The French riots: Questioning spaces of surveillance and sovereignty

This paper examines the riots in France in late 2005 in terms of how they lead to a reconceptualization of the spaces of danger, culture, territory, and sovereignty. It traces a brief history of danger zones and immigration, noting how these two terms have increasingly overlapped. We analyse key discursive formations - legal, political, social scientific, and media - whose explanation for the emergence of the "immigrant" delinquent is linked to what is identified as a culture of poverty. They provide a sustained examination of recent legal reforms of juvenile law as well as judicial practices within the juvenile justice system to show the systematic exclusionary practices of what is claimed to be a colour blind republican system. They reveal a consensus across the political spectrum and among police, prosecutors, investigating magistrates, and new security experts on the need to privilege accountability, restitution, and retribution in the treatment of juvenile offenders. We present evidence from interviews and ethnographic observation among youths of all backgrounds. Ironically, while the children of immigrants seek to claim a voice in the national community, their peers from more privileged social milieu express increasing distance from national concerns, seeking to lead lives as Europeans or global citizens. We end by arguing that this needs to be taken into account in any analysis of frustrated and disenfranchised suburban youths. A transnational or supra-national sociology that accounts for the itineraries of immigrants of all kinds must be developed.