LES VOIES COMMERÇANTES DES CENTRES VILLES: ENTRE APPROPRIATION ET DEGRADATIONCAS DU CENTRE « LASSITY » DE M’SILA EN ALGERIE

Abstract

Several authors agree in defining public space as the "hollow of the city", as opposed to the "full" constituted by buildings. In reality, however, this hollow is not as empty as it is described, either in terms of materials or meaning. This space is equipped with a form made up of various materials, it receives and generates practices, pieces of life (individual and collective) which take place there. As a result, observing and understanding the state of this place leads us to analyze, in particular, the shopping streets of city centers as meeting places, places of passage and as reflections of the culture and identity of their users. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the different ways in which the "street space" of city centers is appropriated and used in the Algerian context, specifically in the steppe town of M'sila. In order to achieve our objective, the analysis relied on a behavioral approach, based on the methodology of T. E. Hall (1971), favoring participant observation, photographic surveys and interviews with street passers-by. The survey revealed the advanced state of disrepair of the "street space" of "Lassity", born of positions of confrontation and contradiction as well as divergent perspectives between the various actors and users of the town center.