VACHER Kevin

Contact details

kevinvacher.pro@gmail.com

I am a sociologist and practitioner of popular education. My research focuses on the relationship between politics, the social margins and so-called 'citizens' movements', with a particular interest in the location of collective action and political representation. Within the GDRV (Groupe de Diffusion, de Recherche et de Veille citoyenne - Group for Citizen Dissemination, Research and Monitoring) laboratory, I am developing collaborative citizen-based co-research mechanisms.

Functions

Sociologist, coordinator research and popular education projects, Citizen Dissemination, Research and Monitoring Group (GDRV)

Scientific Director of the "Democratising Politics" collaborative research project (financially supported by the Fondation Abbé Pierre, the Fondation Multitudes, the Fondation Danielle Mitterrand and the Fondation du Crédit Coopératif)

Co-coordinator of the seminar "Protecting people, protecting society" (GDRV, INALCO, Ecole des Mines, CESDIP)

Winner 2018 xenophobia and anti-Semitism research prize of the City of Paris,

Academic work

I'm currently co-directing "Democratising politics", a collaborative research project that also draws on the traditions of popular education and the community organizing. Its aim is to bring together a broad coalition of grassroots, voluntary and scientific players to understand the systems by which the working classes are excluded from the political arena, and to develop solutions and actions. Its three main strands are: (1) self-analysis of the problem through narrative socio-analysis workshops between the people concerned in a number of French urban and rural areas; (2) the processing of previously unpublished quantitative data obtained from the Ministry of the Interior, making it possible to draw up a "social portrait of France's candidates and elected representatives since the 2000s"; (3) the rigorous development of a new framework for the problem of "social parity" and its translation into concrete democratic action. To find out more, click here: democratiserlapolitique.org

At the same time, I'm working on an auto-ethnographic project and a collaborative investigation into the social and political crisis in Marseilles between 2018 and 2020, following the collapses in the Rue d'Aubagne. Based on a sociology of social crises and mobilisations, and from a position of observational participation, this work aims to understand the socio-political roots of the politicisation and rehumanisation of the problem of substandard housing, the driving forces behind the social and political mobilisations of this sequence and their political consequences.

You can find my Full CV.

Areas of research

Political sociology :

  • Collective action and associations
  • Public issues
  • Political representation
  • Popular classes

Urban sociology :

  • Local collective action
  • Working-class neighbourhoods
  • Marseille

Method and epistemology :

  • Co-research
  • Popular education

Subject areas :

  • 19 - Sociology
  • 04 - Political science

Scientific coordinator, programme manager

Past activities :

  • Coordinator of the "citizen and scientific support project for the creation of a network of associations and local groups mobilised against the GPIIs", Notre Affaire à Tous, ZEA, Terres de Luttes, GDRV, 2021.
  • Member of the Board of Directors of the Association Française de Science Politique (AFSP).
  • Co-coordinator of the scientific and citizens' study day "Les batailles du cefntre-ville de Marseille" (GDRV, La Marseillaise, Transit), December 2021.
  • Co-coordinator of the "DOC 2000" research group (CRESPPA, LAMES, Lab'Urba, Unil)
  • Co-coordination of the "Terrains Politiques" seminar (Université Paris 8, CRESPPA, CEMTI).
  • Co-coordinator of the seminar and study days "In the black box of 'security'" (CESDIP, CRESPPA, Univ Paris 8, UVSQ).
  • Member of the board of the CR01 "Identities, Spaces and Politics" of the Association internationale des sociologues en langue française (AISLF).
  • Member of the board of the RT34 "Sociologie politique" of the Association Française de Sociologie (AFS).
  • Coordination of various study days and seminars at Université Paris 8 and CRESPPA.

Productions

Scientific publications

 

  • Editing a magazine issue
    • (- with François Valegeas and Camille François) "Les batailles du centre de Marseille. Transformations urbaines et enjeux sociopolitiques d'un centralité disputée", dossier in MétropolitiquesDecember 2021
  • Articles (peer-reviewed journals)
    • "Under the basins, citizens' struggles become politicised in the face of ongoing repression". in MetropoliciesJune 2023
    • "Marseille: the city centre battles in "Les batailles du centre de Marseille. Urban transformations and socio-political issues of a disputed centrality", MetropoliciesDecember 2021
    • "When security policies are meant to be participatory". in Metropolicies, 9 February 2017. [online]
    •  "In Marseilles, the security issue is "erupting from outside" ... and from within". in Sciences et Actions Sociales, No. 6, 2017. [online]
  • Book chapters
    •  "Cursing its city. Political construction and mobilisation of the culturalist reading of the problem Camorra in Naples. in Cesare Mattina and Nicolas Maisetti (eds.), Cursing the city. A comparative socio-history of the denunciation of urban corruption, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Lille, 2021.
  • Research reports
    • The David's are getting organised against the Goliath's. A review of local mobilisations against unnecessary, imposed and polluting projects.survey report and project support, ZEA, NAAT, TDL, GDRV, Nov. 2021.
    • Participation in the report Recent Trends And New Drugs (TREND) - Marseille 2020 site (ed.: Claire Duport), AdMed / Observatoire Français des Drogues et Toxicomanies, May 2021.
    • Participation in the report Recent Trends And New Drugs (TREND) - Marseille 2019 site (ed.: Claire Duport), AdMed / Observatoire Français des Drogues et Toxicomanies, May 2020.
    • Participation in the special newsletter Drugs in confinement: organisation of care and harm reduction, users and consumption, markets and trafficking. Bouches-du-Rhône 17 March - 28 April 2020 (ed.: Claire Duport), Addictions Méditerranée / Observatoire Français des Drogues et Toxicomanies, April 2020.
  • Review
    • " You are being filmedLaurent Mucchielli, Armand Collin, 2018, in Government and Public ActionLectures, vol. 8, no. 4, October-December 2019.

Speeches in public debate (selection)

  • The impact of social representation in politics: a research perspectiveMultitudes Foundation seminar, 2 April 2024.
  • "L'écologie locale est-elle conservatrice", in revue Dard/DardEditions de l'attribut, no. 9, November 2023.
  • "Thinking about public protection beyond 'security'", in AOC10 June 2022 [online]
  • Guest on "Écologie : le combat acharné des David contre Goliath", État d'urgence, The TV Media5 December 2021 [online]
  • Guest on the "Le changement peut se faire au niveau local" programme, Blast31 December 2021 [online]
  • "The Left must learn to speak to the singular", Interview by Ludovic Thomas, ZibelineApril 2021.
  • Alain Payre, "Portrait: Kevin Vacher, sociologist and activist". La Marseillaise8 November 2020
  • Marseille, from 1973 to today, a local history of racism. Series of radio podcasts, with Dominique Manotti. Urban UnionAugust 2020. [online]
  • As well as criticising CCTV, what can be done about/with those seeking security? Speech at the "Technopolice" conference, La Quadrature du Net, 1er February 2020, Marseille
  • "An awakening in Marseilles' working-class neighbourhoods that has come a long way".. in Club de Médiapart, 26 December 2018. [online]
  • "The right to life and dignity is not negotiable. "Viewpoint in L'Humanité, 21 February 2017.

Scientific papers (selection)

  • National and international conferences
    • "Un temps de pause": feedback on an experiment in the appropriation of sociological research by political activists (paper accepted), Congress of the French Political Science Association (ST33), 2-4 July 2024, Grenoble.
    • Redefine "by the right side". How mobilization against deviant populations participate to redefine local citizenships? 13th Conference of the European Sociological Association - RN25 "Social Movements", 30 August 2017, Athens.
    • (-collective) How do you become a critical researcher? VIIème congrès de l'Association Française de Sociologie - Semi-plenary conference of the "DOC 2000" research group, 5 July 2017, Amiens.
    • Delegating the exercise of coercion: "Honest people", the Roma and the State. XXth International Congress of the Association Internationale de Sociologie en Langue Française (AISLF) - CR01 "Identity, Space and Politics", 5 July 2016, Montreal.
  • Other academic interventions
    • In the working-class neighbourhoods of Marseille and elsewhere: power confiscated? lecture at the "Engagements" study day, Ligue des Droits de l'Homme - LEST, 8 June 2024, Aix-en-Provence.
    • Co-research and modes of engagement: some lessons of method and epistemologyCESSMA "Research and Commitment" seminar, Université Paris Cité, 28 March 2024, Paris.
    • Is a return to normality inevitable? A reflective look back, five years after the tragedy of the Rue d'Aubagne and the popular protests for decent housing. Lecture at the University of Lausanne, "Marseille" study day, 21 November 2023.
    • What's left of 5 November 2018? Lecture at the University of Lausanne, "Marseille" study day, 17 November 2022.
    • A cross-section of local mobilisations against the GPIIs, lecture at Atécopol, Faculty of Education, Université Paul Valéry, 9 December 2022.
    • Reflective notes on some of the hiatuses and contradictions of 'engaged researchers'. Presentation at the workshop "Libertés académiques, science politique et engagement militant" at the 1ères Rencontres de la Science Politique, Association Française de Science Politique, CRESPPA - Université Paris 8, 5 July 2018, St Denis.
    • Introductory notes on new critical and commitment tests in safety studies, "Introductory session" of the Journées d'étude cycle "Dans la boîte noire de la sécurité", CESDIP, 20 September 2017, Paris.
    • Political mourning and the politics of mourning. Organised crime, social mobilisation and (un)expected commitments. Colloquium "Le malheur militant", Ceraps - Crapul - Gresco, 12-13 December 2016, Lille.