Crisis of representation, struggles for recognition, and social mobilization: Nuit Debout and Gilets Jaunes in France

This study provides a comparative analysis of the Nuit Debout and Gilets Jaunes movements as two distinct historical phases of the crisis of neoliberal hegemony and declining democratic legitimacy in France. While both stemmed from a structural crisis of representation, they differed significantly in socio-spatial practices, class compositions, and repertoires of action. The paper demonstrates that Nuit Debout (2016) relied on an alternative, deliberative, and forum-oriented publicness by urban, highly educated ‘precariatized middle classes’ subjected to flexible labour regimes. Conversely, the Gilets Jaunes (2018), triggered by the fuel tax, represents the geographical and class-based expansion of this crisis toward the peripheries, reflecting the bodily, blockade-oriented direct action of low-income lower classes on logistical arteries (roundabouts). Drawing upon Charles Tilly, Axel Honneth, Nancy Fraser, and Henri Lefebvre, this study interprets these mobilisations not merely as protests, but as collective struggles to redefine political identity and social space against structural misrecognition. Ultimately, this comparative inquiry transcends the French context to offer key insights into the broader trajectories of post-representative grassroots politics and recognition crises escalating across contemporary Europe.