Between an Exceptional Experience and a Turning Point. How Does Participation in the Demos Project Figure in the Biographical Accounts of Young French People from Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods?
This presentation aims to analyse the role of participation in the DEMOS project (Dispositif d’Enseignement Musicale et Orchestrale à vocation sociale) in the biographical accounts of the young people who participated. The DEMOS project offers orchestral music courses for three years to children from neighbourhoods or localities that are far away (geographically or symbolically) from public cultural institutions. Based on 60 interviews with young people who participated in the project, almost ten years after their participation, the aim of this presentation is twofold. On the one hand, it is to analyse the place occupied by the DEMOS project and the discovery of classical music in the biographical accounts of young people. On the other hand, it is to reflect on the biographical interview as a tool for evaluating the effect of public policies aimed at cultural democratisation.