Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on ethnographic field research in the housing projects of the French city of Limoges, Yearning to Labor chronicles the everyday struggles of a group of young people as they confront unemployment at more than triple the national rate. John P. Murphy illuminates how the global spread of neoliberal ideologies and practices is experienced firsthand by contemporary urban youths.
Trade Review"
Yearning to Labor presents a detailed account of issues faced in 2005–06 by youth living in Limoges's underserved outer city and the construction of their social identity in relation to economic insecurity."—Benjamin Sparks,
French Review"
Yearning to Labor is an anguished cry, which is what spoke so directly to the ethnographer in me. It is a nuanced and powerful story of cultural dissonance, a political wake-up call, and a story of true citizens of
la douce France."—Ricardo Ayala,
Anthropology of Work Review“
Yearning to Labor represents an original and important contribution to urban sociology and literature dealing with the social effects of economic decline and austerity as well as sociological studies of the labor market. . . . It reflects an acute sensitivity to social and economic dynamics.”—Mark Vail, associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Murphy Institute for Political Economy at Tulane University and the author of
Recasting Welfare Capitalism: Economic Adjustment in Contemporary France and Germany “
Yearning to Labor makes a major contribution to our understanding not only of contemporary France but also of the effects of persistent underemployment and short-term employment on youth identities and selfhood.”—Andrea L. Smith, professor of anthropology at Lafayette College and author of
Colonial Memory and Postcolonial Europe: Maltese Settlers in Algeria and France Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. On Edge: (Un)Employment and the Bad Reputation of Limoges’s Outer City
2. Longing for Yesterday: The Social Uses of Nostalgia in a Climate of Job Insecurity
3. Jobs for At-Risk Youth: State Intervention, Solidarité, and the Fight against Exclusion
4. Burning Banlieues: Race, Economic Insecurity, and the 2005 Riots
5. Precariat Rising? Articulating Social Position around the 2006 CPE Protests
6. Banlieue Blues: Grappling with Galère
Epilogue
Notes
References
Index
