Death of Laurent Bouvet, founder of the Republican and secular Spring without concession

Long close to the Socialist Party, the political scientist died at the age of 53. Promoter of the notion of “cultural insecurity”, he was regularly controversial while defending a “strict” conception of secularism.

As sociologists do with their discipline “a combat sport”, Laurent Bouvet practiced hand-to-hand secularism. Long close to the Socialist Party (PS), then to macronist networks, those of Jean-Michel Blanquer in particular, the academic, co-founder of the Republican Spring and author of essays on communitarianism or the secular question, spent his life at the crossroads the intellectual world and activism. He died this Saturday, December 18 from a neurodegenerative disease, ALS, commonly known as Charcot’s disease, at the age of 53.

Born in 1968 into a modest family and having grown up in the Parisian suburbs, Bouvet popularized in 2015 the notion of“Cultural insecurity”, title of one of his works. The concept, taken up by Emmanuel Macron during the 2017 presidential campaign, aims to reflect a certain “French malaise” felt in a population affected by economic difficulties but also worried about its own identity in the face of the consequences of globalization and immigration. The expression hits the mark at the same time as it divides the left. The essayist is accused of participating in a form of “The penization of spirits”. In response, Bouvet accuses his contemptors of “to put” identity anxieties “Under the carpet”.

In the same era, …