Performing "Popular Ecology" : Activist Discourses and Practices Bridging Environmental Issues and Social Inequalities in French Parisian Suburbs.

While the social cleavages affecting the environmental movement in France are well-documented, the growing use of the term “popular ecology” in French activist circles raises questions about collective mobilizations addressing ecological and social inequality. Based on a nine-month ethnographic study—including participant observations, interviews, and document analysis—of two French associations running volunteer programs in the Paris suburbs, I explore how activists appropriate “popular ecology” in their discourses and practices.

From an interactionist perspective that emphasizes the cultural dimensions of social movements, I demonstrate that these militant approaches rely on the preparation and staging of social performances representing "popular ecology." By highlighting the absence of youth from working-class neighborhoods in ecological mobilizations, activists create frames that delineate roles between “ecologists” and “young people from working-class neighborhoods.” Their primary challenge is to unite these two groups through"popular ecology".

The roles assigned by these associations to their activists and the target public shape their programs as militant performances, with forms and content based on diverse cultural understandings of environmental issues and social inequalities. The mobilization of these representations and the performances they generate depend on each association’s strategic choices aimed at persuading their audience. However, they are also constrained by the social characteristics of the volunteer groups and the institutional contexts in which they operate.

By examining how ecological issues and social inequalities intersect in these activist performances of "popular ecology", this analysis contributes to ongoing discussions about the importation of environmental justice movements in France and how activist groups engage with these concepts during collective mobilizations.