Affects as Foam of the Balance of Power at a Time of Urban Aesthetisation? About an Exploratory Research on Nantes and Saint-Etienne (France)

In the society of affects, inhabited spaces are designed and the urban experience is conditioned. Based on preliminary observations realized during several editions of the Voyage a Nantes and the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne, this paper addresses theoretical, methodological and analytical questions in order to contribute to the research on the urban environment. This research postulates that this material, symbolic and discursive transformation of our sensibility perpetuates the structural relationships of force linked to cultural and social capitals while promoting, through the instrumentalization of affects, a standardization and normalization of individual and collective feelings and actions.