Governing diversity without naming it: An analysis of neighbourhood policies in Paris

Cities are places of diversity and notions of super-diversity or hyper-diversity have recently been proposed to provide for a more accurate description of the increased diversification of urban populations not only in terms of ethnicity, but also in terms of demographic profile and lifestyles. In the French context, however, urban policies have mainly been implemented following an income-based definition of population diversity that does not formerly acknowledge ‘ethnicity’, by contrast to other countries such as the UK. How do French urban policies adapt to the challenge of the increased diversification of urban populations considering they do not take into consideration ethnicity, to begin with? Do they simply ignore the ethnic dimension of urban life or do they find ways to address it? In this article, we analyse the ways in which French urban policies deal with the diversification of urban populations through the scope of equality, without recognizing ethnic difference. We take the example of Paris as a highly diverse but also divided city, in terms of income and nationality of origin. Based on a critical analysis of public policy documents and interviews with key stakeholders, we highlight the paradox of dealing with diversity in a colour-blind context: the focus on socio-economic characteristics makes it difficult to consider the intersectional dimension of inequalities.