La construction du crack comme « problème public ». Socio-histoire des imaginaires sur des publics considérés comme « indésirables » (1986-2023)

Abstract

This article aims to trace how crack has been constructed as a “public issue” in France, particularly in the working-class neighborhoods in the North-East of Paris, by adopting a socio-historical perspective from 1986 to 2023. The article primarily relies on an analysis of newspaper articles to examine how media discourse has contributed to bringing the crack issue into the public spotlight, as well as the populations associated with it. We study the various portrayals of crack in the press over a forty-year period, incorporating different semantic registers, from the "threat" to the figure of the “undesirable,” and from the marginal phenomenon to its diffusion. This figure of the crack user as undesirable is constructed at the intersection of other groups labeled as “threatening” in the public space, including people in situations of social precarity, migrants, and sex workers. This media discourse also highlights the figure of the local resident as a victim in this process of co-production of undesirability. It most often echoes the dominant political discourse, which mainly focuses on public order, safety, or urban ecology.

Keywords

• drugs
• crack
• indesirability
• public problem
• public sphere
• media discourse