Julien Fuchs

Alcohol consumption among women rugby players in France: uses of the "third half-time"

This article explores alcohol consumption among women rugby players, particularly during the “third half-time”, which traditionally takes place after the matches. The article will focus on alcohol use and the transgression of the norms of femininity. A series of ethnographic observations were carried out and semi-structured interviews were conducted with players (n = 10) from an amateur league-level women’s rugby team in Western France. The results show that within the context of rugby – which is marked by festive excesses and has been socially constructed as a “male” sport – women have a specific relationship with alcohol; although drinking is deemed necessary to demonstrate their inclusion in so-called “rugby culture”, it is, nevertheless, far from being completely unrestrained. On the contrary, some of its effects are a construct of the group itself. In this sense, drinking in the third half-time poses a dilemma for women: how to establish themselves as women rugby players whilst remaining women at the same time.

“Playing with the Border:” Alsatian Sports Societies and Alsace’s Problematic Return to France after the First World War

ABSTRACT Annexed by the Germans in 1870, the Alsace region returned to France in 1918. Following a triumphal welcome for French troops, the Alsatians began timidly to showcase their new nationality after 47 years of German presence. In a country that promoted anti-Germanism, laying claim to German heritage on the political or professional scene was impossible. The situation was quite different however in the field of sport, which cultivated contradictions by playing on its neutral and apolitical image. Local sports associations maintained a special relationship with the border, characterized by porosity with regard to Germany and the partitioning of the French or even Alsatian side. Such ambiguous positioning led them to hesitate between two different approaches: either adopt a public position proclaiming their commitment to the Republic or take an infrapolitical stand and “play with the new borders.” The paper studies this phenomenon through the monograph of the rowing club “Cercle Nautique de Strasbourg.”

Les colonies de vacances en France, 1944–1958: impulsions politiques autour d’un fait social majeur

Abstract This article looks at the French state’s approach to the “colonies de vacances” between 1944 and 1958. Created in 1876 by the Reverend Bion in Zurich, these summer camps originated as a charitable institution: their initial purpose was to provide rural retreats and to restore the health of poor urban youth. Set up on French soil in 1880, these institutions gradually grew in France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Considered both as complements to the republican school and as extensions of the “patronages” (parish unions), they were important for children and adolescents from the industrial city suburbs, and were enshrined in the leisure policies of the Popular Front from 1936 onwards. After the Second World War, summer camps in France became a major social institution (300,000 children went to summer camps in 1945, 900,000 in 1949) in response to both hygiene and educational needs. Based on the archives of the Directorate of Youth Movements and Popular Education (1944–1947) and the General Directorate of Youth and Sports (1948–1958), this article aims to examine the politics behind the organisation of these summer camps and to demonstrate the social and political importance of these popular educational institutions which, in 1957, involved 1.35 million French children and teenagers. Although the history of French summer camp federations (UFCV, CEMEA, CPVC, UFOVAL, etc.) has been widely studied, how the state sees its role and influences these organisations has mostly been considered indirectly. The intention is to show that among the educational, cultural and sports policies implemented during the Fourth Republic in France, those related to the organisation of “colonies de vacances”, and therefore the organisation of holidays for a very large number of children and teenagers, occupy a significant place. In 1944, the summer camps were widely supported by the French state, which also planned to regulate this booming sector. The creation of qualifications for summer camp staff and directors in 1949 obliged organisations to start training schemes: they trained staff and directors to work in the municipal camps, associations, etc. Security issues led to the state tightening control of the summer camps, their recruitment and their activities. There was a great deal of political investment in these “colonies de vacances” during this period, and this was reflected in the creation of a Ministerial Education Committee in 1950, a general and regional body of inspectors for these camps, etc. However, the considerable expansion of summer camps posed increasing problems at the national political level resulting in changes to the initial subsidy policies. The State played a major part in crucial issues such as the sociological diversification of these institutions and the changes in their social role according to evolving sociocultural trend. The fact remains that the “colonies de vacances” were for the French state a centrepiece of the “popular education” that the political actors of the Fourth Republic wanted to implement in order to build the France of the post-war period..

Tenir sur le Rhin.Les mouvements de jeunesse d’Alsace pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale

L’histoire des mouvements de jeunesse alsaciens pendant la Deuxieme Guerre mondiale est loin d’etre lisse. Mais bien qu’elle s’inscrive dans deux espaces differents, a la fois en Alsace et dans les regions ou s’exilent les Alsaciens, cette histoire revele une orientation commune de ces groupements. Interdits en Alsace par les autorites nazies, et de plus en plus museles en France par le regime de Vichy, ces mouvements demeurent des interstices de liberte pour les Alsaciens qui y participent. Moyens d’entretenir une vie ordinaire de jeunes, de cultiver un sentiment d’appartenance a l’Alsace, ils sont aussi des lieux d’engagement contre l’oppression, et pour certains, les terreaux d’une entree en resistance. Beaucoup de ceux qui y ont pris part deviendront des figures importantes de la reconstruction de l’Alsace apres 1944.

La jeunesse alsacienne et la question régionale (1918-1939)

Le retour de l’Alsace dans la nation francaise apres la Premiere Guerre mondiale est complexe sur le plan politique. La region est administree depuis 1900 par un code civil local (qui reconnait notamment le Concordat de 1801) qui ne peut subsister dans le cadre du centralisme republicain. Les mouvements de jeunesse locaux, dans la lignee de leurs hierarchies religieuses, s’attachent alors a defendre une logique double : celle d’une pleine integration dans la nation francaise, qui garantirait malgre tout le respect de la « personnalite regionale » alsacienne. Dans ce cadre, ils luttent contre les politiques assimilationnistes reperables surtout dans la premiere moitie des annees 1920. A partir de 1926, ils tentent egalement de se positionner face a une mouvance autonomiste de plus en plus virulente et portee par des groupes de jeunes radicalises.

Politiques municipales de la jeunesse à Bischwiller

Stadtische Jugendpolitik in Bischwiller ; ; Die Verbesserung der •Jugendpolitik“ erscheint heute als ein bedeutendes politisches Anliegen fur die Stadtverwaltungen. Auf Anfrage der Stadtverwaltung von Bischwiller erstellt unsere Studie einen vollstandigen Uberblick des Angebots fur die Jugend im sozio-kulturellen, sozio-erzieherischen und sportlichen Bereich. Indem sie die positiven Punkte und die Mangel der Initiativen der Stadt und der Vereine (lokaler Erziehungsvertrag, Sport-Ticket...) hervorhebt, treibt sie dazu an, die Wirksamkeit jener Initiativen zu erfassen. Dieses Verfahren ist die Ausgangsbedingung einer mittelfristigen Verbesserung des Zusammenhangs der Tatigkeiten zugunsten der Jugendlichen der Gemeinde.