Negotiating culture, performing identities: North African and Pied-Noir associations in France

Abstract

The integration of minorities in France, particularly those with roots in North Africa, has been of national concern since the 1980s and remains so today. Official and public discussions about minorities, and social relations with them, are saturated with mutual distrust and misunderstandings. Despite structural and social impediments, these minorities are encouraged to integrate into the national mainstream and to avoid communitarian and community-building practices that might be interpreted as a rejection of the nation. Minority cultural associations are among the focal points of these negotiations, being places where communities can both strengthen internal bonds and create zones of intercultural contact, mutual education, and debate. In the following I analyse the activities undertaken by North African and Pied-Noir cultural associations in France as examples of boundary maintenance (Barth, F., 1969. Introduction. In: F. Barth, ed. Ethnic groups and boundaries: the social organization of culture difference. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, 9–38). I argue that community building activities within associations are a necessary component in their ability to organise outreach activities designed to create dialogue and improve inter-communal relations.