Social movements in France: towards a new citizenship

Contemporary France has witnessed a rise of new forms of social movement, mobilising around new causes and articulating changing demands.

Sarah Waters examines the new generation of movements in the last decade, from anti-racism and the movement of the unemployed to solidarity or the associations of the 'Sans' .

She argues that emerging movements share a profoundly civic dimension: these are movements about rights and are concerned with who has rights and what those rights are.

They manifest a desire to reinvent citizenship in the present day in relation to a new set of social struggles and conflicts.