Des contrastes électoraux intra-régionaux aux clivages intra-urbains

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the spatial distribution of electoral results relating to the geography of social inequalities at the 2010 regional elections of 2010. The first part highlights the socio-electoral configurations that structure the regional space at the level of the 1547 towns of Nord – Pas de Calais, which allows to discuss the relevance of some previous research conducted on this region in the field of electoral analysis. In a second step, after this preliminary contextualisation, a change of scale is enforced, adjusting the focus of analysis at the level of 513 the intra-urban polling stations of the Urban Community of Lille-Métropole (LMCU). Analysis at the scale of the polling stations are indeed an important scientific shortcoming, even though most voters are registered in urban districts subdivided into several polling stations. Apart from a few communal monographs, very few researchers have managed to explore intra-urban contrasts regarding electoral aggregated results, especially in order to correlate them with socioeconomic indicators at the level of polling stations. In this original study, the empirical material are mobilized for this purpose consists, on the one hand, of election results at the first round of regional elections and, on the other hand, of official statistics (2007 INSEE census, 2008 data on household income and social precariousness) that refine the sociological profile of the inhabitants of these geographical entities. This study shows that the major historical cleavages within the Nord – Pas de Calais region are still relevant and, most importantly, that refining the analysis at the scale of polling stations reveals extremely contrasted electoral profiles which enlighten the social cleavages that structure the intra-metropolitan space.

Keywords

• regional approach
• Nord - Pas-de-Calais
• infra-urban analysis
• Urban Community of Lille-Métropole
• electoral behaviour
• social inequality