Uncivil Engagement and Unruly Politics : Disruptive Interventions of Urban Youth

This book explores the significance of riots and public disturbances caused by marginalized youth with a migrant background in France and the Netherlands, and how their demands for recognition, justice and equal opportunities are voiced in uncivil, yet politically meaningful ways. Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Making Trouble 12 1 The uncivil revolt of young urban troublemakers 13 2 Boys from the streets contesting “civilized” politics 15 3 The difference between institutional and unruly politics 17 4 Writing an experience-book 19 5 All words are lived 20 6 Politics, the political and their interaction: Outline 23 1 At the Threshold between Politics and the Political 25 1.1 The threat of a democratic deficit 25 1.2 Earn your citizenship! 28 1.3 Postfoundational thinking 34 1.4 Of friends and enemies 38 1.5 The political in retreat 42 1.6 Unruly politics 45 2 A Community of Experience in Grigny 54 2.1 Welcome to Grigny 55 2.2 Growing up in Grigny 60 2.3 Young people’s perception of politics 63 2.4 Living in a world of “us” vs. “them” 65 2.5 A void of belonging 69 2.6 “Us”: The community of experience 73 2.7 “There is correct and then there is correct” 78 2.8 Too included and too excluded 83 3 A Penal Panopticon in Kanaleneiland 89 3.1 Welcome to Kanaleneiland 90 3.2 Tough guys on the streets of Kanaleneiland Noord 94 3.3 Live like a gangster 99 3.4 “We will be monitoring you” 103 3.5 Frustrations regarding the general approach 112 3.6 Risk management as a central concern of governance 115 3.7 A penal panopticism in the neighborhood 119 3.8 “Politics is theater” 123 4 The Political Sense of Disruptive Interventions 128 4.1 Youth culture as a cause for moral panic 129 4.2 The rebel without a cause 134 4.3 Tony Montana: Hero from the gutter 138 4.4 Demanding equality in an act of disagreement 141 4.5 The sense of senseless urban violence 146 4.6 Autotelic violence 150 4.7 Riots indicative of a problem instead of a solution 153 5 Counternarratives of Shared Unruly Politics 158 5.1 Welcome to Banlieue 13 160 5.2 The risky business of speaking the truth 164 5.3 From agonistic tension to a sudden event of recognition 170 5.4 A political ontology of shared coexistence 176 5.5 An egalitarian revolt 179 5.6 A story told from the edge 183 Contr’actions 187 1 Looking back 187 2 Counterconduct 189 3 Contr’actions 192 4 Hopes for another world 194 Notes 198 References 215 Index 225 Front Matter....Pages i-x Making Trouble....Pages 1-13 At the Threshold between Politics and the Political....Pages 14-42 A Community of Experience in Grigny....Pages 43-77 A Penal Panopticon in Kanaleneiland....Pages 78-116 The Political Sense of Disruptive Interventions....Pages 117-146 Counternarratives of Shared Unruly Politics....Pages 147-175 Contr’actions....Pages 176-186 Back Matter....Pages 187-215 Femke Kaulingfreks, Visiting Scholar, Institute For The Study Of Societal Issues, University Of California Berkeley, Usa. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.