San Francisco occupies a unique place in the collective imagination. While it is unanimously praised for its exceptional character it nevertheless has a multiple identity which is full of contrasts. This succinct little book, in the form of an urban exploration, provides us with an understanding of all its ambivalences.
Sonia Lehman-Frisch is a professor of geography at the Université Paris Nanterre and a member of the laboratoire Architecture, Ville, Urbanisme, Environnement (Architecture, city, environment architecture and city planning laboratory) (UMR LAVUE of the CNRS). She is a specialist on San Francisco, whose research centres on the relationship of inhabitants to their neighbourhood and the city and on the questions of gentrification, segregation and spatial justice. A past junior member of the Institut universitaire de France, she has been vice-president, responsible for international politics at the Université Paris Nanterre since 2016.