Where do social centers belong? A history spanning social work and community action

This article examines how French centres sociaux (social or community centers) and their national federation (FCSF) have defined and implemented their political objectives throughout their history. It also illustrates the frames of reference that guide the network’s employees and volunteers. It therefore sheds historic light on what we consider in this special report as the “politics of centres sociaux”. The analysis combines the representations of centres sociaux that have circulated throughout their history with a socio-historical approach to the conditions governing their activities. Three periods are studied: the earliest examples of social housing at the turn of the twentieth century; the national policy of local development, or animation socioculturelle, in the 1960s and 1970s; and the transition to a project-based approach since the 1980s. Ultimately, this article describes an approach situated somewhere between social work and community action, focused on the promotion of social harmony and the creation of forms of local solidarity. Nevertheless, these dominant frames of reference are at odds with the relative adoption of more belligerent definitions of democracy within the federation, especially since the 2000s.