Des contre-pouvoirs culturels dans la ville ? Les associations de défense des « droits culturels » des populations racisées et ethnicisées, entre contestation et adaptation

Abstract

This article examines the capacity of self-help organizations to defend and promote, with public authorities, the "cultural rights" of populations subject to racial and/or ethnic discrimination. Within the framework of research begun in Toulouse in 2019, the strategies of three associations with different economic models are analyzed around three main aspects: their dimension of protest, their financing methods and their repertoires of cultural action. The analysis shows that, regardless of their orientations and degree of dependence on local or national public authorities, these associations manage to transform the constraints of calls for projects into opportunities to disseminate their ideas. The leaders of those associations that wish to invest in the cultural field do so with their constraints, but without setting aside their convictions. The challenge is to learn the rules of good management of their cultural project in a local environment which, if not hostile, is at least unfavourable, but within which they manage to develop their own agenda through adapted strategies.

Keywords

• activism
• cultural right
• discrimination
• local governance
• self-help organization