Abstract
Since the 1980s, anti-poverty organisations associated with civil society—voluntary private organisations rather than public state-sponsored ones—have become increasingly vocal in France. They have advocated, mobilised and obtained new social rights for poor people. This chapter explores the ambivalent relationship between these private organisations and other social mobilisations as well as state-sponsored welfare, revealing how profoundly they have transformed the French welfare system.
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Notes
- 1.
Joseph Wresinski, founder of ATD Fourth World, believed that “Fourth World” was a term that people living in extreme poverty could identify with. He created it in reference to the French Revolution and Dufourny de Villiers’ critique of discrimination against the “fourth order”, that of day labourers, widows, the ill and the infirm by the three estates (the clergy, the nobility and the commoners).
- 2.
The National Federation of Social Inclusion Associations (FNARS) changed its name to Federation of Solidarity Actors in 2016.
- 3.
Collectif d’Agitation pour un Revenu Optimal Garanti (Collective for Campaigning for a Guaranteed Optimal Income) was founded in 1994. When they collectively joined AC!, they profoundly transformed AC!’s sociology and political unity. The new activists demanding the right to laziness clashed with the “workerists”.
- 4.
Although French laws do not have specific requirements about the composition and operations of an association, actors in the non-profit sector strongly believe that insufficient membership in their associations undermines their democratic legitimacy.
- 5.
The quotes come from the internet forum RefuserLaMisere.org run by ATD Fourth World and dedicated to 17 October.
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Viguier, F. (2020). Fighting for Poor People’s Rights in the French Welfare State. In: Frère, B., Jacquemain, M. (eds) Everyday Resistance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18987-7_4
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