It takes a riot: Redux
By Simon J Black
Published: 07/02/2007
I recieved some criticism for the arguments I made in my article It Takes a Riot (POUND Aug 2006). Employing the work of political scientists Fran Piven and Richard Cloward, I suggested that urban unrest in the form of mass rioting could be an effective proto-political act, not to be understood as a desirable occurence, but one that can produce positive political and social change nonetheless. I cited state responses to the UK riots in the 1980s, US riots in the '60s, and more recently the French riots of two years ago.
Berkelely sociologist Loic Wacquant has done work in this area for a decade or so. In a recent talk he concluded that the French riots were a more effective political tool for socio-economically marginalized communities than voting in the three previous elections had been. The French government responded to the riots with:
-100 million Euro cash infusion to refund cutbacks made to social programs and the educations system
-100,000 fellowships for students in what they call "sensitive urban areas"
-5,000 teaching assistants to schools in the poorest urban neighbourhoods
-20,000 publicly subsidized jobs targeted to the poorest areas
-immediate increase in rates of social assistance
-doubling the number of social workers geared towards immigrant settlement
Such are the facts of the French situation despite Sarkozy's populist authoritarian rhetoric around crime and urban youth. This is not to advocate for riots as a legitimate political act. Nor will riots always reap the same response by the state; it will depend on political contingencies (as outlined by Piven and Cloward). It Takes a Riot merely asked for readers to reconsider the dominant understanding of the relationship between political change, urban insurgency (i.e. riots), and the state of marginalized/poor communities in Canada and across 'Western' democracies.