With the aim of studying people's use of social services, as part of the initiative to observe the social situation in Paris, Apur and the Science Po School of Urban Planning - l’École Urbaine de Sciences Po - have carried out research in two districts. This note summarises the findings in ten informative sections.
n 2024, Apur, in partnership with the City of Paris, assigned a group of students from L'École Urbaine de Sciences Po to carry out a qualitative survey on factors determining the use of social rights in two Parisian districts participating in the experiment "Territory of zero non-recourse - Territoire zéro non-recours -" : the 10th and 20th districts. Their work was based on real-life experiences and feedback of professionals and residents in the priority neighbourhoods of both districts.
Discussion on the survey work done by the students led to about ten observations emerging that could inspire social players in Paris as well as elsewhere. The first four are linked to factors affecting users (knowledge of available services, the digital divide, proximity of services, relationship with administrative and social procedures), while the other six are linked more to social services and their organisation (identification of potential users, work on establishing trust, organisation of networks giving access to rights, coordination of players, etc.).
The findings of the study make it possible to go beyond the conventional ways of understanding non-use (non-application, not informed, non-reception, no proposal, non-renewal, no orientation, etc.) and to understand the specific factors which determine these different forms of non-use and provide food for thought on how to adapt the types of action able to respond. Two lines of analysis come to the fore : users' level of autonomy to deal with procedures and their knowledge of institutional networks on the one hand, and on the other hand the issue of trust (in institutions and in other people).
