Precarious suburbanism. Middle Class families in suburban Catalonia

Abstract

In Catalonia, urban sprawl and the creation of residential areas of single-family houses separated from the inner city, the morphologically equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon suburb, has remained largely unexplored by the social sciences, especially from a socio-anthropological perspective. From an irregular constituted area of second residences for the working-class, these areas have evolved since de 1990s to a first home sector for middle class families. However, these families have inherited much of the original urban precariousness of these developments. In this article, I explore the suburbanization process through a ethnographic case study, focusing on the perspectives of middle-class families that have moved to one of these areas. Catalan suburbanism is analyzed taking in consideration some interpretative issues of the sociological theory of suburbanism, particularly regarding the social homogeneity and the anti-urban trends that are commonly attributed to these residential sectors.