Urban Riots in Europe, Post‐2000
Since the start of the new millennium there have been four major instances of urban “rioting” in Europe, each of which has given rise to prolonged academic and/or public theoretical speculation regarding the underlying political origins and motives of such action. The term “rioting” is often rejected as inappropriate by academic and political commentators, on the grounds that it often used to suggest “wanton criminality” or, oppositely, to imply a degree of political awareness and ambition that is actually lacking among participants. Here we shall be employing the more neutral descriptor of “disorders” in referring to such events.
Autumn 2005: A Review of the Most Important Riot in the History of French Contemporary Society
In Autumn 2005, France witnessed the most important urban riots in its contemporary history. What exactly happened? Through the study of press dispatches and government communiqués, I first present a detailed summary of the three weeks of rioting by analysing their birth and development. Second, utilising interviews conducted with rioters and inhabitants of two ‘quartiers sensibles’ (deprived neighbourhoods), I attempt to understand the motivations of the rioters and perceptions of them by other categories of the populations of these neighbourhoods. I then investigate the social geography of the riots and highlight those characteristics of the ‘zones urbaines sensibles’ (deprived urban areas) which have been addressed within the contexts of security and city politics over the last quarter of a century. Finally, I discuss the political and social significance of these riots and their possible extension in the future.
Precarity as a Political Concept, or, Fordism as Exception
In 2003, the concept of precarity emerged as the central organizing platform for a series of social struggles that would spread across the space of Europe. Four years later, almost as suddenly as the precarity movement appeared, so it would enter into crisis. To understand precarity as a political concept it is necessary to go beyond economistic approaches that see social conditions as determined by the mode of production. Such a move requires us to see Fordism as exception and precarity as the norm. The political concept and practice of translation enables us to frame the precarity of creative labour in a broader historical and geographical perspective, shedding light on its contestation and relation to the concept of the common. Our interest is in the potential for novel forms of connection, subjectivization and political organization. Such processes of translation are themselves inherently precarious, transborder undertakings.