The yellow vests roundabout revolt, seen through the lens of household budgets

Abstract

The ‘yellow vest movement’ that emerged in France in Autumn 2018 raises a serious question for political economy, because many of those who participated did not come from the most fragile sectors of the population. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, but also quantitative data, this article takes an in-depth look at the household budget of one ‘yellow vest’ family. It reveals the increasing tensions lower middle-class peri-urban families are confronted with, and the different ways they address them. In order to understand how they make ends meet, various spheres like the labour and housing market, the transport system, and social mobility must absolutely be interconnected. Contemporary economic reforms impact heavily on these households, lending support to the argument of an ‘attack on household budgets’, particularly as far as road transport is concerned. This approach also allows us to observe the gap between the socio-economic reality of these people and the overly unidimensional statistical indicators available. This budgetary data paves the way for a fair comparison with other contemporary political changes—Brexit for example—to see if similar mechanisms are at work in those cases.

Of precarity and conspiracy: Introducing a socio‐functional model of conspiracy beliefs

“…Findings from the current research may, therefore, also explain related phenomena such as people's engagement in or support for unconventional political movements like the Brexit in the UNITED KINGDOM or the Yellow Vests movement in France. As previous research has documented, these social movements were driven by precarious middle‐class individuals more than by those at the very bottom of the socio‐economic ladder (Blavier, 2021 ; Hobolt, 2016 ).…”

Yellow Vests: Anti-austerity, pro-democracy, and popular (not populist)

“…More particularly, the uprising concerned the question of the valuation of work and the issue of spatial and social mobility (Spire, 2019). People rallied because their household budgets, already tightly constrained, were set to worsen under deliberate government policy (Blavier, 2021). The stagnation of living standards and the increasing costs of living, and in particular an announced increase to an existing carbon tax on fuel, are regarded as triggers for the movement (Boyer et al, 2020;Mercier, 2020).…”

Examples of shifting development pathways: lessons on how to enable broader, deeper, and faster climate action

“…While motivations for protests were diverse, perceived inequity in the distribution of the costs of environmental transition was a common thread (Mehleb et al 2021 ). In particular, impact of the tax on committed expenditures, notably transport expenditures, has been perceived as an “attack on household budgets” (Blavier 2022 ).…”