My research first dealt with colonial and post-colonial immigration in the context of work, seen from a socio-historical perspective. My PhD dissertation combined field research on the Renault factory of Billancourt – the main employer of the Algerian workforce during the thirty years’ period known as the « Trente Glorieuses » - with a long-term study of the careers of a thousand Algerian workers. This work analyzed the transformations of the Algerian migration in France, starting in 1945. During this period these colonial immigrants progressively came to embody the quintessential immigrant worker. In this dissertation I demonstrate how colonial racism durably impacted these workers’ social paths well after Algerian Independence in 1962, even in the Renault factory which was then nationalized and reputed as a « social laboratory ». This also applies to the workers’ political movement, deeply shaken in its unity by the Algerian War of Independence. This work took a new point of view, analyzing the side effects on the relations between French and immigrant workers from inside the factory. These effects could be felt until May 68 and the strike actions that later on punctuated the 1970’s.
Analyzing in situ the different logics of post-colonial domination in the very heart of the colonizing metropolis, this research takes part in the renewal of the social history of the “Trente Glorieuses" and aims at contributing to the genealogy of class and race relations within contemporary French society.
My current research articulates a sociology of labor and public health, of medical professions and low-income classes, keeping a focus on the historical dimension of social phenomena. I co-edited (with the historian Catherine Omnès) the book: Cultures du risque au travail et pratiques de prévention. La France au regard des pays voisins (Rennes, PUR, 2009) [Risk Cultures and Prevention in the Context of Work. France Compared to its Neighbours].
From 2010 to 2014 I co-directed the monthly seminar Maladies industrielles et mobilisations collectives [Industrial Diseases and Collective Actions] with the sociologist Pascal Marichalar. This seminar welcomed French and foreign researchers in sociology, history, and political sciences and gathered a network of researchers and professionals working in these fields.
Since 2012, I have been coordinating a research program funded by University Paris 8 as part of an Innovative Research Fund, Pratiques et praticiens de santé en territoires populaires [Health Practices and Practitioners in Low-income Territories]. My empirical study is currently conducted in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis. Within this research program, I study more specifically health care given by primary care physicians as well as the transformations in the profession of general practitioner. I notably study how the social positions and social paths of care providers and care recipients affect the work of general practitioners, the users’ health, as well as the care relationship.
Since January 2014, I have been the deputy head of the CSU research team.
