90

In November 2005, France suddenly came to occupy a central place on the international media scene. Catastrophizing statements and untruths abounded. France was witnessing the biggest urban riots in its contemporary history: for the first time, the phenomenon was no longer localized, specific to the local neighborhood where a drama takes place; on the contrary, it took on national proportions. How to analyze this phenomenon? How to qualify and explain the collective identification processes among young people in poor areas? This article first questions those whose voice usually goes unheard: the rioters themselves. Beyond the context of the riots, listening to rioters reveals the deep motivations of their rage, which relate to their everyday life experience, both individual and collective. Then, we extend the analysis to the inhabitants of the neighborhoods where the riots took place, most of whom have also been absent from the public debate. Their responses reveals sympathy with the rioters, some of whose deep motives they share, explaining in some measure the rioters’ feelings of moral legitimacy. In conclusion, this article diagnoses a double crisis of integration, socioeconomic and political, of these young people in contemporary French society.