La ségrégation par omission ?. Incapacités politiques métropolitaines et spécialisation sociale des territoires

The study of socio-spatial segregation and its factors is at the heart of urban sociology for nearly a century. While most researches point out either micro-motives or macro-economic explanations of this process, the role of local authorities in these dynamics has been taken into account only more recently. In this article, we firstly explore the difficult development of metropolitan housing policies in France, although they are presented as an antidote to inter-municipal segregation. Secondly, we show that this recent strengthening of a metropolitan political capacity is acquire if? and only if ? they preserve the power of mayors over populating in their city. In that sense, we can speak of a "segregation by omission", which reflects the persistent incapacity of political metropolitan institutions to implement redistributive or planning policies across their whole territory.