Les Gilets jaunes, entre solidarité mécanique et revendications organiques

Abstract

From the outset of the Gilets Jaunes movement, scholars have pursued many interpretations, often diverse and occasionally contradictory. This article aims to offer a literature review, as exhaustive as possible, of the scholarly analyses concerning the Gilets Jaunes' demonstrations at traffic roundabouts. The purpose is to uncover the political and epistemological presuppositions that inform the academic discourse on the Gilets Jaunes. By invoking Durkheim's theoretical framework of mechanical and organic solidarity, this review reveals how predominant academic publications on the movement share a common intent: to question the state's status and its actions, beyond recognizing the reconstituted communal solidarity at these roundabout gatherings. The hypothesis presented here is that the spectrum of literature on the Gilets Jaunes, whether ethnographically engaged or more abstracted from empirical investigation, conveys a collective adherence to a singular plea by its authors. By charting the emergence of a new 'precarious' peri-urban social stratum, these authors advocate for the commencement of a wider historical phase wherein diverse social agents would not dismiss the authority of the state en masse. Instead, they would, collectively, urge the state to re-establish a social contract, a goal that social movements of the past have laboured over a century to achieve.

Keywords

• social class
• community
• mechanical solidarity
• organic solidarity
• Durkheim
• modernity