ABSTRACT:
Some might take it for granted that political socialization, when it is part of a sociolocal space where the communist institution can be felt everywhere as soon as the earliest youth, could only produce but “regular” activist habitus and unconditional loyalties. Still, the biographical interviews conducted in a former workers’ stronghold of the French Communist Party show that this kind of politicization, far from being restricted to a replication of parental models and an infallible internalization of partisan norms, do allow processes of oblique and innovative appropriation. The commitment’s reproduction thus relies on - rather than stands against - the evolutionary construction of activist roles from one generation to another.
Keywords:
Communism; Socialization; Activist habitus; Reproduction; Adaptation