Badlands of the Republic

“This is a knowledgeable, intelligent, and highly readable account of an issue that has featured prominently in French politics and public policy during the last quarter of a century.” (Journal of Planning Education and Research, 8 September 2008)


"It's a fine book. Doubly so, for not only does it meld theoretical deftness with convincing empirical information, it also has the virtue of taking us out of our English speaking milieu...Are you an inquisitive urban geographer? If so, having read Dikeç as your indispensable primer, next time you're in Paris leave the Eiffel Tower behind and go out to La Courneuve. Or in Strasbourg, view the cathedral but then board the Line C tram right next to it which takes you out to Le Neuhof, like La Courneuve one of the original sixteen social development urban neighborhoods. Get a taste of another, and real, urban France. Dikeç has." (Geographical Review, December 2010)

"This brilliant empirical riff by Mustafa Dikeç on Ranciere's idea of the 'given' of governmental intervention as applied to the 'banlieue' of French cities shows how attempts to realize the ideal of 'the one and indivisible republic' through planning founder because French urban policy is also profoundly involved with making places that violate that very ideal."
John Agnew, UCLA

"This book is an extraordinary achievement. Hardly a year after the momentous revolts in the banlieues of France's big cities, Mustafa Dikeç offers not only a razor-sharp dissection of urban struggles, but, more importantly, demonstrates how the politics of space work in today's France and how a progressive urban politics can be reclaimed. A must read for all those interested in urban social movements and have not given up on the possibilities for a genuinely humanising urban politics."
Erik Swyngedouw, Manchester University