Producing a White Space. Gentrification, Displacement and Invisibilisation of Racial Minorities in the Canal Saint-Martin Neighbourhood in Paris.

Gentrification in France is usually explained through the process by which middle class with high cultural capital settle down in a previously working-class neighbourhood. Hence, literature has paid little attention to racial relations of power that operates in this spatial production process. This presentation aims to shed light on the way that gentrification goes hand in hand with invisibilisation and marginalisation of racial minority groups, mostly working class, who were displaced both physically and symbolically as gentrification progresses. To improve the image of their neighbourhood, gentrifiers strive to reinvent a legitimate local memory, such as Hôtel du Nord. This processus is based upon Whiteness that gentrifiers impose as a norm in their hegemonic relations towards minority groups. It also refers to production of White space, contributing to symbolic as well as physical displacement of racial minorities living and working in the neighbourhood.

To elucidate this process, I first present the demographic evolution of Canal Saint-Martin neighbourhood in Paris, analysing the census data on the occupation as well as national origin of inhabitants. Second, I analyse the 35 issues of La Gazette du Canal, a local magazine published by inhabitants between 1993-2003, several issues of Histoire et Vies du Xème, a magazine dealing with the local history as well as about 1400 articles published on this neighbourhood in the national French press. I also draw upon the interviews with inhabitants and restaurant entrepreneurs, who regularly utter that “there was nothing in this neighbourhood except for some filthy bars” and putting forward their effort to change the neighbourhood. These different types of data allow us to understand who voiced and whose voice was heard, while others are not. Ultimately, I argue that the gentrification and Whiteness are mutually constructed in that space making also refers to its racialised organisation.