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2444Ch9 3/12/02 9 2:04 pm Page 216 Andrea Szukala France: the European transformation of the French model Introduction: ‘Maastricht’ as a major challenge Since Maastricht the politicisation of European ‘high politics’ promises to be a very hazardous political venture in France. A newspaper headline such as this from 1991: ‘Government and MPs concerned about French indifference to European integration’,1 would be inconceivable today. It is not exaggerated to presume that Maastricht stands for a fundamental shift in how the French political system copes with
My project is socialist and I am a Socialist. I am neither vulnerable to the sirens of neoliberalism nor the supporter of a state which decides everything above the heads of citizens, society and the social partners. I am not a moderate Socialist nor moderately socialist. I am simply a Socialist. (PS presidential candidate François Hollande, 16 March 2012) The truth is that the French voted for the left and found themselves with the programme of the German right. (Former PS
The Enlightenment and religion 4 France: the revolt of democratic Christianity and the rise of public opinion This chapter focuses on the emergence of religious toleration in France and the degree to which it was brought about by broad politico-religious struggle rather than by the philosophes.1 The discussion will, therefore, not provide the usual Enlightenment studies degree of focus upon the philosophes. Much of the research necessary for a revision of the role of the philosophes in France has been accumulating for several decades, but there has not yet been
5 French television: negotiating the national popular Lucy Mazdon A Introduction s has been argued in previous chapters, discourses relating to what constitutes popular culture in France have experienced a sweeping paradigm shift in the last fifty or so years. This has been witnessed across a range of cultural practices and philosophical and political debates. This period of change and negotiation coincides to a great extent with the development and gradual entrenchment of television in French cultural life, from its early days as a little-watched curiosity
• 5 • Rejuvenating France: The Jeunes de l’UF and the Jeunes de l’UNC Inter-war France saw an extraordinary mobilisation of young men and women in associations designed to protect young people’s interests and give voice to their concerns. Certainly, youth organisations had existed before the Great War. The Association catholique de la jeunesse (ACJF) aimed to provide members with wholesome values, lifestyle advice and a sense of collective identity while the AF’s camelots du roi brought youthful anti-republicanism to the street.1 Yet only after the war did
In retrospect, it can be tempting to imagine that all British people during the Age of Empire defined themselves in relation to an exotic ‘Other’ represented by China, India, Africa, or the Ottoman Empire. But at the beginning of the nineteenth century, France presented a much closer, more vivid, and more dangerous ‘Other’ for the majority of ordinary Britons. France and Britain were at war for the better part of two decades from the early 1790s until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The only
Recent pressures for change in France have impacted upon a country which, from 1945 to 1975, had featured both unprecedented economic growth and the building of a powerful state. Drawing upon a plethora of social science research and data, this book sets out what has been made in France since that period and, as importantly, what this ‘made’ the French. By examining the institutions and asymmetric power relations that have structured French society, together with the ‘political work’ that has changed or reproduced them, in seven chapters the book takes the reader ‘from the cradle to the grave’ to assess whether and where significant change has occurred over the last four decades, then explain the outcomes identified. Overall, the book provides a comprehensive account of French society and politics, while proposing an original generic analytical framework that is applicable to other nations and their comparative analysis.
This article describes the powerplay around the recent discovery (summer 2015) of eighteenth-century Jewish graves in the French city of Lyon. Prior to the French Revolution, Jews had no right to have their own cemeteries, and the corpses of the deceased were buried in the basement of the local catholic hospital, the Hôtel- Dieu. In recent years this centrally located building was completely renovated and converted into a retail complex selling luxury brands. The discovery and subsequent identification of the graves – and of some human remains – led to a complex confrontation between various actors: archaeologists, employed either by the municipality or by the state; religious authorities (mostly Lyons chief rabbi); the municipality itself; the private construction companies involved; direct descendants of some of the Jews buried in the hospital‘s basement; as well as the local media. The question of what to do with the graves took centre stage, and while exhumations were favoured by both archaeologists and the representatives of the families, the chief rabbi – supported by the construction companies – proved reluctant to exhume, for religious reasons. In the first part of his article the author details the origins of this Jewish funerary place and current knowledge about it. He then goes on to analyse what was at stake in the long negotiations, arguing that the memory of the Holocaust played a role in the attitude of many of the parties involved. By way of conclusion he considers the decision not to exhume the graves and elaborates on the reasons why this led to some dissatisfaction.
Châteaux and landed estates, family portraits, names, titles and coats of arms are symbols of aristocratic identity and integral to the collective memory of nobility. In this study of tangible and intangible cultural heritage Elizabeth Macknight explains the significance of nobles’ conservationist traditions for public engagement with the history of France. During the French Revolution nobles’ property was seized, destroyed, or sold off by the nation. State intervention during the nineteenth century meant historic monuments became protected under law in the public interest. The Journées du Patrimoine, created in 1984 by the French Ministry for Culture, became a Europe-wide calendar event in 1991. Each year millions of French and international visitors enter residences and museums to admire France’s aristocratic cultural heritage. Drawing on archival evidence from across the country, Macknight presents a compelling account of power, interest and emotion in family dynamics and nobles’ relations with rural and urban communities.
3 France's European policy On the whole, the French have not seemed determined to jump suddenly from great-power status to minor-power resignation, from the world scene to the hermitage. (Hoffmann et al. 1963, 75) While France has been involved as a major player in the process of building Europe from the beginning, France's relationship with Europe is paradoxical. On the one hand European integration challenges France's traditional political values and on the other hand it presents France with a unique opportunity to wield global influence. However, French