Spatial peripheries, social peripheries: reflections on the “suburbs” of Paris

The purpose of this paper is to seek to conribute to debates on disadvantage and social exclusion by examining the evolution of the concept of “periphery”, with specific reference to Paris.

The paper draws on research undertaken on the “suburbs” of Paris in order to highlight some of the socio‐spatial dimensions of social exclusion.

The notion of periphery has evolved from being a purely spatial concept, to a functional concept, and during the crises of the 1980s it became a key social concept in France.

Today, it is the absence of employment, or common values which characterises those who make up a social periphery. It is the unwaged, or the poor (in waged work or retirees), and immigrants, who live in the Parisian socio‐suburban periphery.