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    BOURDIEU, Pierre, The Weight of The World Social Suffering in Contemporary Society

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    Jonathan Fortich

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    The Weight of the World Social Suffering in Contemporary Society Pierre Bourdieu and Alain Accardo, Gabrielle Balazs, Stéphane Beaud, Frangois Bonvin, Emmanuel Bourdieu, Philippe Bourgois, Sylvain Broccolichi, Patrick Champagne, Rosine Christin, Jean-Pierre Faguer, Sandrine Garcia, Remi Lenoir, Francoise Euvrard, Michel Pialoux, Louis Pinto, Denis Podalydés, Abdelmalek Sayad, Charles Soulié, Lowe J.D. Waequant ‘Translated by Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, Susan Emanuel, Joe Johnson and Shoggy . Waryn Copyright 4 this canslation Polity Press 1999 First published in Erance as La misére de monde, «Editions du Seu, 1995, st published in 1999 by Polity Press in astociation wish Blackwell Publishers Led, Ecditorial offic: Polity Press 655 Bridge Su Cambridge C LUR, UK Marketing and production Blackwell Publishers Led 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX4 JE UK All eights reserved. Except for the quoracion of short passages forthe purpess of iciem and reve, «vs part ofthis publication may’ be eproduced, stored i 2 retrieval system, of transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, Photocopying, recording or otherwise, withour the prior permission of ine publisher Except in he United States of America, chis hook is soll subject to she condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, esol, hired ut, or atherise circulated ‘without the publisher's prior consent in aay form of binding or cover other than that in ‘which i is published and without a similar condition including this condition beng, ISBN 0-7456-1592-9 ISBN 027456-1595-7 ipl, catalogue eecord for this book is available from the British Li The publication ofthis hook is supported by the French Ministry of Culure and the Calera Service of the French Embassy in London, ‘Typeser in 10.5 on 12pt Sabon by Kolam Information Sercses Pvt Led, Pondicherry, india Printed in Great Briain hy Ty, International Padstow, Cornwall This book is printed on acid-free paper Contents Translator’s Preface Acknowledgments To the Reader . Pierre Bourdies ‘THE SPACE OF POINTS OF VIEW Pierre Bourdiew Jonquil Street Pierre Bourdiew ‘A Displaced Family Abdetmalek Sayad Everyone in a Place of their Own Rosine Christin The View from the Medi Patrick Champagne The Order of Things Pierre Bourdieu An Integrated Family Patrick Champagne A Bad Investment Gabrielle Balazs Rehabilitation Gabrielle Balazs ‘The Last Difference Patrick Champagne SITE EFFECTS Pierre Bourdieu America as Social Dystopia Loic J. D. Wacguant Inside “The Zone" Loic J. D. Waequant Homeless in El Barrio Philippe Bourgois ‘THE ABDICATION OF THE STATE Pierre Bourdieu An Impossible Mission Pierre Bourdiew Institutional Bad Faith Pierre Bourdiewe Double Binds Pierre Bourdien and Gabrielle Balazs The View from the State Paxrice Chavypagne Disorder among Agents of Order Reni Lenoir Woman and Cop Rem Lenoir A Living Reproach Remi Leswoir reo 106 123 130 40 168 181 Nose ef 76s Contents ON THE WAY DOWN Permanent and Temporary Workers ‘The Old Worker and the New Hane ‘The Temp's Dream Working Nights Possession The End of a World The Shop Steward's World in Disarray The Stolen Work A Silent Wigness Such a Fragile Equilibrium Hanging by a Thread A Life Lost The Fall Broken Carects OUTCASTS ON THE INSIDE ‘Those Were the Days A Paradise Lose Cogs in the Machine A Double Life French Class ‘The Upper Hand Institutional Violence THE CONTRADICTIONS OF INHERITANCE, Academic Destiny A Compromising Success The Spirit of Contradiction Wite and Colleague ‘The Curse Emancipation The Sick Person as Object Michel Pialon and Stéphane Beaud Michel Pialous Stéphane Beaud Rosine Christin Rosine Christin Pierre Bourdiew Michel Pialoux Sandrine Garcia Rosine Christin Pierre Bourdiew and Gabrielle Balazs Pierre Bourdiow Pierre Bourdiew Patrick Champagne Lonis Pinto Pierre Bourdieu and Patrick Champagne Pierre Bourctiew Sylvain Broceolichi Sylvain Broceolichi and Francoise Euvrard Rosine Christin Rosine Christin Syleain Broccolichi Gabrielle Balazs and Abdelmalek Sayad Pierre Bourdiew Alain Accardo Charles Soulié Enunanuel Bourdieu and Denis Podalydis Jean-Pierre Faguer ‘Abdelnalek Sayad Abdelmalek Sayad Frangois Bonvin 285 257 267 282 297 309 317 321 338, 354 361 370 381 392 408 421 427 441 455 463 484 488 492. 507 si4 529 536 549 561 580 590 Solitude UNDERSTANDING Postscript Glossary Index brielle Balaes Pierre Bourdiew Pierre Bourdieu Contents 599 607 627 630 635 Translator’s Preface Any translation must negotiate between the known and the unknown, berween the familiar and the steange. Every translator must decide just how much of the foreign “flavor” should! be kept and how much of an effort shoul be made to “naeuralize” the text being “carried over” as the etymology of the rerm tells Ws from one language, from one culture, to another. Given the nature of The Weight of the Worl, is exploration of decidedly French soeial setting even as i aims a significance that transcends any particular seting, 1 decided to favor the Frenchness of the text. This decision meant, among others, retaining the many acronyms, adding explanations in brackets after the first use in a given interview and for the most frequently recurring terms, amplifications in the Glossaey. This decision meant as well such things as keeping sums of money in francs, even i the ‘old francs that the French continue t0 use for large sums (as in’ real estate transactions): for a rough equivalency, readers shou divide the amount in francs, by five for a US dollar sum, by nine for British pounds sterling. A quick word about the most important, and least rcanslatable, term of all, ka risére. The entire book, called in the original La Misére di monde, plays upon the multiple meanings and resonances ofthis term, which suggests Hoth poverty in economic but also in spieitual and indeed moral terns, and also misery, that is, she suffering, unhappiness, and misfoccanes of the collectivity as well as the individual. There are echoes of Pascal's reflexions on the misery of man witht God! as there are of Marx’s La Misére de la philosopbie (The Poverty of Philosophy), isola reply to Proudhon's La Philosophie dela misére), and Victor Hugo's novel, Les Misérables. There isa further crucial distinction that opposes even as it connects la grande misére, which can be thought of as poverty (always retaining the spiritual as well as material implications of impoverishment), and a petite muse, eelative misery, poverty, and sufering, often the plueal, which has usually been rendeted as ordinary suffering. This book weaves its larger text with both of these strands, ‘Other complexities of tra naerative anc! a8 analysis. As Picite Bourdiew acknowledges in “To the Read tmany readers will read these interviews as short stories ~ windows on conten porary society opened by narratives of how shat saciety is experienced by individ tials from many walks of life and social situations. And indeed, these narratives " See Pier Bouneus recent Miltations paslcnes (Paris isons dy Sel, 9971 tans Pas fan Meditavone Camby Poiy Paes. 199), slation derive fron the dual chrust of the text as Translators Preface are quite wonderful, (They have worked well for me in my courses in sociology.) ‘The translator's goal with the interview as story must be to render the quality of these diverse lives, the pungenes, the pathos, as the case ray be, and the speci- ficity oftheir social and work sexings the automobile plant, the school system, the political Landscipe, and so on)? However, as Bourdieu cloguently insists; The Weight of the World is first and foremost a sociological enterprise. Thus, the vital importance of the brief intro- ductions and articles that situate the incerviews in time and place and also within an interpretive framework. The sociological framework and its conceptual ferms will be familias to those acquainted with Bourdiew’s writings from the late 1950s to the present, But more manifestly than in almost any other of his works, The Weight of the World presents a sociology that constructs che emblematic from the idiosyncratic, Indeed, the texts inthis work are les interviews than short ethno: sgraphies where the personal feads to the sociological and where, by design, the imerviewer-ethnographer enters openly into che sociological equation. And so Rosine Christin makes a point of mentioning the sympathy that tes women of the same age (“A Double Life”) and notes how family connections enable her to participate, however momentarily, in the life of a postal worker (“Working Nights"), Michel Pialoux spent considerable time in the automobile plant that is the setting for a number of the studies. He knew, as an outsider could not, the ‘nen he interviewed and especially the contexts that made those interviews emblematic of a certain working-class dejection, ‘Of course, mere acquaintance, even familiarity is not enough, The sociologist snus earn how to listen to discern the sociological relevance m conversavions that are resolutely individual and personal. As he readily admits, even though he had known the farmers he interviewed fora long time (“A Life Lost”), Pierre Bourdieu cli not really hear what these men were saying until a number of years late, after he had transcribed the conversation and listened to it carefully, repeatedly, and, ‘especially differently. In these and in many other instances The Weight of the World is the product not only of a particolar sociological practice, but also of a constant reflexion on and continual modification of that practice. Iisappropriate, then, to see this ambitious work as itself something of a translation, a specifically sociological transformation that “carries over” the everyday lives of ordinary people into an understanding of the social world in which thes, and we, live. The «fort, thronghout, has been ro maintain these delicate balances in such a way ast keep both te purposes anit she spi ofthe authors aloft in another language. Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson Columbia University Translation Editor © ofthe 69 ants or i moe, 54 appear in his eition in ation Whe swath Usausion of Understanding” Ate were tite for ess of eeudaney for ‘French augense oe where the weniewece ssa se cheatin reach pins i the Poll pars apps ie exampl Readers sould cons the gsoy p85 Yor explaaguns the Pench ins eterno te tees Acknowledgments “The authors wish to thank La Caisse des Dép6rs, which financed the research whose results are presented here, and panicularly Robert Lion, Paul Pavy tnd Pierre Saragoussi, who supported our work from the outset; PierreJean Ges, for his constant support throughout this enterprise; Pascal Basse, Jeat Barin, Jean-Claude Fete, Jacky Galland, André Gent, Giles Uae, Edmond Maire, Remy Nouveau, and Nicole Pavy, for helping us carry out the fieldwork anid obtain the various kinds of information needed to incepret the results; and finally, all hose who placed their tus in ws by agresng co all with us and whom wwe cannor name: respecting their privacy requires preserving their anonymity Pierre Bourdieu To the Reader are offering here che accounts that men and women have confided to us about their lives and the difficulties they have in living those lives, and we have done so in the hope that the reader will adopt the comprehensive view that the scigntific method both requires of and-geants t0 ts. This is why we hope thatthe reader will follow out order of presentation ~ even if we can understand that some will consider the diferem "ease studies” a5 $0 many short stories and will read at randoms, passing over the methodological ‘discussions and theoretical analyses that we consider absolutely essential toa full understanding of the interviews. How can we not feel anxious about making private words publi, revealing confidential statements made inthe context ofa telatonship based on a east that can only he established heween rwo individuals? Trve, everyone we tlled co agreed to let us use their statements as we saw fit. But no contract carvis as many unspoken conditions as one based on trust. kn the frst place, we had to protect the people who confided in us, im parsiculay by changing, che nantes af places and individuals to prevent identification, Above all, we had to prorect them from the angers of misinterpretaion, “Do not deplore, do wer faugh, do sot hase ~ enderstand.” There is no point ia sociologists adopting Spinoza’s precept if they are unable to put i into practice But how can we offer readers the means of understanding ~ which means taking people as they are ~except by providing the theacetical insteunents cha let us see {hese lives as necessary through a systematic search for the causes and reasons they have for being what they are? How can we give explanations without Finpointing indvidvals? How ean we avai making te interview and its analytic prologue look like a clinical ease preceded by a diagnosis? The analyst's inceusion isas difficult as tis necessary. Ir mst proclaim itself openly and yee strive to g0 unnriced, These considerations fed us wa eesent the cases so that the reading connects individuals whose completly different point of view might very well be a adds, even clash, in real life, This order also allowes us to highlight the representative nawuse of each case, whether itis a teacher or shopkeeper or swhoerer, be grouping it with other “eases” that are, so to speak, variants of i ‘Transcriprion already transforms he oral discussion decisively. To poine the "Fg a died presevation of dhe pss cal peesopesitions of te seve, ss “Undestan ‘To the Reader reader toward factors easily overlooked in a distracted, cursory reading, we have ‘ted titles, headings (always taken from the interview), and, especially, prefs tory remarks. These benchmarks and observations recall the social conditions and ‘onditionings of the men and women talking, along with their carsers, education, land work experiences ~ everything that is at once hidden and disclosed, not only in the transcribed discussion but also in the pronunciation and intonation, every thing transcription eradicate, from body language, gestures, demeanor, mimicry and looks, to silences, innuendoes, and slips of the rong. But the analyst will be able to make the most unavoidable intrusions acceptable ‘only through 2 rewriting that reconciles two doubly contradictory goals. On the tone handy the discussion must provide al che elements necessary to analy2e the interviewees’ positions objectively and to understand heir points of view, and it must accomplish this without setting up the objectivizing distance that reduces the individual to specimen in a display case. On the other hand, i wast adopt a perspective as close as possible co the individual's own without identifying with the alter ego (which always remain an object, whether one wants it or not) and tuming into the subjec vf this worldview. And the analyst will never succeed in this enterprise of participant objectification so well as by ianaging 60 make self-evident and natural, even given, constructions that are wholly inhabited by ssitical eeflection. Pierre Bourdieu The Space of Points of View fo understand what happens in places like “projects” or “housing develop- -ments” as well as in certain kinds of schools, places which bring together people who have nothing in common and foree them 10 live together either in mutual ignorance and ineomprehension or else in fatem oF open conict ~ with all the suffering this entails ~ iis not enough to explain each point of view sepaately. All of them must be brought together as they are ie reality, not «0 celativize them in an infinite number of ccoss-etting images, but, quite 10 the contrary, through simple juxtaposition, to bring out everything that resus when different oF antagonistic visions of the world confront each other ~ that is, in ceetain. E2805, the tragic consequences of making incompatible points of view confront each other, where no concession or compromise is possible because each one of them is equally founded in socal reason, ‘Although these interviews were conceived and constructed as self-sufficient wholes, and ean be read separately {and in amy order the reading, bas been set up to bring together individuals in social categories that might well be found together (such as the superintendents or custodians in lew income housing projects and the residents, adults oc adolescents, workers, craftsmen oF shop- keepers). We hope that this steucture will have two effees. Ie should become clear that so-called “dificult” spots (“housing projects” or Schools today) ae, first of all, dificult to describe and think about, and that simplistic and one-sided images {notably those found in the press} must be replaced by a complex and multi- layered representation capable of articulating the same realities but in terms thar are different and, sometimes, irreconcilable, Secondly, following the kad of novelists such as Faulkner, Jorce oF Wool, ve mus relinquish the single, ceatea, dominant in a word, guasi~livine. point of view that is all tov easly adupred by observers ~ and by readers t00, a least to the extent they do not feel personally involved. We mse work instead with the muttiple perspectives that correspond co the muleiplciey of coexisting, and somerimes directly competing, points of view." "Don Quis sh elvan y gn est ames ih drs tse ifecens co hexane chaactos ry poring un dicen sys ee ths pve! etre “polvakence tha words poses or dfret mand a hy the sine token the pale of perspetves at ak wp) the comple W uoan experience. Le Spee “tines Rerpeciem Det nie i nea ors ssi Lingua Px: Prine Unter Frew a8 1 anh The Space of Points of View “This peespectivism has nothing to do with a subjccivise relativism which might lead ro eynnssm oni, Iris tnsead based inthe very eelty ofthe so world, and ic helps explain a good deal of what happens in society today, in particulas, much of the distress caused by clashing interests, orientations, anc liestyles. Bringing together individoals who otherwise have nothing, in common, ‘especially where they live oF work, only exacerbates the conic. Its within eaeh ‘of these permanent groups (neighbors or coworkers), which se the lived bound- ty forall their experiences, thatthe oppositions (especially salient where lifestyle is concerned) separating classes, ethnie groups or generations, are perceived and experienced ~ wich all the misperceptions this entails. Iris tee that one sometimes encounters individuals whose social trajectory, quite as much as their position, {nelines them to a vision divided against itself. Lam thinking here of the woman selling sporting goods in a “difficule” housing project who vigorously defends hnerself against she aggressive behavior of the young people in the project even she expresses sympathy for theic position. Bu, more often than not, the diect confrontation of differences encourages the partiality and. semi-luciity of polemics. Such 3 the case, for example, ofthe Spanish inwmigrant woman who points our the differences berween European fanslies, which combine a low birthrate and stcong discipline, and the very prolific North African families, ich are frequently doomed to anomie by the crisis in paternal authority. Essentially an exile in a foreign countrs, the immigrant father tends to adapt poorly to his new condition, and sometimes even ends up dependent on his own chide, Even the experience of the position occupied in the social macrocosm is decermined, or at least modified, by the dircetly experienced effects of social interaction within hese social microcosms (office, workshop, business, neighbor. hhood, in the extended family). Patrick Siiskind's play The Double Bass presents an especialy striking image of how painfully the social world may be experienced by people who, like the bass player in the orchestra, occupy an inferior, obscure position in @ prestigious and privileged universe. The experience is no doubs all the more painful when the universe in which they participate just enough ro fee! their relatively low standing is higher in social space overall. This positional suffering, experienced from inside the microcosm, will appear, as the saying goes, “entirely relative.” meaning completely unreal, if we take the point of View ofthe macrocasm and compare it to the “real” suffering of material poverty (la grande mrisére). This i invariably the point of reference for criticism (*You really don’t have anything to complain about”), as for consolation !*You coud he worse off, you know"). But using material poverty as the sole measure of all suffering keeps us from seeing and understanding a whole side of the salfering characteristic of 2 social order which, although it has undoubtedly reduced poverty overall (though less than often claimed) has also multiplied the social spaces (specialized fields and subfields) and setup the conditions for an wnpreced: ented development of all kinds of ordinary suffering (la petite misere), And we ‘would not be faithfully eepresenting a world chat, ike the world at large, has the The Space of Points uf View distinction of producing innumerable representations of itself, if we did not make a place within the space of points af view for social categories that are partict!- loey exposed to this ordinary suffering, that is, all the professions whose mission is to deal with poverty or to talk about it, without forgetting all the distortions that necessarily result from the particular character of theic own point of view. Pierre Bourdieu Jonquil Street cratic initials, ZUP (2one for priority urbanization), then rebaptized “Val Saint Martin” one of those euphemisms by which the people in charge of the “operations” of the DSQ (social development district) aim co “change the image" of renovated districts ~ is like che groups that live there, the visible sediment left by successive industrial policies on the old farm lands that extend £0 the foot of Mount Saint Martin and its Romanesque church. Since the 14-story highrise was torn down in the early 1990s, today there femains only a row of small vownhouses with “options to buy,” occupied by families of skilled workers, shife managets, or foremen in the metallurgical industry. Often of foreign origin, from Algeria in particular almost half of these workers are nnemployed or have taken early retiement subsequent to the different “restructurings” of the steel fedstey Monsicur Leblond and Monsicur Ameaaiane live across from cach other is Jonquil Sree, a large treeless avenue lined by small houses with tiny gardens {foue square meters) enclosed by o small wall and often strewn with paper refuse, brroken toys, and abandoned utensils. Each dwelling consists of 2 three-room apartment above a garage on che ground floor with the taundry-room. and bathroom, which one enters by a very steep rough concrete staircase. At M. Amezriane’s house, the staircase has been left as it iss with only a few floor clothe"By way of a doormat. Except when schoo! lets out and it is transformed into a playground, and perhaps because it includes nothing that ordinarily enfivens city space ~ butchers, bakers, grocery shops, eafés, newsstands oF tobacconists ~ Jonquil Street is almost always empty. The word that springs to mind is “desert” — the term chat local people often use ro designate what has been dace to theie area since che Factories were closed and the buildings demolished. This has left an immense void, and noc just inthe landscape. The inhabitants of Jonquil Sceet ace not unlike the survivors of an immense colleceice disaster, and they know i. Theis teacoa foe existence has disappeared along with theie factories they started work quite nacuraly, often very early the age of 14. after a primary’ school certificate, following in theit parents’ foot steps. and they quite naturally assumed their children would follow them. It is also their past than went, anda webale universe of work relationships that they try to perpetuate as much as possible by jumping at any occasion to get together, in a T: collection of heterogeneous dwellings, at first designated by bureaus Jonquil Steet café or supermarket (even though these places ace separated from their homes by expressways) where they spend whole mornings talking. But it was above all their future they fost, the continuation and justification of their past, that oftheir sas and daughters, who are now inevitably headed for an extended time in a second: ary school that works just well enough to keep chem out of the factory, but most of the rime ean only offer them diplomas worth less and less ~ which, in this region in criss, often means unempfoyment M. and Mme Leblond agreed to see us on the recommendation of a distant relative, M, Leblond is not working this morning. The girls are at school. They heard the caf, and he has the front door open before we get out of the car. Mme ‘Leblond stayed upstairs, bur she quickly appears at the cap af the stairs. They had dressed with care: he put on a checked shirt, and she a flowered dress, and she had fixed her hair. As if i is a test they have co take together, they receive us as a couple: they thus show more of themselves, but each of them no doube ig reassured by the presence of che other. They are a litle intimidated, not really knowing what is expected of them (atthe end they ask: “Bue what are vou going todo with all chis2”); lke us, they cake refuge in the polite greetings usual in such, circumstances, She virtually clings to his side and never leaves him except t0 goto the kitcheo to get che coffee (ie was already made, and che gets the good china ‘eups from the sideboard). She resists our attempts to have two separate discus- sions, With a glance, he brings her into the conversation. When she speaks, she looks for his approval; gravely, he nods, but does not intervene, as if out of respect, We sit down facing each other on either side of a large table that takes up almost the whole dining room. This is the center of family life, where the girls do their homework while their mother sews or knits (an unfinished sweater is spread ‘over the shelf as well as papers, the girls’ notebooks, jeans to be hemmed). This ‘warm lctle world, closed in on iself and perfectly sll-sufficient, ich its Yovingly polished sideboard decorated with photographs of the girls and knick-knacks surrounding the older git?’s vocational diplomas the bookcase covered with more kickknacks and photos, with its three shelves of encyclopedia volumes, “how 10” books: the sofa covered with cushions embroidered im bright colors facing the television; the house plants and the tiny pampered dog. all chs fits the image of M. and Mme Leblone, their pleasant and smiling faces, rusting andl yet showing. Uncertainty (if not Fear) when certain problems in the neighborhood are men tioned in roundabout ways, They ate one of the last families of French origin to live in Jonquil Street, as Mme Leblond points out at the end of the canversatiom: “You know, here in this area, if you count them up, oht there are seven of us French, sevew French families, because even across the street, over there, already’ in the litte houses, there...” ~and shen quickly adding “Well, vou know. T don't 0 our much.” This is merely one of the signs, and undoubtedly the most painful, of the individual decline that has accompanied the collective decline of the industrial Tirms inthe area, And M. ‘.ebhond, who has somesebae micaculausly escaped the Jonquil Street treat waves of aos anarbe too word: the peopein charg of “esting the stel industry” talk about “eliminating employmnene within a social plan) and who has managed to keep his job as quality controller (of finished snetall, deseribes the cumulative signs of the deterioration of his work situation: a salary lower by 30 t0 40 percent (since he no longer works on continuous smeltings and therefore no longer works weekends); work teams cut back, sometimes by half, as his was, going from nine to four people, even though chey take on an ever greater number of deskilled workers (old-timers who have to be relocated until they reach retirement) oF people superficially redeployed ~ all this with constant or even increased production, Then there are the constcaints and controls to cut down on absences, even for sickness (“you aren't supposed eo get sick, there's no one to replace you"; “now you have to get permission to be sick...”; "the guy who breaks his foor or his atm an the plant, a factory car comes to pick him up at home and bring him back every day”); weakened trade unims, especially because ofthe difficulty of mobilizing workers who are disenchanted and end up feeling hcky have a jab at all (“They tll us that over and over; saying ‘you've gota job, count yourself lucky’... Well, that’s just it, ‘Count yourself lucky, you've got a job." 1 hhaven't had a day off sick for seven years: I seopped in September, I had stomach flu, I stayed at home for nine days; when I wene back r0 work, my supervisor called me in, and the engineer told me Thad been pushing it. And only afterward did he ask me what I'd had”); the failure to take on young workers, which shows that the eyle ofthe fir has been broken, and with it, that of the families tied to it "Are there any young, people coming in?” “Right nowy no. That's what we'd like, bur...Especially with the age pyramid, at Longwy, the pyramid’s too old, that's why the unions are figming,o ge people to leave at age 50-55, to let the ‘oung people in.” 7 Thiers n reproduction, whichis inked in large part the tet oF sho, is no doubt one of the major preoccupations. The conversation always comes back to his subject, izespective of whether it concerns the factory situation or the education of che ewo wes, the older one who wants eo be a nurse and who *loves children” (*you give her a bunch of kids to look aftes she'll do it, she loves it”) oF the younger one, who is in junior high, a “transitional class,” and who is finally happy ar school ever since she started peeling vegetables and making cakes or crépes for children in nursery school. And among the reasons brought wp to explain the disaffection of young people with factory work (“back then, we were probably less picky than young people today”) the frst thing people men- tion is school and the overly specific and overly compartmentalized aspirations that it produces: “Young people are taught too much in schoel, oo much is put in their heads, well, if you do an apprenticeship for job you'l ge the job; when the kid gets out of school, with his CAR,’ if he finds a job which is maybe more or less the Same, he won't take it boeause it isn't quite his specialty, an that thinks the schools’ fault.” But atthe same time he points out thar many parents “pray the * Vocational certificate also the lossy for this and slr tens. [Tl Jonguil Stree Good Lord that the kis stay in school as long as possible.” tn this way they accepts ther ows the wishes of ther chlden sho do not want to ave anything to do with the factory. Along wich the son of one of his colleagues, whom he talks abomt with a sort of fascination (with a CAP in cooking, he is studying for a tecbnical baccalauréat [terminal high school qualification] and would then like to doa degree to become a wine steward), all the children could say, “As fong.as I'm in school, 'm nor unemployed.” “I's too bad to say so.” adds A Leblond, “but that’s how things are”; and he thiaks it is only natural that his daughter who ‘wants to be a nurse “will be in school for seven years.” However, he states very clearly everything that separates his generation (he is now a little over 40), for whom school has not Played a very important role, from the following generation: after a last, -desultory vear of elementary school (after a ‘quarrel with his father, his schoolmaster left him at the back of the class) and a setifeac d'études [primary school certificate he just squeaked through the examn {he laughs now at his 52 spelling mistakes), at age 14 he headed gute naturally toward the apprenticeship center of the factory where his father worked, Aly ‘wo years, he entered the same line of work as bis father, but in a different factors Here, bic by bit, notably through “visits” to the shopfloors. and. workites arranged for this purpose, he discovered the true world of the factory, a werld ‘which up undl then he hal seen through his father’s stories and whee he knew a lo of people: “So anyway we went to vist the worksites. Well, here you saw that there are places where the guys weren't... We went to the high furnaces, to the steelworks, those weren't places... That's where you got the shock, where you savy the mixers, the coking plant, you knoss, the guy who spends cight howrs inside tha, iis still..." As in the account Mme Lebiond will ive of her veace of factory work, it is only certain intanations, certain looks that reveal a terrible, incommunicable experience, and especially certain silences {the three sentences ‘quoted above remained watinished, as if suspended infront of the unsayable) thet convey the extent and the violence of the shock represented by the first contact With the world of che factory despite preexisting preparation and resignation, ‘raining is done “on the spot” by an apprenticeship that pives no certificates “T haven't gor any diploma co my name, I don't have anything; anyway, a CAP as controller in metallography isn't good for anything.” In fact they asked him to Prepare for the CAP the year he got married, that is, 13 years after he entered the factory, bur he who “never got beyond fractions” dropped out when they got to algebra. And, looking back, he does not see what a purely theoretical traning, even in physics or chemistry, would have brought him that he dil not ger frons practice, “ust doing it, just doing it..°: “There, vou know very well. nose thors ow have a ste! with 30 much carbon and so much manganese, you will get one thing, and if you have so mach sulphur, vou will have a diferent structure, thors all. Lets just say that ic comes from practical expenence.” And iis lite his own trait he paints without thinking about it and so ‘vithout the least trace of ‘anity, when he contrasts workers trained inthe old stle-with the ones who went through school: “Well, they have their diplomas, they have the technique, but Jonquil Street hey don’t have the practice, and chars awhae’s missing right now in the factory: ‘what is really lacking is guys wh have the practice, guys who know the setups as altvays say, in those says you had an old guy who was there, wel, he new the Setup they told him chee was fault in the meal he came o ee, he looked 3, hhe went away, he went up and down the steel-line twice, he eame back: “that’s ‘where it comes from, right over there,” and the guy was right. He was tight, whereas now when you have a defect, there's @ problem, we look all over the place and we find what's wrong, but nobody.knows sthere it came from because nobody is chete to tell you.” And he can express in a sentence, through self cortection, the ambiguity of privilege represented by such a continuity, the perfect internal adjustment 0 the job held, which goes along with a form of pride, implying, too, a profound submission to necessity: “That's where the problem is for us with the appeenticeship center, for us there was sill the good fortune or the misfortune, let's say, of knowing the factory.” Its undoubtedly this profound integration into the industrial ordes, and con- sequently, into the Social ordex, that — no doubt more than religious traditions or even lifestyle ~ separates him from M, Amezziane, a worker of Algerian orig pushed into unemployment by the massive layoffs of the 1980s, who lives a litle bhighec up on the other side of the street. (ML. Leblond mentions in passing some indications of this integration: when lis neighbor was about 1o move, thanks to his supervisor he got from the Familiale, an FILM housing group. the righe to have thar apartment in exchange for the one he had been allocated when he gor ratried through the president of his basketball club. Being basketball referee kes him a cern authority ove the yong peopl in he aren and even nthe region; belonging to the school parents’ association means he knows everyone a bis he takes art in tude union if, and eventhough he has ever een any activist position since then, he had no reservations about participating in the segs ofthe 1970s agoinst the dumenbermen ofthe sel industry.) Between blond and M. Amezziane, ow berween their families and also their apart- sofa, its inexpensive rug thar shows a mosque, its wrought iron coffee table), there is all che distance that separates the proletarian ~even fallen or on the way down, with his reduced bur regular salary, his accounts in order, his future relatively assured, in spite of everything ~ from the former worker whom the drop in employment dumps into the subproletariat, without any protection or guarantee tnpoverished,dvorganiaed, worried abo surviving rom day 0 day cg ip swith unpaid rent and unpayable debss. ‘When he go to France in 1960, 24. Amezziane worked first in several firms, six months in one, two weeks in anorher (“the boss was t00 rough {took aff”), a ‘month and a hal in a third, and so on, forced each time to rake the hardest and worse paid iobs in construction. In December 1962 he was taken on by a Longwy firm where he stayed for 22 years, except fora break of two years (four months of vacation in Algeria, after which he retuened to work in Marscilles for two months, chen in Chambéry, before coming back inta his Longwy firm, a sub- 10 Jonguil Street sidiary of Usinor, manufacturer of construction materials made from the by products of steel-making, which kept open his job as forklift operator thane to a cousin who worked there tool. Sacked in 1984 without a pension the was tundes the cetirement age of 50), he found a job in Haute-Savoie, again via a cousin. Bur, badly paid and exploited the earned 3,600 feancs a month fora nine, hour day], he returned to Lorigwy after theee months; in 1989 he took 9 course where he learned painting and decorating, tiking, and aso to read and write (he still semiliterate and speaks French very poorly, which he isthe first co deplore) Then he fell back into unemployment until, as part of a job subsidy program, he obtained a halftime job in a school thar gives him 3,900 francs pet month, 10 which are added 700 francs in unemployment benefits. More than half of bis income goes to cover fixed expenses, around 1,400 francs in rent (2,400 a month tess 1,000 fram cent subsidies), ahd $00 franes for local taxes, plus electricity, gas, water, ete. So we can estimate that he has at most 1,500 francs.9 month to feed a family of six people, including four children (his wife joined him in France in 1981, with their two children, and two others have been born since), without counting his debts, both very varied and very large, and the lawsuits for the gas, for the rent (although a friend at the interview claims i's a joke, M. Amezziane believes he ‘wes 20,000 franes to che Famille), for the SNCF national train network ("they have been after my wife since lst year for 2,000 francs, she lost het tea eicket, it ‘was zoing, up to 2.200 francs, now I have to pay up”), forthe hospital (there again, between 2,000 and 3,000"), ec. So is financial actobaties never end, and since he is unable to pay al his debts at once (“After al that, how does everyone ‘else manage to eat? How do they eat?”) which he estimates at 1 eo 1.2 mil (ola) franess he tries to “pay slowly," with 150 francs here, to “calm them down a lesle,” and 200 there, And still he had to fight, and give all the details of his finances, o get into the Restaucants du Coeur free cafeterias for the poor, His contract ends on July 5. After that, he docs not know what he will do: “Oht {don’t know, I just don't know what I'm going to do. I'm fed up. I'm leaving. If mv fed up, Po out! That’ it. es the truth. Because why do it? Learn two bits, Pve lost four, so...” Bur can he really go back to Algeria as he wants to do, as dacs his In fact, even though he asserts the contrary several times, even though he insists repeatedly that “he is not afraid,” chat fe has a house and Land that could be cultivated (“ny wife picks up the spade, she'll dig the parden, and Til plant bbchind”), he knows chat he is “pinned in” on all sides: it i too late to find work over there and he would fose the meager income that he gets in France froin ‘unemployment. The neighbor who listens in on the interview, Algerian like hien, sums up the situation in this way: “We are like the pieds noirs* now vou go over there, you aren't Algerian, you stay here, you aten't French.” Asked about his neighbors (by which he means the Freneht and his relation: ships with them, he tespondl in almost the same terms as Mime Leblond: no doubt reve cis of became indepen sn ms Freh, origin i Meri, woh resumed Franke whew Algeria ite " Jonguil Street because for various reasons he cannot say either that they are good or they are bad, he describes them as nonexistent, or neutral, meaning reduced to the “hello— good-bye” that for the workers or employees I interviewed inthe 1960s in Algeria served t0 sum up, oF to symbolize, the inhumanity of relationships at work. And his extreme sensitivity to any mention of his Algerian origins or the possibility of his return to Algeria, shows just how sensitive he is ro all the attacks that reproach Algerians for raking work away from the French and push them to go back home. This is probably noc the case for M. Leblond who, as he says, and we may believe him, respects Algerians and expects to be respected by them in return, But there ate the expressions and the faces his wife makes, her mouth alittle pinched and eyes raised to the ceiling, which let it be known that she cannor say everything there is t0 say as far as relations with neighbors are concerned; about the

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