Essay : Architects of Inequality: How Urban Design, Disease, and Symbolic Violence Shape Paris

Synopsis:

"Architects of Inequality: How Urban Design, Disease, and Symbolic Violence Shape Paris' Banlieues" explores the intersection of urban design, public health, and social inequality in Paris, focusing on the historical and contemporary marginalization of the city's banlieues (suburban housing estates). Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theories of habitus, field, and symbolic violence, the essay examines how urban planning has been used as a tool of social control, reinforcing systemic hierarchies under the guise of public health and progress.

The essay begins by analyzing Georges-Eugène Haussmann's 19th-century redesign of Paris, which, while addressing urban congestion and cholera epidemics, also served to marginalize the working class by displacing them to the city's peripheries. Haussmann's boulevards and sanitation systems were not only public health measures but also mechanisms of military control, designed to suppress uprisings and maintain bourgeois dominance. This spatial segregation laid the groundwork for the enduring socio-economic divides seen in the banlieues today.

The discussion then shifts to the 20th century, where modernist architect Le Corbusier's vision of urban design, influenced by biopolitical ideals, further entrenched these inequalities. Le Corbusier's emphasis on hygiene, sunlight, and ventilation in housing projects mirrored Haussmann's public health rhetoric but also perpetuated racial and class-based segregation, particularly for immigrants from former French colonies. The essay critiques how these architectural practices, framed as solutions to disease, became tools of symbolic violence, naturalizing social hierarchies and marginalizing vulnerable populations.

The essay also highlights the 2005 French riots and the film *La Haine* (1995) as manifestations of the deep-seated alienation and spatial injustice experienced by banlieue residents. These events underscore the cyclical nature of systemic neglect and the psychological toll of living in spaces designed to exclude.

Finally, the essay proposes "commoning" as a potential solution to these entrenched inequalities. Drawing on historical examples like the Paris Commune of 1871 and contemporary grassroots initiatives such as the Aroma Home gardening project, the essay argues for the creation of shared urban spaces that challenge neoliberal urbanisation and foster cultural and social capital. By reimagining urban design as a field of collective agency rather than exclusion, the essay suggests that communities can reclaim their "right to the city" and dismantle the symbolic violence embedded in its architecture.

In conclusion, the essay calls for a critical reexamination of urban design in the context of public health crises, advocating for inclusive practices that address historical injustices and empower marginalized communities. It suggests that future research should explore how events like the COVID-19 pandemic have further amplified these issues while also creating opportunities for transformative urban reimagining.