The point. The embodiment of poor housing and, more broadly, of the current housing market, the development of permanent housing in caravans or mobile homes in campsites is the subject of a detailed investigation. The sociologist Gaspard Lion, who has immersed himself in these circles for a long time, produces an ethnology without miserabilism. He identifies three types of situation, against the widespread and uniform image of “social cases”. Moreover, in the first case, households housed in this way, even mixing high-tech and high-end, value these arrangements of their existence. There is almost social promotion.
In a second case, on the contrary, these solutions, of much lower quality, constitute a last resort, a temporary solution that drags on, difficult to live with, especially in winter, for downgraded populations. A third pole brings together more marginalized households, tinkering with their daily lives, who find there a solution on the street. What emerges from this study is a vivid portrait of a habitat that is often fragile materially and always fragile legally.
The interest. This book with an original theme puts the spotlight on one of the contemporary forms of so-called “non-ordinary” housing. The reader enters, with the author, into the trajectories and lifestyles of the inhabitants of these very unique neighborhoods. The photos add to the quality of the subject.
Living in a campsite. Poor housing for the working classes
by Gaspard Lion. Editions du Seuil, 300 pages, 23 euros.
