Florence Faucher

Florence Faucher is Professor of political science at Sciences Po and Director of the Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée (CEE). She is the Director of the network OxPo. She is Associate Fellow at Nuffield College and Associate member of  the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. Prior to joining Sciences Po, she worked at the University of Stirling, UK and at Vanderbilt University, USA, where she co-directed the Max Kade Center in European and German Studies. She has held visiting positions in Australia, in the United States and in the UK. She coordinates the Double Master in European Affairs (Sciences Po/London School of Economics). She has been a member of the Comité National du Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique (2016- 2019), of the board of the Association Française de Science Politique (2014- 2022), and of the British Politics Group. 

She analyses how people relate to politics and how they participate. She argues that an «anthropological imagination» can renew and stimulate analyses of contemporary political institutions and practices, in movements, parties and in the polity. She is interested in 1) how forms of political activism have evolved, particularly in France and the United Kingdom; 2) political cultures and institutions and citizens' relationships with politics; 3) the boundaries between the public and private spheres of political action, including lifestyles and individual behaviors motivated by environmental awareness; 4) the organizational structures and internal reforms of political parties, such as the introduction of consultation procedures and participation in primaries; 5) the way in which demands for democratisation have been impacted by the individualization of contemporary societies; 6) the uses of symbolism in politics and in public policy and the feedback effects between the two. Her recent work focuses on the symbolic dimension of public policy, in collaboration with Laurie Boussaguet. Using qualitative data, they have studied governments’ responses to critical situations (the 2015 & 2016 terrorist attacks in France, the pandemic in European countries) : they shed light on policies focusing on legitimation, reassurance and national unity. Building from their previous research, they published a theoretical argument in favour of bringing the symbolic back into the study of public policy in Symbolic policy. They are currently developing a new research project on the symbolic politics of the European Union, including the uses of the protocol to construct the legitimacy of European institutions and of the EU on domestic and international stages. 

Florence Faucher is the author of six books and many articles (Revue Française de Science Politique, Comparative European Politics, Political Studies, Parliamentary Affairs, Politix, Environmental Politics, Gouvernement et Action Publique) as well as chapters in edited volumes.

She welcomes applications for Master, PhD and HDR supervision.

To know more

• florence.faucher@sciencespo.fr
• Tel: +33145497623
• Bureau C304 - 3ème étage

OUVRAGES / BOOKS

Symbolic Policy, Cambridge University Press. January 2025. Avec Laurie Boussaguet.

Facing Terrorism in France: Lessons from the 2015 Paris Attacks, Paris, Springer Nature B.V., 2022. Direction avec Gérome Truc.

Face aux attentats, Paris, PUF, 2020. Direction avec Gérôme Truc.

Les gouvernements néotravaillistes. Bilan de Tony Blair et Gordon Brown,  Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2010. 2^ème édition mise à jour et augmentée. Avec Patrick Le Galès. 

The New Labour Experiment. Change and Reform Under Blair and Brown. Stanford University Press, 2010. Avec Patrick Le Galès.

L'esperienza del New Labour. Un'analisi critica della politica e delle politiche, Franco Angeli, 2013. Avec Patrick Le Galès.

Changing Parties. An Anthropology of British Political Party Conferences, Houndsmills/New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 315 p. 2005.

Les habits verts de la politique, Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 325p. 1999. Awarded the Philippe Habert 2000 Prize.

CHAPITRES D'OUVRAGES/ CHAPTERS

“Politics as Ritual” in Colin Hay (ed), What is Politics?, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2025, pp. 182-205.

« La covid-19 : comment mobiliser les populations dans une ‘guerre’ contre un « ennemi invisible ?» in Marc Lazar, Guillaume Plantin et Xavier Ragot (eds), », Le monde d'aujourd’hui, Paris, Les Presses de la Fondation nationale de sciences politiques, 2020, pp. 243-262. Avec Boussaguet Laurie.

« Au sommet de l’État : les symboles pour construire l’unité nationale », in Florence Faucher & Gérôme Truc (eds), Face aux attentats, in, collection « La Vie des Idées », Paris, PUF, 2020. Avec Boussaguet Laurie.

ARTICLES

“Beyond a ‘gesture’: the treatment of the symbolic in public policy analysis”, French Politics, 18 (1-2), pp. 189–205. 2020. Avec Boussaguet Laurie.

“La construction des discours présidentiels post-attentats à l’épreuve du temps », Mots Les langages du politique, 118, pp 95-115. 2018. Avec Boussaguet Laurie.

“Identity and Citizenship as Symbolic Responses to Terrorist Attacks. The Case of France in 2015 », Percosi costituzionali, Special issue : La cittadinanza incerta, 2017.2, pp.511-530. 2018. Avec Boussaguet Laurie. 

“The politics of symbols. Reflections on the French government’s framing of the 2015 terrorist attacks “. Parliamentary Affaires, 71(1), pp. 169–195. 2018. Avec Boussaguet Laurie.

50 shades of green. Political differences between elites, members and supporters of Europe Ecologie Les Verts”, Environmental Politics, 27(1), pp. 161-185. 2018. Avec Daniel Boy.

“France”, European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook, 56(1), pp. 99-105. 2017. Avec Nuria Garcia.

“Quand l’Etat convoque la rue. La Marche républicaine du 11 janvier 2015”, Gouvernement et action publique, 6(2), pp 37-61. 2017. Avec Boussaguet Laurie.

“Les rituels de vote en France et en Grande-Bretagne”, Revue française de science politique, 65(2), pp. 213-236. DOI: 10.3917/rfsp.pr.0213. 2015. Avec Colin Hay.

“New Forms of Political Participation. Changing Demands or Changing Opportunities to Participate in Political Parties?”, Comparative European Politics, 13(4), pp. 405-429.

“Leadership Elections: What is at Stake for Parties? A Comparison of the British Labour Party and the Parti Socialiste”. Parliamentary Affairs, 68(4), pp 794-820. 

“Vertitudes. Comment interpréter les différences entre verts français et verts britanniques”, Ecologie et Politique, 44, pp. 103-114. 2012.

“La modernisation du parti travailliste, 1994-2007. Succès et difficultés de l’importation du modèle entrepreneurial dans un parti politique”, Politix, 21(81), pp. 125-149. 2008.

"Managing Intra-Party Democracy: Comparing the French Socialist and British Labour Party Conferences", French Politics, 1 (1), pp. 61-82. 2003. Avec Eric Treille