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Pourquoi et comment interroger les circulations et les ancrages dans les institutions contemporaines?

Yves Bonny, Frédérique Giuliani and Denis Laforgue

La figure de la victime d’elle-même dans les politiques de l’État social en France : une étude de cas

Gilles Frigoli
The fight against conspiracism, as it is being waged in France today, provides an illustration of the tensions that run through the work of the institutions of the social state when they have to rule on the demands for autonomy made by some of their users. Caught between a concern to promote individual responsibility and a desire to combat forms of subjectivization of the world that are deemed deviant, institutions have to reconcile two seemingly contradictory approaches to the mobility of their users: on the one hand, an injunction to existential movement, in the name of the imperative to show oneself to be a self-starter; on the other, a right to anchor one’s identity, in the name of respect for minority subjectivities. Drawing on research into access to the conspiracy agenda in recent times, the article shows how the figure of the self-victim, i.e. the hypothesis of self-deception, seems to impose itself as an operative formula for overcoming this contradiction. Such a presumption about the propensity of certain people to be deceived by what they believe to be dictated by their free will makes it possible to fill in the grey area occupied by those audiences whose conspiracism does not seem to stem either from a lack of rationality or from an intention to do harm. It justifies the deployment of measures to combat conspiracism which guard against the risk of appearing excessively repressive or infantilising. But, as is the case with other targets of the social state, which also cause embarrassment to the public authorities for the same reasons, this formula exposes itself to the difficulties inherent in any approach which, in order not to give up on the horizon of emancipation for all, sees no other solution than to lend a false conscience to people who, by arguing their status as sovereign subjects, refuse the hand that is extended to them.

Circulation contrainte et mobilité buissonnière : deux déclinaisons du paradigme de l’activation dans les « nouveaux » dispositifs scolaires à visée inclusive

Laurent Bovey and Frédérique Giuliani
This article examines the new mobility standards for pupils with special educational needs within so-called inclusive systems, halfway between mainstream and special classes. The possibility for pupils to move more easily than in the past – at least in theory – between different inclusive systems is often presented as a sign of greater accessibility to education. However, according to the authors of the article, the logic of student movement and mobility underlying these systems can be interpreted as echoing a framework that is entirely different from inclusion, namely that of “activation policies” which emphasise a model of the “self-entrepreneur”. The article focuses primarily on studying the practical operationalisation of these standards of mobility and self-mobilisation among students. It is based on ethnographic research conducted between 2018 and 2022 within the specialised education systems of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. Based on empirical case studies, two distinct patterns of movement are highlighted: the movement of pupils constrained by the institution, on the one hand, and the truanting mobility developed by certain pupils to circumvent the imposed systems and reclaim their lives, on the other.

L’accompagnement associatif au logement entre circulations et ancrages : apports de la philosophie de Descombes

Melaine Cervera and Rémi Le Gall
Based on a corpus of qualitative data, this article investigates five residential trajectories of people who have been taken in as part of asylum application procedures on the one hand, or who are experiencing social or health difficulties, or have even spent periods living on the streets, on the other. Aiming to contribute to a sociology of institutions, it tracks the movements of individuals between accommodation and rehousing schemes that have led them to an institutional anchoring in a home. This anchorage is supported by community organizations that assist in the process of empowerment. While this autonomy seems desirable, its effectiveness is questioned in light of the analysis of the trajectories of the people receiving support. They are heavily constrained, which confirms, from the perspective of Descombes’ philosophy, institutional frameworks that leave little autonomy to individuals.

La régulation des circulations au prisme des mobilités contrariées

Anaïk Purenne and Anne Wuilleumier
While French research has mainly examined the policing of mobility from an institutional perspective, this article aims to shed light on it from the standpoint of the public who experience interactions with law enforcement officers in the context of their everyday movements. The analysis is based on the comparison of two empirical studies – one focusing on an “ordinary target public” of law enforcement, the other on a more heterogeneous “police clientele” – thereby allowing for a comparison of diverse types of experiences. The confrontation of these two data sets shows that mobility policing attracts a significant amount of criticism from citizens. Whether one belongs to a target public or a more occasional clientele of the police institution, officers’ involvement in the control of mobility is commonly perceived, in relatively similar terms, as either excessive or, conversely, deficient and ineffective. This dualism reflects the complexity of citizens’ expectations toward institutional regulation of mobility practices, understood as essential vehicles for participation in social life.

L’enfant, l’hôtel social et l’école : des ancrages inattendus comme résistances aux impositions des politiques migratoires

Maïtena Armagnague
Based on ethnographic monitoring of twelve children in four families during their schooling and their life in the social hotel (emergency housing), this article examines the forms of social and spatial rootedness constructed by families with legally unstable migration status through their experience of living in emergency accommodation (social hotel). In a context of extreme precarity, the place of residence – even in one of its most imposed forms – gives rise to ordinary social practices shaped by relations of domination, against which unexpected forms of anchoring and securitization emerge and resist. This unchosen and dominated living environment, as an instrument for institutionalising migration policy, serves as a foundation for the construction of a family and childhood experience that resists the constraints imposed by this policy. This investment is connected to a second space – school – whose attendance is mandated by the right to education and which, in turn, also represents a source of relative, but fragile, stability which quietly establishes everyday life, as a sort of bottom-up institution. Although there is no guarantee that these families will be able to settle permanently, these two imposed spaces – the social hotel and the school – serve as fertile ground for relatively strong, articulated, and instituting social and symbolic anchorings. They allow for the child to be placed at the center of the migratory experience, to inscribe this experience within a forward-looking family continuity, and to support children’s agency.

Entre transferts normatifs et résistances épistémiques : l’Afrique face aux modèles sanitaires internationaux

Simplice Ayangma Bonoho
Globalization and the growing interconnection of national and transnational systems – political, economic, social and cultural – have fostered the circulation and international models’ anchoring, particularly in the field of health. These dynamics have sparked increasing scholarly interest in the concept of transfer, which examines the movement of norms, institutions, and practices across divers cultural and historical contexts. This body of literature highlights the emergence of an “international elite” and transnational structures that facilitate the dissemination of such models. This article contributes to this debate by offering a critical analysis of the modalities through which health-related knowledge is transferred to Africa. It challenges the portrayal of African states, authorities, and communities as passive recipients, instead emphasizing their capacity for innovation and contextual adaptation. Advocating for heterogenization rather than homogenization of international health policies, the study foregrounds processes of anchoring and localization of knowledge by African communities. In response to the cognitive displacement caused by the widespread diffusion of biomedical models, these processes generated a spectrum of outcomes – including selective borrowing, hybridization and outright rejection – that shape both the transformation of practices and the behaviors of actors. This complexity underscores the nuanced ways in which international health models are received, reinterpreted, and reconfigured within African contexts.

Les tiers-lieux en quartier populaire : l’institution microlocale d’une mobilité ancrée

Yves Bonny
“Third spaces” are in the spirit of the times in France. They are associated with ideas of exchanges, interconnections, decompartmentalization, sources of creativity and innovation. They also evoke conviviality and sociability. This article focuses on three associations displaying these kinds of characteristics, with the specificity of being established in a popular district or in close proximity. We show that these three third spaces institute an original articulation between mobility (physical, mental and in terms of identity) and territorial anchorage, through their multifunctionality and their social innovation capacity, in tune with the needs and aspirations of the precarious public which attends them, and in a micropolitic perspective of residential citizenship. But even though their originality is recognized and emphasized by public actors, they are embedded in an unfavorable institutional environment and economic situation which makes their sustainability uncertain.