Sustainable neighbourhoods, a way to renew the approach on social mix
Abstract
Today, projects of sustainable neighborhoods, impelled by the State and local authorities, emerge in France. Attempting to model themselves on Northern Europe, these projects intend to apply the principles of sustainable development at the scale of neighbourhood. The focus is on social diversity in connection with functional diversity in order to create a community life and reinforce social bond. We explain the implementation of the social mix, especially with the public control of social housing, but creating new spaces which are expected to support social mixing too. The case of the Beauregard project illustrates our presentation. We point out two contradictions for the projects of sustainable neighbourhoods. They are for example a risk of standardization of lifestyles, and a challenge for public authorities to maintain the social mix.