The case study of Paris in an increasingly uncertain Europe

As part of the wider research program initiated by de Rosa in the 1980s (cfr inter alia: de Rosa, 1995, 1997, 2013; de Rosa, Antonelli & Calogero, 1995) on “Place-identity and Social Representations of European Capitals in First Visitors of Six Different Nationalities”, this contribution is included in the "field studies", with particular reference to the data collection carried out in 2014 in the city of Paris, focusing some aspects of the follow-up/extension of the research conducted by de Rosa & d'Ambrosio in 2006 on the Paris underground and overground (de Rosa & d'Ambrosio, 2010, 2011). Inspired by the Theory of Social Representations (SRT) (Moscovici, 1961/1976, Jodelet, 1989a) the study focuses the dynamic relationship between social representations and social practices. Moreover, the “modelling approach” - developed by de Rosa (2013, 2014) - has been applied as paradigmatic option specific to this research field, articulating different SRT’s constructs/dimensions, other constructs/theories and methods based on verbal/textual and iconic communicative channels. The objective of this contribution is to study, on one hand, the system of attribution of meaning to the different spatial dimensions of the city of Paris, with particular reference to the "underground" and the "over-ground", and on the other, to analyse the differences in the representations of 50 subjects of different professional groups: • employees in surface transport (trams, buses, taxis); • employees in the subsoil (underground, RER). We expected differences not only in the articulation of the social representations of the city on the surface and the subsoil, but also a different positioning of the professional groups: drivers in surface transport and in the subsoil. In this contribution we will refer in particular to the results obtained through the technique of free associations used to describe/characterize the "surface" and the "subsoil" of Paris in the interviewed drivers. Through the software SPAD (Lebart, Morineau & Beçue, 1989) applied to the stimuli “surface” and “subsoil” it has been possible to reconstruct the structure and content of the associated representational fields. Moreover, contextualizing the study in the light of the terrorist events that hit the city in 2015, in the wider European scenario, specific attention has been paid to the dimension of risk in the reading of data from a longitudinal point of view. In particular, we mention some results obtained through the mental maps that indicated the districts perceived as more dangerous, re-read in relation to the tragic events occurred in several arrondissements. Future research developments might contribute to verify if the Parisian districts resulted in 2014 as mostly affected by the risk perception will be confirmed or the pervasive fear/terror has expanded the risk perception across the whole Capital City beyond the borders of the “dangerous” areas. Results of psycho-social researches will contribute to the debate on the best interventions in view of urban transformations able to improve safety and reduce threats.