pp. 321-358

Social relations among the inhabitants of an apartment building amount to more than neighbor relations. Depending on the type and social layout of the building, they can also involve renter-owner relations, co-owner relations and service and work relations with building managers. Moreover, such intra-building relations not only imply interactions among individuals and groups but also pertain to an institutional and legal framework, including the different actors and organizations that intervene in matters of housing and all the laws, rules and regulations that frame people’s practices. The notion of residential configuration allows for describing this doubly complex reality. Here that notion is substantiated through a historical and ethnographic study of relations over the last 50 years among the different categories of inhabitants living in a Haussmann-design apartment building in Paris.