Marc Abélès is one of France's most eminent anthropologists, having worked under the direction of Claude Lévi-Strauss. Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology of Institutions and Social Organisations of the CNRS and Director of Studies at EHESS, he conducts his research on political practices and institutions in France and Europe. He is the author of many books, including Un ethnologue à l'Assemblée; Les Nouveaux riches and Jours tranquilles en 89.
"I am writing a text that incorporates aspects of my experience as a political anthropologist - and that originates in another major social movement, the May 1968 one, in which I actively participated - when the Yellow Vests burst into political life.
At the heart of this reflection was the fact that humans, who have so often been said to be inclined to obey, have emerged - inescapable, to submit, to plebiscite authority and providential man, show a powerful inclination to assemble, not to not only to debate, but also to act.
The anthropology of the present time offers valuable tools for understanding the tensions and jolts that are emerging everywhere today. In this book, I describe the way in which the urgency to take a different look at power and the places from which a citizen's voice is expressed has been imposed.”
An anthropology of politics to understand what public speaking is, the emergence of democratic expression.