I am very sceptical about the idea that there is this new approach called the Third Way or the Neue M We have， to varying degrees across the continent， basically neo-liberal policies dressed up with talk of a new form of politics which is not terribly new at So we find social democratic rhetoric being deployed to destroy the social democratic policies which grew up in the period after the Second World W In France many of those pushing this offensive hail from the 1968 They became radicalised then， but now are incorporated into the The failure of the Mitterrand years generated a backlash against the French Socialist P Of course， the great revolt of December 1995 ushered in a wave of social movements which brought the Socialists back into But the aim of the government and its technocrats is to curtail and destroy those Ministers and advisers use their prestige and experience from 1968 against the When students occupied the ole Normale Supieur， the government figure arguing to send the police in firmly and swiftly had himself taken part in the occupations of People in Germany and in Britain often tell me that it must be wonderful to live in France with the 35 hour week and other But those gains are a result of the pressure of the They are not freely given by the The left government believes it can be more successful than the right in controlling those How do your sociological ideas influence your political stance? You developed your ideas when structuralism was the main influence on French
The politics of protest Pierre Bourdieu has become a leading figure in the radical movements that have swept France in the last few He talked to Kevin Ovenden about anti-capitalism and resistance The Weight of the World was recently published in B It describes through interviews in the early 1990s the 'social suffering of contemporary society' Why is life getting harder for most people? There are similarities between what has happened to people's lives in France and in B The main issue， of course， is neo-liberalism and what I call the retreat of the The state has abandoned a lot of areas that it was involved in， such as healthcare， education， and social When we conducted this study it was only Now it is far So for example， in France neo-liberal philosophy has become embedded in all the social practices and policies of the It has become internalised in the minds of the political The minister of education who was recently forced out of office， Claude All， was very similar to the one you have in B He introduced into education so called 'tough policies'--a drive for efficiency and Instead of looking very carefully at how education works， the neo-liberals opt for a very simple They create competition between schools and between the directors of schools， who have to compete for budgets and for This competition is fake--it is artificially It does not arise spontaneously from the way the education system The education system was not I was very critical of But instead of correcting it and providing the means to better it， they destroy it by introducing this capitalistic vision of One could say the same about I recently read a record of a meeting between a group of professors of medicine who are traditionally very They went to meet prime minister J He did not receive A technocrat met them The transcript of the discussion is The people say， 'Look， I never demonstrated or participated in any strike or protest But for the first time I am forced to speak out on behalf of my ' One gave an example of a 73 year old woman who had cancer， but her medicine was too expensive for the hospital's Another said that his hospital does not have the money to pay anaesthetists， so there are no anaesthetists at He asked the technocrat， 'Would you send your wife to such a hospital?' He replies， 'That's a personal question which I will not ' We are seeing a blind and chaotic response to the problems of public We have had a very hierarchical system in healthcare for many But after 1968 younger people tried to change They tried to make the system more collective and introduce the idea of working as part of a Now that is being destroyed because they work under the threat of cuts and demands for greater Centre-left parties are in government across most of E They are presiding over these neo-liberal Do you see anything new in the way social democratic parties are governing?
