Thomas Serres - Confronting the non-event: Reflections based on fieldwork in Algiers

societes-plurielles:3677 - Sociétés plurielles, May 22, 2017, 1 | 2017 - Facing the challenge of the event in the Social Sciences and the Humanities - https://doi.org/10.46298/societes-plurielles.2017.3677
Confronting the non-event: Reflections based on fieldwork in AlgiersArticle

Authors: Thomas Serres 1

This article studies the production and the reception of a "non-event" by drawing on the Algerian presidential elections of 2014. It argues that a non-event must be understood as the product of a publicization, of the expectations of the observers and actors who anticipate a revolutionary or catastrophic future, and of social and political routine activities that also contribute to its appearance. While the non-event is not a clear break, it can still be interrogated in order to reveal the social structures and imaginaries that lead to its production. In the meantime, a certain distance from the "non event" is necessary to grasp less spectacular phenomena that it tends to obscure


Volume: 1 | 2017 - Facing the challenge of the event in the Social Sciences and the Humanities
Section: Articles
Published on: May 22, 2017
Accepted on: May 22, 2017
Submitted on: May 22, 2017
Keywords: over-interpretation,Algeria, non-event, elections, social sciences, fieldwork,terrain,sur-interprétation,sciences sociales,non-événement,Algérie,élections,[SHS.SOCIO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Sociology

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