40 years of urban regeneration policies for deprived neighbourhoods in France, continuities, changes and paradoxes

On June 27, 2023, a 14-year-old teenager was shot by a policeman in a large social housing estate of Nanterre, a suburb to the West of Paris. This event triggered a wave of “urban revolts” by young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods across France, expressing their feeling of injustice and discrimination. “Riots”, “violence”… the same words as those used in 2005 – when a wave of 21 days of urban riots swept through the French suburbs – were back in the media.