Globalisation, Social Change and Minorities in Metropolitan Paris: The Emergence of New Class Patterns

Abstract

This paper deals with two intertwined issues linked to social strata analysis, namely social fragmentation and spatial polarisation within metropolitan/global cities. It aims at pointing out the missing link in the analysis of changes in job structures and their impacts upon social strata in large metropolitan areas. Although there was no apparent process of polarisation in the metropolitan employment structures, an in-depth analysis of social strata and of the school-age population provided supportive evidence that a double process of social polarisation and of spatial concentration of foreign households has been at work in metropolitan Paris during the 1982-90 period.