Yellow Vests resurgence in France, Macron reeling (user search)
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  Yellow Vests resurgence in France, Macron reeling (search mode)
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Question: Opinion of the Yellow Vests protesters
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Total Voters: 41

Author Topic: Yellow Vests resurgence in France, Macron reeling  (Read 4043 times)
Filuwaúrdjan
Realpolitik
Atlas Institution
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Posts: 67,609
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« on: January 13, 2019, 09:02:22 AM »

It's painfully obvious that the Yellow Vests' grievances are largely based on regional inequalities between the Parisians who control every aspect of French life and the comparatively immiserated inhabitants of the rest of the country, but both rational choice theorists and the woketariat see the idea of talking seriously about regional inequality as a threat so I'm not surprised it's not being discussed in this thread.

Yeah, the old divisions between town and country and between Paris and the provinces are a big part of this. But actually there's something else as well, and that's why it's even more serious than usual. Essentially, a large slice of the population lives in the strange twilight zone between the town and the country: the French jargon is periurban, and much as we should use banlieue rather than suburb to describe a certain sort of outer/middle metropolitan hellhole, which should use this term rather than the American 'exurb' or (especially not!) English expressions such as 'commuterland'. These big belts are a product of what might be thought of as longterm loopholes in French planning policy and surround all substantial French urban centres now. They are basically places where people to move to because the cost of housing is lower. The trouble is, communication and transport links back into the central city from the periurban areas is uniformly terrible. Public transport, in particular, is a joke. Which means that people in these places are extremely car dependent, even more so than people who live in the countryside proper. And are thus terribly sensitive to fuel prices: after all, the whole point of living Out There is because it is cheaper...
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Filuwaúrdjan
Realpolitik
Atlas Institution
*****
Posts: 67,609
United Kingdom


« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2019, 08:46:44 AM »

Although one point worth noting is that the whole Périurbain explanationbehind the gilets janues protests has been somewhat controversial in its own right. Certainly, Guilluy's France périphérique is not without its critics, and there are of course, a number of very well heeled exurban towns the "périurbain choisi" that are highly desirable, and often very close to down market identikit lotissements. The town of Chantilly, in the otherwise unfashionable Oise is a good example.

The other point that it is worth remembering is that the main centres where the protests have been the biggest, relatively speaking, is along the diagonale du vide - the sparsely inhabited region stretching from the Basque Country to the Ardennes. Which is rural, rather than périurbain, and where the stories of dismal public transport, industrial decline, closing hospitals/schools; and above all, the need to drive long distances between school/work/home on a daily basis applies even more so than in the Seine-et-Marne or northern Isère or wherever.

As a sole and isolated explanation it does not work, this is true. But then it's pretty clear that there is no singular explanation for this phenomenon, that it is the result of a combination of factors; one of which is traditional rural discontent, another is this new issue. After all, at its peak this movement had the backing of three quarters of the electorate.
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Filuwaúrdjan
Realpolitik
Atlas Institution
*****
Posts: 67,609
United Kingdom


« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2019, 08:57:18 AM »

The outskirts of some European cities make me really glad about whoever came up with Green Belts over in this country.

Can you elaborate on that? I know very little about British urban planning, and if they got something right that the rest of Europe didn't that definitely deserves to be highlighted.

State control of land use and planning, incorporating very strict development controls around major conurbations (the 'Green Belt' policy). An explicitly Socialist policy of the Attlee government rooted in the Garden Cities movement of the early 20th century that has been retained through everything because the framework is very efficient and the scales are so heavily tilted in favour of Whitehall and ministerial power, that no government (no matter its other political stances) has ever been remotely tempted to give it up.
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Filuwaúrdjan
Realpolitik
Atlas Institution
*****
Posts: 67,609
United Kingdom


« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2019, 09:07:01 AM »

The outskirts of some European cities make me really glad about whoever came up with Green Belts over in this country.

Lewis Silkin.
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