The French Yellow Vests: A Pluridisciplinary Approach to Popular Politicization and Mobilization – GILETSJAUNES

This project is based on a mix of methods, to analyse materials of various nature and origin, constituted in different corpora. The project is based on a rich corpus of data collected since the beginning of the movement. The comparison gives an account of its configurational complexity, while allowing generalisations by comparing the different materials and sites:
1,477 questionnaires from the Jaune Vif database and the Quantité Critique database administered face-to-face and randomly on the roundabouts and during the demonstrations, intended to document the sociology of the people mobilised in action, as well as their motivations, demands, and a few indicators on repertoires of action, voting, political preference, and transport.
6,500 self-administered online questionnaires in two waves (22/12/2018 to 22/04/2019) with a series of questions (open and closed) on the image of the movement (degree of identification, reasons for support, types of participation, means of information, other political affiliations and forms of participation); socio-demographic characteristics and degree of precariousness (EPICES score); their relationship with democracy; their attitudes and values (political and social issues considered most important; preferences on taxation, inequality and unemployment; attitudes towards ecology, globalisation and Europe, ethnocentrism and authoritarianism); electoral behaviour (left-right positioning, voting in the two rounds of the 2017 presidential election, interest in politics). The second wave carried out between 21/09 and 25/12/2019, with items on politicisation effects.
2,000 questionnaires conducted in situ in 2018 and 2019 by CERIES and the Quantitative Critique collective during the Climate Marches in Paris, Lille and Nancy, among the people mobilised (n=2000), which included several questions that made it possible to grasp the relationship of the demonstrators to the other mobilisations underway, in particular that of the Gilets Jaunes, from the angle of their generation, their gender and their political positioning
250 in-depth interviews conducted longitudinally with GJs (some of whom had already been interviewed during the movement), consisting of a life story to determine the trajectories and motives for joining, remaining in or defecting from the movement, and a semi-structured sequence on the representations of politics, the social world and the environmental issue
In situ observations to describe and analyse in context the transformations of the repertoire of collective action, the organisation, the division of militant work and the management of conflicts, the effects of socialisation and politicisation, the displacement of the places of mobilisation and the reconfigurations of the public space.
The entirety of the Cahiers de doléances de Gironde (lexicometric analysis, ACM and SIG)
Seminars and specfic trainings are offered to the participants during the project.

Many deliverables are already planned within this project. First of all, the quantitative data (Jaune vif database, integrated «contextual« database, textual data extracted from television media and social networks, «climate mobilisation« database of WP6, national and regional press editorials database of WP7, «electoral« databases of WP8) and qualitative data (corpus of interviews, catalogues, chronograms, activist communication, etc.) produced will be processed, as will be the publications drawn from them, with a view to their optimal dissemination in accordance with FAIR principles at the end of the project (cf. infra, III). In the same way, more original media (audio capsules, story maps, radio broadcasts) will be produced with a view to wide dissemination.
Before being widely disseminated, these data will be made shareable mid-project between the partners involved (codebook, metadata, cataloguing, uploading on the Huma-Num platform) to feed the analyses of the WPs and catalyse the interdisciplinary structuring of the research collective. This dual objective will be pursued during ten or so inter-WP study days where data, processing and initial analyses will be collectively presented, tested and refined, in addition to the training sessions aimed at cross-cultural acculturation to disciplinary methods or tools (cf. above and below WP6).
These days will also be an opportunity to work collectively on the project's valorisation phase, with numerous scientific publications planned between partners involved in different work packages. Beyond the national and international communications (RT37 AFS, ICA, AFSP 2021 and 2023, APSA 2022, ECPR 2023 in particular) which underlie them, these publications will affect different levels of influence. Half a dozen internship, study or survey reports (WP2, 3, 6) will allow young researchers participating in the project to formalise their learning of research through research. Twenty or so book chapters and, above all, scientific articles in national and international journals are also expected, associating different statuses and working towards the wider academic influence of the work carried out. Half a dozen thematic issues in peer-reviewed journals are planned (WP2, 4 and 5), as part of both the promotion and structuring of research networks. This structuring will also be pursued during panels and thematic sessions proposed during important scientific meetings (cf. above), and during the project's closing colloquium (2024), making it possible to solidify and complete scientific groupings already initiated with researchers working on GJs but going beyond the framework of this project (WGs on «environment«, «observation«, «gender« in particular).

The project of twelve partners, bringing together a research team of 28 statutory staff and 15 contractual staff (IEs, PhD students and Post-Docs) working on different sites and with dense and diversified bodies of data, requires a dedicated WP.
The coordination is based on collegiality, team autonomy and cooperation around shared data (pre-existing databases set up within the project, catalogue of in-depth interviews carried out according to a common framework for certain work packages). The scientific animation of the internal project consists of regular meetings by videoconference and in person. Inter-WP work sessions (3 days) will be linked to disciplinary congresses (AFSP and ECPR) and to work seminars organised within the WPs.
- Internal training
The training component is one of the strong and original points of the project: 1) Base X: Following the exploratory interviews conducted in the Yellow Vests Survey, a significant part of the qualitative data will be collected with a shareable grid, then indexed with the help of the Base X software which allows to mutualize the analysis of part of the interviews thanks to a standardized structuring on the themes of the WPs2, 3, 4, 5, 6. It thus facilitates the collective work on the qualitative data The documentary pole of Caen ensures the training of the teams in Base X; 2) A training in cartography and basic treatments under Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will be proposed in Caen (E. Walker) to allow the members of WP2, 3, 4, 5, 6 to contribute to the feeding of the contextual and spatialized data base; 3) A workshop on Digital and social movements with S. Loret (WP2 and WP5) is planned in Caen These trainings are common to all the people involved in the project and aim at acquiring or consolidating skills in a collaborative way.
- Data management and opening, preparation for dissemination
In the final year, the various teams will work on the international closing conference, designed as a preparatory stage for the publication of the results in the form of a collective work. A preliminary seminar cycle is planned for 2023-2024. Data management will be handled within each WP by a data manager and managed in WP1 by S. Astor, S. Abrial and S. Loret. This will allow 1) to publish the «Jaune vif« database in open data according to the principles of «FAIR science« and 2) to build and publish a contextual database on mobilisation in space and time, in open data.

M. Della Sudda. Penser la 'convergence' des luttes sociales et environnementales. Un éclairage par le mouvement des Gilets jaunes2022
M. Della Sudda. Le Président des riches? 2022
M.Della Sudda, N. Patin, N. Gaborit, D. Lefèbvre, G. Lefèbvre et al. Pouvoir « vivre dignement » une doléance absente de la campagne présidentielle 2022
S. Noguera. Un leadership numérique ? Usages et effets de Facebook sur l'organisation du mouvement des Gilets jaunes 16è Congrès AFSP, Jul 2022, Lille, France
M. Della Sudda, N. Gaborit, M. Guilhembet, D. Lefèbvre, G. Lefèbvre et al. Les cahiers de la colère. Une trace dans le sillage des « gilets jaunes » 2022, pp.[en ligne]
M. Della Sudda, L. Fortun, N. Gaborit, C. Lucas, A.Levain. Inquiétude environnementale et praxis écologique populaire : les différents rapports à l’écologie au sein des Gilets jaunes Séminaire EJJE «L’action collective de justice environnementale : quel pouvoir transformatif ?«,Jun 2022, Bordeaux, France
M. Della Sudda. La féralisation de l'action collective dans le mouvement social des Gilets jaunes, Zentrum March Bloch, May 2022, Berlin, Allemagne
M. Della Sudda. Premières analyses des Cahiers de doléances rapport, 2022
M. Della Sudda. Mobilisations populaires et contestation électorale. Critiques et alternatives proposées par les Gilets jaunes et doléances citoyennes en Gironde. L’élection et ses critiques, Institut des sciences sociales des politiques (ISI), Jul 2022, Nanterre, France
E. Godefroy. Quand le « rejet des partis » des leaders Gilets jaunes rencontre l’offre participationniste.La discrétion partisane. Tactiques et stratégies d'ancrage et de ré-ancrage politique., Politix; CERAPS; CLERSE, Sep 2021, Lille
T. Guerra. Valeurs et cultures politiques des Gilets jaunes Congrès 2022 de l'AFSP, Jul 2022, Lille, France
F. Gonthier, C.Bedock, C. Alexandre, S. Abrial, T.Guerra. « Gilets jaunes » : quelle démocratie veulent-ils ? 2021
S.Abrial, C. Alexandre, C.Bedock, F. Gonthier, T. Guerra. Punish or partake? The Yellow Vests' democratic aspirations through mixed methods analysis Journée d’études de l’ANR Gilets jaunes “Understanding the French Yellow Vests Movement through the lens of mixed methods”, Sep 2021, Paris, France
M. Della Sudda. From the Yellow Vests protest to the City Council Understanding the Yellow Vests through the Lens of Mixed Methods, M. Della Sudda; Emmanuelle Reungoat; Amy Mazur, Sep 2021, Paris, France
A. Levain, C. Alexandre, C. Dondeyne, C.Elalaoui, N. Gaborit et al. How political are Yellow Vests’ ecologies? An overview of current social research on ecological concerns, praxis and engagement with politics within an unprecedented grassroots movement. Journée d’études de l’ANR Gilets jaunes “Understanding the French Yellow Vest Movement through the lens of mixed methods”, Sep 2021, Paris, France.

The outburst of the Yellow vests surprised by its scope, shape and evolution. Based on a comprehensive set of quantitative and qualitative data collected since November 2018, GILETSJAUNES, brings together the various research team working on Yellow vests over the past year. First, it aims at documenting the socio-demographic, political and spatial characteristics of the participants. Then it scrutinizes the processes of politicization and the transformations of the repertoire of action, deepening the question of the relationship to environmental issues. Finally, questioning its scope and effects, the project measures the media, political and social reception of the movement. Based on mix-methods it combines a synchronic and longitudinal approach of this unique social movement.
Our project will draw on a very rich body of quantitative and qualitative data collected since November 2018. These data will be enriched and put into perspective with new data that will allow, in particular, to deepen the effects of politicization of the movement, its forms and logics of mediatization, as well as its consequences on political supply and demand.
Our research design is based on a mix-methods for analysing materials of varied nature and origin, constituted in a corpus whose richness (diversity of modes and scales of collection, anchored in different sites of mobilization, diachronic dimension) and complementarity contribute to the heuristic scope of the project. The comparative and multidisciplinary approach that we are mobilizing is thus aimed at giving an account of the GJ movement in its different dimensions and at shedding light on its configurational complexity, while allowing generalizations by comparing the different materials and sites. Common training courses (BaseX, GIS, digital) will allow us to put this approach to the test.
Three research questions guide our work: first, what are the sociospatial and sociological characteristics of Yellow Vests? To answer these questions, the ESO team explores the "configurations and spatiality of the movement of YGs" (WP2), while the CERIES team reconstructs the "professional careers, working conditions and wage claims" (WP3) in order to explain the displacement of conflictuality into new spaces. The second issue concerns the relationship to the Yellow Vests policy. Political values and behaviours are dealt with by one of the Pacte teams (WP4) and related to the "processes of politicisation of the movement and by the movement" (WP5) studied longitudinally by the CED team. More specifically, the project shows how the "Yellow jackets and environmental problems" are articulated through the study of their "ecologies, repertoires of action, configurations of mobilizations" (WP6) made by the AMURE team. The third research question concerns the media, political and social reception of the Yellow Vests movement. The LASSP team is interested in "the media production of the Yellow Vests" (WP7), in relation to the "agenda effects, transformations of the political offer and recompositions of the partisan system" produced by the movement seized by the Pacte team 2 (WP8). More specifically, the Pact team 3 is looking at the "reception of Yellow Vests by the inhabitants of working-class neighbourhoods".
In the end, with this resolutely multidisciplinary project, which is at the heart of axis 4.4 "Inequalities, discrimination, migrations", we aim to explain both who the YGs are, what they do to politics and in turn what politics does to them.