The hopes and disappointments of Switzerland's medium-sized towns

Vincent Kaufmann and Yves Pedrazzini from EPFL's Urban Sociology Laboratory have contributed to a book entitled ‘La Suisse d'Arbon à Zoug’. They asked authors to talk about the medium-sized town in which they live, from a particular perspective. We learn that Chiasso lives in nostalgia for a real border, Chur serves as a funnel for a hundred valleys, Sierre is the victim of a demonised car, Thun is seeking a destiny without the army, and Zug has gone from being a poor conurbation to a Ferrari-riding paradise for the rich.