Contenu du sommaire

Propositions for a programme of research on urban life. In the research conducted, at the present time about cities, one can distinguish those studies which deal with ways of life and those which deal with urbanization. The analyses of ways of life examine the daily life and its relationship to the physical setting and cultural behavior ; they frequently identify their main object, which is urban sociology, to sociology in general (sociology of the family, sociology of a determined social group, etc.). The study of urbanization, defined as a historical and economic process with considerable ecological consequences, is quite developed, but is separated with difficulty from the study of a way of life. ? This separation between two types of research seems to correspond to a real lag between the evolution of social mores and the evolution of urbanization. The lag is not of the same nature in industrialized capitalistic countries, as it is in some European socialist countries and in non-industrialized countries. In France, one can assume that urbanization is behind social mores, particularly, in those moments of daily life which are controlled by the type of consumer patterns, leisure time activities and urban evasion. For the Institut of Urban Sociology (Paris), the most urgent research should be that which deals with adapting the city to urban ways of life and with the analysis of the urbanization process. In this analysis, special attention must be given to the dominant groups which create the models of consumption and make important decisions. These same decisions are largely ordered by the image of urban life which determines the forms of voluntary urbanism.

Henri Raymond : Content analysis and the non-directive interview : application to the symbolism of the home. The classical type of content analysis usually deals with the relationship of the content in question to variables which express attitudes or to the characteristics of the person who produces the document analysed. The units of analysis should, therefore, be simple and general enough, so that their classification and the study of their covariance with groups of variables are made easier. Content analysis is in this sense, an analysis of themes or units of this type ; the difficulties begin when it is necessary to qualify the content, this is the case when the strength or weakness of certain assertions must be measured more precisely. It follows that the more the analysis is perfected, the more it becomes an end in itself and is a source of information about the person who produces the document. ? The study of the procedures and structures in the document is a step towards the inherent analysis; content analysis gets closer to linguistic analysis. ? The method described is applied to the study of non-directive interviews ; it is based on the hypothesis that, in certain cases the person interviewed uses a given physical unit (in this case the home area) to organize a symbolic unit affecting his social behavior. The analysis is the relationship between physical elements and symbolic elements.

Nicole Haumont : Housing and cultural patterns. The study of the needs and aspirations of the French population relating to housing shows how strong the attachment is to the individual dwelling ; this is true, even for the inhabitants of large housing units, who consider themselves well housed. This situation is without doubt due to the fact that the satisfaction derived from good housing conditions, does not always coincide with the realization of more general aspirations which are characteristic of French society. These aspirations express the great influence of cultural patterns ruling the way in which the child, and later the adult, learns about his home area. This learning process permits adjustments which later will be easier if these adaptations respond to fundamental needs. This is in general, the case of the individual dwelling and it partially explains, the greater attachment expressed in France for this type of dwelling. ? These patterns, however, are but a framework within which numerous variations are observed, according to social groups. This possibility of variation becomes evident when important changes come about with the process of urbanization in a given country. The role of the architect and the town planner is to adapt the dwelling to the transformation in the way of life ; the cultural patterns of the society in question, should also be considered.

Marie-Geneviève Raymond : Housing ideology and the opposition of town and country. One often notices, in political ideologies as in urbanistic theories, an opposition between the peaceful world of the country and the urban world which is identified with the biological decay of the individual, with controlled activity, social frustration and the absence of political integration. In the 19th century, housing ideologies, such as they appear in different texts, dealing with urban concentration and the problem of workers, also deals with the themes of this opposition. ? The analysis of economic, moral and psychological predictions inherent to the analysis of the individual dwelling and the apology for the collective dwelling, shows the existence of two integrating Utopias. The conservative Utopia proposes « ruralization » as a way of dealing with the class struggle ; the Marxist or collectivist position defends economic freedom and the right to low-cost housing. ? The debate for or against individualism implies that housing concepts are expressed on a political level, both as an image, of a way of life and as the representation of social life.

Claude Bauhain : Some problems related to the quantitative analysis of towns. Clarification of the question through the examination of a certain number of studies.

Antoine Haumont, Claude Bauhain : Some characteristics of French towns of more than 50,000 inhabitants. What are the consequences of the distribution of economic activities for the groups which constitute urban society ? Do these consequences vary with the size of the town ? We have answered these questions by examining 93 French towns or agglomerations, with more than 50,000 inhabitants in 1962. For each urban unit, 79 factors were gathered, demography, growth, the division of the active population by economic sectors and by socio-professional categories, education, housing and votes. These 79 variables were the object of a factor analysis and each city was graded in each factor. ? In the agglomerations, the first six factors count for 70% of the variance. In order of importance they are: economic activity and socio-professional categories, age groups and types of families, the work of women votes, migrations and urban growth, size and density of the population. The examination of these factors and the factor scores led to a classification of cities based on socio-professional groups and growth, this classification also took into account, age groups and working women. ? In French provincial towns, following these criteria, there are 20 industrial-worker towns, 27 tertiary non-worker towns (divided into middle class towns and white-collar towns) and 25 towns in an intermediary situation. The situation of surburban towns is different.

Bernard Haumont : Hierarchy and urban structure. Critical review of different theories of urban hierarchy.