Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation

New Anthropologies of Europe

by Paul A. Silverstein

Algerian migration to France began at the end of the 19th century, but in recent years France's Algerian community has been the focus of a shifting public debate encompassing issues of unemployment, multiculturalism, Islam, and terrorism. In this finely crafted historical and anthropological study, Paul A. Silverstein examines a wide range of social and cultural forms―from immigration policy, colonial governance, and urban planning to corporate advertising, sports, literary narratives, and songs―for what they reveal about postcolonial Algerian subjectivities. Investigating the connection between anti-immigrant racism and the rise of Islamist and Berberist ideologies among the "second generation" ("Beurs"), he argues that the appropriation of these cultural-political projects by Algerians in France represents a critique of notions of European or Mediterranean unity and elucidates the mechanisms by which the Algerian civil war has been transferred onto French soil.

Genres: Anthropology, Algeria, France, Politics, History, Islam

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[versarbre]

Anthropological discussion of political change. It probes the possibilities of postcolonial political actions for Algerian descents in France -- the unsolved relationship (i.e. unsolved political order) between France and its colony in the past, or, for that reason, the undigested legacy of France's own political transition. The key argument has already been given in the very first paragraphs,

The book "plumbs the postcolonial predicament that unites Algeria and France into a single transpolitical space. It understands the struggle over the future of Algeria in France to be part of a larger transnational politics that takes place within and about the "West," rather than relying on the popular discourse of a putative "clash of civilizations" -- in which a secular-Christian modernity associated with Europe and North America finds itself set against an Islamic modernity associated with larger parts of Africa and Asia."(p2)

[Anthony Zupancic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical sociology at its most convincing. Clear picture of how Algeria and France have shaped, and continue to shape, the identity of each other. Incredible picture of Algerian society in France over the last 30 years.