UN RENOUVEAU DE LA PARTICIPATION ASSOCIATIVE ? L'engagement et le militantisme au sein du comité Attac Isère

2.2.1.3.2 The domination symbolic system

The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu attempted to reveal the reports/ratios of domination which exist between the men^474(*). The mechanisms of domination are not only carried out, according to him, starting from material or physical inequalities but on the basis of equipment in goods symbolic systems^475(*). This report/ratio of inequality is expressed by violences (symbolic systems) of which certain actors, of order institutional or organisational, are made the relay (the school, the press). The participation in the political field is carried out starting from the feeling of competence of each actor. Dominated, which tend to feel inefficient car-will be excluded by delegating their decision-making power. However, dominated are unconscious of these mechanisms. The relation of domination, which is not perceived like such, passes then for a relation of charisma^476(*).

This process accounts for the feeling of incompetence to which the militants testify. The difference in equipment of cultural capital « economic » between the militants and the scientists a report/ratio of domination symbolic system by the knowledge induces^477(*). « scientists » association, because of their knowledge, enjoy a recognition near the militants. Their intellectual legitimacy becomes a charismatic legitimacy then^478(*). The knowledge held by a minority would thus accentuate the feeling of incompetence of the militants. The popular work of education, such as it is carried out within Attac, would thus not lead to an D-appropriation^479(*). That Ci would appear by the increase in the feeling of competence of the militants. While the leaders of Attac refer to the topic scour democracy « by bottom », they would reproduce within association a system of uneven relations. This statutory hierarchy would not be institutionalized, contrary to the political parties. It would concern an order symbolic system. The intellectual formation, just like the decision-making, is downwards carried out primarily top. This is why we will qualify the militancy which is carried out in Attac of « passive militancy ».

These remarks seem to go against the evolutions of work militant that Jacques Ion could observe within the organizations^480(*). There was previously a very strict allocation of the functions between the national direction and the militants : « the traditional diagram of action alternated actually exposure of the power and negotiation ; summarily known as : the troops ravelled, then the direction discussed, being based on the show of force and threatening of an entry in more virulent scene of the base in the event of failure »^481(*). With this division was added some one second between the intellectuals and the base. From now on the distinction between the top and the bottom of the grouping would be less and less clear. The negotiation would not be any more the characteristic of the direction, in the same way, as the collective protest would not be any more the characteristic of the militant. Moreover, the figure of the militant and the intellectual would approach. This observation does not apply, according to us, in Attac. The intellectual, far from being obsolete, covers within association a new legitimacy. On the other hand, what happenhappens activity protester and claiming ?

* ⁴⁷⁴ Cf, Cabin (Philippe), «  In the slides of the domination  », Social sciences, n°105, May 2000, pp. 24-28.

* ⁴⁷⁵ «  The capital symbolic system is an unspecified property, forces physical, richness, warlike value, which perceived by social agents equipped with the categories of perception and appreciation making it possible to perceive it, know it and recognize it, symbolically become efficient, a such true magic force  : a property which, because it answers collective waitings, socially constituted, with beliefs, exerts a kind of remote action, without physical contact  ». Bourdieu (Pierre), Raison practice, Paris, ED Threshold, 1994, p. 245.

* ⁴⁷⁶ «  One of the effects of violence symbolic system is the transfiguration of the relations of domination and tender in emotional relations, the transformation of the capacity into charisma or charm suitable to cause an emotional enchantment  ». Ibid, p. 187.

* ⁴⁷⁷ The relevance of the metaphor of the domination remains however limited owing to the fact that it L does not act with the direction that Weber gives some, i.e. it «  chance for specific orders, to find obedience on behalf of a given group individuals  ». Weber (max), Economy and company, 1920, volume 1, Paris, Plon, Reed 1971, p. 219.

* ⁴⁷⁸ Among three legitimate types of domination (rational, traditional and charismatic), max weber specifies that the charismatic domination rests «  on the extraordinary tender with the crowned character, with the heroic virtue or the exemplary value of a person, or of natures revealed or emitted by this one (charismatic domination)  ». Ibid, p. 220.

* ⁴⁷⁹ At the time of AG 2000, the conclusions of the commission «  Internal and external formation  » proposals formulated besides taking account of this limit. Indeed, it was to propose of  «  to organize and support the exchanges between «  experts  » economists and members  », but it was also proposed of «  to consider a self-tuition of the members who wish it by the constitution of working groups per topic of reflection  : exchange interrogations and comprehensions, work starting from documents of Attac but also of other sources, call to «  experts  » according to the interrogations and of a work worked out between us to consolidate the assets and them réapproprier with our words  » .Attac Isere, «  Moral report/ratio 2000  », op.cit, p. 8.

* ⁴⁸⁰ Ion (Jacques), «  Associative engagement and public space  » in Movements, n°3, 04/1999, p. 67.

* ⁴⁸¹ Ion (Jacques), op.cit, pp. 74-75.