The discovery of the street: urbanism, gentrification, and cultural change in early nineteenth-century Paris

• Author / Creator

  Potyondi, Stephen

• During the Restoration and the July Monarchy (1815-1848) Paris’ streets underwent significant urban renovation. The eighteenth-century street was transformed from a filthy and dangerous open sewer dominated by carriages into an agreeable paved prom-enade equipped with sidewalks, trees, benches and boutiques. These pedestrian spaces generated new cultural practices in urban environments such as strolling (‘flânerie’), window-shopping, and outdoor night-life and gave rise to novel forms of casual, bour-geois sociability. Unlike city planning which took place during the second Empire un-der the Baron Haussmann, early nineteenth-century urban design was a decentralized process that allowed citizens to dictate the shape of the capital. As a result, many of its consequences were both unintended and unforeseen. Contemporary observers agreed that the result of such efforts was the gentrification (‘embourgeoisement’) of the inner city and the displacement of its working-class population to the exterior of Paris.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Chabrol
  • Rambuteau
  • Paris
  • Flânerie
  • Pedestrian
  • Haussmann
  • Sidewalks
  • Urbanism
  • Gentrification

• Graduation date

  Spring 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3P99K

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.