School parents’ mobilizations in Seine-Saint-Denis for territorial equality. On the spatial dimension of protest practices

By systematically addressing the spatial dimension of protest practices in all their aspects – in particular, the social conditions of emergence, demands and repertoires of action – this article shows how space, in its material and symbolic components, contributes to politicization. First, it examines the effects of the residential context on the formation of activist groups in two neighborhoods, paying as much attention to biographical trajectories as to the interactions and social practices in local space of the mothers (and fathers) mobilized. Although these groups have strongly contrasting social interests, they nevertheless converge around a slogan: territorial equality. The article then examines the ways in which this slogan has been appropriated, looking at the discursive resonances between militant discourse and categories of public action, and the ways in which these categories have circulated and been appropriated in the local space. Finally, the federation and alliance of these collectives at departmental level, claiming “equality 93”, leads to tensions or distances between localized social groups. So, while spatial categorizations of the social world enable the politicization of dominated groups, they also contribute to building the legitimacy and authority of dominant groups in local space.