Elements of a riot: forms of political violence in contemporary France

Abstract

This article looks at the aftermath of riots in a suburban area of Paris to make a larger argument about what produces riots, the role of police violence, the activation of social boundaries, and the implied set of demands during and after riots. It uses the methods of visual sociology to show how youth often target symbols of the state to respond to state violence in an asymmetrical confrontation when they feel they do not have a political voice or representation. It also presents original survey data about what non-riot participants think causes these riots. Finally, it shows images from campaigns to ban chokeholds in France, which recent protests have achieved.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank the RIM network, Milena Doytcheva, Cathy Schneider, Greg Smithsimon, Michael McQuarrie, Daniel Jenks, Carina Cione, Mackenzie Cox, Susan Hansen, and the feedback from the peer review.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ernesto Castañeda

Ernesto Castañeda is Associate Professor of Sociology at American University and the Director of the Immigration Lab. He has published six books on international migration, borders, social movements, and ethnic and racial inequality among them, A Place to Call Home: Immigrant Exclusion and Urban Belonging in New York, Paris, and Barcelona (Stanford University Press 2018).