Grandstand. France is threatened by multiple crises, but the one that perhaps mortgages its ability to defend its future the most is the threat to its national cohesion. This disintegration of the bonds which unite the French among themselves, and of those which connect them to the institutions, is not recent. It now takes on new, more dangerous forms.
Our country is locked in a paradox: despite a high level of public intervention, and despite the initiatives undertaken by the government since 2017, the feeling of adherence to a collective destiny is withering. The relationship between citizens is deteriorating, distrust of institutions is increasing. The inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods leave them when they can, or continue to suffer from poverty traps. Public officials are doing what they can but feel they can no longer change the situation. From this double impotence are born the small daily humiliations, and the great violences of tomorrow.
The weight of social discrimination
An essential concept can allow us to repair our Republic, that of recognition. Developed, among others, by the philosopher Paul Ricœur [1913-2005], it is the ability to build a dynamic of mutual respect between individuals, on the one hand, and between citizens and institutions, on the other, in the service of a dignified society. This is the guiding thread of the survey that I conducted with the think tanks Point d’æncrage and Thinkers & Doers, for several months, in four areas: Trappes (Yvelines), Clichy-sous-Bois (Seine- Saint-Denis), Maubeuge and Roubaix (North). I relied on prefectures, municipalities, associations and experts to question the relationship between citizens and public authorities.
Our survey confirmed a series of already well-documented dynamics on the weight of social, ethnic and spatial discrimination, and their share of humiliation and self-censorship; on the centrality of grievances related to housing, educational orientation and tensions between police and young people; or again, on the progression of a religious reaffirmation mixing Salafist proselytism, patriarchal tradition and identity claim.
Our study also made it possible to paint a portrait of current public action in terms of cohesion. Public authorities have thus never remained passive with regard to the many reforms implemented by successive governments. The initiatives and innovations carried out by the government in the field of education (splitting of classes, launch of educational cities), regional planning – ANRU investments [Agence nationale de la rénovation urbaine]creation of the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion – or for security reinvestment (the Republican reconquest neighborhood schemes), have not, however, reversed, for the moment, the dynamics of erosion of cohesion and the feeling of ‘incapacity.
You have 61.29% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.