...“repertoire,” to use Charles Tilly’s vocabulary, include setting fire to private cars, on the one hand, and targeting public institutions on the other hand—schools, for instance, and also buses (which...

...du ‘problème des quartiers sensibles,’” online at http://www.lmsi.org. of the riots died. In discussions with my students, they said they were frustrated by the so-called “sociological” explanations they heard in...

...order, the rioters opposed the law and order of force. The two sides fought for the definition of the space where they actually opposed each other: is it part of...

...the suburbs or young descendants of North African immigrants.” Yet, French public opinion was used to attributing such scenes to black ghettos of big American cities, because of the discriminatory...

...mes excuses), which uses OECD standardized data to compare France and the US. In the 25-54 age group, the employment rates of men in both countries have stayed very close;...

...that the ethnic origin of this or that public figure from the suburbs would be a guarantee of civic order. Rapidly, however, there emerged a striking divide between the organizational...

...is with republicanism, a concept whose abstraction has become glaring not because it doesn’t come close to mirroring reality, but because its power now resides in shielding the French from...

...expression. The gravity of the crisis led politicians to examine the factors leading to the widespread unrest. Multiple hypotheses were suggested: organized gangs, deficient parenting, polygamy, manipulation by extremist Islamic...

...firmly that Islamic organizations played no role in provoking the riots. On the contrary, it has been widely reported that where Muslim organizations have taken a stance, they have done...

...in schools has largely been enforced because the veil was seen as a symbol of the growing social pressure on girls (the fact that most of the veiled girls used...