Géographie de la pauvreté : la situation paradoxale des centres des métropoles françaises

This article shows that the notion of a ?territorial divide? pitting metropolises against other territories is reductive if we look at it from the point of view of a geography of poverty. Metropolises do not only concentrate wealth, the companies that create the most added value and qualified employees, but also poor populations. And these are not just confined to the suburbs. They are also very present in the centers, even though they are becoming gentrified, to varying degrees depending on the case. The centers are therefore particularly unequal spaces. The analysis of the distribution of poor populations in the centers in eight of the main French metropolises shows a double phenomenon : a concentration in the priority districts of the city policy, but also a dispersion in all the districts, including the richer. The light shed on poverty in rich neighborhoods highlights a population that we do not talk about and which finds itself confronted with specific problems.