From 2007 to 2010, the French welfare state disposed of an organisation that is unique in its history: a ministry dedicated to the fight against poverty. Its mission was to activate welfare expenditures and help the recipients of welfare aid to get back on the labour market. In practice however, the Cabinet also had another mission. By mid 2008, the minister had received around 1000 letters written by the poor to “their” minister, asking him to resolve problems with bureaucracy and more generally with welfare law. Fighting against poverty meant that these files had to be read and treated. But what were these writings all about? Why do the poor write to ministers?

The presentation draws on fieldwork I have done around these files, on the professionals that treated them, on the people who wrote them and on the institutions they came from. I will argue that from a genealogical point of view the very existence of these writings stems from a precise function in French law, the “petition of grace”, which means that legal rules can always be modified by a minister on the grounds of any particular reasons invoked by the citizen. When the poor contest legality by bringing to bear the singularity of their situation, their narratives show us how ordinary people think about welfare law, social justice and themselves. But these narratives are not only “poor” or “personal” versions of law. My main argument is that these files also show us how the poor contribute to the very definition of what welfare law actually is.

Arrangementet efterfølges af julebar i fredagsbaren i bygning 2113 lokale 152 A

Arrangeret af Forskningsenheden for Tværdisciplinær Uddannelsesforskning.