An original public service between past and future: Public baths in France and Western Europe – THERMAPOLIS

THERMAPOLIS analyzes access to water in cities in Western countries through the example of public baths. The challenge is to know the uses and users of public baths in France and Western Europe, and to identify the past and present functions of these institutions. Thanks to the combination of observation scales and diachronic and synchronic approaches, THERMAPOLIS proposes to better understand the deprivation of access to water and the answers given to it in the neoliberal urban context of Western Europe, affected for several years by the refugee crisis and for several months by the health crisis of the « new coronavirus ». The research crosses an entry through public policies and an entry through the experiences of users and agents. In doing so, this research will highlight the tension between two types of urbanity: the "revanchist" or "exclusive" city, which closes to the poorest and the "solidarity city" sometimes equated to a "just city". Through the example of public bath, the challenge is to understand how solidarity is expressed at different times and in different urban contexts. It also involves analyzing the experiences and trajectories of people with reduced or no access to water.

THERMAPOLIS aims to contribute to three areas of knowledge while combining them:
- The analysis of the experiences and trajectories of the users of public baths will contribute to the knowledge of little studied, often invisible, populations and the scientific consolidation of the notion of "water precarity" by analyzing its articulations with the other forms of precarities or vulnerabilities (economic, family, residential, energy, health, etc.).
- The comparative study of current and past public bath models will demonstrate the importance of local contexts in understanding the history and contemporary issues of urban governance of health and social services, which are public and private and which mobilize new actors and forms of action and management.
- The careers of the public bath studied will finally be valuable indicators of urban changes in their urban, architectural, demographic, social and political dimensions.

THERMAPOLIS is characterized by its disciplinary openness (geography, history, sociology, anthropology, economy, architecture, philosophy) and methodology. To know the populations attending public baths as users or agents, THERMAPOLIS combines the handing of questionnaires, interviews and observation in selected institutions. The archive approach will make it possible to build careers in institutions that take into account the political, social, economic and ideological contexts in which they took place. Conversely, these careers will provide information on changes in lifestyles, representations - in particular of the body, health and hygiene - changes in reception and social policies. The international dimension at the scale of Western Europe (France, Belgium, Italy) makes it possible to understand how, from the original matrix, differentiated situations have been developed.

The research is carried out by a team of researchers specializing in the subject of social vulnerabilities. Partnerships built abroad have made it possible to integrate researchers in Belgium and Italy, who have already obtained funding in their respective countries and will locally pilot their own sub-teams.