Le redistricting de 2011 à San Diego (Californie) : Mobilisation politique et représentativité de la communauté latino

Abstract

According to the decennial American Census, electoral districts are redrawn at each jurisdictional scale, through the principle of “one man, one vote”. In San Diego (California), the City Council redistricting has been conducted by a Commission of independent citizens. The main goal was to enhance the participation of citizens in the decision-making process.This article proposes to analyze this process from a fieldwork. The Latino community becomes a demographic and societal issue. This group has participated to public hearings in order to valorize their territorial belongings and legitimacy and to obtain a representativeness at the City Council.The recourse to Geographic Information Systems was a new piece of the citizens’ implication. They can now manipulate their representative political space and be aware of the demographic and political statistical impact of the process.All these political mobilizations mechanisms will be analyzed, thanks to maps, pieces of interview and participant observation. At the end, it is possible to conclude that a new consideration of the political space is emerging, the one of local governance.

Keywords

• latino
• Geographic Information System
• redistricting
• democracy
• mobilization
• San Diego