Values of peri-urban life

Does living in a peri-urban zone require an attachment to certain values? This chapter looks at debate on the idea that peri-urban dwellers are more inclined to hold individualistic values, be less progressive and politically further to the right than urban inhabitants. More than the type of housing, voting to the right of the political spectrum is thought to be associated with distance from major urban centres, families’ economic precariousness, difficult living conditions (distance, lack of infrastructures, etc.) and poorly accepted social mixity that reinforces stigmatisms attached to certain groups. Although urban populations learn to accept others and their differences through time spent in public spaces and their experience of population density itself, the lack of open public spaces and low density of peri-urban areas does not mean its denizens are less tolerant. Shopping malls, public transportation, roads and highways are all places where people learn acceptance and tolerance.