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Using the examples of two cities in southwestern France, Pau and Bordeaux, this article purposes to test the theoretical hypothesis that geographical spaces are the result of intense and obstinate social production (largo sensu). The methodological model of social-spatial formation provides the operational tools for such a demonstration. The account of how the two territorial spaces of Pau and Bordeaux came about highlights the subtle intermingling between the geo-economic substrates of these strongly grounded societies and forms of power, as well as the ideological and cultural representations they have undergone over long periods of time. It is on this soil of produced and territorialized space (a palimpsest) that, for each individual consciousness, images emerge, facilitated by a sort of collective (or social) imagination that enriches and anchors his/her lived space to the territory. These representations, grounded in the senses, charged with affect, memory and ‘habitus', both individual and suffused with collective ideology, bear witness to the way each individual relates to the space he lives in and prove invaluable in identifying the issues at stake when any urban development is planned.

This paper re-examines the methodology of the ANR CAMIGRI research programme to study the reshaping of rural areas through the prism of international migrations. To compensate for the invisibility of certain foreign presences in databases at different scales or in the field, the method combines statistical analysis at national and inter-municipal levels, and case studies, by monitoring places that are emblematic of migratory situations in three areas of southwestern France. It enables the grasp of the diversity and diversification of forms of foreign presence and of their effects on the places they occur, drawing for the most part on examples from the agricultural sector. It also relies on the use of original tools (biographical grids, photographs, notebooks) to study and monitor foreign presence in rural areas over the long term. This mixture of methods here are akin to a research posture that relies not only on the articulation of qualitative and quantitative analysis, but also of theoretical fields (rural and migration studies) and researchers' skills.

This article explores risk and risk management in the use of Grindr, the main dating application for men who have sex with men (MSM). While the application describes itself as a safe space, in line with LGBT community spaces, the respondents interviewed described it more as a space of uncertainty, because of the ease with which anyone can access it and create a profile. These uncertainties permeate the transition from the virtual to the real, and give rise to multiple strategies aimed at reducing the risks of running into a malicious individual. This affects both the choice of venues for encounters, and the way in which these venues are used, whether in the home—the preferred setting for sexual encounters—or in public and commercial spaces. These strategies also appear on an urban scale, in the form of avoidance dynamics, whose social mechanisms reveal spatialised and racialised representations of homophobic risk.

Resettlement projects following evictions and demolitions of mostly autoconstructed settlements have long been an integral part of Africa's urban development. Instead of engaging in singular analyses of resettlement outcomes based on a clear “before” and “after”, this article aims at conceptualise the relationship between the city and resettled citizens. Thus, what we suggest to call “urban resettlements” highlights destabilization of urban citizenships by a double dynamic of destruction and production of spaces and social ties, and of urban inclusion and exclusion. How do experiences of urban resettlement transform notions of urban citizenship? Although the objective of this article is mainly theoretical, we illustrate our argument by juxtaposing citizens' long-term lived experiences of urban resettlement in Lomé (Togo) and Rabat-Salé (Morocco). Taking into account pre- and post-displacement pathways to rehousing, a potential horizon of inclusion materializes over time in highly unequal and selective ways, strongly linked to new and renewed forms of economic, social and political constraints.