Controlling the urban fabric. The complex game of distance and proximity in European upper-middle classes’ residential strategies

Without challenging the validity of the analysis of processes of urban secession, or the importance of gentrification processes in contemporary European cities, this article argues that inter-group social dynamics in the urban space are generally more complex than extreme mutual avoidance, or the colonisation of neighbourhoods by the wealthiest groups. By analysing the residential strategies of urban upper-middle class managers in some European metropolitan areas through in-depth semi-structured interviews we argue that these groups develop complex strategies of proximity and distance in relation to other social groups. The development of these “partial exit” strategies takes place through specific combinations of practices which allow these groups to select the dimensions they are willing to share with other social groups, as well as those for which they prefer a more segregated social environment for themselves and their families. The responses of our interviewees are consistently more nuanced and complex than any simplistic theory about their drive to secede from society, forcing us to develop more sophisticated conceptual frameworks to account for the growing prevalence of multilayered identities and spheres of reference and solidarity; specific combinations of elective segregation and local involvement; and more active patterns of mobility combined with local embeddedness.