Papers by Nathalie Boucher
This report is the result of a short but intense comparative research project that took place in ... more This report is the result of a short but intense comparative research project that took place in parallel in the neighbourhood of Saint-Michel in Montreal and the seven barrios of Iztapalapa in Mexico City. The idea for this comparison came from previous team member collaborations within the framework of the Réseau continental de recherche sur l'informalité dans les métropoles (RECIM). The project was financed by the Quebec Metropolis Center and the Canada Research Chair in Urbanity, Insecurity, and Political Action. Research objectives and questions were discussed with our partners, the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC) and the National Crime Prevention Centre of Canada (NCPC). Any remaining inaccuracies that may exist are, of course, the sole responsibility of the authors of this report. The research had two objectives: 1) understanding the relation between informal milieus and the construction of citizenship, and 2) understanding why urban fears continue to focus on youth despite the implementation of prevention programs. This executive summary begins by synthesizing the main demographic, criminal, and institutional characteristics of Saint-Michel in Montreal. Then follows an overview of our results, first from the point of view of youth, then from the point of view of police officers, before turning to other local actors and more importantly to the interactive dynamics between youth and police. The Mexico City case study is structured similarly.
American Review of Canadian Studies, Jul 3, 2022
Cette recherche a deux objectifs : mieux comprendre la relation entre les milieux informels et la... more Cette recherche a deux objectifs : mieux comprendre la relation entre les milieux informels et la construction de la citoyennete, ainsi que mieux comprendre pourquoi les peurs urbaines continuent de se centrer sur les jeunes malgre la mise en œuvre de programmes de prevention.
Legitimacy, 2018
The City of Montreal is dismantling the Viger Square, whose layout and the presence of homeless p... more The City of Montreal is dismantling the Viger Square, whose layout and the presence of homeless persons have been passionately debated since the 1980s, when the abandoned Victorian park was converted into a modern space. Since 2008, Boucher has been involved as a participant-observer in initiatives by the Group-with-no-name to save the Square. Its activities exemplify the establishment and maintenance of legitimacy by a social group with social capital. Through lobbyism, the Group has engaged in a fine play of detachment and commitment that contributes to the establishment of the legitimacy of those involved. Here legitimacy emerges as a dynamic concept that relies on the perception of others but also works in opposition with others’ legitimacy, hence the concept of competing legitimacy.
im.metropolis.net
... Finally, a special acknowledgement goes to the team at the Laboratoire Ville et ESPAces polit... more ... Finally, a special acknowledgement goes to the team at the Laboratoire Ville et ESPAces politiques (VESPA) who all contributed at the last minute to make this report possible, despite very tight deadlines: Nathalie Boucher, Laurence Janni, Alexia ... Rosario Novoa Peniche. ...
This thesis is about the identification of the ways used and supported by the various generations... more This thesis is about the identification of the ways used and supported by the various generations of Pekuakamiulnuatsh women and men to transmit their knowledge to the other generations. It is pointed out that the roles assigned to the transmission of the knowledge vary according to the age of the person who transmits and the one who receives. The roles also vary according to the sphere in which this transmission is made. Indeed, the private sphere privileges the oral tradition, i.e. in the family, while the writing processus is strongly used in the public sphere, as in the school. The dynamic use of the Western and Indigenous ways of transmission is necessary to counterbalance the knowledge and their practices in this very heterogeneous community. It also reinforces the ilnue identity and gathers the community towards the same political and cultural projects.
sur la communication dans les lieux communs comme ciment urbain, je fais une contribution empiriq... more sur la communication dans les lieux communs comme ciment urbain, je fais une contribution empirique et méthodologique unique à la recherche sur les espaces publics.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2008
Across urban studies there is an increasing preoccupation with the forms of articulation that lin... more Across urban studies there is an increasing preoccupation with the forms of articulation that link a multiplicity of cities across a region often known as the 'Global South'. How do cities such as Jakarta,
Anthropologie et Sociétés
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 13604810902982870, Sep 2, 2010
This paper explores the reasons behind people's engagement in political action, particularly... more This paper explores the reasons behind people's engagement in political action, particularly the marginalized and threatened. Using the example of the marches against immigration reform in the USA, the paper follows immigrant women in an effort to understand what made ...
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2008
South'. How do cities such as Jakarta, São Paolo, Dakar, Lagos, Mumbai, Hanoi, Beirut, Dubai, Kar... more South'. How do cities such as Jakarta, São Paolo, Dakar, Lagos, Mumbai, Hanoi, Beirut, Dubai, Karachi, for example, take note of each other and engage in various transactions with each other in ways that are only weakly mediated by the currently predominant notions of urbanism? What might be the lines of connection and how do different cities recognize and experience the textures of their different histories and characters? Six urbanists are assembled here to write in conversation with each other as a way to embody possible collaborative lines of inquiring about these issues.
This paper explores the reasons behind people’s engagement in political action, particularly the ... more This paper explores the reasons behind people’s engagement in political action, particularly the marginalized and threatened. Using the example of the marches against immigration reform in the USA, the paper follows immigrant women in an effort to understand what made them participate in those demonstrations despite risks of deportation, lack of experience in demonstrating and fear. Based on fieldwork with domestic workers in Los Angeles, we suggest that in a condition of urbanity (understood as a historically situated condition characterized by a mode of living based on interdependencies, mobility, uncertainty and speed), there is much continuity between everyday life and political events. Everyday life is constituted by personal biographies, which we define as the accumulation of experience and emotional trajectories. Most social movement theories tend to emphasize the extraordinariness of political events, focusing on ruptures with everyday life. In this paper, we argue that radical urban theory ought to remain closer to the feelings experienced in political practice, bringing the obvious continuities into theoretical development.
This article may be individually cited under its original titles: Boucher, N., (2008). Dream to R... more This article may be individually cited under its original titles: Boucher, N., (2008). Dream to Ride Out the World . . . and Beyond: Movement, Travel and Dream in Occidental and Indigenous Ontologies.
Across urban studies there is an increasing preoccupation with the forms of articulation that link a multiplicity of cities across a region often known as the ‘Global South’. How do cities such as Jakarta, São Paolo, Dakar, Lagos, Mumbai, Hanoi, Beirut, Dubai, Karachi, for example, take note of each other and engage in various transactions with each other in ways that are only weakly mediated by the currently predominant notions of urbanism? What might be the lines of connection and how do different cities recognize and experience the textures of their different histories and characters? Six urbanists are assembled here to write in conversation with each other as a way to embody possible collaborative lines of inquiring about these issues.
Teaching Documents by Nathalie Boucher
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Papers by Nathalie Boucher
Across urban studies there is an increasing preoccupation with the forms of articulation that link a multiplicity of cities across a region often known as the ‘Global South’. How do cities such as Jakarta, São Paolo, Dakar, Lagos, Mumbai, Hanoi, Beirut, Dubai, Karachi, for example, take note of each other and engage in various transactions with each other in ways that are only weakly mediated by the currently predominant notions of urbanism? What might be the lines of connection and how do different cities recognize and experience the textures of their different histories and characters? Six urbanists are assembled here to write in conversation with each other as a way to embody possible collaborative lines of inquiring about these issues.
Teaching Documents by Nathalie Boucher
Across urban studies there is an increasing preoccupation with the forms of articulation that link a multiplicity of cities across a region often known as the ‘Global South’. How do cities such as Jakarta, São Paolo, Dakar, Lagos, Mumbai, Hanoi, Beirut, Dubai, Karachi, for example, take note of each other and engage in various transactions with each other in ways that are only weakly mediated by the currently predominant notions of urbanism? What might be the lines of connection and how do different cities recognize and experience the textures of their different histories and characters? Six urbanists are assembled here to write in conversation with each other as a way to embody possible collaborative lines of inquiring about these issues.
fréquenté par une variété limitée de gens qui pratiquent quelques activités, mais les contacts informels basés sur le respect de normes alimentent tout de même la représentation et la contestation des espaces publics. Autrement dit, chaque espace
présente une combinaison unique d‘hétérogénéité limitée et de vie sociale dynamique. En situant les espaces publics de Los Angeles à la suite historique des espaces publics occidentaux, rarement entièrement mixtes, la présente recherche s‘insère dans la lignée
des thèses qui défont le mythe de l‘espace public universel. La réelle mixité ne peut être évaluée à même un seul parc. C‘est plutôt dans la variété de l‘offre d‘espaces publics répondant aux besoins de tous que la mixité des espaces publics doit être considérée et favorisée. En ce sens, Los Angeles offre de nombreux espaces publics où la vie publique est multiple. Tout en adhérant à la thèse de la fragmentation angélina de l‘École de Los Angeles et à la thèse de l‘École de Chicago sur la communication dans les lieux communs comme ciment urbain, je fais une contribution empirique et méthodologique unique à la recherche sur les espaces publics.
representations and contestations of these public spaces. In other words, each space presents a unique combination of limited heterogeneity and dynamic social life. By situating Los Angeles’ public spaces within the history of Western public spaces—which are rarely entirely socially mixed—
the research agrees with theses that debunk the myth of universal public space. True social diversity cannot be evaluated within one isolated park. Instead, it should be considered and promoted through the variety of public spaces that meet the needs of all users. In this respect, Los Angeles
offers numerous public spaces where public life is multiple. I thus encourage the administration to promote this variety of parks as a unique set of spaces (one for every need) that the City has to offer.
When looking back at their history (Boucher 2013, Mumford 1964), public spaces have been tools for expressing power in the city and as such, they have been marked by day-to-day negotiations for representation and appropriation (Estrada 2008, Mitchell 2003, Low and Smith 2006, Ryan 2006, Loukaitou-Sideris and Banerjee 1998). As history suggests, public spaces have never been totally opened, and that their social dimension is an important part of what defines them, in addition to their design and management. Although anthropologists and sociologists have shed light on the contemporary daily practices, (re)production and representations of public spaces (Low 2000, Richardson 2003, Davidson and Entrikin 2005, Lofland 1998, Whyte 1980), it has never been done in the supposedly homogenous public spaces of Downtown Los Angeles.
This paper draws on more than 100 hours of participant observation and 50 interviews (between 2008-2009) aimed at unveiling the mundane sociabilities of Plaza Olvera, Pershing Square, Watercourt of the California Plaza, Grand Hope Park and Vista Hermosa Natural Park. The methodology was built to seize the concepts of the anthropology of communication and the School of Chicago (Winkin 2001, Hall 1990 [1966], Park 1990 [1926], 1938) such as interactions, representations, appropriation and informal surveillance, which were understood as social acts that cement the social fabric, as per the Chicago School, in the fragmented urban context that is Los Angeles (Fogelson 1993 [1967], Soja, Morales, and Wolff 1983).
The results revealed that everyday uses by a variety of visitors weave a complex and dynamic fabric that defines each space, which differ one from another. Their social fabrics unfold at dissimilar rhythms, and present a set of unique informal rules negotiated within what seems to be a similar context of formal surveillance. Not only the present research challenges the blaim of the recent death of public space, and agrees with theses that debunk the myth of universal public space (Carmona 2014, Herzog 2006), but the Los Angeles case study demonstrates that true social diversity cannot be evaluated within one same park. Instead, as shows the Tree Metaphor, it should be considered and promoted through the variety of the supply of public spaces that meets the needs of all. This supports the alternative perspective on the global city developed in anthropology (Appadurai 1996, Amin 2002, Amin and Graham 1997).