Participation and mobilization of women involved in a working-class social center

The aim of this article is to examine the commitment and mobilization of working-class women whose actions, aiming at making their own voices as well as those of other residents heard in public spaces, are deployed in a social center of a working-class district. The ethnographic investigation carried out in this context sheds light on the formation of little-studied practices, by comparing the resources offered by the center and those available to the users, allowing them to progressively construct their political approach. This approach is developed within small groups, based on a division of labor that enables members to learn to express their opinions. However, this dynamic is also fragile because of the institutional pressures placed on the social center, the various tensions within groups of users, and because of the uncertainty of living conditions in a precarious environment.