Rioting in the UK and France: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

RIOTING IN THE UK AND FRANCE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Waddington, D, Jobard, F. and King, M. (eds) (2009). Collumpton: Willan. pp320 (hbk) 48.50[pounds sterling] ISBN 9784-84392-5040). This book is based upon contributions made by a number of leading academics to a series of three workshops on 'A Comparative Analysis of Recent French and British Riots' that took place between February and October 2007. One potential problem with a work of this nature is that of overall coherence. However, extremely professional editing has resulted in a book that is well laid out and organised. It is divided into a number of sections. Part one commences with an overview of rioting in Britain and France since the 1980s. Parts two and three are concerned with detailed examinations of riots that took place in Britain between 2001 and 2005 (part two) and in France between 2001 and 2008 (part three). Part four contains some additional material from other countries, examining the 2001 riot in Cincinnati and discussing the absence of riots in early twenty-first century Germany, a situation that is attributed in part to the 'generally reasonable police-minority relationship'. Part five of the book formulates conclusions which evaluate the common themes that have emerged in the preceding chapters. These include the relationship between multiculturalism and the community cohesion agenda, police-community relationships and territorial boundaries. There is also an informative glossary which provides information relating to the French aspects of the book. This includes material on politicians, political parties and municipal administration. A brief discussion of the French system of policing is also provided. Although all authors make valuable contributions there are some exceptionally valuable chapters. These include that by Hussain and Bagguley who seek to analyse whether riots are composed of a crowd possessing a singular collective identity and by Thomas who examines the extent to which events in Britain in 2001 that gave rise to the community cohesion agenda could be labelled as a 'political watershed' in the sense of how this approach was understood and operationalised at ground level. In relation to France, the chapter by Kokoreff makes an important contribution to the book, posing the question as to whether the 2005 French riots could be regarded as a 'political protest' as does the chapter by Mohammed which evaluates the role performed by gangs in these disorders. The role of the police in the 2005 riots is considered in detail by Mouhanna who analyses whether the police could be held in any way responsible for their occurrence and what lessons they should learn from them. There are a small number of issues that a work of this nature might explore in fuller depth. One of these relates to community cohesion where a detailed discussion of what constitutes a cohesive community and what are its key characteristics could usefully have been included. The highly useful account of the problems inherent in specialised national police riot forces tackling disorders (which is discussed in chapter fourteen in relation to France) could have been supplemented by an equally detailed discussion of the manner in which disorders are handled by the police service in Britain. This would have enabled issues that include the structure and organisation of public order policing, the concept of paramilitary policing, mutual aid, the role of bodies such as PNICC and the tactics that are utilised at events of this nature to have been fully considered. The book points to differences in the characteristics of disorders in Britain between 1980 and 2001. Some of these (in particular in particular the extent to which technologies of information flow played a crucial role in the build up to the 2001 riots) are fully discussed but this aspect of the analysis might be pursued further. …