Marion Carrel

1. Understanding the empirical and normative
complexity of deliberation:
why ethnography is useful
Marion Carrel
University Lille 3-CeRIES (Lille)
Centre d’étude des mouvements sociaux-EHESS (Paris)
Citizens in the Making – Tampere – May 2016

2. This talk is based on the paper:
Marion CARREL, « Politization and Publicization: the
Fragile Effects of Deliberation in Working-Class
Districts », European Journal of Cultural and Political
Sociology, vol.2, Nos 3-4, Sept-Dec 2015, p. 185-188.

3. Marginalized individuals in
deliberation processes:
• Empowerment or reinforcement of stigmatization?
• The use of ethnography to take us beyond this binary
confrontation:
– Explore citizenship in its relational dimensions (Clarke,
Coll, Dagnino, Neveu 2013 ; Carrel, Neveu 2014)
– Monitor the emergence of public issues while
preserve an interest in structural data (Luhtakallio,
Eliasoph 2014)
– Dialogue between description and theory (Frega
2015; Berger, Charles 2014; Carrel, Cefaï, Talpin 2012)

4. Deliberation and poverty:
Four main theoretical issues
• Conflict and dissent in citizenship (Rancière)
• Deliberation in small group vs public space
(Chambers)
• Participation and representation (Sintomer)
• Knowledge and power, the role of language
(Bourdieu, Ricoeur)

5. The fieldwork: an empowerment
workshop on social housing
• Design
– A group of 13 participants: 7 professionals and 6 applicants
for social housing (financial compensation)
– 12 days of work spread out over a 6 months period
– Demand: social department of a French city
– Animation: Suzanne Rosenberg and colleague
– Output: information leaflet on the application process for
social housing and propositions to the city and state
• Methodology
– Observation and interviews
– The case of Lila

6. The deliberative experience: from
violence to argued conflict
• Anger and incomprehension on each side: « This
is impossible », « you are lying », « you’re only
here for your personal interest »
• The inquiry (Dewey): Slow elaboration of
narratives, collective investigation on Lila’s
dossier
• Awareness of institutional dysfunctions and
political dimension of social housing

7. The deliberative experience: fragile
effects on participants
• Empowerment
« At the employement agency I said: ‘This isn’t right’. That’s
what changed for me » (Laure)
• Beginnings of politization
« The workshop was like a wake-up call (…) I am ready for
action» (Lila)

8. The deliberative experience: a
temporary form of counter-power
• Deliberative counter-powers (Fung, Wright
2003)
• The political objectives of Celine, co-director
of the social department, to bring issues of
social justice in the public arena
• Organizational changes and public claims

9. The double pitfall of deliberative
processes
• Institutional resistance and political exploitation
« I don’t want to provide an alibi for public housing agencies
and elected representatives who have no housing to offer»
(Yacine)
• Absence of durability of collective action: Lila’s
withdrawal
Six months after, Lila had given up trying to denounce the
injustices of social housing beyond her immediate circle of
friends and family.

10. Concluding comments (1)
• The ideal of inclusion and social change: « opening
deliberation to non-argumentative and critical forms of
expression » (Young); « deliberative activism » (Fung)
• The importance of the political objectives pursued
• The importance of organization through collective
action
• Empowerment requires time (Eliasoph): Twelve days
are not enough?

11. Concluding comments (2)
• Empowerment is a social construct
• In order to understand it better, researchers
needs to link up fields often considered as
disconnected:
– Conflictual, bottom-up approaches to citizenship
(social movements)
– Institutional apparatus (participatory democracy)
– Day-to-day practices (ordinary citizenship)