Abstract
Local councillors are looking for distinctions for their towns through labelling processes (Epstein, 2013). The latter are frequently presented as a positive way of enhancing local resources, committed to a territorial development objective. However, labelling is subject to strict and selective conditions. In fact, it is part of a competitive process that often involveslocal public engineering (Lascoumes and Le Galès, 2004). Labeling thus plays a driving role in territorial action. It accompanies and enriches both the “conservation” aspect (preserving the integrity of heritage objects) and the “enhancement” aspect (mobilizing heritage for development purposes) (Benos and Milian, 2013). While patrimonialization creates social ties, it can also, quite the opposite, be a vector of segregation (Madoré 2004), particularly in coveted coastal territories identified as highly attractive for residentialization and conducive to leisure migration (Vye, 2011, Blondy et alii,2016). It is in this context that the construction of a grand heritage narrative “legitimizes” a policy of selection, even expulsion. Obtaining numerous heritage labels, presented as a success, distracts attention from a silent and discreet process of social segregation. It helps to silence any dissenting voices and erase negative perceptions. During negotiations between local elected representatives and government departments, heritage labels can be used to justify requests for exemptions from the SRU law on social housing. This thesis therefore focuses on the social effects of heritage labelling.Drawing on both the currents of critical geography (Harvey, 2018), (Gintrac, 2012) and social geography (Séchet and Veschambre, 2004), we hypothesize that labels reveal the spatial dimension of inequalities and that labeling processes are vectors of spatial and social exclusion (Harvey, 2011). The methodology of this research is based on participant observation and data collection through interviews, complemented by analysis of a press corpus (regional daily newspaperand municipal bulletin) and operational documents. The field of study chosen is the seaside resort of Pornic, a Classified Tourist Resort in 2014 located near Nantes on the Atlantic coast. This case study reveals the tension betweenheritage labeling and social segregation. Gentrification, understood as the spatial result of power relations between unequally endowed social groups (Clerval and Van Criekingen 2023), has become a tourist gentrification (Gotham 2018), as the concept has been emptied of its original meaning, that of violence at work. The result of a slow process of patrimonialization, the museum city excludes and has only the appearance of conviviality (Illich 1984).