From the Popular Front to the Eastern Front: Youth Movements, Travel, and Fascism in France (1930-1945).

There is no straight line leading from the French Popular Front to Hitler’s Europe. Yet, quite a few Frenchmen followed such a crooked path that led them from one the 20th century’s great democratic movements to its most exclusionary and destructive ideology. Seeking to uncover the apparent contradictions that frame this political itinerary, my dissertation entitled “From the Popular Front to the Eastern Front: Youth Movements, Travel, and Fascism in France (1930-1945)” looks at the interwar youth hostel movement, a pacifist and left-leaning organization and the drift of some of its members towards Europeanist fascism during the Second World War. I argue that discourses on European civilization on the right and the left coalesced at the end of the 1930s around of critique of industrial modernity and consumerism. In doing so they provided a solid platform for this radical shift of political allegiances and provided common historical narratives to youths of countries under Nazi influence. Looking at the complex articulation between youth politics, travel practices, and French-German relations, my research highlights the significance of generational sentiments in the development of an original pan-European fascist ideology during WWII. In the last instance, I show that the war experience brought about a radical transformation of the spatial imaginary of Nazism, from a hyper-national to a supra-national ideology, and suggest the need to reassess the significance of Hitler’s wartime European project within the larger historical framework of 20th Century Europe.PhDAnthropology and HistoryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116650/1/bgmetton_1.pd

Les espaces vécus dans une grande agglomération

Life-space in an urban agglomeration (Paris). Every citizen has his own life-space which can be defined as a familiar appropriated and secure space ; it is here analysed by means of inquiries in different parts of the Parisian agglomeration : centre, residential suburbs and new towns. Life-space appears to be closely linked to urban équipement (stores, transportation, commodities) which regulates individual commutations ; but one must also consider topographical and above all psycho-sociological factors limiting or extending frequented space. On the whole, life-space seems most valued in traditional districts where recent urban innovations have been integrated into a pre-existing and well-diversified urban environment.L'espace vécu, que l'on peut définir comme un espace connu, approprié, sécurisant, propre à chaque citadin, est analysé à travers des enquêtes réalisées dans divers milieux de l'agglomération parisienne : centres, quartiers pavillonnaires ou cités récentes. L'espace vécu paraît en étroite relation avec la trame des équipements fonctionnels (commerces, transports, services, etc.) occasionnant les déplacements des individus ; mais il faut aussi tenir compte des facteurs topographiques et surtout psycho-sociologiques restreignant ou étendant l'espace fréquenté. Dans l'ensemble, l'espace vécu paraît le plus approprié dans les quartiers traditionnels où les apports urbanistiques récents ont su s'assimiler à un milieu urbain préexistant et bien diversifié.Metton Alain, Bertrand Michel-Jean. Les espaces vécus dans une grande agglomération. In: Espace géographique, tome 3, n°2, 1974. pp. 137-146

La perception de l'espace urbain : de l'enfant à l'homme

Metton Alain, Bertrand Michel-Jean. La perception de l'espace urbain : de l'enfant à l'homme. In: Espace géographique, tome 1, n°4, 1972. pp. 283-285