Ma ville au cœur

L’amour de sa commune comme épreuve politique

Abstract

This paper reports on an inquiry held between 2010 and 2014 with mayors committed against the forced integration of their commune into metropolitan governance within an urban area in the south of France. It examines the motives for their mobilization to maintain communal autonomy focusing on the emotional dimension of their commitment. The point is to understand more clearly the proclaimed attachment of the mayors for their commune, seen both as an experienced place and a political space. The paper first shows that paying attention to the personal path of the mayors allows identifying their disposition to feel indignant about the situation of their commune, and shedding light on how much some of them get involved in its preservation. It then shows that, if not all the local representatives are equally capable to be moved, neither are they matching each other to make their electors believe in what they claim they love and feel. Their allegation to embody the communal destiny relies on a certain number of challenges that cannot be limited to rhetorical operations, and are therefore highly discriminatory.