Comment enquêter sur une émeute ?

Abstract

France was affected by an unseen wave of riots in November 2005. This paper comes from a monographic survey made in Aulnay-sous-Bois (a town in the north of Paris). This paper aims to focus on some significant difficulties during the fieldwork. We also attempt to take seriously the discourse of the young interviewees (those actively involved as well as those not actively involved in these events). We have considered our interviewees as “able” to tell their experiences and to give them a meaning. Thanks to this attitude, this survey found out that young people gave several versions of the riots summarised in three great explanations: for them these riots were the result of deviance, protest or a game.

Keywords

• riots
• young people
• opaque suburbs
• pluralism of meaning