Dix mois d’École et d’Opéra
Democratizing access to art and culture
20 May 2016
Attractiveness of political parties
20 May 2016

Civic life for the most deprived

Old Age

Old Age/ MihaiParaschiv/Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Old Age

Old Age/ MihaiParaschiv/Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

How can we ensure that over-fifty-year-olds, the poor, the most isolated people and those in need are able to participate more fully in civic life? The “Précarité Participation Politique” (Precariousness Political Participation) project seeks to address this question as part of the Partenariats institutions-citoyens pour la recherche et l’innovation (Picri) (institution-citizen partnerships for research and innovation) project launched and funded by the Île-de-France region.

This project builds on the complementarity between practical and academic knowledge. It brings together a research team* specialized in political participation issues and an association founded in 1946, les Petits Frères des Pauvres (the little brothers of the poor), which assists over-fifty-year-olds who are lonely, poor or excluded.

The goal is to study the civic participation of these populations and thus to contribute to the discussion on both political and social democracy at a time of economic crisis.

This approach seeks to study the forms of empowerment of people in great poverty as well as the dynamics and constraints specific to the associative sector by focusing on the roles of volunteers and employees. The idea is to examine its operations and participation dynamics.

The project involves the coding of individual files processed by the association and group interviews with assisted people and the assistants, complemented by individual interviews.  The synergy between two establishments of the Île-de-France region (Sciences Po and Sciences Po Saint Germain-en-Laye) in this project provides an opportunity to launch a regional process.

*The team includes Caroline Arnal (Centre for European Studies, Sciences Po; Professions, Institutions, Temporalities laboratory, University of Versailles Saint Quentin) Céline Braconnier (University of Cergy Pontoise; Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye; CESDIP) Florence Haegel (Centre for European Studies, Sciences Po) and Nonna Mayer (Centre for European Studies, Sciences Po)