The Politics of the Profane: Forms of Political Action and Citizenship Practices of Young Adults

How do profanes conceive politics and citizenship ? To which types of action are these representations associated ? The study conducted on non-militant young adults shows that the practices they consider to be political do not limit themselves to interactions with institutional politics. In fact, two thirds of those interviewed claimed a political dimension to actions that did not entertain any rapport with institutional politics. They also put forward different socio-political mechanisms, which this article analyses under the names of ethical citizenship and specific citizenship. Interestingly, the forms of political action mobilised by such profanes are the same as those of the militants, notwithstanding a difference in intensity. In contradistinction with an elitist conception of democracy, such forms of intuitive political communities support the argument that political capacity cannot be reduced to institutional competences and is not dependent on expert knowledge.