organisation Générale PCF Parti Communiste Français PIDE Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado PSU 1 Parti Socialiste Unitaire RER Réseau Express Régional RPF Rassemblement du Peuple Français 1 PSU can also refer to the Parti Socialiste Unifié, a PCF splinter party formed in 1960. In this thesis, PSU is only used in the above context. 7 SDAURP Schéma Directeur d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme de la Région de Paris SEMIDEP Société d'Économie Mixte Propriété de la Ville de Paris SFIO Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière SONACOTRA Société Nationale de Construction de Logements pour les Travailleurs UNFP Union Nationale des Forces Populaires ZUP Zones à Urbaniser en Priorité French terms Arrondissement Small administrative division Banlieue Suburb Barre Tower block Bidonville Shantytown Blouson Noir 1950s youth subculture influenced by American rock and roll Ceinture Rouge PCF-controlled inner-suburb of Paris Chef-lieu Administrative capital of a département Circonscription Subdivision of police district Cité Estate or urban collectivity Cité d’Urgence Emergency settlement Conseil Général Elected body that administers a département Conseil Municipale Council Département Administrative division between region and commune Gardien [Estate] concierge 8 Gardien de la Paix Police rank equivalent to British constable Gauchiste Leftist Gradé Supervisory police rank equivalent to British sergeant Grand Ensemble Mass-housing complex Harkis Muslim Algerian loyalists who served in the French Army during the Algerian War Mairie Town hall Officier de la Paix Senior police rank equivalent to British inspector Officier de la Paix Senior police rank equivalent to British chief inspector Principale Pavillon Private low-rise home Pied-noir Person of French or other European origin living in North Africa, particularly Algeria Trente Glorieuses ‘Thirty glorious years’ (referring to post-war economic growth) 9 Abstract The banlieues (suburbs) of Paris are key case study for the social and political evolution of post-war France. Drawing on the overarching narrative of the trente glorieuses , existing scholarship has viewed the construction of grands ensembles d’habitation (mass housing estates) as part of a harmonious modernisation project through which France moved away from governing its colonies and towards the governance of everyday life. Yet, this view of banlieue housing as an expression of generic, totalising state power overlooks the conflicts and uncertainties that underpinned the modernisation process. This thesis analyses the construction and governance of two grands ensembles : the 4000 logements in La Courneuve and Les Courtillières in Pantin during the period 1955-1973. By analysing how state actors constructed and debated notions of urban modernity, this thesis will use the grands ensembles to explore France’s post-war modernisation as an uneven, localised and limited process. In discussing the limits to state power in these areas, this thesis develops scholarship on the banlieues and post-war France in three key ways. Firstly, this thesis will interrogate the relationship between the grand ensemble and notions of modernity, and will challenge the notion of mass housing as part of a forward-thinking modernisation process. Close analysis of sociological studies of mass housing and planning discourse will be used to demonstrate that the key objective was not to modernise, but to create a benign governable space that glossed over the more complex reality. By looking at localised discourses of municipal council and housing associations, this thesis will also question the harmonious nature of modernisation in discussing the ongoing debates between different state actors regarding the role of mass housing and of the banlieues more generally. Secondly, this thesis will develop academic understandings of the relationship between the citizen and the state. While the banlieues have been situated within the orbit of a totalising, technocratic Gaullist national state and the local communist-governed municipality, this thesis will question whether the state ‘existed’ in the banlieues . Records of municipal campaigning and existing resident testimonies will be used to challenge the historical narrative of the ceinture rouge by demonstrating that at a local level, the state maintained only loose control in the governance of everyday life and