“France Is at War” (November 2015). An Expressivist Approach to Violence

ABSTRACT

This article examines the situation created in France by the attacks of January and November 2015. These events are the starting point for a reflection on the sociological meaning of the confrontation with a declared enemy in modern societies. On the one hand, these attacks were perceived as acts of war that required the same kind of response. On the other hand, despite the retaliatory measures adopted, this declaration did not lead to a lasting warlike mobilization of French society and institutions. This contradiction cannot be resolved in the language of strategic reasoning to which modern societies have become accustomed in their relations with violence and war. It is necessary to return to the proper sociological perspective of war, recognizing it as a moral reaction to the violation of the principle of solidarity. This neo‐Durkheimian perspective draws on the grammatical analysis of action (GAA), a school of thought that serves as our source of inspiration here.