NEW SOCIAL STRATA AMONGST PROPERTY-OWNERS - WORKING-CLASS ASPIRATION TO BE DECENTLY HOUSED IN PARIS BEFORE 1914

This article is based on the analysis of 380 dossiers prepared by a lo an society between 1912 and 1914 for the granting of mortgages to work ers and employees planning to build new homes in the Paris suburbs. Th e dossiers go into the candidates' family situations, their trades, th eir incomes and their place of work. The analysis concludes that these candidates come from the upper categories of wage-earners, whilst sti ll belonging to the people. Rising incomes and falling rents are also to be noted, when these candidates are still in rented accommodation. Since Maurice Halbwachs, this fall in rent levels has been seen as an argument proving working class indifference to housing conditions. The sources examined here enable the author to bring this indifference in to question: to be decently housed was a real working-class aspiration .