Representations of citizenship in social centers: A “civic epistemology” at odds with the promotion of empowerment?

Numerous sociological studies have analyzed forms of “political avoidance” within associations. Although this article is broadly concerned with similar issues, it tackles the political considerations at stake in these spaces through a different lens: that of an anthropological approach to citizenship processes. Based on a long-term, multi-site field survey, it will first describe and analyze the dominant citizenship regime in French social centers, what could be defined as a specific “civic epistemology.“ The introduction in the 2010s of the aim of ”empowering local residents" has at least partly revealed this dominant, albeit most often implicit, citizenship regime. By examining how this aim comes into tension with this established “civic epistemology,” as will be done in the second part of the article, we can better understand how and why certain aspects of this “empowerment” have been locally adopted while others meet with more resistance.