Subaltern Workers in Contemporary France

Olivier Masclet is a Professor of Sociology at the Université de Limoges and co-director of the GRESCO Research Centre, France. Thomas Amossé is a researcher at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Lise-CEET Research Centre, Paris, France. Lise Bernard is a researcher at CNRS and a member of the Centre Maurice Halbwachs, Paris, France. Marie Cartier is a Professor of Sociology at Nantes University, France. Marie-Hélène Lechien is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the Université de Limoges, France. Olivier Schwartz is a Professor of Sociology at the Université Paris Cité, France. Yasmine Siblot is a Professor of Sociology at the Université Paris 8, CRESPPA-CSU Research Centre, France.

List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; 1 Introduction: Subalterns in a ‘society of the similar’: A study of the lifestyles of the stable-modest fractions of the contemporary working classes; 2 An exploration of the working classes starting from their middle fractions: A two-pronged approach, through statistics and case studies; Part 1: Stories of stabilisation; 3 Introduction to Part 1: Stories of stabilisation; 4 ‘We aimed too high’: A household destabilised by its residential and professional aspirations – Élodie Paillé and Clément Jacquet; 5 Planning life: A strong investment in activities other than work – Laurent Douillard and Thomas Guillet; 6 ‘A mellow job’ and living with a friend: A young, single male worker’s adjustment to a subaltern condition – Romain Boyer; 7 Holding on: Sparing no effort to stabilise an unstable position – Véronique Delage; 8 ‘Getting it right this time’: Aspiring to join the world of intellectuals – Yamina and Souleymane Diallo; 9 ‘You’ve got to fight’: Work as a resource for a fragile success – Mina and Michel Carry; 10 Making a virtue of simplicity: The hedonistic choices of labouring couple – Yvon and Michou Ratelier; 11 A story of social reclassification: A couple from rural backgrounds gone to the city – Mireille and Roger Monteil; Part II: Gender relations and domestic space; 12 Introduction to Part 2: Gender relations and domestic space; 13 Being a mother and unemployed: Resisting being stuck at home – Laeticia and Valentin Dufour; 14 The power of two femininities – Régine and Hervé Leblanc; 15 A business that works: Breaking away from the family model, relying on family help – Cécile and Jean-Marc Pilier; 16 An interlude of equality: ‘Stéphanie is there with the children, she can manage the homework’ – Nicolas and Stéphanie Fontaine; 17 Keeping the conjugal peace: A compensatory domestic equality – Cécilia and Éric Dufar; 18 Being a housewife: Between permanence and evolution of a traditional role – Nadège and Patrick Lancel; Part III: Triangular social consciousness and institutional ‘goodwill’ – the reconfiguration of relations with other social groups; 19 Introduction to Part 3: Triangular social consciousness and institutional ‘goodwill’: the reconfiguration of relations with other social groups; 20 Being a respectable woman: Between the stigma of housing estates and the union in-group – Chantal Monlouis; 21 ‘Simple people’? A local labour family, between social reproduction and openness – Nathalie and Alain Rigaux; 22 ‘It’s really important to be able to grow’: Social ambitions and political disappointments in a working-class household – Vanessa Le Coz and Samuel Bidaud; 23 Always between two worlds: One couple’s split local social life – Manou and Jean Audouin; 24 The cleaning woman and the school parents’ association: Multipositionality in the working classes – Myriam and Nicolino Sanatanazefi; 25 Getting back to a ‘normal life’: Biographical disruptions and ‘institutional goodwill’ – Sylvie Barderon and Enzo; 26 ‘I’ve had two lives’: Self-improvement work and the infiltration of psychological culture into working-class worlds – Philippe and Marianne Chapalain; 27 Conclusion: Goodwill as necessity: Aspirations of the middle fraction of the working classes and how they relate to norms; Appendix A: Socio-professional categories; Appendix B: Equivalency chart of the primary and secondary educational systems in France, the UK, and the US; Appendix C: Educational qualifications; Index