TOUR OF THE HABITAT WORLD SEEN BY CIVIL SOCIETY

Suburb

Dernière mise à jour le 4 septembre 2019

Definition

The CITEGO Website provides a better understanding of the notion of territorial governance. It contains definitions of this concept from various parts of the world:

In France, a suburb is defined according to a criterion of functional dependence and a landscape criterion. Source: Morphological separation and functional dependence, Eric Charmes, 2015. : http://www.citego.org/bdf_fiche-document-27_fr.html

  • From a landscape point of view, a municipality can only claim peri-urbanity if its main built-up area is separated from the urban centre on which it depends by an undeveloped strip with a width of more than 200 metres.
  • Functional dependence is defined as follows: at least 40% of the working population is employed outside the suburban area. (INSEE criteria)

In Europe, the links between the centres and the suburbs can also be analysed in terms of social relations and the forms of ghettoization that are developing in the suburbs, with problems of peri-urban violence, poverty and mobility.

In the United States, some researchers use the term exurbs to refer to residential residential areas that are part of a rural environment and therefore physically detached from the urban area on which they depend. (…). It is sufficient that 20% of the inhabitants of a sector (census tract) work outside the said sector and in an agglomeration for this sector to be qualified as exurbs. (Brookings Institution criteria). The author considers that this problem is less important in the United States than in Europe. The notion of suburbs is similar to that of urban sprawl in the United States. Source: http://www.citego.org/bdf_fiche-document-30_fr.html.

In Latin America, the notion of the periphery (periferia) is very important for understanding the social and spatial organization of urban centres. The peripheries themselves are made up of different social strata, generally poorer and poorer as they move away from urban centres. Means of transport such as cable cars have been put in place to enable people living on the outskirts of the city to « go back » to their homes. Urban sprawl often results in competition between urban dwellers seeking new living space and rural dwellers trying to conserve agricultural land. The issues of mobility and property titles are important. Social movements are campaigning for residents to be able to stay in the city (right to the city) and develop their housing solutions (social production of habitat).

This article should develop the phenomenon in Africa and Asia.