Progetto di ricerca - Riassunto
Social Integration in Modern Democratic Societies
Dominique Schnapper has used the second half of her 2002 Balzan Prize for Sociology for a research project on social integration of marginalized groups in modern society. To this end she has assembled a research group composed of colleagues and young researchers. The project was designed to allow members of the group to further develop work already initiated (but interrupted due to lack of funds), within a shared framework and aims: a major quantitative inquiry on the problems of citizenship in France.
1. An Investigation on Jews in France. An empirical inquiry study undertaken in Toulouse by Chantal Bordes-Benayoun (Université de Toulouse II -Le Mirail), in Strasbourg by Freddy Raphaël (Université Marc Bloch de Strasbourg), and in Paris by Dominique Schnapper (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales - EHESS). Besides the results of the empirical inquiry, the interpretation of the Jewish predicament in France called for a wider historical and sociological reflection on the changing relationships between all ethnical identities and citizenship. The results were published in a volume, La condition juive en France : La tentation de l’entre-soi, Schnapper, Bordes-Benayoun, and Raphaël, Presses Universitaires de France, 2009; a translation in English Jewish Citizenship in France: The Temptation of Being among One’s Own was published by Transactions Publishers in 2010.
2. Islam and Democracy. Mahnaz Shirali (Maison des Sciences de l’Homme) addressed the issue of the compatibility between Islam and democracy with a thorough inquiry based on participant observation in three different suburban areas of Paris and 150 interviews with young Muslims who live there. Focusing on multiple constructions of religiosity within young members of families who migrated to France from the Maghreb. This work was concerned with the place of Islam within democracy. The inquiry gave rise to a book Entre islam et démocratie : Parcours des jeunes Français d’aujourd’hui, Mahnaz Shirali, with a Preface by Dominique Schnapper, Armand Colin, 2007.
3. Mixed couples and immigrant’s families: a comparison between France and Germany. During the last five years a number of comparative studies on mixed couples and immigrant families in France and Germany have been carried outunder the responsibility of Beate Collet and Emmanuelle Santelli (Université de Lyon 2). Taken altogether these studies have provided new insights on the interdependence of marital choice, family patterns and different ways to combine familial cultural references with participation in social life. The main results are summarized in the following publications: Collet, 2004; Collet, 2006; Santelli and Collet, 2006; Collet and Inowlocki, 2006; Santelli, Collet, Boukacem and Ousmaal, 2007; Collet and Santelli, 2008. In 2005 a DVD aimed at familiarizing the general public with these research activities was released on the occasion of the “Fête de la Science” (Paris). The expertise acquired by this research group thanks to the support of the second half of the Balzan Prize awarded to Dominique Schnapper allowed them to apply for and obtain a grant from the Ministère de l’Immigration, de l’Intégration, de l’Identité nationale et du Développement solidaire. The report on research was submitted in November 2007. Finally, theenquiry helped bring about a new international effort of cooperation at the European level: a project named Mixcoup (Mixed couples and transcultural hybridization) aimed at the training of young researchers was submitted to the European Commission in December 2009, within the ITN (Marie Curie Initial Training Network) initiative. The project included, besides Emmanuelle Santelli and Beate Collet, the German researchers who took part in the Balzan Project together with other partners from Spain, Turkey and Greece. A comprehensive work on mixed couples and transcultural hybridization was concluded in 2010 and published by Presses Universitaires de France (within the series “Le Lien Social”) in May 2012, Couples d’ici, parents d’ailleurs, Parcours de descendants d’imigrés, Collet and Santelli.
4. Social bonds and citizenship in prison. Is it possible to speak of citizenship in prison? Citizens are entitled by the law to a number of rights which are not granted to inmates. How can those temporarily excluded from the “community of citizens” exercise their citizen’s rights and duties? These were the questions addressed by researchers Corinne Rostaing and Caroline Touraut (Rostaing, 2007, 2008; Touraut, 2005). Corinne Rostaing has also completed a study on the prison as a non-democratic institution, based on her whole empirical research on this issue. How can an institution which is contrary to democratic principles, especially those concerning individual freedoms, respond to the needs of a democratic society? A synthesis of this empirical research will be published in 2013 under the title L’institution dégradante. Essai sociologique sur la prison, Rostaing.
May 2013