Axis 4 and Urban Studies seminar - Progress workshop on the work of axis members: Elena Dinubila («The territories of social work») and Hélène Jeanmougin («Cohabiting in a context of gentrification»)

Friday 10 April 2026 | 9am - 4.30pm | AMU-CNRS, Mmsh, room A154 (Aix-en-Provence)

Morning: "The territories of social work", byElena Dinubila, a researcher at the Institut régional du Travail social (IRTS) on issues of social work and urban areas, and also of Frédéric Boyer, Specialised Technical Educator at the IME Les Écureuils and trainer at the IRTS in Marseille and Noé Mallet, We're delighted to welcome a member of our team, a Social Work Assistant in a CAARUD (Centre d'Accueil et d'Accompagnement à la Réduction des Risques pour Usagers de Drogues) in Marseille, to talk about their experiences in the field and provide an analysis.

Afternoon: «Living together in a context of gentrification».», intervention by’Hélène Jeanmougin on his project for a book on the coexistence of different individuals and social groups in large cities undergoing gentrification.

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Detailed programme

MORNING :

«The territories of social work. Professional practices and institutional frameworks in the making of social spaces and territories».»

As part of the work carried out by the members of Axis 4 of the MESOPOLHIS laboratory, we are giving the floor to associate researchers working in the fields of institutions, associations or private consultancies who want to advance their thinking and compare notes with other researchers and practitioners.

On the morning of 10 April, we will be looking at the question of the territories of social work and the practices of social workers in relation to the urban and territorial themes of our laboratory's axis 4: how, within their professional and institutional constraints, do social workers think about territories, neighbourhoods and the administrative boundaries of their individual and collective intervention?

The starting point for this workshop is research begun in 2025 by our MESOPOLHIS associate researcher Elena Dinubila with social workers from the Maison Départementale de la Solidarité (MDS) in a district of Marseilles city centre. Elena Dinubila examines social work at the intersection between the use of fairly homogenous support systems, the expectations of the public served, shaped by the characteristics of a specific urban area, and the presence or absence of social partners in the area where the structure is located.

The complexity of social work in Marseille's hypercentre is also due to the diversity of the people who work in the various structures located in the same area, as Noé Mallet, a social services assistant, will testify. In order to shed light on the territorial factors that influence professional practices, the discussion will conclude by putting these initial observations into perspective with the challenges faced by social workers in another, less central area of Marseille, as illustrated by specialised technical educator Frédéric Boyer.

How it works :

9.00am - 9.20am Introduction of the morning by Cesare Mattina

9.20am-9.50am Elena Dinubila, Research associate at the Institut régional du travail social (IRTS) Paca-Corse, associate researcher at MESOPOLHIS and the Centre Émile Durkheim : «Examining social work from the point of view of the homogeneity of systems and specific territorial features».»

9.50am - 10.20am Frédéric Boyer, Specialised Technical Educator at the IME The Squirrels and trainer at the IRTS in Marseille. Noé Mallet, Social Work Assistant in a CAARUD (Centre d'Accueil et d'Accompagnement à la Réduction des Risques pour Usagers de Drogues) in Marseille: «Feedback and analysis from the field»

10.20-10.30 - Firsts questions with the audience

10.30am - 10.40am Break

10.40-10.50 - Contribution from the morning's discussant, Anne-Marie Arborio, sociologist at the Laboratoire d'Économie et de Sociologie du travail (LEST) CNRS-AMU

10.50am-11.10am - The Answers speakers

11.15am - 12pm Debate with all those present

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AFTERNOON :

«Cohabiting in a context of gentrification»

Hélène Jeanmougin presents the project to transform her doctoral thesis[1] in book form, based on an outline plan which will be discussed by the members of the project and by Maxime Felder, lecturer/researcher at the Urban Sociology Laboratory (LASUR) in Lausanne, who specialises in the dynamics of coexistence in an urban environment.

[1] «Entre compétitions et recompositions socio-spatiales : cohabiter en contexte de gentrification (Berlin, Palerme, Marseille)» sociology thesis defended at Aix-Marseille university in 2022 under the joint supervision of Sylvie Mazzella and Florence Bouillon.

Summary of the thesis:

Hélène Jeanmougin's thesis looks at the day-to-day cohabitation of residents in three neighbourhoods undergoing gentrification in Berlin, Palermo and Marseille. This process is seen as a framework for specific interactions, marked by competition for local space between residents with unequal resources, faced with unprecedented spatial proximity. In this context, what are the modalities and issues involved in cohabitation between individuals with very different social characteristics and «ways of living», and what do they tell us about local (dis)appropriation? What effects do these cohabitations have on urban practices and representations, and on the residential trajectories of residents?, in fine, on the socio-spatial restructuring of these neighbourhoods?

This thesis, based on ethnographic surveys conducted over a period of six years, sets out to answer these questions. By returning to the Berlin and Palermo sites several years apart, we have been able to understand the fluctuations in the resources mobilised by each party, as well as the redefinitions of social groups and social and symbolic positions brought about by these often tense or conflictual cohabitations. These results make it possible to break with a rigid categorisation of the actors and processes of domination in such gentrification contexts, in order to show their complexity and dynamism, while at the same time highlighting the skills of the residents of these neighbourhoods, capable of readjusting or even curbing, depending on the context, the segregative logics induced by the policies for upgrading urban centres.

How it works :

14h00-14h10 - Short introduction by Cesare Mattina

14h10-14h30 - Introduction by’Hélène Jeanmougin to its publication project

14h30-15h00 - Discussion by Maxime Felder, from the Urban Sociology Laboratory (LASUR) in Lausanne

3.00 pm - 4.30 pm Debate with all those present