Abstract
‘The American ghetto is far more closed, penalizing and violent than the decaying French periphery' This introduction by E. Mingione to Wacquant's study summarizes the contrast demonstrated between the ‘Red Belt', that is the French working class cities and the ‘Black Belt' standing for the American Black ghettoes. Indeed, Wacquant's conclusion of his comparative study of La Courneuve and Woodawn is that there is a deep contrast between French and American urban enclaves. Although there are some morphological trends shared by both areas, it is said in his article that the negative stigma, the violence and bad organization as well as the segregation and cleavages in both suburbs differ. Nevertheless, last year French riots could seem to contradict Wacquant comparative analysis insofar that the French urban crisis seems as explosive as the American one. The unexplained death of two young people at an electrical substation while they were hiding from the police on October 27 in Clichy sous Bois led to two weeks of urban violence characterized by number of burnt cars and vandalized public facilities in urban areas in all the main urban areas in France. These riots emphasize the failure of the French social model as well as they can show an Americanization of French ghettoes.
