Enacting half-positions : creative disrespect in the 2005 French riots

The large-scale youth riots of late 2005 in France were powerfully non-discursive actions that embodied the frustrations of those with least access to a public voice. We examine the riots in a way that distinguishes between the lived experience of collective violence and the larger structural dimensions of the discontent. Although the lived experience and the structural dimension of the conflict cannot be reduced to each other, it is necessary to address how they intersect with pre-existing histories of discontent, which are anchored in experiences of social vulnerability and the denial of social recognition.