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Using data from the Biographies et Entourage 'Event histories and contact circle' survey, conducted by INED in 2001, we will examine urban transformations via the mobility behaviour of 2830 residents in the Paris region. The analysis of residential trajectories has been a major focus of research in recent years but the influence of the social environment has rarely been taken into account. The aim of the article is to understand the urban dynamics and the process of social segregation (from the city centre gentrification to the peripheral settlement dynamics) over a period of 40 years. We will try to include social change at municipal level in the analysis of residential trajectories, taking into account changes in the social structure of municipalities which are partly the result of these individual mobilities. From a 'nominal harmonic analysis' several types of trajectories could be identified: those that took place between municipalities of equivalent social standing and those that involved change, either upwards to a municipality with a higher social standing or downwards to a municipality with lower social standing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Set against a broad European policy agenda which promotes 'ageing in place' and representations of older people as active, independent citizens, this article compares recent English and French policy discourses on population ageing and its implications for the housing needs of increasingly large numbers of older citizens. Through analysis of six recent strategic policy statements representing each government's official responses to population ageing and its social policy implications for the 21st century, we demonstrate how differences in the social representation of the ageing process and of older peoples themselves permeate policy discourse, influencing the perceptions of the housing needs of older citizens and the role that housing itself may play in promoting independent living. In England, demographic ageing, housing and its role in facilitating independent living and active ageing are explicitly articulated, whilst in France, the housing environment has until recently, been portrayed as one which must accommodate the illness, incapacity and dependency of later life. Our article offers explanations for these differences in terms of cultural variations in the social representations or 'constructions' of later life, divergences in political philosophies and welfare principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the later 20th century, France experienced a dramatic turn around in the quality of its housing. The current cohort of older people witnessed and lived through the transformation. Most people aged over 50 years in France are homeowners and almost one-in-four own a second home. Although the oldest age groups are much less residentially mobile than younger people, home moves are more likely around the age of retirement or widowhood. In recent years, new forms of residential mobility in later life have been emerging. These include a weakening of the commonly observed pattern of a permanent drift away from cities and towns towards areas of childhood origin or family connections. One current trend suggests a preference for preserving residential links with areas of relatively high population density and good access to amenities, coupled with being able to spend time elsewhere, whether in second homes, in children's and grandchildren's homes, or elsewhere. The arrival of the post-1945 baby-boom cohort at retirement has begun, and this may increase the current level of residential mobility and lead to more diverse types, although the change will depend on the development of the housing market as well as residential preferences in old age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]