Nicolas Raimbault
May, 2018 - July, 2018
Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher
Nicolas Raimbault is a postdoctoral researcher at Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research where he is working on urban social geography and urban governance. Previously, he was consecutively a lecturer at Cergy-Pontoise University and a postdoctoral researcher at the French institute of science and technology for transport, development and networks (Ifsttar). He completed his PhD in urban studies in 2014 at Paris-Est University. His PhD thesis deals with the governance of logistics development in the Greater Paris Region and in the inland corridor of the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Research Interests
Nicolas Raimbault analyses the transformations of blue-collar places and their governance in the dual context of the rise of logistics blue-collar jobs and the fall of manufacturing jobs in European and North-American urban regions. It aims to reveal how the “urban invisibilisation” of the blue-collar social group during the last decades (the weakening of their political power and more generally the progressive disappearance of blue-collars in urban landscapes) can be explained by both sectoral change – namely the shift from manufacturing to service sector (and especially the logistics sector) – and territorial transformation through the analysis of, on the one hand, the changing residential and working geographies and, on the other hand, the new related local modes of governance. This research is highly multidisciplinary as it integrates economic geography (firms’ localizations, system of production of logistics spaces), social urban geography (workers housing and commuting, social segregation) and political science (local public policies, local and regional governance) approaches.
Visiting projects and objectives
The main goal of this stay at the CEE in Paris is to conduct two case studies in the Paris region in order to analyse the transformations of current blue-collar places: Plaine Commune – an emblematic example of the “red belt” –, and Sénart – one of the main logistics pole in Île-de-France. Moreover, this stay would also be the opportunity to interview national and regional actors established in Paris and dealing with blue-collar employment and logistics development issues: trade unions, industry representatives, governmental agencies, regional authorities, real estate developers and investors. Last but not least, the research program « Cities are back in town » will constitute a perfect academic environment for discussing the methods and the results of this research about the governance of blue-collar and peripheral spaces, and more generally urban segregations, in metropolitan areas.
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