Spatial and social mobilities in Algeria: the case of Algiers

Urban sociology explores the relationship between individuals and social groups, and the material space in which they live, evolve, and socially organise. While the field is be divided by diverging macro- and micro-level approaches and methodologies, it is unified by the widely held assumption that social mobility creates opportunities for spatial mobility. Using the case of post-independence Algeria, and specifically the capital, Algiers, this chapter shows that contrary to developments in Europe, the USA, or indeed other parts of the Maghreb, Algerian social mobility is instead the result of spatial mobility opportunities, themselves the outcome of sudden shifts in the evolving relationship between state and society. Focusing on the ‘National Real Estate Pact’ established shortly after independence, attempted state consolidation via administered access to the market in the 1980s, and the retreat of the state in the 1990s, this chapter outlines processes by which Algerian spatial mobility opportunities, created by the state or wrested from it by society, have promoted social mobility.