Biographies in Motion: Temporal Synchronization and Refiguration among the French Yellow Vests

• In Event: 30432 - How TIME Matters to Movements

Abstract

How do heterogeneous biographies become aligned in a decentralized protest movement, and what does participation subsequently do to the trajectories it temporarily brings together? Research on protest participation often explains entry through characteristics observed at the moment of mobilization or through the aggregation of individual motives. Such approaches struggle to capture how engagement is embedded in long-term biographical configurations that evolve over time and across multiple life spheres. Drawing on a localized, longitudinal mixed-method study of six interconnected Yellow Vest roundabouts in southeastern France, this paper develops a biographical and processual approach to collective action inspired by Norbert Elias and enriched by Andrew Abbott’s work. Methodologically, it combines tools that reconstruct the temporally patterned structure of entry (life-history calendars and sequence analysis) with approaches that capture how these patterned positions were reworked through participation (repeated biographical interviews). We argue that local protest figurations operate as mechanisms of biographical synchronization. Sustained interaction makes experiences produced at different moments and in distinct domains of life mutually intelligible. Participation, in turn, recursively reconfigures the biographical significance of prior losses, solidarities, and collective skills, leaving traces that later historical disruptions can reactivate, displace, or exhaust.

Authors

• Alexandre Dafflon

• Olivier fillieule, University of LAusanne

• Davide Morselli, University of Lausanne