Looking Politics from Below. Local Ethnographic Approaches of Political Participation

Abstract

Until recently, political sociologists had to acknowledge a double absence: on the one hand, the absence of ethnographic methodology within political science, and on the other, the absence of political fieldwork within ethnographic research (Auyero, Joseph, 2007). The strict separation of the two approaches probably had to do with the practical, as well as methodological difficulties encountered by researchers in gaining acceptance in the circles of official politics. The question could thus be asked: is an ethnography of political elites even possible? Or must long-term observation be reserved to dominated groups (such as the unemployed, or workers, or to a lesser extent social movements)? The panel we submit intends to build on the recent importation of the ethnographical method in political science in order to explore, through long-term qualitative surveys, the networks of interpersonal relations that structure the political world. We propose to analyze the forms of sociability experienced by office holders. Of course, we intend to pay close attention to the mechanisms of party as well as institutional sociability. However, political competition often takes place in their margins. As a consequence, we need to study informal social networks (bonds of friendship, professional connections, kinship ties, religious solidarities…) which play a role not only in the formation of party alliances but also in the selection of candidates, in electoral mobilizations as well as in the elaboration of public policies. In order to shed light on the forms of political sociability, three types of fieldwork should prove especially relevant.1/ The study of local political competition, where the boundaries between social and political networks are more visibly blurred. 2/ The study of the obstacles encountered by outsiders in political life (newcomers, women, politicians from racial minorities or from the working class, candidates from “small” parties). 3/The study of the informal socializing connecting office holders to the various social worlds that indirectly participate in political life: journalists, bureaucrats, members of social movements, etc.

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