Cohabitation in public spaces: conflicts of appropriation between marginalized people and residents in Montreal and Paris ; La cohabitation dans les espaces publics: Conflits d'appropriation entre riverains et personnes marginalisées à Montréal et Paris

Exclusion of marginalized people in public spaces has been a recurrent topic of human geography (Smith, 1996, Mitchell, 1997) but explanations mainly refer to macrogeographical level and entrepreneurial production of iconic public spaces. But conflicts of appropriation also exist in banal public spaces (Padisson and Sharp, 2007). In this thesis, we analyse this kind of conflicts, in two peri-central neigborhoods : Shaugnessy Village in Montreal and La Goutte d'Or in Paris. Relying on the vision of space as a topological structure of positions (Hubert, 1993), we study the issue of exclusion in public space through space's experiences of people. By taking interest in banal public spaces, we show that appropriation of public spaces also refer to dwelling pratices. They are used, through social relations and investment of specific values in space, as a home for homeless and marginalized people and as an extension of home for residents. Involving contradictory uses of public spaces, these dynamics of appropriation induce conflicts. The inadequacy of presence and behaviors of marginalized people with the desired residential way of life in the neighborhoods induce the mobilization of the residents and the process of purification of space (Sibley, 1995). In the face of marginalized practices of public spaces, a residential " us " appears, based on the " common " residential values. This reveals the will to create a protective and " coexistential interior " (Sloterdijk, 2005) over the public spaces, in which marginalized persons are not admitted, except if they conform to it. Diffusion of residential values in public spaces finally restrict self-recognition and their feeling of belonging to the neighborhood. They feel more and more " out of place " (Cresswell, 1996), which incite them to leave, or to normalize their own behaviors if they want to stay. In fact, residential domestication of public space, through the injection of residential values in space, reduces the opportunities to make these public spaces a home for ...